Bobby Gruenewald (@bobbygwald) serves as Pastor, Innovation Leader at LifeChurch.tv and is the founder of the YouVersion Bible App. Since its creation, YouVersion has been installed on tens of millions of devices and the YouVersion community has spent tens of billions of minutes engaging in Scripture with the website and its mobile versions. 

One of the leading voices in the Church as it relates to innovation and the use of technology, Bobby frequently writes and speaks on the topic, and has been featured in the Washington Post, TechCrunch, CNN, CBS, NPR, and more. He was also listed by Fast Company as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2011.

Prior to joining the LifeChurch.tv team in 2001, Gruenewald started and sold two technology companies, consulted with start-ups on venture capital funds, and, in an interesting twist of events, traveled and performed with a Christian rap group. His focus now is completely on LifeChurch.tv and the incredible things that God is doing in lives of people through the ministry each day. Gruenewald is passionate about seeing more and more changed lives through the ministries and initiatives at LifeChurch.tv, especially as it relates to using technology to reach people for Christ.

Nick Hall is the founder and primary evangelist for PULSE, a Twin Cities, MN-based ministry leading the largest student-led prayer and outreach efforts in America. As a voice to the next generation, Nick is regularly featured as a speaker for student conferences, training events and festivals around the country.

Nick has been tagged as an emerging international voice in the cause of evangelism. In the fall of 2010, he was invited to be one of 4,000 delegates from around the world to attend the Lausanne Global Congress on World Evangelism in Cape Town, South Africa. In the spring of 2011, Nick was welcomed to the National Facilitation Committee for the Mission America Coalition (MAC), the U.S. arm of the Lausanne Movement. Nick is the youngest committee member by more than 20 years.

Nick serves on the executive committee of the Proclamation Evangelism Network, the student advisory team for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), and is one of four Partner Evangelists with the Luis Palau Association. Nick has been the featured emcee of BGEA's “Rock the River Tour” for the past four summers.

At age 30, Nick’s burning is to “awaken culture to the reality of Jesus.” 

Wes Llewellyn

Wes Llewellyn has been a filmmaker in the motion picture industry for over 30 years on hundreds of productions in various positions including Chief Lighting Technician, Director of Photography, Writer, Producer and Director. 

For the past five seasons, Wes has been directing the dramatic reenactments on the popular Christian talk show,  Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural.

He has won numerous awards for his work:  an astonishing three Best Films awards (CrossWalk 2003, A Good Day 2007, Up in the Air 2009) from the 168-Hour Film Festival.  Clip, an action comedy, has won Best Film at the Faith-n-Film Summit and 15 Minutes of Fame Festival and was also an official selection for the Sidewalk Film Festival. His film, FBI Guys, won Best Drama at the Independent Television Festival and Best Mini-Film at the Barebones Festival. The Gift of Jabez which he directed for Phil Cooke Pictures, was honored as Best Documentary by the Aegeus, Crystal Commentator, and Telly Awards.

His two full-length feature films, The Moment After and The Moment After 2: The Awakening, are in distribution with Sony Home DVD.
 

Amanda Llewellyn

Amanda has nearly 30 years of experience as a make-up artist and hairstylist along with a variety of other jobs on the film set from script supervisor to set decorator to production co-coordinator, writer and producer throughout her career.

Her first collaboration on a screenplay was The Moment After, known in Christian filmmaking circles as The Little Engine That Could which has grossed 20 times its budget and is currently in distribution with Sony. She wrote The Moment After 2: The Awakening also with Sony. She has several awards for Best Screenplay and three Best Scriptural Integration from the 168 Hour Film Project and is now in her sixth year of producing the reenactment sections of the TV show, Sid Roth’s, It’s Supernatural.  Amanda is currently in development for several reality shows for the family and faith-friendly markets.

Both she and Wes are in the early stages of launching Adeia Institute to further educate independent filmmakers with unique training classes with working industry professionals in all aspects of filmmaking from production through post.

Wes and Amanda will be starting a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for 4L Films’ next feature, a teen texting drama called Amanda has nearly 30 years of experience as a make-up artist and hairstylist along with a variety of other jobs on the film set from script supervisor to set decorator to production co-coordinator, writer and producer throughout her career.

Her first collaboration on a screenplay was "The Moment After,” known in Christian filmmaking circles as “The Little Engine That Could” which has grossed 20 times its budget and is currently in distribution with Sony. She wrote “The Moment After 2: The Awakening” also with Sony. She has several awards for Best Screenplay and three Best Scriptural Integration from the 168 Hour Film Project and is now in her sixth year of producing the reenactment sections of the TV show, Sid Roth’s, “It’s Supernatural.” Amanda is currently in development for several reality shows for the family and faith-friendly markets.

Both she and Wes are in the early stages of launching Adeia Institute to further educate independent filmmakers with unique training classes with working industry professionals in all aspects of filmmaking from production through post.

Wes and Amanda will be starting a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for 4L Films’ next feature, a teen texting drama called Send.

John Carley is the Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer at Trinet Internet Solutions, Inc., a full service web firm specializing in web strategy consulting, web design and development along with ongoing web management, support and analysis. Under John’s leadership, Trinet has worked to make ministries and businesses successful on the web.  Since 1995, Trinet has worked with hundreds of clients, including Coca-Cola, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Focus on the Family, Sony, American Red Cross, The Salvation Army and more.

John has a 17-year track record of developing successful web marketing campaigns, advanced websites and web applications, including over 500 live webcasts and one of the first live streaming iPhone applications. John has been a featured speaker for many national tradeshows and organizations, speaking on web and emerging technologies. He has also served on the Board for the NRB Internet Committee as Chairman.

John studied at the University of California and Biola University, earning a B.S. degree in Organizational Leadership.  

August E. (“Augie”) Grant is J. Rion McKissick Professor of Journalism at the University of South Carolina. Grant is a technology futurist who conducts research, teaches, and writes regarding convergent journalism, media technologies, audience behavior, and media organizational behavior. Grant created the Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals series, The Convergence Newsletter, and the Newsplex Summer Seminars. He has extensive experience in radio and television broadcasting and is a world renowned expert in the area of convergent media. Grant earned his M.A.J.C. at the University of Florida and his Ph.D. from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California, and serves as a consultant to media and high-tech organizations.

Jeffrey S. Wilkinson is a Chair of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department at Houston Baptist University in Houston, TX.  Wilkinson is a renowned expert in new and convergent media, speaking at conferences across the globe on the subject and having co-authored two of the premier texts on the subject, including Understanding Media Convergence and Principles of Convergent Journalism. Wilkinson is a specialist in international journalism with more than a decade teaching and researching mass media in China and Hong Kong. He earned both his Master's and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. Wilkinson has extensive experience in both radio and television broadcasting as a reporter, presenter, producer, and talk show host.

Nina Barnes has a passion to share God’s message of redemption through salvation and through His ongoing work in life circumstances.

She has worked at Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN, for 12 years, where she currently serves as Human Resources Manager, focusing on hiring/onboarding, employee relations and organizational development. Nina holds a bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministries and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).

She has held positions in a variety of industries (retail, manufacturing, insurance, tourism, entertainment, health care, prison ministry, higher education) and lived in an abundance of places (Chicago, New England, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Los Angeles, the Bahamas, San Francisco, and Minneapolis/St. Paul).

Her activities outside of work include service on the Governing Board of Elders at her church, Board Member of Antioch Ministries in North Minneapolis, and mentoring/coaching. 
 

Marie Guthrie has significant experience in corporate and non-profit marketing and communications.  Her early professional career began with roles at Motorola, Accenture, and Arthur Andersen.  Having her own consulting business for several years, she led curriculum development projects on topics such as volunteerism, becoming a multi-racial church, and compassion and justice for the Willow Creek association.  Presently, she leads corporate branding and messaging for Awana – a global children’s and youth ministry.  Her team drives communication to internal and external Awana audiences.

Georgia is the Director of Production, and Content Strategy & SEO Subject Matter Expert at Five Q. Before joining Five Q, Georgia was Marketing, Communications, and Research Manager at Copesan in Menomonee Falls, WI, and the Director of Communications at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, WI, where she was responsible for developing and managing the 6,000-member church’s first Communication Department.  She graduated from Biola University with a degree in Business Administration and recently completed SEO certification with Bruce Clay.

“The people we serve and work alongside are watching and waiting to be inspired and led to greatness.” Inspiration, leadership, excellence, and fun are words Brian hangs his hat on. Throughout his career, Brian has served in senior leadership roles where he has had the unique ability to drive strategic direction and connect Human Resources to the business, operations, and organizations objectives. 

His skills and expertise in organizational leadership, coaching, and workforce development have translated into results. Brian currently serves on the Executive Council, as the Vice President of Human Resources, at the nation’s largest Christian music broadcaster, K-LOVE / Air1 Radio Networks. He is part of a unique leadership team - helping the organization successfully grow from 145 team members to now more than 350 working in 27 states, serving and supporting an audience of more than 12 million weekly.

Brian’s passion and approach in bringing talented people together, to accomplish substantially so much more as a team rather than as individuals, has moved organizations forward with momentum. He believes the “special sauce” in achieving key strategic initiatives is people, focus, flexible structure, and fun.  

His mission from day one has been to help shape the future of organizations and to positively impact the lives of those he partners with. Brian strongly believes that leaders have a responsibility to reflect the organizations values and equip their people to accomplish what’s next. 

For over fifteen years, Brian has excelled working with high energy fast-paced organizations, including UPS, Target, and consulting/software start-up companies. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from California State University of Sacramento and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) with the HRCI Society of Human Resource Management.

One C-Level executive describes Brian as, “Definitely not your typical HR guy, and if you ask Brian, he’ll say, ‘that’s a good thing’”.

Paul Sirmons has a 30-year track record as an assistant director, unit production manager, director, producer, and indie filmmaker. His focus for the last 10 years has been on creating faith-based products. Recently, he was the line-producer for Home Run, Renee, and Letters to God, all faith-based movies.

In 2005, Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Paul as Florida’s State Film Commissioner, where he rewrote Florida’s film incentive program and helped increase its funding to $25 million, attracting hundreds of millions of dollars to the state and creating thousands of new jobs.

Paul produced four independent features in Florida, including The Way Back Home. He also directed and produced the family film The First of May, starring Julie Harris, Dan Byrd, Mickey Rooney and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio.  The First of May won 13 film festival awards and has aired on HBO, TBN, and around the world.

Prior to that, Paul worked for 20 years as a DGA (Directors Guild of America) assistant director on various TV series such as Quantum Leap, Sea Quest, Falcon Crest, Our House, and The Waltons. He recently directed Last Stop, a pilot for a dramatic Christian TV series about a Christian counselor who has a gift for helping people – but who doesn't really like people.

Sirmons serves on the advisory boards for film & digital media at the University of Florida, Valencia College, and Full Sail University.
 

Payton Dunham has extensive credits in features, television, and commercials as a Producer, Line Producer, Unit Production Manager, Assistant Director and Location Manager.

Recent feature credits as Producer or UPM include Cowgirls ‘n Angels, The Lamp, and Heaven’s Rain. In 2007-08, Payton was the Creative Services - Director of Production, Operations and Talent Relations for Starz Entertainment Group.

Other film credits include the Oscar-nominated Junebug and 21 Grams, the Sundance Festival award-winning feature Forty Shades of Blue, Night at the Museum, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Bringing up Bobby, and Comedy Central’s television series Stella.

As a writer, Payton has written screenplays and treatments for various producers and production companies. He’s also created promotional copy for clients that range from Mountain Dew to Warner Brothers, and has written for various publications, newspapers and websites.

For centuries, the Western Protestant Church has divorced Image from Word, and many forms of visual art and beauty have been excommunicated. But visual art is making a comeback in today's worship culture with the help of technology like media and projection. This obviously raises a few questions, both technologically and theologically. Is there such a thing as "visual worship"? And if so, do we need visual worship leaders just like we have musical worship leaders?

Stephen is an illuminator and video jockey whose primary focus is designing and curating visually immersive experiences for worship. At the heart, Stephen is a curator of visual worship who seeks to unleash people’s imaginations through moments of wonder and astonishment.  He lives in Nashville, but his relationships and events keep him traveling all over the world. He and his business partner, Nate Griffin, run Grateful Inconvenience, a creative collective that focuses on visual storytelling through film, atmospheric design & media. Their work can be seen with Beth Moore's Living Proof Live, Travis Cottrell, Gungor, All Sons & Daughters, National Worship Leaders Conference, as well as a handful of other events. They are also very involved with many missional organizations that are spreading the name of Jesus to the unreached people groups of the world.

Though the road goes ever on and on, Stephen is rooted in his local church, Journey, where he serves on the creative team when home. He also shares resources, stories and his passion for visually creative worship on his blog, illuminate.co, as well as in his upcoming book Illuminate: A Tale of Visual Worship.
 

Guy Richards is the founder and CEO of Abiah, a brand development and creative firm that focuses on helping Christian organizations thrive. He is also the author of TALKABLE, Building your brand from the inside out, published by M&B. Abiah has received numerous awards, including helping three of their clients land on the Top Global Rebrand 100 list by ReBrand.com. A few of the clients Abiah has helped include: John Stott Ministries, Young Life, Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, Moody Publishers and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Chris Skaggs is a 13 year veteran of the web and mobile software industry. The founder and CEO of both Soma Games and Code-Monkeys, Chris has delivered software applications to some of the country’s most discerning clients like Intel, Four Seasons, Comcast and Aruba Networks. In addition to corporate customers, Code-Monkeys has programmed many casual games for iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac/PC platforms. Inside Soma Games is a group of dedicated believers who have chosen to walk the fine line between being “on the lampstand” Christians and making games full of Biblical allegory released into the mainstream market. Games like G: Into The Rain and Wind Up Robots have garnered much critical praise and market success. A Black Belt in Intel’s Software Developer Network, Chris also writes and speaks on topics surrounding the rapidly-changing mobile application environment at venues like Casual Connect, Serious Play, IDF, Christian Game Developers Conference, TechStart, and AppUp Elements.

After spending several years working in radio on multiple stations in Ohio, and for a syndicated network where he quickly established a strong presence on-air, Jeremy Parsons headed off to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of working in television.

Shortly after arriving in Hollywood, he landed various production positions with Dick Clark Productions, ABC's Good Morning America, and multiple entertainment networks. In addition to producing, Jeremy was tapped as an on-air contributor for an entertainment news show at the Los Angeles-based network LTN, where he covered red carpet premieres, press junkets, and hosted in-studio interviews with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. It was there that Jeremy's engaging and witty personality garnered the attention of his peers and network leaders.

Jeremy eventually found himself at ReelzChannel, where he works as a segment producer for Secret's Out with Leonard Maltin, as well as a co-host on The Big Tease. Hosting the show is a dream gig for this movie lover.

To Jeremy the important things in life are to cherish your friends and family and to have faith.
 

Over a 30+ year career, Craig’s television, film, video and documentary projects have taken him to 144 countries, flown him 14 times around the world and landed him on six continents.

More than 200 overseas assignments have imbedded him into dangerous hot spots like Iraq, Cuba, Burundi, the Congo, El Salvador, Palestine, Cambodia, Vietnam, Uganda, Haiti, Burma, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Chad, Bosnia & Kosovo.

His strengths include digital cinema, broadcast segments and shows, short films, documentaries – plus single & multi-camera production. He has worked professionally at the network level for CBS’s The Amazing Race, ABC’s In Concert, Discovery Channel’s World of Wonder, Travel Channel, Animal Planet, PBS, History Channel, Fox Sports, A&E, TLC, and American Movie Classics’ Movie Memories.

Craig has produced, directed or shot camera for such notable clients as Family Channel, DuPont, Nestlé, Hyatt Hotels, Memorex, Toshiba, McDonalds, Northwest Airlines, Ford, Wells Fargo Bank, Blue Shield, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Samaritan’s Purse, World Vision, Voice of the Martyrs, Far East Broadcasting, OneHope, Dream Center and Teen Challenge.

He is the author of the books Commando Tactics for Digital Filmmakers and The Influence of Alexander Mackendrick on the Kailyard Film Sub-genre. Craig holds a masters degree in Film Studies from the Conservatory of Motion Pictures at Chapman University (a Top 10 film school), and a bachelor's in Biblical & Theological Studies from Bethany University. A voting member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Emmys), he also holds membership in the International Press Association and the prestigious Travelers’ Century Club.
 

Nathan Tabor is President of TCVmedia.com.  TCVmedia.com is a professional full-service Internet and branding firm that specializes in website design and application, marketing, advertising and consulting services.

Jim Taszarek is helping reorganize and run the business underwriting for K-LOVE and Air1. Before joining K-LOVE, Jim was a well-known consultant, trainer and speaker.  He spent 15 years as a General Manager of stations in St. Louis and Phoenix, and also spent four years as Chief Revenue Officer of the American City Business Journal chain of newspapers.  His bachelor’s degree is from St. Louis University and master’s from Webster University. 
 

Kay Peters is the Director of Business Development for KTIS Radio Station - inviting partners to invest their resources into relevant marketing opportunities that help support the Christ-centered ministry of KTIS.  Her 30+ years of major market radio sales /management experience has provided her the opportunity to work for CBS, Hubbard Broadcasting and Clear Channel Radio group. Kay is a certified Creative Ideation Brainstorming Consultant, trained at The Center for Sales Strategy in Dallas, TX.  Kay has a B.A. in Psychology and a master’s in organizational development counseling. 

As Senior Director of Creative Services for KSBJ, Nikki Sparks creatively shares the story of the KSBJ ministry through strategic planning, brand management and development, traditional and non-traditional marketing campaigns, online communications, and public relations. With 30 years in the Houston market, KSBJ is the largest non-profit, listener supported radio station in the country. Two years ago, KSBJ launched a sister station, NGEN Radio, to reach today’s generation striving for constant connection and hit music.  Nikki is the champion for integrated communications among all KSBJ ministries, also including KSBJ Special Events and Ticket Servant.  Recently celebrating a five-year anniversary at KSBJ, Nikki is ready and excited to explore God’s next plan for this journey. Prior to joining KSBJ, Nikki served on the agency side of marketing, working with non-profit, business-to-business and consumer clientele.

Jeremy Ruck is a graduate of Bradley University in Peoria, IL, with the Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Illinois. Jeremy has 20 years of professional engineering experience and more than 25 years of experience in broadcasting and communications engineering. He is a full member of the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers (AFCCE).

Jeremy is a bimonthly contributor to Radio magazine. Since 2000, he has spoken at numerous events, including the Wisconsin Broadcasters Clinic in Madison, WI, and the Indiana Broadcasters Association.

Rick is a 34-year veteran in direct response marketing and fundraising for nonprofit organizations. In 2002, Rick founded Dunham+Company to establish a new model to serve ministries, a model which seeks to integrate the variety of organizational and marketing components that must work in concert in order to optimize income generation and impact long-term organizational effectiveness.

Rick holds a B.A. from Biola University and a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary. He is an active member of the National Religious Broadcasters and the Direct Marketing Association, where he serves annually as a judge for the International ECHO Awards.

Rick is the author of Secure: Discovering True Security in Turbulent Financial Times and If God Will Provide, Why Do We Have to Ask for Money? He has also been published and quoted in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, USA Today, Dallas Morning News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, and Townhall.com, and has served as a commentator on Fox Business News.
 

 In a time where the world's attention is riveted on events in the Middle East, CBN viewers have come to appreciate Chris Mitchell's timely reports from this explosive region of the world. Chris brings a biblical and prophetic perspective to these daily news events that shape our world.

Chris first began reporting on the Middle East in the mid-1990s. He repeatedly traveled there to report on the religious and political issues facing Israel and the surrounding Arab states. One of his more significant reports focused on the emigration of persecuted Christians from the Middle East.

Chris also earned a "Short Story of the Year" award for his examination of religious coverage in network news. He has also reported on such movements as the Promise Keepers and the annual "Prayer and Fasting" campaign led by the late Campus Crusade founder Dr. Bill Bright.

In addition to his reports for The 700 Club, Chris is a regular contributor to Christian World News, a weekly 30-minute newscast that airs nationally in multiple markets.

Prior to joining CBN News in 1992, Chris worked for three years as a researcher, producer, and reporter for the Features/Testimonies department of The 700 Club.

A native of the Boston area, Chris earned a B.A. in History at the University of New Hampshire in 1975. In 1987, he graduated with honors from Regent University, earning an M.A. in Communication. While a student at Regent (then CBN University), Chris anchored Newsight, a student-produced Christian news program.

After almost a decade with CBN News, Chris's goal is to provide in his stories the biblical "understanding of the times" described in 1 Chronicles 12:32.
 

Jim Taszarek is helping reorganize and run the business underwriting for K-LOVE and Air1. Before joining K-LOVE, Jim was a well-known consultant, trainer and speaker.  He spent 15 years as a General Manager of stations in St. Louis and Phoenix, and also spent four years as Chief Revenue Officer of the American City Business Journal chain of newspapers.  His bachelor’s degree is from St. Louis University and master’s from Webster University. 
 

