Gerald Carney is professor of Religion at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. He teaches courses in world religions, especially South Asian religions. Jerry's doctoral research at Fordham University (Ph.D., 1979) was a theological study of Kavikarnapura's Caitanya-candrodaya-natakam, a ten-act drama devoted to the life of Caitanya. Subsequent research treated the Gaudiya Vaisnava rasa-sastra, the ritual cycle in Radha-Ramana Mandira, and contemporary rasa-lila dramas in Vrndavana. Since 1983, Jerry has been doing bibliographical research on Baba Premananda Bharati, a Bengal Vaisnava missionary who came to the US in 1902 and established a Krsna temple in Los Angeles in 1906. An article comparing the arrival of Baba Bharati in the West with that of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was published in the Journal of Vaisnava Studies in Spring 1998.
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Kenneth Cracknell is currently Distinguished Professor-in-Residence at the Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, USA, where he teaches theology and interfaith relations. Previously he taught in Cambridge, England, for seven years, after heading up the work of the British Council of Churches in interfaith relations from 1978 to 1988. He is the author of Towards a New Relationship: Christians and People of Other Faith, and Justice, Courtesy and Love: Theologians and Missionaries Encountering World Religions 1846-1914.
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Hrdayananda Dasa Goswami joined ISKCON in 1969 and has been a member of its Governing Body Commission since 1974 and a GBC emeritus since 1999. He has a BA in Study of Religion from UCLA and a Ph.D. in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from Harvard. Hrdayananda Dasa Goswami has taught at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley (California), and was a visiting scholar in Indo-European Studies at UCLA.

He has published numerous academic articles in Journal of Vaishnava Studies, University of California Journal of Religious Studies, Harvard Oriental Series and other such books and journals and is the author of many books and articles including his work on the completion of Srila Prabhupada's Srimad-Bhagavatam and his own translation of Mahabharata. He is now working on various writing projects and lecturing around the world.
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Ulrich Dehn is a Protestant theologian. He spent eight years at a Christian institute in Tokyo and is currently employed as head of Non-Christian Religions at the Protestant Institute for World Views and Religions in Berlin. He is also a lecturer at Humboldt University. He has published books on the historical dimension of Japanese Buddhism and Buddhist-Christian encounters. He is married and has two children.
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Ithamar Theodor (Isvara Krsna Dasa) joined ISKCON in 1981. He has a BA in Sanskrit, Philosophy and Religious Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MA from Tel Aviv University. As part of his studies he has translated Bhagavad-gita into Hebrew and written a commentary on it. He has published a book (in Hebrew), India - A Journey to the Soul (Noam-Gilad, 1999) and taught courses on Hinduism at various institutions in Israel. He is currently studying for a Ph.D. at Oxford University.
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Kusa Dasi joined ISKCON in 1969 and was initiated by Srila Prabhupada in 1970. Govinda Dasi entrusted Kusa with Tulasi seeds that grew to become the first Tulasis worshipped in ISKCON. Kusa sculpted a Deity from which a mold was produced to make the first Panca-tattva Deities in ISKCON. She assisted her husband, Srutakirti Dasa, in compiling a memoir of his personal service to Srila Prabhupada. She is Secretary of the Vrnda Trust, an organization currently building a temple for Vrndadevi in Vrndavana. She serves on the Women's Ministry and is compiling an education pack for ISKCON householders.
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Merudevi Dasi (Marie Ann Östlund) joined ISKCON in 1983, in Stockholm. She has performed various services within ISKCON, mainly as a preacher. Since 1997 she has been working in the Communications field and is currently Director of ISKCON Communications in Sweden. In 1999 she was given a scholarship by ISKCON Communications to take her Bhakti-Sastri exams in Vrndavana.
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Ravindra Svarupa Dasa (William H. Deadwyler, III) joined ISKCON in 1971 in Philadelphia, USA, where he has served for most of his devotional career. He was initiated by Srila Prabhupada in 1971 and earned a Ph.D. in Religion from Temple University in 1980. He has been a member of the ISKCON Governing Body Commission, of which he is currently Chairman, since 1987. He is an initiating guru for ISKCON and is the Philadelphia temple president.

Ravindra Svarupa Dasa's particular focus is on educational development within ISKCON, academic preaching and spiritual counselling. His writings have been published in numerous academic publications and ISKCON publications, including ICJ and BTG. He is married, has three children and two grandchildren.
