Alessandra Smerilli
Alessandra Smerilli is a Sister, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, born in 1974 in Vasto (Chieti). She is a professor of Political Economy at the Pontifical Faculty of Education “Auxilium” in Rome (www.pfse-auxilium.org), having obtained her doctorate in Political Economy at La Spazienza University in Rome. In 2014, she obtained her second PhD in Economics from the School of Economics at the University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK).
She is a founding partner and lecturer at the School of Civil Economy and a member of the National Council for the Third Sector, the Ethics Committee of Etica SGR.
Among the many positions she holds in civil society and Italian institutions, she was honoured by the President of the Italian Republic as an Officer of the Order of the Star for the exceptional relevance of her academic profile and intense teaching and research activity, as well as her commitment to promoting greater ethical awareness in economics and finance.
In 2024, she received the Medal of the Academic Order of Minerva, the highest honor awarded by the “Gabriele d'Annunzio” University of Studies in Chieti-Pescara. She was also awarded the “Maja Award - Woman of the Year in Abruzzo”, granted by the ACLI - Christian Associations of Italian Workers - of the Province of Chieti, to women in Abruzzo who have distinguished themselves in their profession, business, work, family, volunteering, art, sport and social activities.
She currently holds the highest position ever held by a woman in the Holy See, as Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Clemens Sedmak
Sedmak is a concurrent professor at the Institute of Social Issues at the University of Notre Dame. He was FD Maurice Professor of Moral Theology and Social Theology at King's College London. He has held various positions at the University of Salzburg, having been Director of the Research Center on Ethics and Poverty and Chair of Epistemology and Philosophy of Religion. Sedmak was also President of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Ethics in Salzburg. Sedmak holds a doctorate in philosophy, theology and social theory. He was born in Austria and studied at the University of Innsbruck, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich), Maryknoll (New York) and the University of Linz. He has been a guest lecturer at the Jomo Kenyatta University in Nairobi, the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, the University of Jena in Germany, the Vienna Business University and the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.
He teaches the subject of Integral Human Development, one of the foundations of the master's degree in global affairs. His specialty is the Catholic social tradition; social ethics; poverty; theories of justice, epistemology and ethics; philosophy of religion and religious studies.
Pe. Frazão Correia, sj
José Frazão Correia was born in 1970 and joined the Society of Jesus in 1995, being ordained a priest in 2004. He has a degree in philosophy and a doctorate in theology. He has published “ Faith lives on affection. Variations on a vital theme” (2013) and ”Entre-tanto. The difficult blessing of life and faith” (2014). He was Provincial of the Portuguese Province of the Society of Jesus between 2014 and 2020. He is currently vice-director of Brotéria and appointed director of the Brotéria magazine.