Kay Peters is the Director of Business Development for KTIS Radio Station - inviting partners to invest their resources into relevant marketing opportunities that help support the Christ-centered ministry of KTIS.  Her 30+ years of major market radio sales /management experience has provided her the opportunity to work for CBS, Hubbard Broadcasting and Clear Channel Radio group. Kay is a certified Creative Ideation Brainstorming Consultant, trained at The Center for Sales Strategy in Dallas, TX.  Kay has a B.A. in Psychology and a master’s in organizational development counseling. 

John Fuller is Vice President of Focus on the Family's broadcasting department and Co-Host of the daily Focus on the Family radio program, which is heard around the world by millions.  He also hosts Weekend Magazine, Focus on the Family Minute, Focus on Marriage and Focus on Parenting.  John has spoken internationally about influence, creativity, workplace relationships, intentional living, parenting, marriage, adoption, and the spiritual life.  His book, First Time Dad, was released in 2011 by Moody Publishing.  He has written for a variety of magazines. 

Nina Barnes has a passion to share God’s message of redemption through salvation and through His ongoing work in life circumstances.

She has worked at Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN, for 12 years, where she currently serves as Human Resources Manager, focusing on hiring/onboarding, employee relations and organizational development. Nina holds a bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministries and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).

She has held positions in a variety of industries (retail, manufacturing, insurance, tourism, entertainment, health care, prison ministry, higher education) and lived in an abundance of places (Chicago, New England, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Los Angeles, the Bahamas, San Francisco, and Minneapolis/St. Paul).

Her activities outside of work include service on the Governing Board of Elders at her church, Board Member of Antioch Ministries in North Minneapolis, and mentoring/coaching. 
 

Andrew Greer is an accomplished singer/songwriter and respected music journalist. While his critically-acclaimed 2009 debut, Open Book, chronicled a soul-searching season that ultimately led to the rekindling of his faith, Andrew’s musical journey now makes an important stop—a step back to his roots. Angel Band is a collection of treasured hymns, the beloved songs that first articulated, and still remain, his story.

“I can’t recall many of the sermons my pastor preached, or the lessons my Sunday School teachers taught, but I do remember hymns,” Greer says of his inspiration for the project. “In fact, if it hadn’t been for the impact of those indelible tunes, I may have never fallen in love with music, or been introduced to God.”

Andrew has shared his stories and songs with audiences from coast to coast, receiving significant media coverage in CCM Magazine, Christian Musician, The Tennessean, Christianity Today, and Worship Leader magazine, among many other publications. He has also been a featured worship leader at Centrifuge’s Centrikid camps. As a writer, Greer’s stories have appeared in Christianity Today, CCM, and ParentLife, among other notable publications. When not on the road, Andrew enjoys his home in Franklin, TN.

This native Tennessean began her journey in a musical family - her mother a songwriter and gospel singer who played the piano; her dad, a VW mechanic by day, whose true love was in writing songs and playing guitar.  Together, they provided rich soil for her to grow in as a writer. Throughout her musical journey, starting at Word Records barely out of high school, her true passion has always been the songs and how they connect with a listener.

Cindy has received 12 Dove Awards in her career both as a recording artist and songwriter, including the coveted Dove Award for Songwriter of the Year. She received a Dove for Country Song of the Year, "How You Live," recorded by Point of Grace; and also a Dove Award for Country Song of the Year, "I Wish," also recorded by Point of Grace.

In 2001, Morgan took a break from her career to dedicate time to her family. During the time, she continued writing songs for several artists. Some of the artists who have recorded her songs are Point of Grace, Michael W. Smith, Avalon, Carman, Rachael Lampa, Michael English, BeBe Winans, Sandi Patty, Jaci Velasquez, Mark Schultz, John Tesh, Christy Carlson Romano and Natalie Grant.

Cindy is also a part of an Indie pop band, St. Lola in the Fields, with her longtime writing partner Jeremy Bose.

“I am just so glad to be a part of the music community. To make music, write songs and hopefully, ultimately, encourage someone else with music. It is the supernatural power of notes and words to reach someone where they live,” says Cindy.

Pete Briscoe wants you to experience LIFE. Not a ho-hum, barely-make-it-through-the-day kind of life. But the abounding, overflowing, deeply rich and satisfying LIFE of Christ living through you!
 
With a passion for God’s Word and expositional preaching, Pete has served as Senior Pastor of Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Dallas, TX, since 1992. 

In 2005 Pete joined his parents, Stuart and Jill Briscoe, as part of the teaching team on Telling the Truth, a global media outreach that includes a daily Bible teaching program heard on nearly 500 radio outlets across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and numerous countries across southeast Asia and southern Africa. 

Telling the Truth is Christo-centric in its teaching, pointing people to Christ. With the foundational belief that Christ is the answer for every question, the Briscoes' strong desire is for people to hear the exposition of God’s Word, carefully and passionately taught, so that Christ can make a life-transforming difference in their lives. 

On November 29, 1975, three years after accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, Raul Ries was ordained by Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, and his small home Bible study grew into Calvary Chapel Golden Springs in Diamond Bar, CA.  From this beginning, it has today grown to a congregation of 14,000.

Raul is the host of Somebody Loves You, a syndicated 30-minute daily radio program heard worldwide. He is the author of numerous books, including Fury to Freedom, translated into six languages. He has also produced three films – a feature film and two documentaries.

Raul received two Purple Hearts from service in Vietnam, 1966 and 1967. He has three master’s degrees from Azusa Pacific University and a Doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is also a Black Belt in Kung Fu San Soo, teaching twice a week.

Through conferences in the states and throughout Latin America, Raul seeks to equip the saints for the ministry.

Irish singer/songwriters Keith & Kristyn Getty are among the preeminent modern hymn writers of this generation. Best known for In Christ Alone (penned by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend), the renowned hymn has been recorded by numerous artists and is a classic sung in churches around the globe. The couple’s popular U.S. recordings include In Christ Alone, Awaken the Dawn and Joy – An Irish Christmas. Their latest release, Hymns for the Christian Life, is a thematically-focused original collection showcasing traditional Irish melodies as well as American bluegrass and country influences. Keith & Kristyn Getty have shared their music at Franklin Graham crusades, the GMA Dove Awards, and performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall and the legendary Grand Ole Opry, among other noted platforms and international tours.

Dr. Tony Evans is one of the country’s most respected leaders in evangelical circles. He is a pastor, best-selling author and frequent speaker at Bible conferences, crusades and seminars throughout the nation.

He has served as the senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship for over 36 years, witnessing its growth from 10 people in 1976 to now over 9,700 congregants and 100+ ministries.

Through his local church and national ministry Dr. Evans promotes a Kingdom agenda philosophy that teaches God’s comprehensive rule over every sphere of life as demonstrated through the individual, family, church and society

Dr. Evans also serves as president of The Urban Alternative, a national ministry that seeks to restore hope and transform lives through the proclamation and the application of the Word of God. His daily radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on more than 850 stations throughout the United States and in more than 80 countries.

He has written numerous books and booklets including his legacy work, Oneness Embraced, as well as his vision work, The Kingdom Agenda. Some of his most recent books include, Kingdom Man, A Moment For Your Soul, Marriage Matters, and Victory in Spiritual Warfare.

Dr. Evans served as chaplain for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, and continues to serve as chaplain for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, a ministry he has had for over 30 years.

He is the first African-American to graduate with a doctoral degree from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS), he served as an associate professor in DTS’ Pastoral Ministries Department in the areas of evangelism, homiletics and black church studies.
 

“The people we serve and work alongside are watching and waiting to be inspired and led to greatness.” Inspiration, leadership, excellence, and fun are words Brian hangs his hat on. Throughout his career, Brian has served in senior leadership roles where he has had the unique ability to drive strategic direction and connect Human Resources to the business, operations, and organizations objectives. 

His skills and expertise in organizational leadership, coaching, and workforce development have translated into results. Brian currently serves on the Executive Council, as the Vice President of Human Resources, at the nation’s largest Christian music broadcaster, K-LOVE / Air1 Radio Networks. He is part of a unique leadership team - helping the organization successfully grow from 145 team members to now more than 350 working in 27 states, serving and supporting an audience of more than 12 million weekly.

Brian’s passion and approach in bringing talented people together, to accomplish substantially so much more as a team rather than as individuals, has moved organizations forward with momentum. He believes the “special sauce” in achieving key strategic initiatives is people, focus, flexible structure, and fun.  

His mission from day one has been to help shape the future of organizations and to positively impact the lives of those he partners with. Brian strongly believes that leaders have a responsibility to reflect the organizations values and equip their people to accomplish what’s next. 

For over fifteen years, Brian has excelled working with high energy fast-paced organizations, including UPS, Target, and consulting/software start-up companies. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from California State University of Sacramento and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) with the HRCI Society of Human Resource Management.

One C-Level executive describes Brian as, “Definitely not your typical HR guy, and if you ask Brian, he’ll say, ‘that’s a good thing’”.

Nina Barnes has a passion to share God’s message of redemption through salvation and through His ongoing work in life circumstances.

She has worked at Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN, for 12 years, where she currently serves as Human Resources Manager, focusing on hiring/onboarding, employee relations and organizational development. Nina holds a bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministries and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).

She has held positions in a variety of industries (retail, manufacturing, insurance, tourism, entertainment, health care, prison ministry, higher education) and lived in an abundance of places (Chicago, New England, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Los Angeles, the Bahamas, San Francisco, and Minneapolis/St. Paul).

Her activities outside of work include service on the Governing Board of Elders at her church, Board Member of Antioch Ministries in North Minneapolis, and mentoring/coaching. 
 

Brad Wright is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, where he studies American Christianity.  He received his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, where he was trained in social psychology and criminology.  He has authored 20 scholarly articles and two books: Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites... and Other Lies You've Been Told (2010), and Upside: Surprising Good News about the State of Our World (2011). Hypocrites won the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award for Christianity and Culture.

Phil Boyce is currently the Vice President and Director of Spoken Word for Salem Communications.  In this capacity Phil supervises the 24 NewsTalk stations owned by Salem, in addition to the 40 Christian Talk and Teach stations, and the 11 Business Talk stations.  Phil is directly responsible for on-air programming at WNYM and WMCA Radio in New York City.

Previously, he was the Program Director for NewsTalkRadio WABC (AM) in New York City, as well as Vice President of news/talk programming for ABC Radio and Program Director for Talk Radio Network.

Phil programmed nationally syndicated ABC Radio shows, including The Sean Hannity Show and The Mark Levin Show.  He handled programming at all ABC Radio news/talk stations, including KABC-AM in Los Angeles, WLS-AM in Chicago and WMAL-AM in Washington, D.C.

Eric Metaxas is the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Named “Book of the Year” by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) and called a “biography of uncommon power,” Bonhoeffer appeared on numerous 2010 “Best of the Year” lists and was featured in the Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, NPR,CNN, FoxNews, C-SPAN’s Book TV, Christianity Today, and The Weekly Standard.

Eric was the keynote speaker at the 2012 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, an event attended by the President and First Lady, the Vice President, members of Congress, and other U.S. and world leaders.

Eric currently co-hosts BreakPoint, a radio commentary that airs daily on more than 1,200 outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people.

In 2011, Metaxas was the 17th recipient of the Canterbury Medal awarded by the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom. Previous medalists include Mitt Romney, Chuck Colson, and Elie Wiesel.

In a decidedly eclectic career, Eric has written for VeggieTales, Chuck Colson, and the New York Times, three things not ordinarily in the same sentence. He is a best-selling author whose biographies, children’s books, and works of popular apologetics have been translated into German, Albanian, Portuguese, Spanish, Korean, Turkish, Galician, French, Chinese, Dutch, Danish, Italian, Polish and Macedonian.
 

Jennifer Rothschild has been cleaning out her thought closet and reconciling the missing pieces in her blanket of faith ever since her life drastically changed at the age of 15, when she lost her sight. Now, more than 30 years later, she boldly and compassionately teaches women how to walk by faith, and not by sight.

As a speaker, author and accomplished singer-songwriter, she travels internationally, offering fresh, sensible, biblical advice to audiences who, like her, are determined to pursue healthy and fulfilling lives in spite of their circumstances. She has shared her practical and inspiring messages to arena-sized audiences and on media outlets including Dr. Phil, Good Morning America, Life Today, The Learning Channel and The Billy Graham Television Special.

She’s the author of eight books, including her recently released Bible study, Missing Pieces: Real Hope When Life Doesn’t Make Sense. She is the featured teacher and founder of Fresh Grounded Faith Conferences. She is also publisher of womensministry.net, a popular online magazine for women in ministry.

GRAMMY®-nominated singer/songwriter Nichole Nordeman is a nine-time GMA Dove Award-winner with career sales of more than a million units to date. Lauded for her thought-provoking, poignant lyrics, Nordeman’s signature songs include This Mystery, Holy, and Legacy.  Her 2012 literary debut, Love Story (Worthy Publishing), traces God’s unyielding mission from the beginning of time to rescue His beloved. Based on the best-selling multi-artist recording Music Inspired by The Story, which she co-wrote, Love Story is an exquisite and personal narrative exposing the humanity and more emotional underside of a range of biblical characters.

Claire Diaz-Ortiz leads social innovation at Twitter, where she has worked since 2009. She wrote Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time.

She is a frequent international speaker and is known for developing the “TWEET model” — a framework to help organizations and individuals best excel on Twitter.

Claire holds an M.B.A. from Oxford University, where she was a Skoll Foundation Scholar for Social Entrepreneurship. She also holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Anthropology from Stanford University.

She is the co-founder of Hope Runs, a non-profit organization operating in AIDS orphanages in Kenya.

Claire has lived on four continents and travelled to more than 50 countries. Called a “mover and shaker” by Mashable, she has been widely written about in publications such as Business Week, The Washington Post, and The Independent.
 

Katie Harbath is a Manager for Policy at Facebook, where she focuses on political outreach. Prior to Facebook, Katie was the Chief Digital Strategist at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She previously led digital strategy in positions at DCI Group, the Rudy Giuliani for President Campaign and the Republican National Committee. In 2009, she was named a Rising Star by Campaigns and Elections magazine. Katie holds a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Rob Saliterman heads the Google advertising team’s sales and outreach efforts to Republican political campaigns, building relationships with campaign managers, digital agencies, and issue advocacy groups to drive adoption of online advertising. He previously served as Communications Director to former President George W. Bush in Dallas, TX. From 2008 to 2009, he was spokesman for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and earlier served as Director of Rapid Response in the White House Office of Communications. He has also worked at the Republican National Committee and on the Bush-Cheney ’04 Presidential Campaign. Saliterman is originally from Minnesota and received a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Jeff’s heart is to reach this generation with the timeless message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a speaker, his aim is to go right to the heart of the matter, in light of the fact that God didn’t wait until we cleaned ourselves up, but rather entered directly into our mess offering grace, mercy, and love at the Cross of Jesus.

As a poet, Jeff joined forces with Matthew Robertson and CIK Productions on a recent viral YouTube hit Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus which has had well over 21 million views, gaining over 15 million views in the first week.

Ultimately, Jeff is passionate about people understanding the magnitude of God’s grace and the freedom it provides from the past, the power it provides for the present, and the hope it provides for the future.

He currently resides in Tacoma, WA, where he is helping plant a college ministry called “For the King.” He also makes YouTube videos, writes blogs, and is working on a book that will be out in fall 2013.

Matthew Robertson founded CIK Productions, a professional-grade video production company near Seattle, WA. CIK stands for "Christ is King" and embodies his hope of creating content that is both technically excellent and that does not compromise his convictions to glorify God in all that he does.

Matthew has a passion for producing unique content that genuinely interests people. He is excited to see his work come to completion in a popular product, which happened in his joint effort with poet Jeff Bethke on the recent viral hit video on YouTube Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus. Currently with more than 21 million views, the video gained over 15 million views in the first week it was uploaded.

Matthew believes that the wide variety of productions he has participated in has given him a well-rounded sense of the craft, and driven him to work hard even in uncomfortable or new situations.

Gabe Cooper has a passion for creating life-changing products and helping organizations re-imagine how to reach their constituents through technology. After receiving his M.B.A from Arizona State University in 2002, Gabe moved into a technology leadership role as the VP of Software at the ADF, a large non-profit organization in Scottsdale, AZ.  In 2006, he became a founding member of Perk Software (later Brushfire and Shotzoom Software) and went on to build a series of highly successful digital properties in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors.

Charles Lee is the CEO of Ideation, an idea agency that specializes in helping organizations and businesses take their ideas and make them remarkable via creative strategy, organizational development, branding, design, marketing, web, social media, and influencer engagement. He is also the author of Good Idea. Now What?, a book that guides people in implementing ideas well. In addition, Charles is the creator of grassroots efforts including the Idea Camp, Ideation Conference, and the Freeze Project, as well as the co-founder of JustOne. Charles regularly speaks around the country on topics such as creative process, idea-making, innovation, branding, new media, and social entrepreneurism.

Brod Boyd serves as a consultant to media, non-profit and governmental agencies with Abram-Leslie Media Consulting. Prior to this, he served as the Director of Media for Amazing Facts, Inc., based in Sacramento, CA. Brod oversaw the recent acquisition of the newly launched Amazing Facts TV (AFTV) channel as General Manager. He served as a lead strategic media buyer and planner providing over 600 television and radio outlets in North America, Southeast Asia and parts of the Middle East with programming. During Brod's tenure at Amazing Facts, direct response results rose 120%. The successful launch of a YouTube channel and a Facebook Fan page with over 50,000 active fans developed over a 1 1/2 year period was also his brain child.

Before joining Amazing Facts, Brod served as the Coordinator of Broadcast and Head of New Media for Florida A&M University where he specialized in growing online content from two events to over 300 educational, entertainment, and sporting events. He was charged with identifying strategic media opportunities tied to university enrollment growth and academic expansion of distance and online course offerings. He’s also served as Vice President of Operations and Producer for Moonlight Productions, a film, theatre, and TV production company with offices in California and Florida. Brod began his career as an educational consultant targeting elementary and secondary school teachers and students.

Brod earned a degree in Music Education and studied Public Administration at the graduate level while also earning an M.B.A. with a specialization in Marketing.
 

Stephen Brewster has worked in creative environments for over 12 years.  From artist development, marketing, and management in the music business, to creative team leading and artistic direction, he has worked with a vast array of artists.  Leveraging creativity and leadership, it is Stephen’s desire for the church to regain its position as a leader of the creative frontier.  Stephen currently serves as Creative Arts Pastor at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN. If you would like to follow Stephen on Twitter, he can be found at: @B_rewster or on his daily blog about creativity, http://www.StephenBrewster.me

Jerry Grimes focuses on donor communications, donor intelligence research, marketing, branding, and strategic planning, all derived from his decades of experience in development, leadership and media. Currently, Jerry is serving some of the largest Christian broadcasters in the country, including those serving listeners in New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Indianapolis, Seattle, and Austin.  His work also includes growing support for missions agencies, conservative action groups, social service agencies, and private schools.  

Jerry enjoys writing, public speaking and ministry.  Ordained as a minister in the Independent Christian Church, Churches of Christ movement, Jerry holds an M.A. degree in Leadership from Columbia International University.  He has more than 30 years of experience combining media management, marketing and development. Prior to Joining Advocace, Jerry served as Donor Marketing Director for WAY Media Group and Director of Development for the University of South Carolina School of Law.  He was also Executive Director for South Carolina Friends of Juvenile Justice, a non-profit organization he helped start and now serves as a member of its Board of Directors.

Jerry is the former General Manager for 89.7 WMHK, a National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Award-winning station that was named “Station of the Year” during his tenure. In addition to his work in non-profit organizations, Jerry helped promote local television stations to become market leaders in viewership.

Founder and President of Vertical Horizons Group, Tom desires to spend time developing other ministries into self-sustaining models of efficiency and effectiveness.  His passion is to make ministries better at what they do.  With experiences working in business with Johanna Farms to ministries such as Word of Life Fellowship, The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and EQUIP Leadership, Tom has always been committed to lasting kingdom impact.  He has helped impact ministries in every nation of the world but his desire is to help those ministries in the United States.

Currently Tom is COO of Heart for Lebanon, a non-profit organization started to help disenfranchised people in Lebanon.  He also serves on the Board of 4BServe in Hyderabad, India, and works in the discipleship ministry of his local church. 

Tom has authored a book titled Leadership in Blue Jeans that reflects the leadership lessons he has learned from his wealth of experiences in ministry and the business world.

Jeff Goins is a writer.  He loves compelling stories and worthy causes. He has been writing for most of his life. He is a gifted communicator, writer and creative force. His blog answers important questions young writers ask:  How do successful writers make a living?  What does it really take to get published?  When do you pursue your writing passion?  Through these questions on his blog, he has found a community of like-minded individuals sharing many of the same struggles.

Michael Hyatt, Chairman of Thomas Nelson, says, “Jeff Goins has become one of my favorite bloggers.”
 

Steve Taylor studied music, filmmaking and acting at Colorado University in Boulder, then began a career as a recording artist that spanned 12 years and garnered him two Grammy nominations for Meltdown and Squint. In the process, he made history as the only artist to twice win Billboard Music Video Awards for self-directed music videos. He was also lead singer/co-writer in the MCA-signed modern rock band Chagall Guevara, who were first introduced on the soundtrack to the movie Pump Up The Volume.

