Nina Heereman is an Assistant Professor of Sacred Scripture and Department Chair of Sacred Scripture at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University (Menlo Park, California). She was born and raised in a Catholic family in Germany.
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Originally trained as a lawyer, Dr. Heereman experienced a deep conversion experience at the 1997 World Youth Day. This conversion led her to discern a vocation as a lay woman celibate and also led her to theological studies.  She received an S.T.B. from the Pontifical Gregorian University, an S.S.L. from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and the very rare S.S.D. from the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem and the Université de Fribourg.  Her doctoral thesis Behold King Solomon on the Day of His Wedding: A Symbolic-Diachronic Reading of Song 3:6-11 and 4:12-5:1 has been heralded by scholars as a profound contribution to scholarship on the Song of Songs.

Mark Giszczak is Associate Professor of Sacred Scripture at the Augustine Institute Graduate School. He studied philosophy and theology at Ave Maria College (B.Phil., 2005) and then joined the inaugural class of the Augustine Institute Graduate School, where he focused on Scripture (M.A., 2007). He went on to earn a doctorate in Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America (Ph.D., 2013) as well as additional degrees from the Pontifical Biblical Commission (S.S.B., 2014; S.S.L., 2016). He joined the Augustine faculty in 2010.

Dr. Giszczak has a passion for Scripture and loves helping Catholics read, pray, and understand the Bible. In particular, he is deeply interested in the oft-overlooked texts of the Old Testament. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the characters in the Song of Songs, and in his research, he has continued to explore the fascinating details of this and other biblical books. In 2015, he wrote a book on the tough parts of the Bible called Light on the Dark Passages of Scripture (Our Sunday Visitor Publishing). He has also contributed to the Augustine Institute’s Bible in a Year and to the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible.

Michael  Barber is Associate Professor of Sacred Scripture and Theology at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology. He holds a doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary, where he wrote a dissertation on the historical Jesus and the temple in Jewish eschatological expectations. He has authored a number of books, the most recent being Paul, A New Covenant Jew: Rethinking Pauline Theology (Eerdmans, 2019), co-authored with Brant Pitre and John Kincaid, and Salvation: What Every Catholic Should Know (Augustine Institute, 2019).

Dr. Barber speaks at parishes and Catholic events, giving talks on the Bible and the life of the Church. He lives in Aurora, Colorado with his wife, Kimberly, and their six children.