小草影院鈥檚 Sixteenth Annual
Symposium on Transforming Culture

Paul Scherz is the Our Lady of Guadalupe Professor of Theology. His work examines the intersection of theology, science, medicine, and technology. His interests in ethics center on the role of virtue ethics, especially Stoic virtue ethics, in moral theology. He has published articles on many topics in bioethics, such as human enhancement, genetic technology, and end of life ethics. His books analyze issues like the moral formation of scientists, the role of risk in contemporary practical reason, the ethics of precision medicine, and the ethics of artificial intelligence.

He began his career in science with a BA in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley (2001), a PhD in genetics from Harvard (2005), and a postdoctoral fellowship at UCSF. He then received an MTS and a PhD in moral theology from the University of Notre Dame (2010, 2014). His previous teaching positions were at the Catholic University of America and the University of Virginia. He is currently working on projects on the ethics of artificial intelligence and the historical influence of Stoicism on moral theology.

Dr. Kristin Collier is an associate professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor Michigan where she serves as the director of the University of Michigan Medical School Program on Health, Spirituality, and Religion and as an associate program director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program. She completed medical school, residency, and chief residency at the University of Michigan. Her academic interests center on human dignity and the ways this concept grounds moral obligations at the margins of life. Her peer reviewed work has been published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the British Medical Journal, the Annals of Internal Medicine and The Journal of General Internal Medicine. She has had writings published in Notre Dame鈥檚 Church Life Journal, Theopolis, America Magazine, Public Discourse and the New York Times. She is also a wife and the proud mother of four sons.

Matthew started his career as an Infantry Officer in the Canadian Forces until retiring to enter the Catholic seminary studying at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. Realizing he was called to marriage he left seminary and returned to Toronto, where he took a position at the Archdiocese of Toronto helping to rebuild the Office of Spiritual Affairs. He served as Cardinal Collins鈥� Special Projects Manager until feeling called to found his company Longbeard.

Matthew鈥檚 work with Longbeard would lead him to Rome where he worked with numerous Vatican organizations such as the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development helping them to more effectively leverage technology to accomplish their mission. Today, Longbeard is focused on building AI products to serve the Church鈥檚 mission. These products include Magisterium AI, 聽a generative AI product focused on making Church teaching and Catholic insight more, Vulgate, an AI powered library platform powering an historic digitization project with many of the Pontifical universities in Rome, and Christendom, a new 鈥榖ig tent鈥� video platform for Catholic content creators. 聽

Matthew is also the CEO of the Humanity 2.0 Foundation based in Washington DC focused on accelerating human flourishing as well as a Venture Advisor at Kluz Ventures and an Executive Mentor at the world鈥檚 largest aerospace accelerator out of UCLA called Starburst. After five years in Rome and two in Malta, Matthew has returned to his home Canada and currently lives and works from Quebec City.

Erich is the CTO & Co-Founder of , a Catholic startup focused on prayer, meditation, music, bible, and sleep. The app launched 7.5 years ago, but has grown rapidly and recently crossed 30 million downloads, 1.5 billion prayers completed, 10 billion minutes in prayer, 400,000 five-star reviews, and is the #1 Catholic app in the world.

Erich was raised Catholic but it wasn鈥檛 a huge part of his life, until he began exploring it more deeply in college. Even then, it was more on the theology side than a personal relationship through prayer. It wasn鈥檛 until Erich鈥檚 co-founder, Alex, first approached him about Hallow that he truly discovered the contemplative and meditative side of Catholicism and started forming a deeper personal relationship with God. Over the last several years, the Hallow team has grown with the app, raising over $130M in venture funding from some of the best investors in the world and scaling the team to over 125 folks.

Erich grew up in Barrington, IL. He attended the University of Notre Dame and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Computer Science. He worked professionally in management consulting before Hallow at McKinsey & Company, and now lives in Chicago. He鈥檚 been blessed to be named a member of Forbes 30 under 30 with his two co-founders, Alex Jones and Alessandro DiSanto.

Nathan Crankfield converted to the Catholic faith at 13 years old, becoming the first Catholic in his entire family. He went on to attend Mount St. Mary’s University, where he was commissioned as a US Army Infantry Officer upon graduation. After completing Airborne and Ranger School, Nathan went on to serve as a Platoon Leader for a combat deployment to Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division.

Nathan now serves as the Senior Sales Manager for Hallow, the #1 Catholic prayer app. He is also the Founder of Seeking Excellence, where he hosts a podcast, serves as a national speaker, and coaches men to live with excellence. He lives in Kansas City with his wife, Emily, and their two young children, Jordan and Rosalia.

Jim Madden thinks and writes about the mind-body problem, the relation between technology and the human psyche, the conditions for rational agency, the unconscious mind, and problem of evil. He completed a聽MA in philosophy at Kent State University, a Ph.D. in philosophy at Purdue University, and a MA in psychoanalysis through the Global Center for Advanced Studies. 聽Jim is the author of聽Mind, Matter, and Nature: A Thomistic Proposal for the Philosophy of Mind聽(2013),聽Thinking about Thinking: Mind and Meaning in the Era of Technological Nihilism听(2023),听Unidentified Flying Hyperobject: UFOs, Philosophy, and the End of the World聽(2023), and聽Subjectivity and Its Discontent(s)聽(forthcoming), in addition to numerous scholarly articles in the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of religion, and psychoanalysis. You can also find his work at聽.

Bo聽Bonner聽is a Headmaster (Mother of Good Counsel), Professor (Newman University), Media Broadcaster (Iowa Catholic Radio), and writer (Catholic Cosmotechnics in an AI Age). He has taught the Humanities (Philosophy, Theology, and Literature) for more than 20 years, after converting to Catholicism in Protestant Seminary (Duke Divinity School). With administrative experience at the Collegiate and Secondary level, along with multiple experiences with curriculum design, Bo has both taught and led within educational institutions for the majority of his career. He is researching for his thesis in Catholic Theology at St. Mary鈥檚 University in Twickenham, London.