Among his many credits as a music video director, his best-known is the Francois Truffaut homage he shot in Paris for Sixpence None The Richer's Kiss Me. Taylor also directed and starred in the award-winning long-form video Squint: Movies From The Soundtrack, shot in 10 countries around the globe, including Vietnam, Nepal, The United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

In preparation for his first movie, Taylor spent two years studying the Meisner technique under acting teacher Bill Feheely. The film that followed - The Second Chance - marked Taylor's debut as director/co-screenwriter. It was produced independently in Nashville and featured a number of first-time actors in prominent roles. The movie was subsequently picked up for a 2006 theatrical release by Sony Pictures Releasing.

Taylor's follow-up feature, Blue Like Jazz, is an adaptation of the New York Times best-selling memoir by Donald Miller.
 

Katie Harbath is a Manager for Policy at Facebook, where she focuses on political outreach. Prior to Facebook, Katie was the Chief Digital Strategist at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She previously led digital strategy in positions at DCI Group, the Rudy Giuliani for President Campaign and the Republican National Committee. In 2009, she was named a Rising Star by Campaigns and Elections magazine. Katie holds a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Craig Parshall is Senior Vice President & General Counsel for National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) where he handles the legal, regulatory and constitutional issues that impact Christian broadcasters and communicators. Mr. Parshall is also the Director of NRB’s John Milton Project for Free Speech, monitoring the threat of anti-Christian censorship of new media platforms like Apple’s iTunes App Store, Facebook, and Google.

Mr. Parshall has testified numerous times in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, has worked with members of Congress on communications policy and religious liberty legislation, and he advocates NRB’s position to the FCC on broadcast and media matters. As a former civil liberties trial attorney, Mr. Parshall represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal District Courts or Courts of Appeal in most of the federal circuits, and before several state supreme courts. Mr. Parshall is also a New York Times best-selling fiction writer and has authored or co-authored 10 suspense novels

Janet Parshall is the host of In the Market with Janet Parshall, a daily two-hour broadcast, nationally syndicated on the Moody Radio Network and carried on hundreds of stations across the country.  She also hosts a three-minute weekly commentary.

Janet was the recipient of the NRB On-Air Personality of the Year Award in 2008 and in 2011.  She was selected by President George W. Bush to represent the White House in the capacity of public delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. 

Kelly Shackelford, Esq., has been President and CEO of Liberty Institute since 1997.

Mr. Shackelford is a constitutional scholar who has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, testified before the U.S. House and Senate on constitutional issues, and has won three state landmark First Amendment and religious liberty cases in the past few years alone.

He was recently named one of the 25 greatest Texas lawyers of the past quarter-century by Texas Lawyer, and is the recipient of the prestigious William Bentley Ball Award for Life and Religious Freedom Defense for his leadership and pioneering work protecting religious freedom.

Mr. Shackelford is a highly sought-after speaker and frequent guest on national TV news and talk show programs, including The O’Reilly Factor, Fox and Friends, Hannity, Good Morning America, NBC’s Today Show, CNN, and MSNBC. He also has been featured in the National Law Journal, Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Times, The Washington Post, and The L.A. Times, among many others.

Mr. Shackelford is on the Board of Trustees of the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society and is a graduate of Baylor University.

Tim Challies is an Associate Pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto.  He is an author, blogger and conference speaker.  His blog (challies.com) is one of the most influential and widely read Christian blogs.  Tim also edits Discerning Reader and is a co-founder of Cruciform Press.  Even though Tim’s ministry is to an audience much broader than the local church alone, his heart is still for ministry in the local church.   He is involved as a leader and mentor to the youth of Grace Fellowship. 

Mark Seignious worked in radio 20 years before joining Northwestern College in 2001.  He has worked at radio stations in San Diego, Seattle, Sacramento, and Minneapolis/St Paul. The first half of his radio career focused on marketing and promotions, while the second half enjoyed working on a morning show. He says the Lord has blessed Northwestern media students the past dozen years and is thrilled to see them flourish in their media vocations throughout the world. He has a passion for the supremacy of Christ.

Claire Diaz-Ortiz leads social innovation at Twitter, where she has worked since 2009. She wrote Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time.

She is a frequent international speaker and is known for developing the “TWEET model” — a framework to help organizations and individuals best excel on Twitter.

Claire holds an M.B.A. from Oxford University, where she was a Skoll Foundation Scholar for Social Entrepreneurship. She also holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Anthropology from Stanford University.

She is the co-founder of Hope Runs, a non-profit organization operating in AIDS orphanages in Kenya.

Claire has lived on four continents and travelled to more than 50 countries. Called a “mover and shaker” by Mashable, she has been widely written about in publications such as Business Week, The Washington Post, and The Independent.
 

With over 15 years of experience in sales, marketing and business management, Jason DeMeo represents many of the largest advertisers, producers, first run syndicated properties and direct response clients in the country.  His creative and analytical thinking has positioned him as one of the leading content and spot TV salespersons and distributors.   Recognized for his high impact and motivational sales and marketing presentations, he continues to work with brand managers and prominent leaders and is often called upon for advice.

Jason also is the principal behind Omniverse One World Television with a new product called the “OmniBox” launching in the fall of 2012.  Omniverse empowers producers, content rights holders, syndicators, and broadcasters large and small to effectively monetize their content through a Multi-Media Platform that covers all 211 domestic markets, worldwide markets, has unlimited channel capacity, and allows for very low broadcasting costs which allows them to transfer those savings to their subscribers.  Omniverse is built to allow the viewer to watch what they want to, on the device they want to, whenever they want to. Viewers can watch content from anywhere whether at home, at work, in the park, on business trips.

The Omniverse service opens the next generation for TV broadcasters, producers, content rights holders, and syndicators. It offers opportunities denied to them by the limitations of cable and satellite infrastructure.

Steve Burzynski is an entrepreneur and leader with a proven track record of revolutionizing organizations through creativity combined with Internet marketing strategies. Prior to co-founding IMAVEX, an Internet marketing and design firm with a focus on Internet TV and Video Streaming in 2001, Steve demonstrated his vision, expertise and passion while working for Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and Ernst & Young. Drawing on over 20 years of experience, he has become a leading voice and pioneer in bringing creative and trending Internet-based solutions to many industries and organizations.

Craig Parshall is Senior Vice President & General Counsel for National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) where he handles the legal, regulatory and constitutional issues that impact Christian broadcasters and communicators. Mr. Parshall is also the Director of NRB’s John Milton Project for Free Speech, monitoring the threat of anti-Christian censorship of new media platforms like Apple’s iTunes App Store, Facebook, and Google.

Mr. Parshall has testified numerous times in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, has worked with members of Congress on communications policy and religious liberty legislation, and he advocates NRB’s position to the FCC on broadcast and media matters. As a former civil liberties trial attorney, Mr. Parshall represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal District Courts or Courts of Appeal in most of the federal circuits, and before several state supreme courts. Mr. Parshall is also a New York Times best-selling fiction writer and has authored or co-authored 10 suspense novels

Harry C. Martin is a member of the law firm of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, PLC, in Arlington, VA. Harry Martin specializes in mass media law, with his time divided between regulatory and transactional matters. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and is an honors graduate of George Washington University Law School.

Harry is a past president of the Federal Communications Bar Association (2004-2005) and served on the FCBA's Executive Committee from 1995-2006. Over this period, he served as assistant treasurer, treasurer, assistant secretary, secretary and president; and co-chaired the FCBA's committees concerned with adjudicatory practice, professional responsibility, judicial practice, mass media practice and continuing legal education. While a co-chair, he organized and moderated CLE programs for each of these committees. This year, Harry is co-chair of the FCBA committee, which coordinates activities with other bar associations.

Harry has been a monthly FCC update columnist for Broadcast Engineering magazine for 30 years. He also regularly participates as a speaker at NAB, NRB and state broadcast industry conventions.

Jeff Southmayd is the founding partner of the Washington, DC, communications law firm of Southmayd & Miller.  This practice represents Christian broadcasters before the Federal Communications Commission.  Jeff has also been involved in the ownership of broadcast stations since 1986 and currently owns a Christian noncommercial station, WNSS-FM in Palm Coast, FL.

Joe Chautin is managing partner of Hardy, Carey, Chautin & Balkin, LLP, in Mandeville, LA, a law firm that advises broadcasters on all aspects of operations, including FCC compliance issues. Joe frequently assists NRB on FCC broadcast regulatory matters, including preparing and filing comments in FCC regulatory proceedings, presentations on current FCC matters, and as co-counsel on two amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court on FCC indecency enforcement.

Joe graduated in 1987 from the University of Southwestern Louisiana with a B.A in Mass Communication. He is also an alumnus of Loyola New Orleans School of Law (J.D., 1997). He is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, Federal Communications Bar Association, and is admitted to all state and federal courts in Louisiana, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. He retired from the USAF as a Lt. Colonel in 2008 after 21 years of active and reserve service.
 

Rob Saliterman heads the Google advertising team’s sales and outreach efforts to Republican political campaigns, building relationships with campaign managers, digital agencies, and issue advocacy groups to drive adoption of online advertising. He previously served as Communications Director to former President George W. Bush in Dallas, TX. From 2008 to 2009, he was spokesman for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and earlier served as Director of Rapid Response in the White House Office of Communications. He has also worked at the Republican National Committee and on the Bush-Cheney ’04 Presidential Campaign. Saliterman is originally from Minnesota and received a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

With leadership experience spanning over two decades, Rebecca Gregory has a strong vision and passion to help nonprofits reach donors and raise dollars to further their mission. Currently, Rebecca serves as Senior Vice President of Marketing & Strategy at The Pursuant Group. Her strength is to come alongside nonprofit organizations regardless of size or tenure and help them achieve their long-term vision and goals. Her specialties include integrated marketing, direct response fundraising, and leveraging technology to achieve results.

Prior to joining Pursuant in June of 2010, Rebecca was the lead account manager and technology strategist for 50+ faith-based nonprofit accounts at Convio, Inc., a SAAS CRM solution for nonprofits. She has also served as the Communications & Mobilization Director for globalX (world missions) at North Point Ministries, Inc., Director of Marketing & Product Development at Walk Thru the Bible Ministries in Atlanta, GA, and Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Her prior corporate experience includes a retail and financial management background.

While at Walk Thru the Bible, her team received the NRB 2007 Website of the Year award and three Telly awards for their production of small group curriculums. Currently, Rebecca serves on the NRB Internet Committee and the 2012 Educational Task Force. She is also Chairman of the Board for LUO, Inc., a nonprofit setting children free from poverty. Rebecca has a bachelor's degree in Commerce and Business Administration from the University of Alabama.

Tim Kachuriak is the Founder and Chief Innovation and Optimization Officer for Next After, a research and consulting firm that works with nonprofits and NGOs to help them grow their resource capacity.

His work is primarily focused on optimizing the donor funnel through applied research using the Internet as a living laboratory. Tim has developed a number of innovative fundraising programs and methodologies that are utilized by national and international nonprofits,

Prior to founding Next After, Tim served as Senior Vice President of Innovation and Optimization for The Pursuant Group and KMA. During his tenure, Tim developed online fundraising strategies for a number of national and international nonprofits.

Tim also has spent some time on the client side of the nonprofit world. He served in a leadership role over digital communications at Coral Ridge Ministries in Fort Lauderdale, FL, the broadcast ministry of the late Dr. D. James Kennedy.

Prior to his work in the nonprofit space, Tim was President of Ambience Interactive, a Pittsburgh-based digital marketing agency, and launched PowerDealerPro, an online automotive software company. He currently serves as Vice Chairman for Online for Life and is on the MECLABS Advisory Board for Optimization.

With over 15 years of experience in sales, marketing and business management, Jason DeMeo represents many of the largest advertisers, producers, first run syndicated properties and direct response clients in the country.  His creative and analytical thinking has positioned him as one of the leading content and spot TV salespersons and distributors.   Recognized for his high impact and motivational sales and marketing presentations, he continues to work with brand managers and prominent leaders and is often called upon for advice.

Jason also is the principal behind Omniverse One World Television with a new product called the “OmniBox” launching in the fall of 2012.  Omniverse empowers producers, content rights holders, syndicators, and broadcasters large and small to effectively monetize their content through a Multi-Media Platform that covers all 211 domestic markets, worldwide markets, has unlimited channel capacity, and allows for very low broadcasting costs which allows them to transfer those savings to their subscribers.  Omniverse is built to allow the viewer to watch what they want to, on the device they want to, whenever they want to. Viewers can watch content from anywhere whether at home, at work, in the park, on business trips.

The Omniverse service opens the next generation for TV broadcasters, producers, content rights holders, and syndicators. It offers opportunities denied to them by the limitations of cable and satellite infrastructure.

Steve Burzynski is an entrepreneur and leader with a proven track record of revolutionizing organizations through creativity combined with Internet marketing strategies. Prior to co-founding IMAVEX, an Internet marketing and design firm with a focus on Internet TV and Video Streaming in 2001, Steve demonstrated his vision, expertise and passion while working for Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and Ernst & Young. Drawing on over 20 years of experience, he has become a leading voice and pioneer in bringing creative and trending Internet-based solutions to many industries and organizations.

Dr. Jennifer Epperson recently received her doctorate in organizational leadership with a minor concentration in human resource development from Nova Southeastern University in Florida. Her research interests include providing training solutions for media leaders, organizational learning and ethics. In addition, she graduated summa cum laude in French literature and music from Wheaton College, in Norton, MA, and received her master’s degree in broadcast management from Bob Jones University, Greenville, SC.

In 1987, she began in radio at WARV-AM in Warwick, RI, overcoming a very strong, regional accent. Since then, she has served in various capacities, including music, production, operations, and management.  Currently, she is the station manager of Moody Radio South Florida in Boynton Beach. Jennifer has also served as the Executive Producer and Host of Trans World Radio (TWR)’s “Women of Hope” program, and has enjoyed facilitating/presenting radio concepts, in varied contexts including university, cross-cultural, and adult learning.
 

John Stonestreet is a Speaker and Fellow of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. He is a gifted communicator on areas of faith and culture, theology, worldview, education, and apologetics, and is a sought-after speaker at conferences, colleges, churches, schools, and other various gatherings each year.

John is the co-host with Eric Metaxas of Breakpoint, the Christian worldview radio program founded by the late Chuck Colson, and the voice of The Point, a daily national radio feature on worldview, apologetics and cultural issues.  He also serves as a Senior Content Advisor for Summit Ministries in Manitou Springs, CO.

John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview (Sheffield Press).
 

Dr. Mitch Land is the Dean of the School of Communication & the Arts at Regent University. His expertise is in international communication and media ethics.  In addition, he consults on journalism training efforts that are sponsored by organizations with the U.S. Department of State.  Dr. Land earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas in radio, television and film, with emphases in international/development communication and cultural anthropology. Dr. Land is fluent in French and studied French language and culture at the Universite de Haute Bretagne and Universite de la Touraine, France.

“The people we serve and work alongside are watching and waiting to be inspired and led to greatness.” Inspiration, leadership, excellence, and fun are words Brian hangs his hat on. Throughout his career, Brian has served in senior leadership roles where he has had the unique ability to drive strategic direction and connect Human Resources to the business, operations, and organizations objectives. 

His skills and expertise in organizational leadership, coaching, and workforce development have translated into results. Brian currently serves on the Executive Council, as the Vice President of Human Resources, at the nation’s largest Christian music broadcaster, K-LOVE / Air1 Radio Networks. He is part of a unique leadership team - helping the organization successfully grow from 145 team members to now more than 350 working in 27 states, serving and supporting an audience of more than 12 million weekly.

Brian’s passion and approach in bringing talented people together, to accomplish substantially so much more as a team rather than as individuals, has moved organizations forward with momentum. He believes the “special sauce” in achieving key strategic initiatives is people, focus, flexible structure, and fun.  

His mission from day one has been to help shape the future of organizations and to positively impact the lives of those he partners with. Brian strongly believes that leaders have a responsibility to reflect the organizations values and equip their people to accomplish what’s next. 

For over fifteen years, Brian has excelled working with high energy fast-paced organizations, including UPS, Target, and consulting/software start-up companies. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from California State University of Sacramento and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) with the HRCI Society of Human Resource Management.

One C-Level executive describes Brian as, “Definitely not your typical HR guy, and if you ask Brian, he’ll say, ‘that’s a good thing’”.

Brod Boyd serves as a consultant to media, non-profit and governmental agencies with Abram-Leslie Media Consulting. Prior to this, he served as the Director of Media for Amazing Facts, Inc., based in Sacramento, CA. Brod oversaw the recent acquisition of the newly launched Amazing Facts TV (AFTV) channel as General Manager. He served as a lead strategic media buyer and planner providing over 600 television and radio outlets in North America, Southeast Asia and parts of the Middle East with programming. During Brod's tenure at Amazing Facts, direct response results rose 120%. The successful launch of a YouTube channel and a Facebook Fan page with over 50,000 active fans developed over a 1 1/2 year period was also his brain child.

Before joining Amazing Facts, Brod served as the Coordinator of Broadcast and Head of New Media for Florida A&M University where he specialized in growing online content from two events to over 300 educational, entertainment, and sporting events. He was charged with identifying strategic media opportunities tied to university enrollment growth and academic expansion of distance and online course offerings. He’s also served as Vice President of Operations and Producer for Moonlight Productions, a film, theatre, and TV production company with offices in California and Florida. Brod began his career as an educational consultant targeting elementary and secondary school teachers and students.

Brod earned a degree in Music Education and studied Public Administration at the graduate level while also earning an M.B.A. with a specialization in Marketing.
 

Armed with an abundance of unpretentious Southern charm and laser sharp wit, Chonda Pierce has been entertaining audiences from coast-to-coast for more than a decade. An in-demand stand up comic, television hostess and author, she has parlayed her gift for storytelling into a multi-faceted career.

Chonda has authored eight books, the most recent, Laughing In the Dark, (Simon&Schuster/Howard) and has ranked among Pollstar's top-selling live performers. Her tenth comedy DVD, I’m Kind of a Big Deal, released September 2011, highlights her USO tour to Afghanistan.  Her DVDs are consistently strong sellers both on tour and in retail with eight titles certified RAIA gold and four titles certified RAIA platinum.

She's a frequent guest on the famed Grand Ole Opry and has served as host of the Inspirational Country Music Awards and Christian Music Hall of Fame Awards as well as co-hosting the GMA Dove awards in 2012. She received five Daytime Emmy nominations for her work co-hosting Aspiring Women, a talk show on the Total Living Network and her first television special, This Ain't Prettyville! appeared on CMT (Country Music Television) nationwide. She has appeared on Life Today, The Wanda Sykes Show, and The Mike Huckabee Show, as well as ABC’s popular talk show, The View. 
 

If laughter is truly the best medicine, then Dennis Swanberg, America’s “Minister of Encouragement,” is just what the doctor ordered. With his down-home charm and a heaping helping of hospitality, this Austin, TX-born pastor-turned-comedian has won the hearts of audiences across the country.

Rivaling anyone who's ever set foot on the Tonight Show stage, Swanberg's list of impersonations includes Don Knotts, Pat Butram (Mr. Haney of Green Acres), Walter Brennan, Howard Cosell, Muhammad Ali, Ronald Reagan, Billy Graham, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Forrest Gump, Slim Pickins, John Wayne, Ross Perot, Jimmy Stewart, Bert and Ernie, and a host of other Sesame Street characters and many more. Add to all that talent, a man with a heart of gold whose biggest joy is seeing others happy and you'll discover the magic that is Dennis Swanberg.

This year Swanberg will appear at over 150 churches, conferences, businesses and concert events while his popular TBN and FamNet television shows continue to be aired weekly. He has also authored seven books, and an additional book on men’s ministry is scheduled to hit the marketplace during the upcoming year. And as always, he’ll be bringing a note of encouragement, a pocketful of hilarious stories and a great big bag of joy and laughter wherever he goes.
 

Imagine a line from Bill Cosby to Jerry Seinfeld and you’ll have an idea of Michael’s influences. Watch him onstage and you’ll see a man at ease…with himself, his audience, and his message. Listen to his voice and you’ll detect a comfortable, conversational style that hides a sly sense of mischief. Hear his words and you’ll laugh at the universal themes that connect us all.  How can one man be equally at home in the heartland and the inner city, churches and prisons, corporate events and youth rallies? Michael calls it comedy accountability. He has been seen on The Tonight Show, Comedy Central, TV One, The Late, Late Show, BET’s ComicView, and Jimmy Kimmel Live.  Michael’s versatility takes him from major universities such as Notre Dame, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Alabama, to church events ranging from the 60,000 member Willow Creek Church in Chicago to the 17,000 member West Angeles Church in Los Angeles to the 10,000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs.

The Nate Terry Band, a frontrunner for this year’s break-out band, will make a special appearance at NRB 2013.  The band’s sound is contemporary driven with a progressive sound that illustrates passion and faith in each song.