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E. Burke Rochford, Jr. is Professor of Sociology at Middlebury College in Vermont, USA. He has studied the Hare Krsna movement for twenty-five years. His book on family, the second generation and the development of ISKCON is in progress. In addition to his academic studies, he has served as a member of ISKCON's North American Board of Education.
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Rukmini Dasi was initiated by Srila Prabhupada in 1968 in Montreal. She served as pujari in the Boston and New York temples. In 1972, she was part of a group of artists sent by Srila Prabhupada to Mayapura, West Bengal, to study the Bengali art of Putal - the construction of large clay figures to be used in exhibitions of philosophy and krsna-lila. She returned to America in 1974 and helped design ISKCON's FATE (First American Transcendental Exposition) museum in Los Angeles. She now lives in Washington D.C., where she owns three designer craft galleries, the profits of which help fund ISKCON projects. She lives with her husband Anuttama Dasa and son Gauravani.
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Saudamani Dasi (Connie Deadwyler) was initiated by Srila Prabhupada in July 1971. She began writing childrens books in grade school, was a champion member of high school public speaking and debate team, and gained a BA in literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Saudamani's main focus during her thirty years in ISKCON has been Deity worship, but having now largely retired from active service, is returning to her early interest in writing and public speaking.
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Sitala Dasi joined ISKCON in 1970 in Detroit, but has spent most of her devotional life in temples throughout Europe. She has been living in Mayapura for the past five years, with her husband Hari Sauri Dasa, and daughter Rasarani. She is involved in the local Child Protection Team and School Board, and also has charge of a Deity dress shop in Vrndavana. She has just finished writing a book about the life of Narottama Dasa Thakura.
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Sudharma Dasi joined ISKCON in 1975. After spending eight years at the Berkeley temple, she undertook an extensive preaching tour of Southeast Asia and the Northwest United States. She currently oversees ISKCON's Women's Ministry and has served as one of ISKCON's Executive officers in North America for six years. She lives in Alachua, Florida with her husband and two children.
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Tattvavit Dasa was initiated by Srila Prabhupada in 1974 and has a BA from the University of Minnesota. His particular focus in ISKCON is literary. From 1980 to 1986 he worked as a typesetter for Back to Godhead magazine in Philadelphia, during which time he trained as an editor. He now contributes articles to BTG and has edited a number of books by ISKCON devotees. He was also responsible for editing the Interactive Bhagavad-gita As It Is DVD, released by the North European division of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust in January 2000.
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Hans Ucko was born in Sweden and is an ordained minister of the Church of Sweden. He earned a Ph.D., in Asian contextual theologies and the Jewish tradition, from the Senate of Serampore University (India) in 1999. He was involved in interreligious dialogue on behalf of the Swedish Church, particularly that between members of the Christian and Jewish faith, from 1977 to 1989. He has also acted as the Church of Sweden's Secretary for Christian institutions in East Asia. He has written and edited three books: Common Roots - New Horizons (1994); People of God, Peoples of God - A Jewish-Christian Dialogue in Asia (1995); and The Jubilee Challenge - Utopia or Possibility (1997). He has also written numerous articles in several languages. He now lives in Nyon, near Geneva, and is married with three children.
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Visakha Dasi. Under Srila Prabhupada's direction, she and her husband, Yadubara Dasa, established ISKCON Cinema in 1973 and together made nine documentary films about the philosophy and practical application of Krsna consciousness. She is a member of the Back to Godhead staff and has written two books, Our Most Dear Friend (Torchlight, 1996), a Bhagavad-gita for children, and God's Song (Jain Publishing, 1999), a fully illustrated summary study of Bhagavad-gita, released last winter by Jain Publishing. Presently she is writing some of the scripts for the 'Abhay Charan' video series. She lives with her husband and their two children in Saranagati Village in British Columbia, Canada.
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Yamuna Dasi (Joan Campanella) first met Srila Prabhupada in 1966 and was initiated by him in March 1967. In 1968 she was one of six devotees who opened the first London temple. In 1970 she went to India, travelling with Srila Prabhupada's Indian sankirtana party, and served at the Calcutta, Delhi and Vrndavana temples. She has travelled widely and lived in many places, primarily writing cookbooks and teaching cooking. She currently lives at Saranagati in Canada, focusing on writing, study, teaching and the nine processes of devotional service.
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