Faith Angle West 2026 Forum

David Campbell is the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy and the director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative. His research focuses on civic and political engagement, with particular attention to religion and young people. Campbell’s most recent book is See Jane Run: How Women Politicians Matter for Young People (with Christina Wolbrecht). Among his other books are Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics (with Geoff Layman and John Green) and American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (with Robert Putnam). In addition, he has been featured in publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and—every political scientist’s dream—Cosmopolitan.

Lauren Jackson is the host of Believing at The New York Times. She writes and reports on contemporary religion and spirituality each week. She is also an editor for The Morning, The Times’s flagship daily newsletter. She previously worked on The Daily podcast.

Diane Winston, the Knight Chair in Media and Religion at the Annenberg School of the University of Southern California, is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, author, and columnist. She has authored and edited numerous books on the connection between religion, media, American history, and politics, including Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan’s Evangelical Vision, Red-Hot and Righteous: The Urban Religion of the Salvation Army, Religion and Reality TV: Faith in Late Capitalism, and The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the News Media. Between 1983 and 1995, Winston covered religion for the Raleigh News and Observer, Dallas Times Herald, and Baltimore Sun. Diane holds a Master of Theological Studies from the Harvard Divinity School, an MS in Journalism from Columbia University, and a PhD in Religion from Princeton University.

Richard Parker is an Oxford-trained economist who has taught at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government since 1993. His most recent book is an award-winning intellectual biography of John Kenneth Galbraith. He co-founded the magazine Mother Jones and sits on the board of The Nation and the Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics.  He created for Sen. Edward Kennedy the country’s first major liberal PAC, The Fund for a Democratic Majority; served as president of Americans for Democratic Action; built Greenpeace USA from 2,000 to 600,000 members; and with Norman Lear created People for the American Way. His interest in religion stems from his upbringing as the son of an Episcopal clergyman, his 19th century abolitionist ancestor the Rev. Theodore Parker, and his personal and intellectual navigation of not just contemporary American politics and religion but marriage to a Jewish-Catholic wife.  He has taught for many years an award-winning Harvard course, “Religion and Politics in America”, and served as advisor to the Episcopal House of Bishops on the Millennium Development Goals.

McKay Coppins is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He has received the Aldo Beckman Award from the White House Correspondents’ Association for his coverage of the Trump presidency and the Wilbur Award for religion journalism. He is the author of The Wilderness, a book about the battle over the future of the Republican Party, and Romney: A Reckoning, a biography of Mitt Romney. He has received the Aldo Beckman Award from the White House Correspondents Association for his coverage of the Trump presidency and the Wilbur Award for religion journalism. In 2026, Coppins served as a producer on Dynasty: The Murdochs, a Netflix docuseries based on his reporting. He also co-hosts a podcast and appears frequently on television as a political analyst. He lives near Washington, D.C., with his wife and children.

Elder Clark G. Gilbert was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on February 11, 2026. At the time of his call, he was serving as a General Authority Seventy and as the Commissioner of Church Education. Prior to his assignment as the Commissioner of Education, Elder Gilbert was the inaugural president of BYU–Pathway Worldwide. He also served previously as the president of BYU–Idaho. Elder Gilbert received a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, a master’s degree from Stanford University, and a doctorate from Harvard University. He worked as a professor of entrepreneurial management at Harvard University. He was later the chief executive officer of the Deseret News and Deseret Digital Media. Clark Gordon Gilbert was born in Oakland, California, on June 18, 1970. He served as a full-time missionary in the Japan Kobe Mission. He married Christine Calder in 1994. They are the parents of eight children.