Born without arms and legs, Nick Vujicic has devoted his life to telling others about Jesus.  As President of the non-profit organization, Life Without Limbs, Nick travels around the world speaking to large audiences about overcoming obstacles and finding hope in God.  In 2013, Nick will travel to 27 countries to share his story through the ministry’s World Outreach.  His daily two-minute radio program is heard on 300 radio stations.  Nick writes about his journey from despair to restoration in the new bestselling book Unstoppable:  The Incredible Power of Faith in Action.  Born in Australia, Nick and his wife now live in southern California and are expecting their first child.

Terry Ascott has lived in the Middle East and served as the leader for indigenous media ministries for more than 35 years. In 1973, he moved to Beirut, Lebanon and helped launch an Arabic Christian publishing ministry. After the start of the Lebanese Civil War, he and his family evacuated to Egypt where Terry helped begin the Arabic youth magazine Magalla. This was the first Christian magazine to be successfully distributed on Egyptian newsstands. Magalla was published for 20 years and, according to many Arab Christians, was instrumental in bringing many people to Christ.

While working for the magazine, Terry’s ministry became involved in other media projects including video production. In 1995, he and other Middle Eastern Christian leaders and partner organizations working in the region launched SAT-7, the first Arabic Christian satellite television channel.

Terry holds a first class B.S. degree in civil engineering with honors from Middlesex University, England. In 2011, he was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Christian Ministries from Belhaven University.

Al Fadi is a former Wahabbi Muslim from Saudi Arabia. He is the researcher, editor, writer, and translator for numerous ministries, including Answering Islam and runs an outreach ministry designed for non-Muslim and Christians. The ministry’s focus is to bring awareness regarding Islam, to build bridges with Muslim seekers, and to open the door to share the Gospel with Muslims.

Lieutenant General William G. "Jerry" Boykin (retired) was the United States Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. He has played a role in almost every recent major American military operation over the past four decades, serving in Grenada, Somalia, and Iraq. He is an author and taught at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.  He is currently Executive Vice President at the Family Research Council.

Janet Parshall is the host of In the Market with Janet Parshall, a daily two-hour broadcast, nationally syndicated on the Moody Radio Network and carried on hundreds of stations across the country.  She also hosts a three-minute weekly commentary.

Janet was the recipient of the NRB On-Air Personality of the Year Award in 2008 and in 2011.  She was selected by President George W. Bush to represent the White House in the capacity of public delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. 

Kamal Saleem was born under a different name into a Sunni Muslim family in Lebanon. From a young age he was taught that the loftiest accomplishment he could achieve in life was to be martyred while killing infidels, namely Christians, Jews, and Americans. At age seven, he was recruited by the Muslim Brotherhood and entered an assault camp where members of al-Assifa, the armed branch of Fatah, trained for terror missions against Israel. After years of training, Saleem operated in successful terror campaigns funded by the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and wealthy oil sheikhs. He infiltrated the United States with the sole purpose of converting others to radical Islam.

However, a life-changing event caused him to re-evaluate his worldview. Kamal came to know three kind Christian men, and through them he saw the love of God—eventually coming to know their God as well. As a result of their love and sacrificial giving, Kamal acknowledged his need for Christ as Savior. Memoirs of a Terrorist is his riveting story that attests to the power of love and freedom.

Pastor Tom Doyle has spent eleven years as a full-time missionary in the Middle East and Central Asia, spreading the Word of Jesus Christ. Throughout his journey he has encountered a staggering number of Muslims who were first introduced to Jesus through a vision or dream so powerful that they eventually turned from their lifelong religion of Islam and embraced Christ as their Savior. Tom serves as the Middle East Director for e3 Partners, a global church planting ministry, and has been a tour guide for the State of Israel.

Joni Eareckson Tada,  Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Joni and Friends, is an international advocate for people with disabilities.

In May 2012, the Joni and Friends radio program celebrated 30 years of broadcasting. This four-minute program of information and inspiration airs on more than 1,000 outlets and reaches one million listeners a week. A new one-minute inspirational program, Diamonds in the Dust, also airs daily on more than 800 stations nation-wide.

A 30-minute television version of Joni and Friends looks at people who inspire Joni by enduring the most difficult trials while continuing to trust in God. The television series has won three Telly Awards.

Joni has served on Presidential councils and committees and received many awards and honors. She has written over 70 books and received the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. Most recently, she was the recipient of the 2012 Breakpoint Wilberforce Award.

She has been interviewed or featured on TV shows such as Larry King Live and ABC World News Tonight, in print outlets including Christianity Today, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, and on radio shows including Focus on the Family and Family Life with Dr. James Dobson.

Melodie Tunney, Bonnie Keen and Marty McCall met in the mid 1980’s as studio musicians, considered in Nashville, TN, as the "first call" by producers for background vocals and commercial jingles. Their first pop CD, Undivided, not only showcased the group's gifted vocals, but introduced them as songwriters and propelled First Call into the forefront of Contemporary Christian music.  Much to their surprise, three Dove Awards and five Grammy nominations would follow.  The group eventually parted ways.  Marty, Bonnie and Melodie have gone on to record solo projects, publish books, travel and speak, and serve as worship leaders, all the while staying in touch and waiting for Reunion First Call events. The One who put the group together had a sweet surprise for the original trio. Discovery House Music expressed an interest in a project they had never pursued: an a cappella hymns CD, a TV taping in Israel, and a time for the trio to dream again.

“It’s all about God’s heart for redemption and second chances. God is never done with us. His redemptive heart shows up when least expected. Even in a trio that never thought they would share a studio or platform again,” says Marty.

The story behind First Call and their latest hymns CD, REJOICE, is the true revelation of God’s heart for redemption.

Russ Taff learned early on that when he sang, people sat up and responded with feeling.  “I’ve been influenced musically by so many styles that I try to never place restrictions on myself.  If it moves me, I figure it will probably move other people too.”  Apparently he’s right.  Serving as an opening act for the legendary Imperials, Russ was invited to join them as lead vocalist.  With the Imperials, he toured extensively and gained recognition as "The Voice" behind award-winning songs and albums that successfully completed the group’s transition from traditional to contemporary Christian.   However you choose to label it, Russ Taff’s music has won him not only a wide audience and critical acclaim, but a total of five Grammy Awards and nine Gospel Music Association Dove Awards.  He has been hailed by Billboard Magazine as “the single most electrifying voice in Christian music.” But he never forgot where he came from, or the sounds that first stirred his soul.

Wayne Watson, a man whose voice and songs helped define an entire genre of Christian music throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, is re-connecting with his music with a new passion seemingly born at the intersection of age and wisdom.  Wayne has produced 23 No. 1 singles on Christian radio, a dozen Dove Awards, including "Male Vocalist of the Year," "Song of the Year," and "Pop Contemporary Song of the Year."  He has twice been nominated for a Grammy Award. What’s ahead in this latest season of life for Wayne Watson is about to unfold for listeners. “There will be worshipful music to come. From my experiences over the past two or three years, I’m learning finally in my life what it truly means to worship.”

Clay Crosse grew up in Memphis, TN.  He became known for his singles I Surrender All, Saving the World, and He Walked a Mile in My Shoes, which won a CCM Adult Contemporary "Song of the Year" Award. He won the Dove Award for “Best New Artist of the Year.” Clay’s music has a pop soulful style.  Nine songs from his first four projects became No. 1 singles.  He also collaborated with Bob Carlisle and BeBe Winans on I Will Follow Christ, which won a Dove Award for “Inspirational Song of the Year."  He now serves as worship pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Arlington TN.  Clay continues to sing and lead worship at events nationwide.  He and his wife Renee have a ministry, HolyHomes, leading marriage events nationwide as well as serving as spokespeople for Holt International Adoption.

Andrew Greer is an accomplished singer/songwriter and respected music journalist. While his critically-acclaimed 2009 debut, Open Book, chronicled a soul-searching season that ultimately led to the rekindling of his faith, Andrew’s musical journey now makes an important stop—a step back to his roots. Angel Band is a collection of treasured hymns, the beloved songs that first articulated, and still remain, his story.

“I can’t recall many of the sermons my pastor preached, or the lessons my Sunday School teachers taught, but I do remember hymns,” Greer says of his inspiration for the project. “In fact, if it hadn’t been for the impact of those indelible tunes, I may have never fallen in love with music, or been introduced to God.”

Andrew has shared his stories and songs with audiences from coast to coast, receiving significant media coverage in CCM Magazine, Christian Musician, The Tennessean, Christianity Today, and Worship Leader magazine, among many other publications. He has also been a featured worship leader at Centrifuge’s Centrikid camps. As a writer, Greer’s stories have appeared in Christianity Today, CCM, and ParentLife, among other notable publications. When not on the road, Andrew enjoys his home in Franklin, TN.

This native Tennessean began her journey in a musical family - her mother a songwriter and gospel singer who played the piano; her dad, a VW mechanic by day, whose true love was in writing songs and playing guitar.  Together, they provided rich soil for her to grow in as a writer. Throughout her musical journey, starting at Word Records barely out of high school, her true passion has always been the songs and how they connect with a listener.

Cindy has received 12 Dove Awards in her career both as a recording artist and songwriter, including the coveted Dove Award for Songwriter of the Year. She received a Dove for Country Song of the Year, "How You Live," recorded by Point of Grace; and also a Dove Award for Country Song of the Year, "I Wish," also recorded by Point of Grace.

In 2001, Morgan took a break from her career to dedicate time to her family. During the time, she continued writing songs for several artists. Some of the artists who have recorded her songs are Point of Grace, Michael W. Smith, Avalon, Carman, Rachael Lampa, Michael English, BeBe Winans, Sandi Patty, Jaci Velasquez, Mark Schultz, John Tesh, Christy Carlson Romano and Natalie Grant.

Cindy is also a part of an Indie pop band, St. Lola in the Fields, with her longtime writing partner Jeremy Bose.

“I am just so glad to be a part of the music community. To make music, write songs and hopefully, ultimately, encourage someone else with music. It is the supernatural power of notes and words to reach someone where they live,” says Cindy.

Pete Briscoe wants you to experience LIFE. Not a ho-hum, barely-make-it-through-the-day kind of life. But the abounding, overflowing, deeply rich and satisfying LIFE of Christ living through you!
 
With a passion for God’s Word and expositional preaching, Pete has served as Senior Pastor of Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Dallas, TX, since 1992. 

In 2005 Pete joined his parents, Stuart and Jill Briscoe, as part of the teaching team on Telling the Truth, a global media outreach that includes a daily Bible teaching program heard on nearly 500 radio outlets across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and numerous countries across southeast Asia and southern Africa. 

Telling the Truth is Christo-centric in its teaching, pointing people to Christ. With the foundational belief that Christ is the answer for every question, the Briscoes' strong desire is for people to hear the exposition of God’s Word, carefully and passionately taught, so that Christ can make a life-transforming difference in their lives. 

On November 29, 1975, three years after accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, Raul Ries was ordained by Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, and his small home Bible study grew into Calvary Chapel Golden Springs in Diamond Bar, CA.  From this beginning, it has today grown to a congregation of 14,000.

Raul is the host of Somebody Loves You, a syndicated 30-minute daily radio program heard worldwide. He is the author of numerous books, including Fury to Freedom, translated into six languages. He has also produced three films – a feature film and two documentaries.

Raul received two Purple Hearts from service in Vietnam, 1966 and 1967. He has three master’s degrees from Azusa Pacific University and a Doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is also a Black Belt in Kung Fu San Soo, teaching twice a week.

Through conferences in the states and throughout Latin America, Raul seeks to equip the saints for the ministry.

Irish singer/songwriters Keith & Kristyn Getty are among the preeminent modern hymn writers of this generation. Best known for In Christ Alone (penned by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend), the renowned hymn has been recorded by numerous artists and is a classic sung in churches around the globe. The couple’s popular U.S. recordings include In Christ Alone, Awaken the Dawn and Joy – An Irish Christmas. Their latest release, Hymns for the Christian Life, is a thematically-focused original collection showcasing traditional Irish melodies as well as American bluegrass and country influences. Keith & Kristyn Getty have shared their music at Franklin Graham crusades, the GMA Dove Awards, and performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall and the legendary Grand Ole Opry, among other noted platforms and international tours.

Dr. Tony Evans is one of the country’s most respected leaders in evangelical circles. He is a pastor, best-selling author and frequent speaker at Bible conferences, crusades and seminars throughout the nation.

He has served as the senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship for over 36 years, witnessing its growth from 10 people in 1976 to now over 9,700 congregants and 100+ ministries.

Through his local church and national ministry Dr. Evans promotes a Kingdom agenda philosophy that teaches God’s comprehensive rule over every sphere of life as demonstrated through the individual, family, church and society

Dr. Evans also serves as president of The Urban Alternative, a national ministry that seeks to restore hope and transform lives through the proclamation and the application of the Word of God. His daily radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on more than 850 stations throughout the United States and in more than 80 countries.

He has written numerous books and booklets including his legacy work, Oneness Embraced, as well as his vision work, The Kingdom Agenda. Some of his most recent books include, Kingdom Man, A Moment For Your Soul, Marriage Matters, and Victory in Spiritual Warfare.

Dr. Evans served as chaplain for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, and continues to serve as chaplain for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, a ministry he has had for over 30 years.

He is the first African-American to graduate with a doctoral degree from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS), he served as an associate professor in DTS’ Pastoral Ministries Department in the areas of evangelism, homiletics and black church studies.
 

Jennifer Rothschild has been cleaning out her thought closet and reconciling the missing pieces in her blanket of faith ever since her life drastically changed at the age of 15, when she lost her sight. Now, more than 30 years later, she boldly and compassionately teaches women how to walk by faith, and not by sight.

As a speaker, author and accomplished singer-songwriter, she travels internationally, offering fresh, sensible, biblical advice to audiences who, like her, are determined to pursue healthy and fulfilling lives in spite of their circumstances. She has shared her practical and inspiring messages to arena-sized audiences and on media outlets including Dr. Phil, Good Morning America, Life Today, The Learning Channel and The Billy Graham Television Special.

She’s the author of eight books, including her recently released Bible study, Missing Pieces: Real Hope When Life Doesn’t Make Sense. She is the featured teacher and founder of Fresh Grounded Faith Conferences. She is also publisher of womensministry.net, a popular online magazine for women in ministry.

GRAMMY®-nominated singer/songwriter Nichole Nordeman is a nine-time GMA Dove Award-winner with career sales of more than a million units to date. Lauded for her thought-provoking, poignant lyrics, Nordeman’s signature songs include This Mystery, Holy, and Legacy.  Her 2012 literary debut, Love Story (Worthy Publishing), traces God’s unyielding mission from the beginning of time to rescue His beloved. Based on the best-selling multi-artist recording Music Inspired by The Story, which she co-wrote, Love Story is an exquisite and personal narrative exposing the humanity and more emotional underside of a range of biblical characters.

Armed with an abundance of unpretentious Southern charm and laser sharp wit, Chonda Pierce has been entertaining audiences from coast-to-coast for more than a decade. An in-demand stand up comic, television hostess and author, she has parlayed her gift for storytelling into a multi-faceted career.

Chonda has authored eight books, the most recent, Laughing In the Dark, (Simon&Schuster/Howard) and has ranked among Pollstar's top-selling live performers. Her tenth comedy DVD, I’m Kind of a Big Deal, released September 2011, highlights her USO tour to Afghanistan.  Her DVDs are consistently strong sellers both on tour and in retail with eight titles certified RAIA gold and four titles certified RAIA platinum.

She's a frequent guest on the famed Grand Ole Opry and has served as host of the Inspirational Country Music Awards and Christian Music Hall of Fame Awards as well as co-hosting the GMA Dove awards in 2012. She received five Daytime Emmy nominations for her work co-hosting Aspiring Women, a talk show on the Total Living Network and her first television special, This Ain't Prettyville! appeared on CMT (Country Music Television) nationwide. She has appeared on Life Today, The Wanda Sykes Show, and The Mike Huckabee Show, as well as ABC’s popular talk show, The View. 
 

If laughter is truly the best medicine, then Dennis Swanberg, America’s “Minister of Encouragement,” is just what the doctor ordered. With his down-home charm and a heaping helping of hospitality, this Austin, TX-born pastor-turned-comedian has won the hearts of audiences across the country.

Rivaling anyone who's ever set foot on the Tonight Show stage, Swanberg's list of impersonations includes Don Knotts, Pat Butram (Mr. Haney of Green Acres), Walter Brennan, Howard Cosell, Muhammad Ali, Ronald Reagan, Billy Graham, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Forrest Gump, Slim Pickins, John Wayne, Ross Perot, Jimmy Stewart, Bert and Ernie, and a host of other Sesame Street characters and many more. Add to all that talent, a man with a heart of gold whose biggest joy is seeing others happy and you'll discover the magic that is Dennis Swanberg.

This year Swanberg will appear at over 150 churches, conferences, businesses and concert events while his popular TBN and FamNet television shows continue to be aired weekly. He has also authored seven books, and an additional book on men’s ministry is scheduled to hit the marketplace during the upcoming year. And as always, he’ll be bringing a note of encouragement, a pocketful of hilarious stories and a great big bag of joy and laughter wherever he goes.
 

Imagine a line from Bill Cosby to Jerry Seinfeld and you’ll have an idea of Michael’s influences. Watch him onstage and you’ll see a man at ease…with himself, his audience, and his message. Listen to his voice and you’ll detect a comfortable, conversational style that hides a sly sense of mischief. Hear his words and you’ll laugh at the universal themes that connect us all.  How can one man be equally at home in the heartland and the inner city, churches and prisons, corporate events and youth rallies? Michael calls it comedy accountability. He has been seen on The Tonight Show, Comedy Central, TV One, The Late, Late Show, BET’s ComicView, and Jimmy Kimmel Live.  Michael’s versatility takes him from major universities such as Notre Dame, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Alabama, to church events ranging from the 60,000 member Willow Creek Church in Chicago to the 17,000 member West Angeles Church in Los Angeles to the 10,000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs.

The Nate Terry Band, a frontrunner for this year’s break-out band, will make a special appearance at NRB 2013.  The band’s sound is contemporary driven with a progressive sound that illustrates passion and faith in each song.

Joni Eareckson Tada,  Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Joni and Friends, is an international advocate for people with disabilities.

In May 2012, the Joni and Friends radio program celebrated 30 years of broadcasting. This four-minute program of information and inspiration airs on more than 1,000 outlets and reaches one million listeners a week. A new one-minute inspirational program, Diamonds in the Dust, also airs daily on more than 800 stations nation-wide.

A 30-minute television version of Joni and Friends looks at people who inspire Joni by enduring the most difficult trials while continuing to trust in God. The television series has won three Telly Awards.

Joni has served on Presidential councils and committees and received many awards and honors. She has written over 70 books and received the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. Most recently, she was the recipient of the 2012 Breakpoint Wilberforce Award.

She has been interviewed or featured on TV shows such as Larry King Live and ABC World News Tonight, in print outlets including Christianity Today, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, and on radio shows including Focus on the Family and Family Life with Dr. James Dobson.

Melodie Tunney, Bonnie Keen and Marty McCall met in the mid 1980’s as studio musicians, considered in Nashville, TN, as the "first call" by producers for background vocals and commercial jingles. Their first pop CD, Undivided, not only showcased the group's gifted vocals, but introduced them as songwriters and propelled First Call into the forefront of Contemporary Christian music.  Much to their surprise, three Dove Awards and five Grammy nominations would follow.  The group eventually parted ways.  Marty, Bonnie and Melodie have gone on to record solo projects, publish books, travel and speak, and serve as worship leaders, all the while staying in touch and waiting for Reunion First Call events. The One who put the group together had a sweet surprise for the original trio. Discovery House Music expressed an interest in a project they had never pursued: an a cappella hymns CD, a TV taping in Israel, and a time for the trio to dream again.

“It’s all about God’s heart for redemption and second chances. God is never done with us. His redemptive heart shows up when least expected. Even in a trio that never thought they would share a studio or platform again,” says Marty.

The story behind First Call and their latest hymns CD, REJOICE, is the true revelation of God’s heart for redemption.

Russ Taff learned early on that when he sang, people sat up and responded with feeling.  “I’ve been influenced musically by so many styles that I try to never place restrictions on myself.  If it moves me, I figure it will probably move other people too.”  Apparently he’s right.  Serving as an opening act for the legendary Imperials, Russ was invited to join them as lead vocalist.  With the Imperials, he toured extensively and gained recognition as "The Voice" behind award-winning songs and albums that successfully completed the group’s transition from traditional to contemporary Christian.   However you choose to label it, Russ Taff’s music has won him not only a wide audience and critical acclaim, but a total of five Grammy Awards and nine Gospel Music Association Dove Awards.  He has been hailed by Billboard Magazine as “the single most electrifying voice in Christian music.” But he never forgot where he came from, or the sounds that first stirred his soul.

