Haruko Nawata Ward (PhD in History 2001, Princeton Theological Seminary) is Professor Emerita of Church History at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. Her research focuses on women religious leaders and the history of Christianity in Japan within the broader context of global Christianity.

In the Winter Term 2025/26, she was a POLY Writing Fellow in the Writing Group "Seeking Salvation." During the group's meetings at Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften Bad Homburg in November 2025 and April 2026, she developed her contribution to the first volume of POLY's forthcoming three-volume book project, Doing Christianity: A Praxeological Guide to Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities.