Matthew Barber-Rowell, Dr

Virginia Theological Seminary, USA, Liverpool Hope University, UK

Curating Spaces of Hope (Safeguarding processes for verticalization)

Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell is an Independent Scholar, Northern Network Lead for the William Temple Foundation, and Founder of Spaces of Hope. Matthew is also a Dean's Scholar at Virginia Theological Seminary (USA), Honorary Research Fellow at Liverpool Hope University (UK) and Research Associate at the Susanna Wesley Foundation (UK). As both a practitioner and an academic, Matthew has developed a 21st century update to the consultative methodology and approach to leadership in the Temple Tradition of Public Theology, which contributed to the formation of the post-1945 welfare state in the UK. This interdisciplinary work is now being applied by co-creating responses to contexts of poly-crisis shaping the public square in the UK and USA. 

Sr Alessandra Smerilli, F.M.A.

Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Vatican

Leading with the Whole Person in Mind: Synodality, Economic Wisdom, and the Art of Accompanying Communities

Sr Alessandra Smerilli, F.M.A., born in Vasto, Italy, on 14 November 1974, entered the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in 1997 after her theological formation at the Pontifical Lateran University. She graduated in Economics from Roma Tre University in 2001 and earned a PhD in Political Economy from La Sapienza University (2006) and a PhD in Economics from the University of East Anglia (2014). In 2016 she conducted research at the University of Pennsylvania.

Her academic work focuses on economic theories of cooperation and value‑based organisations, and she has authored numerous publications in these fields. A full professor of Political Economy at the Auxilium Faculty of Education, she has also taught at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, LUMSA, the Pontifical Salesian University, and the Pontifical Lateran University.

After various roles within the Italian Episcopal Conference and the Vatican Covid‑19 Commission, she was appointed Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in April 2022.

Felix Eiffler, Dr. theol.

Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

Empowerment, Leadership and the Spirit (Verticalization through empowerment)

Researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Theology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Head of the Research Unit Missional Church Development at the Center for Empowerment Studies (Faculty of Theology)

Armin Kummer

Faculté Universitaire de Théologie Protestante, Faculteit voor Protestantse Theologie en Religiestudies, Brussels, Belgium

Dark Sides of Leadership (When verticalization veers off course)

Armin Kummer is a public and pastoral theologian, whose research and publications explore the confluence of spirituality, late-modern society, and biblical traditions. He serves as professor of practical theology at the Faculté Universitaire de Théologie Protestante and at the Faculteit voor Protestantse Theologie en Religiestudies in Brussels where he is developing a new program in Spirituality, Ethics and Leadership. Armin Kummer obtained his doctorate at KU Leuven for his work on the pastoral care of working-age men. He also holds social sciences degrees from Heidelberg, Cambridge, and Harvard. In his prior professional career, he has served in several positions of responsibility in public administration, diplomacy, micro-finance, and management consulting.