Wayne Watson, a man whose voice and songs helped define an entire genre of Christian music throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, is re-connecting with his music with a new passion seemingly born at the intersection of age and wisdom.  Wayne has produced 23 No. 1 singles on Christian radio, a dozen Dove Awards, including "Male Vocalist of the Year," "Song of the Year," and "Pop Contemporary Song of the Year."  He has twice been nominated for a Grammy Award. What’s ahead in this latest season of life for Wayne Watson is about to unfold for listeners. “There will be worshipful music to come. From my experiences over the past two or three years, I’m learning finally in my life what it truly means to worship.”

Clay Crosse grew up in Memphis, TN.  He became known for his singles I Surrender All, Saving the World, and He Walked a Mile in My Shoes, which won a CCM Adult Contemporary "Song of the Year" Award. He won the Dove Award for “Best New Artist of the Year.” Clay’s music has a pop soulful style.  Nine songs from his first four projects became No. 1 singles.  He also collaborated with Bob Carlisle and BeBe Winans on I Will Follow Christ, which won a Dove Award for “Inspirational Song of the Year."  He now serves as worship pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Arlington TN.  Clay continues to sing and lead worship at events nationwide.  He and his wife Renee have a ministry, HolyHomes, leading marriage events nationwide as well as serving as spokespeople for Holt International Adoption.

Bobby Gruenewald (@bobbygwald) serves as Pastor, Innovation Leader at LifeChurch.tv and is the founder of the YouVersion Bible App. Since its creation, YouVersion has been installed on tens of millions of devices and the YouVersion community has spent tens of billions of minutes engaging in Scripture with the website and its mobile versions. 

One of the leading voices in the Church as it relates to innovation and the use of technology, Bobby frequently writes and speaks on the topic, and has been featured in the Washington Post, TechCrunch, CNN, CBS, NPR, and more. He was also listed by Fast Company as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2011.

Prior to joining the LifeChurch.tv team in 2001, Gruenewald started and sold two technology companies, consulted with start-ups on venture capital funds, and, in an interesting twist of events, traveled and performed with a Christian rap group. His focus now is completely on LifeChurch.tv and the incredible things that God is doing in lives of people through the ministry each day. Gruenewald is passionate about seeing more and more changed lives through the ministries and initiatives at LifeChurch.tv, especially as it relates to using technology to reach people for Christ.

Nick Hall is the founder and primary evangelist for PULSE, a Twin Cities, MN-based ministry leading the largest student-led prayer and outreach efforts in America. As a voice to the next generation, Nick is regularly featured as a speaker for student conferences, training events and festivals around the country.

Nick has been tagged as an emerging international voice in the cause of evangelism. In the fall of 2010, he was invited to be one of 4,000 delegates from around the world to attend the Lausanne Global Congress on World Evangelism in Cape Town, South Africa. In the spring of 2011, Nick was welcomed to the National Facilitation Committee for the Mission America Coalition (MAC), the U.S. arm of the Lausanne Movement. Nick is the youngest committee member by more than 20 years.

Nick serves on the executive committee of the Proclamation Evangelism Network, the student advisory team for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), and is one of four Partner Evangelists with the Luis Palau Association. Nick has been the featured emcee of BGEA's “Rock the River Tour” for the past four summers.

At age 30, Nick’s burning is to “awaken culture to the reality of Jesus.” 

Brad Wright is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, where he studies American Christianity.  He received his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, where he was trained in social psychology and criminology.  He has authored 20 scholarly articles and two books: Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites... and Other Lies You've Been Told (2010), and Upside: Surprising Good News about the State of Our World (2011). Hypocrites won the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award for Christianity and Culture.

Phil Boyce is currently the Vice President and Director of Spoken Word for Salem Communications.  In this capacity Phil supervises the 24 NewsTalk stations owned by Salem, in addition to the 40 Christian Talk and Teach stations, and the 11 Business Talk stations.  Phil is directly responsible for on-air programming at WNYM and WMCA Radio in New York City.

Previously, he was the Program Director for NewsTalkRadio WABC (AM) in New York City, as well as Vice President of news/talk programming for ABC Radio and Program Director for Talk Radio Network.

Phil programmed nationally syndicated ABC Radio shows, including The Sean Hannity Show and The Mark Levin Show.  He handled programming at all ABC Radio news/talk stations, including KABC-AM in Los Angeles, WLS-AM in Chicago and WMAL-AM in Washington, D.C.

Claire Diaz-Ortiz leads social innovation at Twitter, where she has worked since 2009. She wrote Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time.

She is a frequent international speaker and is known for developing the “TWEET model” — a framework to help organizations and individuals best excel on Twitter.

Claire holds an M.B.A. from Oxford University, where she was a Skoll Foundation Scholar for Social Entrepreneurship. She also holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Anthropology from Stanford University.

She is the co-founder of Hope Runs, a non-profit organization operating in AIDS orphanages in Kenya.

Claire has lived on four continents and travelled to more than 50 countries. Called a “mover and shaker” by Mashable, she has been widely written about in publications such as Business Week, The Washington Post, and The Independent.
 

Katie Harbath is a Manager for Policy at Facebook, where she focuses on political outreach. Prior to Facebook, Katie was the Chief Digital Strategist at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She previously led digital strategy in positions at DCI Group, the Rudy Giuliani for President Campaign and the Republican National Committee. In 2009, she was named a Rising Star by Campaigns and Elections magazine. Katie holds a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Rob Saliterman heads the Google advertising team’s sales and outreach efforts to Republican political campaigns, building relationships with campaign managers, digital agencies, and issue advocacy groups to drive adoption of online advertising. He previously served as Communications Director to former President George W. Bush in Dallas, TX. From 2008 to 2009, he was spokesman for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and earlier served as Director of Rapid Response in the White House Office of Communications. He has also worked at the Republican National Committee and on the Bush-Cheney ’04 Presidential Campaign. Saliterman is originally from Minnesota and received a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Born without arms and legs, Nick Vujicic has devoted his life to telling others about Jesus.  As President of the non-profit organization, Life Without Limbs, Nick travels around the world speaking to large audiences about overcoming obstacles and finding hope in God.  In 2013, Nick will travel to 27 countries to share his story through the ministry’s World Outreach.  His daily two-minute radio program is heard on 300 radio stations.  Nick writes about his journey from despair to restoration in the new bestselling book Unstoppable:  The Incredible Power of Faith in Action.  Born in Australia, Nick and his wife now live in southern California and are expecting their first child.

Terry Ascott has lived in the Middle East and served as the leader for indigenous media ministries for more than 35 years. In 1973, he moved to Beirut, Lebanon and helped launch an Arabic Christian publishing ministry. After the start of the Lebanese Civil War, he and his family evacuated to Egypt where Terry helped begin the Arabic youth magazine Magalla. This was the first Christian magazine to be successfully distributed on Egyptian newsstands. Magalla was published for 20 years and, according to many Arab Christians, was instrumental in bringing many people to Christ.

While working for the magazine, Terry’s ministry became involved in other media projects including video production. In 1995, he and other Middle Eastern Christian leaders and partner organizations working in the region launched SAT-7, the first Arabic Christian satellite television channel.

Terry holds a first class B.S. degree in civil engineering with honors from Middlesex University, England. In 2011, he was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Christian Ministries from Belhaven University.

Al Fadi is a former Wahabbi Muslim from Saudi Arabia. He is the researcher, editor, writer, and translator for numerous ministries, including Answering Islam and runs an outreach ministry designed for non-Muslim and Christians. The ministry’s focus is to bring awareness regarding Islam, to build bridges with Muslim seekers, and to open the door to share the Gospel with Muslims.

Lieutenant General William G. "Jerry" Boykin (retired) was the United States Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. He has played a role in almost every recent major American military operation over the past four decades, serving in Grenada, Somalia, and Iraq. He is an author and taught at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.  He is currently Executive Vice President at the Family Research Council.

Janet Parshall is the host of In the Market with Janet Parshall, a daily two-hour broadcast, nationally syndicated on the Moody Radio Network and carried on hundreds of stations across the country.  She also hosts a three-minute weekly commentary.

Janet was the recipient of the NRB On-Air Personality of the Year Award in 2008 and in 2011.  She was selected by President George W. Bush to represent the White House in the capacity of public delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. 

Kamal Saleem was born under a different name into a Sunni Muslim family in Lebanon. From a young age he was taught that the loftiest accomplishment he could achieve in life was to be martyred while killing infidels, namely Christians, Jews, and Americans. At age seven, he was recruited by the Muslim Brotherhood and entered an assault camp where members of al-Assifa, the armed branch of Fatah, trained for terror missions against Israel. After years of training, Saleem operated in successful terror campaigns funded by the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and wealthy oil sheikhs. He infiltrated the United States with the sole purpose of converting others to radical Islam.

However, a life-changing event caused him to re-evaluate his worldview. Kamal came to know three kind Christian men, and through them he saw the love of God—eventually coming to know their God as well. As a result of their love and sacrificial giving, Kamal acknowledged his need for Christ as Savior. Memoirs of a Terrorist is his riveting story that attests to the power of love and freedom.

Pastor Tom Doyle has spent eleven years as a full-time missionary in the Middle East and Central Asia, spreading the Word of Jesus Christ. Throughout his journey he has encountered a staggering number of Muslims who were first introduced to Jesus through a vision or dream so powerful that they eventually turned from their lifelong religion of Islam and embraced Christ as their Savior. Tom serves as the Middle East Director for e3 Partners, a global church planting ministry, and has been a tour guide for the State of Israel.

Wes Llewellyn

Wes Llewellyn has been a filmmaker in the motion picture industry for over 30 years on hundreds of productions in various positions including Chief Lighting Technician, Director of Photography, Writer, Producer and Director. 

For the past five seasons, Wes has been directing the dramatic reenactments on the popular Christian talk show,  Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural.

He has won numerous awards for his work:  an astonishing three Best Films awards (CrossWalk 2003, A Good Day 2007, Up in the Air 2009) from the 168-Hour Film Festival.  Clip, an action comedy, has won Best Film at the Faith-n-Film Summit and 15 Minutes of Fame Festival and was also an official selection for the Sidewalk Film Festival. His film, FBI Guys, won Best Drama at the Independent Television Festival and Best Mini-Film at the Barebones Festival. The Gift of Jabez which he directed for Phil Cooke Pictures, was honored as Best Documentary by the Aegeus, Crystal Commentator, and Telly Awards.

His two full-length feature films, The Moment After and The Moment After 2: The Awakening, are in distribution with Sony Home DVD.
 

Amanda Llewellyn

Amanda has nearly 30 years of experience as a make-up artist and hairstylist along with a variety of other jobs on the film set from script supervisor to set decorator to production co-coordinator, writer and producer throughout her career.

Her first collaboration on a screenplay was The Moment After, known in Christian filmmaking circles as The Little Engine That Could which has grossed 20 times its budget and is currently in distribution with Sony. She wrote The Moment After 2: The Awakening also with Sony. She has several awards for Best Screenplay and three Best Scriptural Integration from the 168 Hour Film Project and is now in her sixth year of producing the reenactment sections of the TV show, Sid Roth’s, It’s Supernatural.  Amanda is currently in development for several reality shows for the family and faith-friendly markets.

Both she and Wes are in the early stages of launching Adeia Institute to further educate independent filmmakers with unique training classes with working industry professionals in all aspects of filmmaking from production through post.

Wes and Amanda will be starting a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for 4L Films’ next feature, a teen texting drama called Amanda has nearly 30 years of experience as a make-up artist and hairstylist along with a variety of other jobs on the film set from script supervisor to set decorator to production co-coordinator, writer and producer throughout her career.

Her first collaboration on a screenplay was "The Moment After,” known in Christian filmmaking circles as “The Little Engine That Could” which has grossed 20 times its budget and is currently in distribution with Sony. She wrote “The Moment After 2: The Awakening” also with Sony. She has several awards for Best Screenplay and three Best Scriptural Integration from the 168 Hour Film Project and is now in her sixth year of producing the reenactment sections of the TV show, Sid Roth’s, “It’s Supernatural.” Amanda is currently in development for several reality shows for the family and faith-friendly markets.

Both she and Wes are in the early stages of launching Adeia Institute to further educate independent filmmakers with unique training classes with working industry professionals in all aspects of filmmaking from production through post.

Wes and Amanda will be starting a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for 4L Films’ next feature, a teen texting drama called Send.

John Carley is the Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer at Trinet Internet Solutions, Inc., a full service web firm specializing in web strategy consulting, web design and development along with ongoing web management, support and analysis. Under John’s leadership, Trinet has worked to make ministries and businesses successful on the web.  Since 1995, Trinet has worked with hundreds of clients, including Coca-Cola, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Focus on the Family, Sony, American Red Cross, The Salvation Army and more.

John has a 17-year track record of developing successful web marketing campaigns, advanced websites and web applications, including over 500 live webcasts and one of the first live streaming iPhone applications. John has been a featured speaker for many national tradeshows and organizations, speaking on web and emerging technologies. He has also served on the Board for the NRB Internet Committee as Chairman.

John studied at the University of California and Biola University, earning a B.S. degree in Organizational Leadership.  

August E. (“Augie”) Grant is J. Rion McKissick Professor of Journalism at the University of South Carolina. Grant is a technology futurist who conducts research, teaches, and writes regarding convergent journalism, media technologies, audience behavior, and media organizational behavior. Grant created the Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals series, The Convergence Newsletter, and the Newsplex Summer Seminars. He has extensive experience in radio and television broadcasting and is a world renowned expert in the area of convergent media. Grant earned his M.A.J.C. at the University of Florida and his Ph.D. from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California, and serves as a consultant to media and high-tech organizations.

Jeffrey S. Wilkinson is a Chair of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department at Houston Baptist University in Houston, TX.  Wilkinson is a renowned expert in new and convergent media, speaking at conferences across the globe on the subject and having co-authored two of the premier texts on the subject, including Understanding Media Convergence and Principles of Convergent Journalism. Wilkinson is a specialist in international journalism with more than a decade teaching and researching mass media in China and Hong Kong. He earned both his Master's and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. Wilkinson has extensive experience in both radio and television broadcasting as a reporter, presenter, producer, and talk show host.

Nina Barnes has a passion to share God’s message of redemption through salvation and through His ongoing work in life circumstances.

She has worked at Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN, for 12 years, where she currently serves as Human Resources Manager, focusing on hiring/onboarding, employee relations and organizational development. Nina holds a bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministries and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).

She has held positions in a variety of industries (retail, manufacturing, insurance, tourism, entertainment, health care, prison ministry, higher education) and lived in an abundance of places (Chicago, New England, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Los Angeles, the Bahamas, San Francisco, and Minneapolis/St. Paul).

Her activities outside of work include service on the Governing Board of Elders at her church, Board Member of Antioch Ministries in North Minneapolis, and mentoring/coaching. 
 

Marie Guthrie has significant experience in corporate and non-profit marketing and communications.  Her early professional career began with roles at Motorola, Accenture, and Arthur Andersen.  Having her own consulting business for several years, she led curriculum development projects on topics such as volunteerism, becoming a multi-racial church, and compassion and justice for the Willow Creek association.  Presently, she leads corporate branding and messaging for Awana – a global children’s and youth ministry.  Her team drives communication to internal and external Awana audiences.

Georgia is the Director of Production, and Content Strategy & SEO Subject Matter Expert at Five Q. Before joining Five Q, Georgia was Marketing, Communications, and Research Manager at Copesan in Menomonee Falls, WI, and the Director of Communications at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, WI, where she was responsible for developing and managing the 6,000-member church’s first Communication Department.  She graduated from Biola University with a degree in Business Administration and recently completed SEO certification with Bruce Clay.

“The people we serve and work alongside are watching and waiting to be inspired and led to greatness.” Inspiration, leadership, excellence, and fun are words Brian hangs his hat on. Throughout his career, Brian has served in senior leadership roles where he has had the unique ability to drive strategic direction and connect Human Resources to the business, operations, and organizations objectives. 

His skills and expertise in organizational leadership, coaching, and workforce development have translated into results. Brian currently serves on the Executive Council, as the Vice President of Human Resources, at the nation’s largest Christian music broadcaster, K-LOVE / Air1 Radio Networks. He is part of a unique leadership team - helping the organization successfully grow from 145 team members to now more than 350 working in 27 states, serving and supporting an audience of more than 12 million weekly.

Brian’s passion and approach in bringing talented people together, to accomplish substantially so much more as a team rather than as individuals, has moved organizations forward with momentum. He believes the “special sauce” in achieving key strategic initiatives is people, focus, flexible structure, and fun.  

His mission from day one has been to help shape the future of organizations and to positively impact the lives of those he partners with. Brian strongly believes that leaders have a responsibility to reflect the organizations values and equip their people to accomplish what’s next. 

For over fifteen years, Brian has excelled working with high energy fast-paced organizations, including UPS, Target, and consulting/software start-up companies. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from California State University of Sacramento and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) with the HRCI Society of Human Resource Management.

One C-Level executive describes Brian as, “Definitely not your typical HR guy, and if you ask Brian, he’ll say, ‘that’s a good thing’”.

Paul Sirmons has a 30-year track record as an assistant director, unit production manager, director, producer, and indie filmmaker. His focus for the last 10 years has been on creating faith-based products. Recently, he was the line-producer for Home Run, Renee, and Letters to God, all faith-based movies.

In 2005, Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Paul as Florida’s State Film Commissioner, where he rewrote Florida’s film incentive program and helped increase its funding to $25 million, attracting hundreds of millions of dollars to the state and creating thousands of new jobs.

Paul produced four independent features in Florida, including The Way Back Home. He also directed and produced the family film The First of May, starring Julie Harris, Dan Byrd, Mickey Rooney and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio.  The First of May won 13 film festival awards and has aired on HBO, TBN, and around the world.

Prior to that, Paul worked for 20 years as a DGA (Directors Guild of America) assistant director on various TV series such as Quantum Leap, Sea Quest, Falcon Crest, Our House, and The Waltons. He recently directed Last Stop, a pilot for a dramatic Christian TV series about a Christian counselor who has a gift for helping people – but who doesn't really like people.

Sirmons serves on the advisory boards for film & digital media at the University of Florida, Valencia College, and Full Sail University.
 

Payton Dunham has extensive credits in features, television, and commercials as a Producer, Line Producer, Unit Production Manager, Assistant Director and Location Manager.

Recent feature credits as Producer or UPM include Cowgirls ‘n Angels, The Lamp, and Heaven’s Rain. In 2007-08, Payton was the Creative Services - Director of Production, Operations and Talent Relations for Starz Entertainment Group.

Other film credits include the Oscar-nominated Junebug and 21 Grams, the Sundance Festival award-winning feature Forty Shades of Blue, Night at the Museum, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Bringing up Bobby, and Comedy Central’s television series Stella.

As a writer, Payton has written screenplays and treatments for various producers and production companies. He’s also created promotional copy for clients that range from Mountain Dew to Warner Brothers, and has written for various publications, newspapers and websites.

For centuries, the Western Protestant Church has divorced Image from Word, and many forms of visual art and beauty have been excommunicated. But visual art is making a comeback in today's worship culture with the help of technology like media and projection. This obviously raises a few questions, both technologically and theologically. Is there such a thing as "visual worship"? And if so, do we need visual worship leaders just like we have musical worship leaders?

Stephen is an illuminator and video jockey whose primary focus is designing and curating visually immersive experiences for worship. At the heart, Stephen is a curator of visual worship who seeks to unleash people’s imaginations through moments of wonder and astonishment.  He lives in Nashville, but his relationships and events keep him traveling all over the world. He and his business partner, Nate Griffin, run Grateful Inconvenience, a creative collective that focuses on visual storytelling through film, atmospheric design & media. Their work can be seen with Beth Moore's Living Proof Live, Travis Cottrell, Gungor, All Sons & Daughters, National Worship Leaders Conference, as well as a handful of other events. They are also very involved with many missional organizations that are spreading the name of Jesus to the unreached people groups of the world.

Though the road goes ever on and on, Stephen is rooted in his local church, Journey, where he serves on the creative team when home. He also shares resources, stories and his passion for visually creative worship on his blog, illuminate.co, as well as in his upcoming book Illuminate: A Tale of Visual Worship.
 

Guy Richards is the founder and CEO of Abiah, a brand development and creative firm that focuses on helping Christian organizations thrive. He is also the author of TALKABLE, Building your brand from the inside out, published by M&B. Abiah has received numerous awards, including helping three of their clients land on the Top Global Rebrand 100 list by ReBrand.com. A few of the clients Abiah has helped include: John Stott Ministries, Young Life, Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, Moody Publishers and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Chris Skaggs is a 13 year veteran of the web and mobile software industry. The founder and CEO of both Soma Games and Code-Monkeys, Chris has delivered software applications to some of the country’s most discerning clients like Intel, Four Seasons, Comcast and Aruba Networks. In addition to corporate customers, Code-Monkeys has programmed many casual games for iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac/PC platforms. Inside Soma Games is a group of dedicated believers who have chosen to walk the fine line between being “on the lampstand” Christians and making games full of Biblical allegory released into the mainstream market. Games like G: Into The Rain and Wind Up Robots have garnered much critical praise and market success. A Black Belt in Intel’s Software Developer Network, Chris also writes and speaks on topics surrounding the rapidly-changing mobile application environment at venues like Casual Connect, Serious Play, IDF, Christian Game Developers Conference, TechStart, and AppUp Elements.

