Advisory Board
Meet AI Theology’s advisory board
Ana Catarina de Alencar
lawyer - specialist in digital law and compliance
Ana Catarina de Alencar is a lawyer in a law firm specializing in Technology in Brazil. She also holds a master’s degree in Theory of Law and Philosophy of Law from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and is a specialist in Digital Law and Compliance. She is also a professor and author of books on Law and Artificial Intelligence and Coordinator of the local Bar Association’s Magazine in Joinville, Santa Catarina. Ana is passionate about philosophy, technology and cinema.
Maggie Bender
Senior Product Manager - Theology graduate (marquette university)
Maggie Bender is a Senior Product Manager at Bain & Company within their software solutions division. Her current focus is on developing software tools for the retail space, spending her days negotiating to stakeholders, working with developers, and helping to translate user value into software, leveraging ML where appropriate. She has a M.A. in Theology from Marquette University with a specialization in biblical studies where her thesis explored the implications of historical narratives on group cohesion (i.e. more fully formed histories = more fully formed communities). Carrying over the focus on how theory (concept) and practice interact into her work in the business world she maintains an attentive eye towards the ethical implications of leveraging ML within enterprise software. She lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, enjoys gardening, dog walking, and horseback riding.
Levi Checketts
PhD in ethics with focus on theological and technological issues
Levi Checketts is an incoming Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Hong Kong Baptist University and an assistant pastor at Jesus Love Korean United Methodist Church in Cupertino, California. His research focuses on ethical issues related to new technologies, with a special interest for the transhumanist movement and Artificial Intelligence. He has been published in Religions, Theology and Science and Techne: Research in Philosophy and Technology and is currently working on a book related to the challenge of our obligations to the poor and AI. When not teaching or preaching, Levi likes to play RPGs and point-and-click adventure games and go site-seeing with his wife and daughter.
Fr. Ben Day
Rector of Christ Episocal Church Kennesaw, Georgia
While in college, Fr. Ben turned his love of politics into a highly successful career in campaign management. Following a particularly bruising election cycle, he took a leave of absence from the company he founded and followed an academic curiosity to Emory’s Candler School of Theology. While in seminary, Fr. Ben became a Christian and soon discerned a call to ordained ministry, leaving behind the political world. He was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Atlanta in 2013. Fr. Ben has been the Rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Kennesaw, Georgia since 2016 and is passionate about congregational vitality, and mission-led innovations that integrate moral, political, and technological considerations into the way people of faith interact and practice their faith. Fr. Ben believes every social and technological advancement carries within itself moral and political consequences, and therefore should be the concern of all people of faith.
Scott Hawley
Professor of Physics - Founding member of AI and Faith
Scott H. Hawley is Professor of Physics at Belmont University and a Founding Member of AI and Faith. His writings include the winning entry of FaithTech Institute’s 2020 Writing Contest and the most popular Acoustics Today article of 2020, and have appeared in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith and The Transhumanism Handbook.
Davi Kruger
Advertising, Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Attorney
Davi has held a variety of senior legal roles with leading CPG companies, travel, and retail companies, all of which are publicly traded companies. He also served as a strategic advisor to all levels of business and executive management on a broad range of legal issues, including advertising, regulatory compliance, trademark and branding, R&D, complex service contracts that include offerings for software-as-a-service (SaaS) and data-as-a-service (DaaS) offerings, artificial intelligence/machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and data science. During the last decade, he worked inside companies that were focused on innovating and disrupting established industries, helping to build high-performing teams and guiding them through the operational and legal challenges associated with growth, scaling, and global expansion. He also has a passion for fast cars, Stoicism, and fitness.
Yvonne Kumi
Econometrician - buisness strategist
Yvonne was born in Ghana and migrated to the US for graduate school and now calls the US home. She is a Christian, a wife and mother who works in the financial industry. She is a student at heart, and fascinated by emerging technology and how that impacts life. Yvonne has a Ph.D in Applied Economics from the University of Georgia and an MBA from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. She is currently a quantitative professional at a major US bank and has worked in the financial industry for over 18 years.
Micah Redding
Founder of the Christian Transhumanist Association
Micah Redding is a software developer, and host of the Christian Transhumanist Podcast. He grew up as a preacher’s kid, spent eight years as a rock musician, and has traveled extensively, to places such as Kathmandu, Afghanistan, and the coasts of Africa. As a software developer, he has worked with startups to strategically lay the groundwork for open-ended growth, led development on multi-million dollar web products, and helped larger companies dramatically accelerate their development process. Micah lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where he coordinates vibrant inter-religious dialogue, and public conversations on the technological singularity and the future of the human race. He is a member of Mensa, a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post and Vice Motherboard, and a speaker for TEDx and numerous other events.
Brian Sigmon
Ph.D. in Biblical Studies
Brian Sigmon is an acquisitions editor at The United Methodist Publishing House, where he edits books, Bible studies, and official resources for The United Methodist Church. He has a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Marquette University, and has published a number of academic and popular articles on the Bible and Christian theology. Brian loves to teach and to help people of all backgrounds deepen their understanding of Scripture. When he isn’t editing, teaching, or writing about faith and technology, Brian enjoys woodworking and writing science fiction. He lives in Kingston Springs, Tennessee with his wife and their three children.
František Štěch
Th.D. - Researcher, Charles University
František Štěch is a reseach fellow at the Protestant Theological Faculty of the Charles University. He serves as coordinator of the “Theology & Contemporary Culture” research group. Previously he worked at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the Charles university as research fellow and project PI. From 2006 to 2016 he taught fundamental and systematic theology at the Faculty of Theology at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, where he obtained his doctorate in theology (2009) under the supervision of Msgr. Prof. Karel Skalický. Prior to his dissertation defense he was accepted as guest researcher at the Fordham Jesuit University in the Bronx (New York, USA) and worked on his dissertation under the direct supervision of the late Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ. Recently, František is pursuing his “habilitation” at the University of Bonn in Germany. His professional interests include: Fundamental theology; Ecclesiology; Youth theology; Religious, and Christian identity; Intercultural theology; Public Theology; Theology of Religions; Landscape & Theology.