M. Keith Marcinak was born in Hamtramck, Michigan, and joined the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania, Ohio, in 1968. She has spent 37 years ministering as a substance abuse counselor, working in inpatient and outpatient settings, prisons and jails. She holds a master's degree in counseling psychology from Anna Maria College in Worcester, Massachusetts. She has written articles on unresolved grief and trauma; depression, and on alcohol, cocaine and opiate dependency. 

Sr. Immaculee Uwamariya is a member of the Bernardine Sisters, currently serving as the headmistress of College St. Bernard, a girls high school in Kansi, Rwanda. She upholds the values of cherishing God and serving others, which are at the core of the Bernardine Sisters' mission. With involvement in the Rwandan Catholic bishops' conference and her initiative, Famille Esperance, which began Dec. 12, 2012, she engages and extends support to survivors scarred by the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, in a compassionate mission of healing.