After spending several years working in radio on multiple stations in Ohio, and for a syndicated network where he quickly established a strong presence on-air, Jeremy Parsons headed off to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of working in television.

Shortly after arriving in Hollywood, he landed various production positions with Dick Clark Productions, ABC's Good Morning America, and multiple entertainment networks. In addition to producing, Jeremy was tapped as an on-air contributor for an entertainment news show at the Los Angeles-based network LTN, where he covered red carpet premieres, press junkets, and hosted in-studio interviews with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. It was there that Jeremy's engaging and witty personality garnered the attention of his peers and network leaders.

Jeremy eventually found himself at ReelzChannel, where he works as a segment producer for Secret's Out with Leonard Maltin, as well as a co-host on The Big Tease. Hosting the show is a dream gig for this movie lover.

To Jeremy the important things in life are to cherish your friends and family and to have faith.
 

Over a 30+ year career, Craig’s television, film, video and documentary projects have taken him to 144 countries, flown him 14 times around the world and landed him on six continents.

More than 200 overseas assignments have imbedded him into dangerous hot spots like Iraq, Cuba, Burundi, the Congo, El Salvador, Palestine, Cambodia, Vietnam, Uganda, Haiti, Burma, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Chad, Bosnia & Kosovo.

His strengths include digital cinema, broadcast segments and shows, short films, documentaries – plus single & multi-camera production. He has worked professionally at the network level for CBS’s The Amazing Race, ABC’s In Concert, Discovery Channel’s World of Wonder, Travel Channel, Animal Planet, PBS, History Channel, Fox Sports, A&E, TLC, and American Movie Classics’ Movie Memories.

Craig has produced, directed or shot camera for such notable clients as Family Channel, DuPont, Nestlé, Hyatt Hotels, Memorex, Toshiba, McDonalds, Northwest Airlines, Ford, Wells Fargo Bank, Blue Shield, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Samaritan’s Purse, World Vision, Voice of the Martyrs, Far East Broadcasting, OneHope, Dream Center and Teen Challenge.

He is the author of the books Commando Tactics for Digital Filmmakers and The Influence of Alexander Mackendrick on the Kailyard Film Sub-genre. Craig holds a masters degree in Film Studies from the Conservatory of Motion Pictures at Chapman University (a Top 10 film school), and a bachelor's in Biblical & Theological Studies from Bethany University. A voting member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Emmys), he also holds membership in the International Press Association and the prestigious Travelers’ Century Club.
 

Nathan Tabor is President of TCVmedia.com.  TCVmedia.com is a professional full-service Internet and branding firm that specializes in website design and application, marketing, advertising and consulting services.

Jim Taszarek is helping reorganize and run the business underwriting for K-LOVE and Air1. Before joining K-LOVE, Jim was a well-known consultant, trainer and speaker.  He spent 15 years as a General Manager of stations in St. Louis and Phoenix, and also spent four years as Chief Revenue Officer of the American City Business Journal chain of newspapers.  His bachelor’s degree is from St. Louis University and master’s from Webster University. 
 

Kay Peters is the Director of Business Development for KTIS Radio Station - inviting partners to invest their resources into relevant marketing opportunities that help support the Christ-centered ministry of KTIS.  Her 30+ years of major market radio sales /management experience has provided her the opportunity to work for CBS, Hubbard Broadcasting and Clear Channel Radio group. Kay is a certified Creative Ideation Brainstorming Consultant, trained at The Center for Sales Strategy in Dallas, TX.  Kay has a B.A. in Psychology and a master’s in organizational development counseling. 

As Senior Director of Creative Services for KSBJ, Nikki Sparks creatively shares the story of the KSBJ ministry through strategic planning, brand management and development, traditional and non-traditional marketing campaigns, online communications, and public relations. With 30 years in the Houston market, KSBJ is the largest non-profit, listener supported radio station in the country. Two years ago, KSBJ launched a sister station, NGEN Radio, to reach today’s generation striving for constant connection and hit music.  Nikki is the champion for integrated communications among all KSBJ ministries, also including KSBJ Special Events and Ticket Servant.  Recently celebrating a five-year anniversary at KSBJ, Nikki is ready and excited to explore God’s next plan for this journey. Prior to joining KSBJ, Nikki served on the agency side of marketing, working with non-profit, business-to-business and consumer clientele.

Jeremy Ruck is a graduate of Bradley University in Peoria, IL, with the Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Illinois. Jeremy has 20 years of professional engineering experience and more than 25 years of experience in broadcasting and communications engineering. He is a full member of the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers (AFCCE).

Jeremy is a bimonthly contributor to Radio magazine. Since 2000, he has spoken at numerous events, including the Wisconsin Broadcasters Clinic in Madison, WI, and the Indiana Broadcasters Association.

Rick is a 34-year veteran in direct response marketing and fundraising for nonprofit organizations. In 2002, Rick founded Dunham+Company to establish a new model to serve ministries, a model which seeks to integrate the variety of organizational and marketing components that must work in concert in order to optimize income generation and impact long-term organizational effectiveness.

Rick holds a B.A. from Biola University and a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary. He is an active member of the National Religious Broadcasters and the Direct Marketing Association, where he serves annually as a judge for the International ECHO Awards.

Rick is the author of Secure: Discovering True Security in Turbulent Financial Times and If God Will Provide, Why Do We Have to Ask for Money? He has also been published and quoted in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, USA Today, Dallas Morning News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, and Townhall.com, and has served as a commentator on Fox Business News.
 

 In a time where the world's attention is riveted on events in the Middle East, CBN viewers have come to appreciate Chris Mitchell's timely reports from this explosive region of the world. Chris brings a biblical and prophetic perspective to these daily news events that shape our world.

Chris first began reporting on the Middle East in the mid-1990s. He repeatedly traveled there to report on the religious and political issues facing Israel and the surrounding Arab states. One of his more significant reports focused on the emigration of persecuted Christians from the Middle East.

Chris also earned a "Short Story of the Year" award for his examination of religious coverage in network news. He has also reported on such movements as the Promise Keepers and the annual "Prayer and Fasting" campaign led by the late Campus Crusade founder Dr. Bill Bright.

In addition to his reports for The 700 Club, Chris is a regular contributor to Christian World News, a weekly 30-minute newscast that airs nationally in multiple markets.

Prior to joining CBN News in 1992, Chris worked for three years as a researcher, producer, and reporter for the Features/Testimonies department of The 700 Club.

A native of the Boston area, Chris earned a B.A. in History at the University of New Hampshire in 1975. In 1987, he graduated with honors from Regent University, earning an M.A. in Communication. While a student at Regent (then CBN University), Chris anchored Newsight, a student-produced Christian news program.

After almost a decade with CBN News, Chris's goal is to provide in his stories the biblical "understanding of the times" described in 1 Chronicles 12:32.
 

Jim Taszarek is helping reorganize and run the business underwriting for K-LOVE and Air1. Before joining K-LOVE, Jim was a well-known consultant, trainer and speaker.  He spent 15 years as a General Manager of stations in St. Louis and Phoenix, and also spent four years as Chief Revenue Officer of the American City Business Journal chain of newspapers.  His bachelor’s degree is from St. Louis University and master’s from Webster University. 
 

Kay Peters is the Director of Business Development for KTIS Radio Station - inviting partners to invest their resources into relevant marketing opportunities that help support the Christ-centered ministry of KTIS.  Her 30+ years of major market radio sales /management experience has provided her the opportunity to work for CBS, Hubbard Broadcasting and Clear Channel Radio group. Kay is a certified Creative Ideation Brainstorming Consultant, trained at The Center for Sales Strategy in Dallas, TX.  Kay has a B.A. in Psychology and a master’s in organizational development counseling. 

Jeff’s heart is to reach this generation with the timeless message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a speaker, his aim is to go right to the heart of the matter, in light of the fact that God didn’t wait until we cleaned ourselves up, but rather entered directly into our mess offering grace, mercy, and love at the Cross of Jesus.

As a poet, Jeff joined forces with Matthew Robertson and CIK Productions on a recent viral YouTube hit Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus which has had well over 21 million views, gaining over 15 million views in the first week.

Ultimately, Jeff is passionate about people understanding the magnitude of God’s grace and the freedom it provides from the past, the power it provides for the present, and the hope it provides for the future.

He currently resides in Tacoma, WA, where he is helping plant a college ministry called “For the King.” He also makes YouTube videos, writes blogs, and is working on a book that will be out in fall 2013.

Matthew Robertson founded CIK Productions, a professional-grade video production company near Seattle, WA. CIK stands for "Christ is King" and embodies his hope of creating content that is both technically excellent and that does not compromise his convictions to glorify God in all that he does.

Matthew has a passion for producing unique content that genuinely interests people. He is excited to see his work come to completion in a popular product, which happened in his joint effort with poet Jeff Bethke on the recent viral hit video on YouTube Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus. Currently with more than 21 million views, the video gained over 15 million views in the first week it was uploaded.

Matthew believes that the wide variety of productions he has participated in has given him a well-rounded sense of the craft, and driven him to work hard even in uncomfortable or new situations.

Gabe Cooper has a passion for creating life-changing products and helping organizations re-imagine how to reach their constituents through technology. After receiving his M.B.A from Arizona State University in 2002, Gabe moved into a technology leadership role as the VP of Software at the ADF, a large non-profit organization in Scottsdale, AZ.  In 2006, he became a founding member of Perk Software (later Brushfire and Shotzoom Software) and went on to build a series of highly successful digital properties in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors.

Charles Lee is the CEO of Ideation, an idea agency that specializes in helping organizations and businesses take their ideas and make them remarkable via creative strategy, organizational development, branding, design, marketing, web, social media, and influencer engagement. He is also the author of Good Idea. Now What?, a book that guides people in implementing ideas well. In addition, Charles is the creator of grassroots efforts including the Idea Camp, Ideation Conference, and the Freeze Project, as well as the co-founder of JustOne. Charles regularly speaks around the country on topics such as creative process, idea-making, innovation, branding, new media, and social entrepreneurism.

Brod Boyd serves as a consultant to media, non-profit and governmental agencies with Abram-Leslie Media Consulting. Prior to this, he served as the Director of Media for Amazing Facts, Inc., based in Sacramento, CA. Brod oversaw the recent acquisition of the newly launched Amazing Facts TV (AFTV) channel as General Manager. He served as a lead strategic media buyer and planner providing over 600 television and radio outlets in North America, Southeast Asia and parts of the Middle East with programming. During Brod's tenure at Amazing Facts, direct response results rose 120%. The successful launch of a YouTube channel and a Facebook Fan page with over 50,000 active fans developed over a 1 1/2 year period was also his brain child.

Before joining Amazing Facts, Brod served as the Coordinator of Broadcast and Head of New Media for Florida A&M University where he specialized in growing online content from two events to over 300 educational, entertainment, and sporting events. He was charged with identifying strategic media opportunities tied to university enrollment growth and academic expansion of distance and online course offerings. He’s also served as Vice President of Operations and Producer for Moonlight Productions, a film, theatre, and TV production company with offices in California and Florida. Brod began his career as an educational consultant targeting elementary and secondary school teachers and students.

Brod earned a degree in Music Education and studied Public Administration at the graduate level while also earning an M.B.A. with a specialization in Marketing.
 

Stephen Brewster has worked in creative environments for over 12 years.  From artist development, marketing, and management in the music business, to creative team leading and artistic direction, he has worked with a vast array of artists.  Leveraging creativity and leadership, it is Stephen’s desire for the church to regain its position as a leader of the creative frontier.  Stephen currently serves as Creative Arts Pastor at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN. If you would like to follow Stephen on Twitter, he can be found at: @B_rewster or on his daily blog about creativity, http://www.StephenBrewster.me

Jerry Grimes focuses on donor communications, donor intelligence research, marketing, branding, and strategic planning, all derived from his decades of experience in development, leadership and media. Currently, Jerry is serving some of the largest Christian broadcasters in the country, including those serving listeners in New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Indianapolis, Seattle, and Austin.  His work also includes growing support for missions agencies, conservative action groups, social service agencies, and private schools.  

Jerry enjoys writing, public speaking and ministry.  Ordained as a minister in the Independent Christian Church, Churches of Christ movement, Jerry holds an M.A. degree in Leadership from Columbia International University.  He has more than 30 years of experience combining media management, marketing and development. Prior to Joining Advocace, Jerry served as Donor Marketing Director for WAY Media Group and Director of Development for the University of South Carolina School of Law.  He was also Executive Director for South Carolina Friends of Juvenile Justice, a non-profit organization he helped start and now serves as a member of its Board of Directors.

Jerry is the former General Manager for 89.7 WMHK, a National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Award-winning station that was named “Station of the Year” during his tenure. In addition to his work in non-profit organizations, Jerry helped promote local television stations to become market leaders in viewership.

Founder and President of Vertical Horizons Group, Tom desires to spend time developing other ministries into self-sustaining models of efficiency and effectiveness.  His passion is to make ministries better at what they do.  With experiences working in business with Johanna Farms to ministries such as Word of Life Fellowship, The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and EQUIP Leadership, Tom has always been committed to lasting kingdom impact.  He has helped impact ministries in every nation of the world but his desire is to help those ministries in the United States.

Currently Tom is COO of Heart for Lebanon, a non-profit organization started to help disenfranchised people in Lebanon.  He also serves on the Board of 4BServe in Hyderabad, India, and works in the discipleship ministry of his local church. 

Tom has authored a book titled Leadership in Blue Jeans that reflects the leadership lessons he has learned from his wealth of experiences in ministry and the business world.

Jeff Goins is a writer.  He loves compelling stories and worthy causes. He has been writing for most of his life. He is a gifted communicator, writer and creative force. His blog answers important questions young writers ask:  How do successful writers make a living?  What does it really take to get published?  When do you pursue your writing passion?  Through these questions on his blog, he has found a community of like-minded individuals sharing many of the same struggles.

Michael Hyatt, Chairman of Thomas Nelson, says, “Jeff Goins has become one of my favorite bloggers.”
 

Steve Taylor studied music, filmmaking and acting at Colorado University in Boulder, then began a career as a recording artist that spanned 12 years and garnered him two Grammy nominations for Meltdown and Squint. In the process, he made history as the only artist to twice win Billboard Music Video Awards for self-directed music videos. He was also lead singer/co-writer in the MCA-signed modern rock band Chagall Guevara, who were first introduced on the soundtrack to the movie Pump Up The Volume.

Among his many credits as a music video director, his best-known is the Francois Truffaut homage he shot in Paris for Sixpence None The Richer's Kiss Me. Taylor also directed and starred in the award-winning long-form video Squint: Movies From The Soundtrack, shot in 10 countries around the globe, including Vietnam, Nepal, The United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

In preparation for his first movie, Taylor spent two years studying the Meisner technique under acting teacher Bill Feheely. The film that followed - The Second Chance - marked Taylor's debut as director/co-screenwriter. It was produced independently in Nashville and featured a number of first-time actors in prominent roles. The movie was subsequently picked up for a 2006 theatrical release by Sony Pictures Releasing.

Taylor's follow-up feature, Blue Like Jazz, is an adaptation of the New York Times best-selling memoir by Donald Miller.
 

Katie Harbath is a Manager for Policy at Facebook, where she focuses on political outreach. Prior to Facebook, Katie was the Chief Digital Strategist at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She previously led digital strategy in positions at DCI Group, the Rudy Giuliani for President Campaign and the Republican National Committee. In 2009, she was named a Rising Star by Campaigns and Elections magazine. Katie holds a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Craig Parshall is Senior Vice President & General Counsel for National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) where he handles the legal, regulatory and constitutional issues that impact Christian broadcasters and communicators. Mr. Parshall is also the Director of NRB’s John Milton Project for Free Speech, monitoring the threat of anti-Christian censorship of new media platforms like Apple’s iTunes App Store, Facebook, and Google.

Mr. Parshall has testified numerous times in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, has worked with members of Congress on communications policy and religious liberty legislation, and he advocates NRB’s position to the FCC on broadcast and media matters. As a former civil liberties trial attorney, Mr. Parshall represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal District Courts or Courts of Appeal in most of the federal circuits, and before several state supreme courts. Mr. Parshall is also a New York Times best-selling fiction writer and has authored or co-authored 10 suspense novels

Janet Parshall is the host of In the Market with Janet Parshall, a daily two-hour broadcast, nationally syndicated on the Moody Radio Network and carried on hundreds of stations across the country.  She also hosts a three-minute weekly commentary.

Janet was the recipient of the NRB On-Air Personality of the Year Award in 2008 and in 2011.  She was selected by President George W. Bush to represent the White House in the capacity of public delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. 

Kelly Shackelford, Esq., has been President and CEO of Liberty Institute since 1997.

Mr. Shackelford is a constitutional scholar who has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, testified before the U.S. House and Senate on constitutional issues, and has won three state landmark First Amendment and religious liberty cases in the past few years alone.

He was recently named one of the 25 greatest Texas lawyers of the past quarter-century by Texas Lawyer, and is the recipient of the prestigious William Bentley Ball Award for Life and Religious Freedom Defense for his leadership and pioneering work protecting religious freedom.

Mr. Shackelford is a highly sought-after speaker and frequent guest on national TV news and talk show programs, including The O’Reilly Factor, Fox and Friends, Hannity, Good Morning America, NBC’s Today Show, CNN, and MSNBC. He also has been featured in the National Law Journal, Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Times, The Washington Post, and The L.A. Times, among many others.

Mr. Shackelford is on the Board of Trustees of the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society and is a graduate of Baylor University.

Tim Challies is an Associate Pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto.  He is an author, blogger and conference speaker.  His blog (challies.com) is one of the most influential and widely read Christian blogs.  Tim also edits Discerning Reader and is a co-founder of Cruciform Press.  Even though Tim’s ministry is to an audience much broader than the local church alone, his heart is still for ministry in the local church.   He is involved as a leader and mentor to the youth of Grace Fellowship. 

Mark Seignious worked in radio 20 years before joining Northwestern College in 2001.  He has worked at radio stations in San Diego, Seattle, Sacramento, and Minneapolis/St Paul. The first half of his radio career focused on marketing and promotions, while the second half enjoyed working on a morning show. He says the Lord has blessed Northwestern media students the past dozen years and is thrilled to see them flourish in their media vocations throughout the world. He has a passion for the supremacy of Christ.

Claire Diaz-Ortiz leads social innovation at Twitter, where she has worked since 2009. She wrote Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time.

She is a frequent international speaker and is known for developing the “TWEET model” — a framework to help organizations and individuals best excel on Twitter.

Claire holds an M.B.A. from Oxford University, where she was a Skoll Foundation Scholar for Social Entrepreneurship. She also holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Anthropology from Stanford University.

She is the co-founder of Hope Runs, a non-profit organization operating in AIDS orphanages in Kenya.

Claire has lived on four continents and travelled to more than 50 countries. Called a “mover and shaker” by Mashable, she has been widely written about in publications such as Business Week, The Washington Post, and The Independent.
 

With over 15 years of experience in sales, marketing and business management, Jason DeMeo represents many of the largest advertisers, producers, first run syndicated properties and direct response clients in the country.  His creative and analytical thinking has positioned him as one of the leading content and spot TV salespersons and distributors.   Recognized for his high impact and motivational sales and marketing presentations, he continues to work with brand managers and prominent leaders and is often called upon for advice.

Jason also is the principal behind Omniverse One World Television with a new product called the “OmniBox” launching in the fall of 2012.  Omniverse empowers producers, content rights holders, syndicators, and broadcasters large and small to effectively monetize their content through a Multi-Media Platform that covers all 211 domestic markets, worldwide markets, has unlimited channel capacity, and allows for very low broadcasting costs which allows them to transfer those savings to their subscribers.  Omniverse is built to allow the viewer to watch what they want to, on the device they want to, whenever they want to. Viewers can watch content from anywhere whether at home, at work, in the park, on business trips.

The Omniverse service opens the next generation for TV broadcasters, producers, content rights holders, and syndicators. It offers opportunities denied to them by the limitations of cable and satellite infrastructure.

Steve Burzynski is an entrepreneur and leader with a proven track record of revolutionizing organizations through creativity combined with Internet marketing strategies. Prior to co-founding IMAVEX, an Internet marketing and design firm with a focus on Internet TV and Video Streaming in 2001, Steve demonstrated his vision, expertise and passion while working for Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and Ernst & Young. Drawing on over 20 years of experience, he has become a leading voice and pioneer in bringing creative and trending Internet-based solutions to many industries and organizations.

Craig Parshall is Senior Vice President & General Counsel for National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) where he handles the legal, regulatory and constitutional issues that impact Christian broadcasters and communicators. Mr. Parshall is also the Director of NRB’s John Milton Project for Free Speech, monitoring the threat of anti-Christian censorship of new media platforms like Apple’s iTunes App Store, Facebook, and Google.

Mr. Parshall has testified numerous times in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, has worked with members of Congress on communications policy and religious liberty legislation, and he advocates NRB’s position to the FCC on broadcast and media matters. As a former civil liberties trial attorney, Mr. Parshall represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal District Courts or Courts of Appeal in most of the federal circuits, and before several state supreme courts. Mr. Parshall is also a New York Times best-selling fiction writer and has authored or co-authored 10 suspense novels

Harry C. Martin is a member of the law firm of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, PLC, in Arlington, VA. Harry Martin specializes in mass media law, with his time divided between regulatory and transactional matters. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and is an honors graduate of George Washington University Law School.

Harry is a past president of the Federal Communications Bar Association (2004-2005) and served on the FCBA's Executive Committee from 1995-2006. Over this period, he served as assistant treasurer, treasurer, assistant secretary, secretary and president; and co-chaired the FCBA's committees concerned with adjudicatory practice, professional responsibility, judicial practice, mass media practice and continuing legal education. While a co-chair, he organized and moderated CLE programs for each of these committees. This year, Harry is co-chair of the FCBA committee, which coordinates activities with other bar associations.

Harry has been a monthly FCC update columnist for Broadcast Engineering magazine for 30 years. He also regularly participates as a speaker at NAB, NRB and state broadcast industry conventions.

Jeff Southmayd is the founding partner of the Washington, DC, communications law firm of Southmayd & Miller.  This practice represents Christian broadcasters before the Federal Communications Commission.  Jeff has also been involved in the ownership of broadcast stations since 1986 and currently owns a Christian noncommercial station, WNSS-FM in Palm Coast, FL.

Joe Chautin is managing partner of Hardy, Carey, Chautin & Balkin, LLP, in Mandeville, LA, a law firm that advises broadcasters on all aspects of operations, including FCC compliance issues. Joe frequently assists NRB on FCC broadcast regulatory matters, including preparing and filing comments in FCC regulatory proceedings, presentations on current FCC matters, and as co-counsel on two amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court on FCC indecency enforcement.

Joe graduated in 1987 from the University of Southwestern Louisiana with a B.A in Mass Communication. He is also an alumnus of Loyola New Orleans School of Law (J.D., 1997). He is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, Federal Communications Bar Association, and is admitted to all state and federal courts in Louisiana, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. He retired from the USAF as a Lt. Colonel in 2008 after 21 years of active and reserve service.
 

Rob Saliterman heads the Google advertising team’s sales and outreach efforts to Republican political campaigns, building relationships with campaign managers, digital agencies, and issue advocacy groups to drive adoption of online advertising. He previously served as Communications Director to former President George W. Bush in Dallas, TX. From 2008 to 2009, he was spokesman for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and earlier served as Director of Rapid Response in the White House Office of Communications. He has also worked at the Republican National Committee and on the Bush-Cheney ’04 Presidential Campaign. Saliterman is originally from Minnesota and received a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

With leadership experience spanning over two decades, Rebecca Gregory has a strong vision and passion to help nonprofits reach donors and raise dollars to further their mission. Currently, Rebecca serves as Senior Vice President of Marketing & Strategy at The Pursuant Group. Her strength is to come alongside nonprofit organizations regardless of size or tenure and help them achieve their long-term vision and goals. Her specialties include integrated marketing, direct response fundraising, and leveraging technology to achieve results.

Prior to joining Pursuant in June of 2010, Rebecca was the lead account manager and technology strategist for 50+ faith-based nonprofit accounts at Convio, Inc., a SAAS CRM solution for nonprofits. She has also served as the Communications & Mobilization Director for globalX (world missions) at North Point Ministries, Inc., Director of Marketing & Product Development at Walk Thru the Bible Ministries in Atlanta, GA, and Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Her prior corporate experience includes a retail and financial management background.

While at Walk Thru the Bible, her team received the NRB 2007 Website of the Year award and three Telly awards for their production of small group curriculums. Currently, Rebecca serves on the NRB Internet Committee and the 2012 Educational Task Force. She is also Chairman of the Board for LUO, Inc., a nonprofit setting children free from poverty. Rebecca has a bachelor's degree in Commerce and Business Administration from the University of Alabama.

Tim Kachuriak is the Founder and Chief Innovation and Optimization Officer for Next After, a research and consulting firm that works with nonprofits and NGOs to help them grow their resource capacity.

His work is primarily focused on optimizing the donor funnel through applied research using the Internet as a living laboratory. Tim has developed a number of innovative fundraising programs and methodologies that are utilized by national and international nonprofits,

Prior to founding Next After, Tim served as Senior Vice President of Innovation and Optimization for The Pursuant Group and KMA. During his tenure, Tim developed online fundraising strategies for a number of national and international nonprofits.

Tim also has spent some time on the client side of the nonprofit world. He served in a leadership role over digital communications at Coral Ridge Ministries in Fort Lauderdale, FL, the broadcast ministry of the late Dr. D. James Kennedy.

Prior to his work in the nonprofit space, Tim was President of Ambience Interactive, a Pittsburgh-based digital marketing agency, and launched PowerDealerPro, an online automotive software company. He currently serves as Vice Chairman for Online for Life and is on the MECLABS Advisory Board for Optimization.

With over 15 years of experience in sales, marketing and business management, Jason DeMeo represents many of the largest advertisers, producers, first run syndicated properties and direct response clients in the country.  His creative and analytical thinking has positioned him as one of the leading content and spot TV salespersons and distributors.   Recognized for his high impact and motivational sales and marketing presentations, he continues to work with brand managers and prominent leaders and is often called upon for advice.

Jason also is the principal behind Omniverse One World Television with a new product called the “OmniBox” launching in the fall of 2012.  Omniverse empowers producers, content rights holders, syndicators, and broadcasters large and small to effectively monetize their content through a Multi-Media Platform that covers all 211 domestic markets, worldwide markets, has unlimited channel capacity, and allows for very low broadcasting costs which allows them to transfer those savings to their subscribers.  Omniverse is built to allow the viewer to watch what they want to, on the device they want to, whenever they want to. Viewers can watch content from anywhere whether at home, at work, in the park, on business trips.

The Omniverse service opens the next generation for TV broadcasters, producers, content rights holders, and syndicators. It offers opportunities denied to them by the limitations of cable and satellite infrastructure.

Steve Burzynski is an entrepreneur and leader with a proven track record of revolutionizing organizations through creativity combined with Internet marketing strategies. Prior to co-founding IMAVEX, an Internet marketing and design firm with a focus on Internet TV and Video Streaming in 2001, Steve demonstrated his vision, expertise and passion while working for Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and Ernst & Young. Drawing on over 20 years of experience, he has become a leading voice and pioneer in bringing creative and trending Internet-based solutions to many industries and organizations.

Dr. Jennifer Epperson recently received her doctorate in organizational leadership with a minor concentration in human resource development from Nova Southeastern University in Florida. Her research interests include providing training solutions for media leaders, organizational learning and ethics. In addition, she graduated summa cum laude in French literature and music from Wheaton College, in Norton, MA, and received her master’s degree in broadcast management from Bob Jones University, Greenville, SC.

In 1987, she began in radio at WARV-AM in Warwick, RI, overcoming a very strong, regional accent. Since then, she has served in various capacities, including music, production, operations, and management.  Currently, she is the station manager of Moody Radio South Florida in Boynton Beach. Jennifer has also served as the Executive Producer and Host of Trans World Radio (TWR)’s “Women of Hope” program, and has enjoyed facilitating/presenting radio concepts, in varied contexts including university, cross-cultural, and adult learning.
 

John Stonestreet is a Speaker and Fellow of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. He is a gifted communicator on areas of faith and culture, theology, worldview, education, and apologetics, and is a sought-after speaker at conferences, colleges, churches, schools, and other various gatherings each year.

John is the co-host with Eric Metaxas of Breakpoint, the Christian worldview radio program founded by the late Chuck Colson, and the voice of The Point, a daily national radio feature on worldview, apologetics and cultural issues.  He also serves as a Senior Content Advisor for Summit Ministries in Manitou Springs, CO.

John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview (Sheffield Press).
 

Dr. Mitch Land is the Dean of the School of Communication & the Arts at Regent University. His expertise is in international communication and media ethics.  In addition, he consults on journalism training efforts that are sponsored by organizations with the U.S. Department of State.  Dr. Land earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas in radio, television and film, with emphases in international/development communication and cultural anthropology. Dr. Land is fluent in French and studied French language and culture at the Universite de Haute Bretagne and Universite de la Touraine, France.

Bobby Gruenewald (@bobbygwald) serves as Pastor, Innovation Leader at LifeChurch.tv and is the founder of the YouVersion Bible App. Since its creation, YouVersion has been installed on tens of millions of devices and the YouVersion community has spent tens of billions of minutes engaging in Scripture with the website and its mobile versions. 

One of the leading voices in the Church as it relates to innovation and the use of technology, Bobby frequently writes and speaks on the topic, and has been featured in the Washington Post, TechCrunch, CNN, CBS, NPR, and more. He was also listed by Fast Company as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2011.

Prior to joining the LifeChurch.tv team in 2001, Gruenewald started and sold two technology companies, consulted with start-ups on venture capital funds, and, in an interesting twist of events, traveled and performed with a Christian rap group. His focus now is completely on LifeChurch.tv and the incredible things that God is doing in lives of people through the ministry each day. Gruenewald is passionate about seeing more and more changed lives through the ministries and initiatives at LifeChurch.tv, especially as it relates to using technology to reach people for Christ.

Nick Hall is the founder and primary evangelist for PULSE, a Twin Cities, MN-based ministry leading the largest student-led prayer and outreach efforts in America. As a voice to the next generation, Nick is regularly featured as a speaker for student conferences, training events and festivals around the country.

Nick has been tagged as an emerging international voice in the cause of evangelism. In the fall of 2010, he was invited to be one of 4,000 delegates from around the world to attend the Lausanne Global Congress on World Evangelism in Cape Town, South Africa. In the spring of 2011, Nick was welcomed to the National Facilitation Committee for the Mission America Coalition (MAC), the U.S. arm of the Lausanne Movement. Nick is the youngest committee member by more than 20 years.

Nick serves on the executive committee of the Proclamation Evangelism Network, the student advisory team for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), and is one of four Partner Evangelists with the Luis Palau Association. Nick has been the featured emcee of BGEA's “Rock the River Tour” for the past four summers.

At age 30, Nick’s burning is to “awaken culture to the reality of Jesus.” 

Wes Llewellyn

Wes Llewellyn has been a filmmaker in the motion picture industry for over 30 years on hundreds of productions in various positions including Chief Lighting Technician, Director of Photography, Writer, Producer and Director. 

For the past five seasons, Wes has been directing the dramatic reenactments on the popular Christian talk show,  Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural.

He has won numerous awards for his work:  an astonishing three Best Films awards (CrossWalk 2003, A Good Day 2007, Up in the Air 2009) from the 168-Hour Film Festival.  Clip, an action comedy, has won Best Film at the Faith-n-Film Summit and 15 Minutes of Fame Festival and was also an official selection for the Sidewalk Film Festival. His film, FBI Guys, won Best Drama at the Independent Television Festival and Best Mini-Film at the Barebones Festival. The Gift of Jabez which he directed for Phil Cooke Pictures, was honored as Best Documentary by the Aegeus, Crystal Commentator, and Telly Awards.

His two full-length feature films, The Moment After and The Moment After 2: The Awakening, are in distribution with Sony Home DVD.
 

Amanda Llewellyn

Amanda has nearly 30 years of experience as a make-up artist and hairstylist along with a variety of other jobs on the film set from script supervisor to set decorator to production co-coordinator, writer and producer throughout her career.

Her first collaboration on a screenplay was The Moment After, known in Christian filmmaking circles as The Little Engine That Could which has grossed 20 times its budget and is currently in distribution with Sony. She wrote The Moment After 2: The Awakening also with Sony. She has several awards for Best Screenplay and three Best Scriptural Integration from the 168 Hour Film Project and is now in her sixth year of producing the reenactment sections of the TV show, Sid Roth’s, It’s Supernatural.  Amanda is currently in development for several reality shows for the family and faith-friendly markets.

Both she and Wes are in the early stages of launching Adeia Institute to further educate independent filmmakers with unique training classes with working industry professionals in all aspects of filmmaking from production through post.

Wes and Amanda will be starting a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for 4L Films’ next feature, a teen texting drama called Amanda has nearly 30 years of experience as a make-up artist and hairstylist along with a variety of other jobs on the film set from script supervisor to set decorator to production co-coordinator, writer and producer throughout her career.

Her first collaboration on a screenplay was "The Moment After,” known in Christian filmmaking circles as “The Little Engine That Could” which has grossed 20 times its budget and is currently in distribution with Sony. She wrote “The Moment After 2: The Awakening” also with Sony. She has several awards for Best Screenplay and three Best Scriptural Integration from the 168 Hour Film Project and is now in her sixth year of producing the reenactment sections of the TV show, Sid Roth’s, “It’s Supernatural.” Amanda is currently in development for several reality shows for the family and faith-friendly markets.

Both she and Wes are in the early stages of launching Adeia Institute to further educate independent filmmakers with unique training classes with working industry professionals in all aspects of filmmaking from production through post.

Wes and Amanda will be starting a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for 4L Films’ next feature, a teen texting drama called Send.

John Carley is the Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer at Trinet Internet Solutions, Inc., a full service web firm specializing in web strategy consulting, web design and development along with ongoing web management, support and analysis. Under John’s leadership, Trinet has worked to make ministries and businesses successful on the web.  Since 1995, Trinet has worked with hundreds of clients, including Coca-Cola, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Focus on the Family, Sony, American Red Cross, The Salvation Army and more.

John has a 17-year track record of developing successful web marketing campaigns, advanced websites and web applications, including over 500 live webcasts and one of the first live streaming iPhone applications. John has been a featured speaker for many national tradeshows and organizations, speaking on web and emerging technologies. He has also served on the Board for the NRB Internet Committee as Chairman.

John studied at the University of California and Biola University, earning a B.S. degree in Organizational Leadership.  

August E. (“Augie”) Grant is J. Rion McKissick Professor of Journalism at the University of South Carolina. Grant is a technology futurist who conducts research, teaches, and writes regarding convergent journalism, media technologies, audience behavior, and media organizational behavior. Grant created the Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals series, The Convergence Newsletter, and the Newsplex Summer Seminars. He has extensive experience in radio and television broadcasting and is a world renowned expert in the area of convergent media. Grant earned his M.A.J.C. at the University of Florida and his Ph.D. from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California, and serves as a consultant to media and high-tech organizations.

Jeffrey S. Wilkinson is a Chair of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department at Houston Baptist University in Houston, TX.  Wilkinson is a renowned expert in new and convergent media, speaking at conferences across the globe on the subject and having co-authored two of the premier texts on the subject, including Understanding Media Convergence and Principles of Convergent Journalism. Wilkinson is a specialist in international journalism with more than a decade teaching and researching mass media in China and Hong Kong. He earned both his Master's and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. Wilkinson has extensive experience in both radio and television broadcasting as a reporter, presenter, producer, and talk show host.

Nina Barnes has a passion to share God’s message of redemption through salvation and through His ongoing work in life circumstances.

She has worked at Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN, for 12 years, where she currently serves as Human Resources Manager, focusing on hiring/onboarding, employee relations and organizational development. Nina holds a bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministries and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).

She has held positions in a variety of industries (retail, manufacturing, insurance, tourism, entertainment, health care, prison ministry, higher education) and lived in an abundance of places (Chicago, New England, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Los Angeles, the Bahamas, San Francisco, and Minneapolis/St. Paul).

Her activities outside of work include service on the Governing Board of Elders at her church, Board Member of Antioch Ministries in North Minneapolis, and mentoring/coaching. 
 

Marie Guthrie has significant experience in corporate and non-profit marketing and communications.  Her early professional career began with roles at Motorola, Accenture, and Arthur Andersen.  Having her own consulting business for several years, she led curriculum development projects on topics such as volunteerism, becoming a multi-racial church, and compassion and justice for the Willow Creek association.  Presently, she leads corporate branding and messaging for Awana – a global children’s and youth ministry.  Her team drives communication to internal and external Awana audiences.

Georgia is the Director of Production, and Content Strategy & SEO Subject Matter Expert at Five Q. Before joining Five Q, Georgia was Marketing, Communications, and Research Manager at Copesan in Menomonee Falls, WI, and the Director of Communications at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, WI, where she was responsible for developing and managing the 6,000-member church’s first Communication Department.  She graduated from Biola University with a degree in Business Administration and recently completed SEO certification with Bruce Clay.

“The people we serve and work alongside are watching and waiting to be inspired and led to greatness.” Inspiration, leadership, excellence, and fun are words Brian hangs his hat on. Throughout his career, Brian has served in senior leadership roles where he has had the unique ability to drive strategic direction and connect Human Resources to the business, operations, and organizations objectives. 

His skills and expertise in organizational leadership, coaching, and workforce development have translated into results. Brian currently serves on the Executive Council, as the Vice President of Human Resources, at the nation’s largest Christian music broadcaster, K-LOVE / Air1 Radio Networks. He is part of a unique leadership team - helping the organization successfully grow from 145 team members to now more than 350 working in 27 states, serving and supporting an audience of more than 12 million weekly.

Brian’s passion and approach in bringing talented people together, to accomplish substantially so much more as a team rather than as individuals, has moved organizations forward with momentum. He believes the “special sauce” in achieving key strategic initiatives is people, focus, flexible structure, and fun.  

His mission from day one has been to help shape the future of organizations and to positively impact the lives of those he partners with. Brian strongly believes that leaders have a responsibility to reflect the organizations values and equip their people to accomplish what’s next. 

For over fifteen years, Brian has excelled working with high energy fast-paced organizations, including UPS, Target, and consulting/software start-up companies. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from California State University of Sacramento and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) with the HRCI Society of Human Resource Management.

One C-Level executive describes Brian as, “Definitely not your typical HR guy, and if you ask Brian, he’ll say, ‘that’s a good thing’”.

Paul Sirmons has a 30-year track record as an assistant director, unit production manager, director, producer, and indie filmmaker. His focus for the last 10 years has been on creating faith-based products. Recently, he was the line-producer for Home Run, Renee, and Letters to God, all faith-based movies.

In 2005, Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Paul as Florida’s State Film Commissioner, where he rewrote Florida’s film incentive program and helped increase its funding to $25 million, attracting hundreds of millions of dollars to the state and creating thousands of new jobs.

Paul produced four independent features in Florida, including The Way Back Home. He also directed and produced the family film The First of May, starring Julie Harris, Dan Byrd, Mickey Rooney and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio.  The First of May won 13 film festival awards and has aired on HBO, TBN, and around the world.

Prior to that, Paul worked for 20 years as a DGA (Directors Guild of America) assistant director on various TV series such as Quantum Leap, Sea Quest, Falcon Crest, Our House, and The Waltons. He recently directed Last Stop, a pilot for a dramatic Christian TV series about a Christian counselor who has a gift for helping people – but who doesn't really like people.

Sirmons serves on the advisory boards for film & digital media at the University of Florida, Valencia College, and Full Sail University.
 

Payton Dunham has extensive credits in features, television, and commercials as a Producer, Line Producer, Unit Production Manager, Assistant Director and Location Manager.

Recent feature credits as Producer or UPM include Cowgirls ‘n Angels, The Lamp, and Heaven’s Rain. In 2007-08, Payton was the Creative Services - Director of Production, Operations and Talent Relations for Starz Entertainment Group.

Other film credits include the Oscar-nominated Junebug and 21 Grams, the Sundance Festival award-winning feature Forty Shades of Blue, Night at the Museum, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Bringing up Bobby, and Comedy Central’s television series Stella.

As a writer, Payton has written screenplays and treatments for various producers and production companies. He’s also created promotional copy for clients that range from Mountain Dew to Warner Brothers, and has written for various publications, newspapers and websites.

For centuries, the Western Protestant Church has divorced Image from Word, and many forms of visual art and beauty have been excommunicated. But visual art is making a comeback in today's worship culture with the help of technology like media and projection. This obviously raises a few questions, both technologically and theologically. Is there such a thing as "visual worship"? And if so, do we need visual worship leaders just like we have musical worship leaders?

Stephen is an illuminator and video jockey whose primary focus is designing and curating visually immersive experiences for worship. At the heart, Stephen is a curator of visual worship who seeks to unleash people’s imaginations through moments of wonder and astonishment.  He lives in Nashville, but his relationships and events keep him traveling all over the world. He and his business partner, Nate Griffin, run Grateful Inconvenience, a creative collective that focuses on visual storytelling through film, atmospheric design & media. Their work can be seen with Beth Moore's Living Proof Live, Travis Cottrell, Gungor, All Sons & Daughters, National Worship Leaders Conference, as well as a handful of other events. They are also very involved with many missional organizations that are spreading the name of Jesus to the unreached people groups of the world.

Though the road goes ever on and on, Stephen is rooted in his local church, Journey, where he serves on the creative team when home. He also shares resources, stories and his passion for visually creative worship on his blog, illuminate.co, as well as in his upcoming book Illuminate: A Tale of Visual Worship.
 

Guy Richards is the founder and CEO of Abiah, a brand development and creative firm that focuses on helping Christian organizations thrive. He is also the author of TALKABLE, Building your brand from the inside out, published by M&B. Abiah has received numerous awards, including helping three of their clients land on the Top Global Rebrand 100 list by ReBrand.com. A few of the clients Abiah has helped include: John Stott Ministries, Young Life, Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, Moody Publishers and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Chris Skaggs is a 13 year veteran of the web and mobile software industry. The founder and CEO of both Soma Games and Code-Monkeys, Chris has delivered software applications to some of the country’s most discerning clients like Intel, Four Seasons, Comcast and Aruba Networks. In addition to corporate customers, Code-Monkeys has programmed many casual games for iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac/PC platforms. Inside Soma Games is a group of dedicated believers who have chosen to walk the fine line between being “on the lampstand” Christians and making games full of Biblical allegory released into the mainstream market. Games like G: Into The Rain and Wind Up Robots have garnered much critical praise and market success. A Black Belt in Intel’s Software Developer Network, Chris also writes and speaks on topics surrounding the rapidly-changing mobile application environment at venues like Casual Connect, Serious Play, IDF, Christian Game Developers Conference, TechStart, and AppUp Elements.

After spending several years working in radio on multiple stations in Ohio, and for a syndicated network where he quickly established a strong presence on-air, Jeremy Parsons headed off to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of working in television.

Shortly after arriving in Hollywood, he landed various production positions with Dick Clark Productions, ABC's Good Morning America, and multiple entertainment networks. In addition to producing, Jeremy was tapped as an on-air contributor for an entertainment news show at the Los Angeles-based network LTN, where he covered red carpet premieres, press junkets, and hosted in-studio interviews with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. It was there that Jeremy's engaging and witty personality garnered the attention of his peers and network leaders.

Jeremy eventually found himself at ReelzChannel, where he works as a segment producer for Secret's Out with Leonard Maltin, as well as a co-host on The Big Tease. Hosting the show is a dream gig for this movie lover.

To Jeremy the important things in life are to cherish your friends and family and to have faith.
 

Over a 30+ year career, Craig’s television, film, video and documentary projects have taken him to 144 countries, flown him 14 times around the world and landed him on six continents.

More than 200 overseas assignments have imbedded him into dangerous hot spots like Iraq, Cuba, Burundi, the Congo, El Salvador, Palestine, Cambodia, Vietnam, Uganda, Haiti, Burma, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Chad, Bosnia & Kosovo.

His strengths include digital cinema, broadcast segments and shows, short films, documentaries – plus single & multi-camera production. He has worked professionally at the network level for CBS’s The Amazing Race, ABC’s In Concert, Discovery Channel’s World of Wonder, Travel Channel, Animal Planet, PBS, History Channel, Fox Sports, A&E, TLC, and American Movie Classics’ Movie Memories.

Craig has produced, directed or shot camera for such notable clients as Family Channel, DuPont, Nestlé, Hyatt Hotels, Memorex, Toshiba, McDonalds, Northwest Airlines, Ford, Wells Fargo Bank, Blue Shield, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Samaritan’s Purse, World Vision, Voice of the Martyrs, Far East Broadcasting, OneHope, Dream Center and Teen Challenge.

He is the author of the books Commando Tactics for Digital Filmmakers and The Influence of Alexander Mackendrick on the Kailyard Film Sub-genre. Craig holds a masters degree in Film Studies from the Conservatory of Motion Pictures at Chapman University (a Top 10 film school), and a bachelor's in Biblical & Theological Studies from Bethany University. A voting member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Emmys), he also holds membership in the International Press Association and the prestigious Travelers’ Century Club.
 

Nathan Tabor is President of TCVmedia.com.  TCVmedia.com is a professional full-service Internet and branding firm that specializes in website design and application, marketing, advertising and consulting services.

Jim Taszarek is helping reorganize and run the business underwriting for K-LOVE and Air1. Before joining K-LOVE, Jim was a well-known consultant, trainer and speaker.  He spent 15 years as a General Manager of stations in St. Louis and Phoenix, and also spent four years as Chief Revenue Officer of the American City Business Journal chain of newspapers.  His bachelor’s degree is from St. Louis University and master’s from Webster University. 
 

Kay Peters is the Director of Business Development for KTIS Radio Station - inviting partners to invest their resources into relevant marketing opportunities that help support the Christ-centered ministry of KTIS.  Her 30+ years of major market radio sales /management experience has provided her the opportunity to work for CBS, Hubbard Broadcasting and Clear Channel Radio group. Kay is a certified Creative Ideation Brainstorming Consultant, trained at The Center for Sales Strategy in Dallas, TX.  Kay has a B.A. in Psychology and a master’s in organizational development counseling. 

As Senior Director of Creative Services for KSBJ, Nikki Sparks creatively shares the story of the KSBJ ministry through strategic planning, brand management and development, traditional and non-traditional marketing campaigns, online communications, and public relations. With 30 years in the Houston market, KSBJ is the largest non-profit, listener supported radio station in the country. Two years ago, KSBJ launched a sister station, NGEN Radio, to reach today’s generation striving for constant connection and hit music.  Nikki is the champion for integrated communications among all KSBJ ministries, also including KSBJ Special Events and Ticket Servant.  Recently celebrating a five-year anniversary at KSBJ, Nikki is ready and excited to explore God’s next plan for this journey. Prior to joining KSBJ, Nikki served on the agency side of marketing, working with non-profit, business-to-business and consumer clientele.

Jeremy Ruck is a graduate of Bradley University in Peoria, IL, with the Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Illinois. Jeremy has 20 years of professional engineering experience and more than 25 years of experience in broadcasting and communications engineering. He is a full member of the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers (AFCCE).

Jeremy is a bimonthly contributor to Radio magazine. Since 2000, he has spoken at numerous events, including the Wisconsin Broadcasters Clinic in Madison, WI, and the Indiana Broadcasters Association.

Rick is a 34-year veteran in direct response marketing and fundraising for nonprofit organizations. In 2002, Rick founded Dunham+Company to establish a new model to serve ministries, a model which seeks to integrate the variety of organizational and marketing components that must work in concert in order to optimize income generation and impact long-term organizational effectiveness.

Rick holds a B.A. from Biola University and a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary. He is an active member of the National Religious Broadcasters and the Direct Marketing Association, where he serves annually as a judge for the International ECHO Awards.

Rick is the author of Secure: Discovering True Security in Turbulent Financial Times and If God Will Provide, Why Do We Have to Ask for Money? He has also been published and quoted in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, USA Today, Dallas Morning News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, and Townhall.com, and has served as a commentator on Fox Business News.
 

 In a time where the world's attention is riveted on events in the Middle East, CBN viewers have come to appreciate Chris Mitchell's timely reports from this explosive region of the world. Chris brings a biblical and prophetic perspective to these daily news events that shape our world.

Chris first began reporting on the Middle East in the mid-1990s. He repeatedly traveled there to report on the religious and political issues facing Israel and the surrounding Arab states. One of his more significant reports focused on the emigration of persecuted Christians from the Middle East.

Chris also earned a "Short Story of the Year" award for his examination of religious coverage in network news. He has also reported on such movements as the Promise Keepers and the annual "Prayer and Fasting" campaign led by the late Campus Crusade founder Dr. Bill Bright.

In addition to his reports for The 700 Club, Chris is a regular contributor to Christian World News, a weekly 30-minute newscast that airs nationally in multiple markets.

Prior to joining CBN News in 1992, Chris worked for three years as a researcher, producer, and reporter for the Features/Testimonies department of The 700 Club.

A native of the Boston area, Chris earned a B.A. in History at the University of New Hampshire in 1975. In 1987, he graduated with honors from Regent University, earning an M.A. in Communication. While a student at Regent (then CBN University), Chris anchored Newsight, a student-produced Christian news program.

After almost a decade with CBN News, Chris's goal is to provide in his stories the biblical "understanding of the times" described in 1 Chronicles 12:32.
 

Jim Taszarek is helping reorganize and run the business underwriting for K-LOVE and Air1. Before joining K-LOVE, Jim was a well-known consultant, trainer and speaker.  He spent 15 years as a General Manager of stations in St. Louis and Phoenix, and also spent four years as Chief Revenue Officer of the American City Business Journal chain of newspapers.  His bachelor’s degree is from St. Louis University and master’s from Webster University. 
 

Kay Peters is the Director of Business Development for KTIS Radio Station - inviting partners to invest their resources into relevant marketing opportunities that help support the Christ-centered ministry of KTIS.  Her 30+ years of major market radio sales /management experience has provided her the opportunity to work for CBS, Hubbard Broadcasting and Clear Channel Radio group. Kay is a certified Creative Ideation Brainstorming Consultant, trained at The Center for Sales Strategy in Dallas, TX.  Kay has a B.A. in Psychology and a master’s in organizational development counseling. 

John Fuller is Vice President of Focus on the Family's broadcasting department and Co-Host of the daily Focus on the Family radio program, which is heard around the world by millions.  He also hosts Weekend Magazine, Focus on the Family Minute, Focus on Marriage and Focus on Parenting.  John has spoken internationally about influence, creativity, workplace relationships, intentional living, parenting, marriage, adoption, and the spiritual life.  His book, First Time Dad, was released in 2011 by Moody Publishing.  He has written for a variety of magazines. 

Nina Barnes has a passion to share God’s message of redemption through salvation and through His ongoing work in life circumstances.

She has worked at Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN, for 12 years, where she currently serves as Human Resources Manager, focusing on hiring/onboarding, employee relations and organizational development. Nina holds a bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministries and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).

She has held positions in a variety of industries (retail, manufacturing, insurance, tourism, entertainment, health care, prison ministry, higher education) and lived in an abundance of places (Chicago, New England, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Los Angeles, the Bahamas, San Francisco, and Minneapolis/St. Paul).

Her activities outside of work include service on the Governing Board of Elders at her church, Board Member of Antioch Ministries in North Minneapolis, and mentoring/coaching. 
 

Andrew Greer is an accomplished singer/songwriter and respected music journalist. While his critically-acclaimed 2009 debut, Open Book, chronicled a soul-searching season that ultimately led to the rekindling of his faith, Andrew’s musical journey now makes an important stop—a step back to his roots. Angel Band is a collection of treasured hymns, the beloved songs that first articulated, and still remain, his story.

“I can’t recall many of the sermons my pastor preached, or the lessons my Sunday School teachers taught, but I do remember hymns,” Greer says of his inspiration for the project. “In fact, if it hadn’t been for the impact of those indelible tunes, I may have never fallen in love with music, or been introduced to God.”

Andrew has shared his stories and songs with audiences from coast to coast, receiving significant media coverage in CCM Magazine, Christian Musician, The Tennessean, Christianity Today, and Worship Leader magazine, among many other publications. He has also been a featured worship leader at Centrifuge’s Centrikid camps. As a writer, Greer’s stories have appeared in Christianity Today, CCM, and ParentLife, among other notable publications. When not on the road, Andrew enjoys his home in Franklin, TN.

This native Tennessean began her journey in a musical family - her mother a songwriter and gospel singer who played the piano; her dad, a VW mechanic by day, whose true love was in writing songs and playing guitar.  Together, they provided rich soil for her to grow in as a writer. Throughout her musical journey, starting at Word Records barely out of high school, her true passion has always been the songs and how they connect with a listener.

Cindy has received 12 Dove Awards in her career both as a recording artist and songwriter, including the coveted Dove Award for Songwriter of the Year. She received a Dove for Country Song of the Year, "How You Live," recorded by Point of Grace; and also a Dove Award for Country Song of the Year, "I Wish," also recorded by Point of Grace.

In 2001, Morgan took a break from her career to dedicate time to her family. During the time, she continued writing songs for several artists. Some of the artists who have recorded her songs are Point of Grace, Michael W. Smith, Avalon, Carman, Rachael Lampa, Michael English, BeBe Winans, Sandi Patty, Jaci Velasquez, Mark Schultz, John Tesh, Christy Carlson Romano and Natalie Grant.

Cindy is also a part of an Indie pop band, St. Lola in the Fields, with her longtime writing partner Jeremy Bose.

“I am just so glad to be a part of the music community. To make music, write songs and hopefully, ultimately, encourage someone else with music. It is the supernatural power of notes and words to reach someone where they live,” says Cindy.

Pete Briscoe wants you to experience LIFE. Not a ho-hum, barely-make-it-through-the-day kind of life. But the abounding, overflowing, deeply rich and satisfying LIFE of Christ living through you!
 
With a passion for God’s Word and expositional preaching, Pete has served as Senior Pastor of Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Dallas, TX, since 1992. 

In 2005 Pete joined his parents, Stuart and Jill Briscoe, as part of the teaching team on Telling the Truth, a global media outreach that includes a daily Bible teaching program heard on nearly 500 radio outlets across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and numerous countries across southeast Asia and southern Africa. 

Telling the Truth is Christo-centric in its teaching, pointing people to Christ. With the foundational belief that Christ is the answer for every question, the Briscoes' strong desire is for people to hear the exposition of God’s Word, carefully and passionately taught, so that Christ can make a life-transforming difference in their lives. 

On November 29, 1975, three years after accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, Raul Ries was ordained by Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, and his small home Bible study grew into Calvary Chapel Golden Springs in Diamond Bar, CA.  From this beginning, it has today grown to a congregation of 14,000.

Raul is the host of Somebody Loves You, a syndicated 30-minute daily radio program heard worldwide. He is the author of numerous books, including Fury to Freedom, translated into six languages. He has also produced three films – a feature film and two documentaries.

Raul received two Purple Hearts from service in Vietnam, 1966 and 1967. He has three master’s degrees from Azusa Pacific University and a Doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is also a Black Belt in Kung Fu San Soo, teaching twice a week.

Through conferences in the states and throughout Latin America, Raul seeks to equip the saints for the ministry.

Andrew Greer is an accomplished singer/songwriter and respected music journalist. While his critically-acclaimed 2009 debut, Open Book, chronicled a soul-searching season that ultimately led to the rekindling of his faith, Andrew’s musical journey now makes an important stop—a step back to his roots. Angel Band is a collection of treasured hymns, the beloved songs that first articulated, and still remain, his story.

“I can’t recall many of the sermons my pastor preached, or the lessons my Sunday School teachers taught, but I do remember hymns,” Greer says of his inspiration for the project. “In fact, if it hadn’t been for the impact of those indelible tunes, I may have never fallen in love with music, or been introduced to God.”

Andrew has shared his stories and songs with audiences from coast to coast, receiving significant media coverage in CCM Magazine, Christian Musician, The Tennessean, Christianity Today, and Worship Leader magazine, among many other publications. He has also been a featured worship leader at Centrifuge’s Centrikid camps. As a writer, Greer’s stories have appeared in Christianity Today, CCM, and ParentLife, among other notable publications. When not on the road, Andrew enjoys his home in Franklin, TN.

This native Tennessean began her journey in a musical family - her mother a songwriter and gospel singer who played the piano; her dad, a VW mechanic by day, whose true love was in writing songs and playing guitar.  Together, they provided rich soil for her to grow in as a writer. Throughout her musical journey, starting at Word Records barely out of high school, her true passion has always been the songs and how they connect with a listener.

Cindy has received 12 Dove Awards in her career both as a recording artist and songwriter, including the coveted Dove Award for Songwriter of the Year. She received a Dove for Country Song of the Year, "How You Live," recorded by Point of Grace; and also a Dove Award for Country Song of the Year, "I Wish," also recorded by Point of Grace.

In 2001, Morgan took a break from her career to dedicate time to her family. During the time, she continued writing songs for several artists. Some of the artists who have recorded her songs are Point of Grace, Michael W. Smith, Avalon, Carman, Rachael Lampa, Michael English, BeBe Winans, Sandi Patty, Jaci Velasquez, Mark Schultz, John Tesh, Christy Carlson Romano and Natalie Grant.

Cindy is also a part of an Indie pop band, St. Lola in the Fields, with her longtime writing partner Jeremy Bose.

“I am just so glad to be a part of the music community. To make music, write songs and hopefully, ultimately, encourage someone else with music. It is the supernatural power of notes and words to reach someone where they live,” says Cindy.

Pete Briscoe wants you to experience LIFE. Not a ho-hum, barely-make-it-through-the-day kind of life. But the abounding, overflowing, deeply rich and satisfying LIFE of Christ living through you!
 
With a passion for God’s Word and expositional preaching, Pete has served as Senior Pastor of Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Dallas, TX, since 1992. 

In 2005 Pete joined his parents, Stuart and Jill Briscoe, as part of the teaching team on Telling the Truth, a global media outreach that includes a daily Bible teaching program heard on nearly 500 radio outlets across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and numerous countries across southeast Asia and southern Africa. 

Telling the Truth is Christo-centric in its teaching, pointing people to Christ. With the foundational belief that Christ is the answer for every question, the Briscoes' strong desire is for people to hear the exposition of God’s Word, carefully and passionately taught, so that Christ can make a life-transforming difference in their lives. 

On November 29, 1975, three years after accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, Raul Ries was ordained by Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, and his small home Bible study grew into Calvary Chapel Golden Springs in Diamond Bar, CA.  From this beginning, it has today grown to a congregation of 14,000.

Raul is the host of Somebody Loves You, a syndicated 30-minute daily radio program heard worldwide. He is the author of numerous books, including Fury to Freedom, translated into six languages. He has also produced three films – a feature film and two documentaries.

Raul received two Purple Hearts from service in Vietnam, 1966 and 1967. He has three master’s degrees from Azusa Pacific University and a Doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is also a Black Belt in Kung Fu San Soo, teaching twice a week.

Through conferences in the states and throughout Latin America, Raul seeks to equip the saints for the ministry.

Bobby Gruenewald (@bobbygwald) serves as Pastor, Innovation Leader at LifeChurch.tv and is the founder of the YouVersion Bible App. Since its creation, YouVersion has been installed on tens of millions of devices and the YouVersion community has spent tens of billions of minutes engaging in Scripture with the website and its mobile versions. 

One of the leading voices in the Church as it relates to innovation and the use of technology, Bobby frequently writes and speaks on the topic, and has been featured in the Washington Post, TechCrunch, CNN, CBS, NPR, and more. He was also listed by Fast Company as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2011.

Prior to joining the LifeChurch.tv team in 2001, Gruenewald started and sold two technology companies, consulted with start-ups on venture capital funds, and, in an interesting twist of events, traveled and performed with a Christian rap group. His focus now is completely on LifeChurch.tv and the incredible things that God is doing in lives of people through the ministry each day. Gruenewald is passionate about seeing more and more changed lives through the ministries and initiatives at LifeChurch.tv, especially as it relates to using technology to reach people for Christ.

Nick Hall is the founder and primary evangelist for PULSE, a Twin Cities, MN-based ministry leading the largest student-led prayer and outreach efforts in America. As a voice to the next generation, Nick is regularly featured as a speaker for student conferences, training events and festivals around the country.

Nick has been tagged as an emerging international voice in the cause of evangelism. In the fall of 2010, he was invited to be one of 4,000 delegates from around the world to attend the Lausanne Global Congress on World Evangelism in Cape Town, South Africa. In the spring of 2011, Nick was welcomed to the National Facilitation Committee for the Mission America Coalition (MAC), the U.S. arm of the Lausanne Movement. Nick is the youngest committee member by more than 20 years.

Nick serves on the executive committee of the Proclamation Evangelism Network, the student advisory team for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), and is one of four Partner Evangelists with the Luis Palau Association. Nick has been the featured emcee of BGEA's “Rock the River Tour” for the past four summers.

At age 30, Nick’s burning is to “awaken culture to the reality of Jesus.” 

Wes Llewellyn

Wes Llewellyn has been a filmmaker in the motion picture industry for over 30 years on hundreds of productions in various positions including Chief Lighting Technician, Director of Photography, Writer, Producer and Director. 

For the past five seasons, Wes has been directing the dramatic reenactments on the popular Christian talk show,  Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural.

He has won numerous awards for his work:  an astonishing three Best Films awards (CrossWalk 2003, A Good Day 2007, Up in the Air 2009) from the 168-Hour Film Festival.  Clip, an action comedy, has won Best Film at the Faith-n-Film Summit and 15 Minutes of Fame Festival and was also an official selection for the Sidewalk Film Festival. His film, FBI Guys, won Best Drama at the Independent Television Festival and Best Mini-Film at the Barebones Festival. The Gift of Jabez which he directed for Phil Cooke Pictures, was honored as Best Documentary by the Aegeus, Crystal Commentator, and Telly Awards.

His two full-length feature films, The Moment After and The Moment After 2: The Awakening, are in distribution with Sony Home DVD.
 

Amanda Llewellyn

Amanda has nearly 30 years of experience as a make-up artist and hairstylist along with a variety of other jobs on the film set from script supervisor to set decorator to production co-coordinator, writer and producer throughout her career.

Her first collaboration on a screenplay was The Moment After, known in Christian filmmaking circles as The Little Engine That Could which has grossed 20 times its budget and is currently in distribution with Sony. She wrote The Moment After 2: The Awakening also with Sony. She has several awards for Best Screenplay and three Best Scriptural Integration from the 168 Hour Film Project and is now in her sixth year of producing the reenactment sections of the TV show, Sid Roth’s, It’s Supernatural.  Amanda is currently in development for several reality shows for the family and faith-friendly markets.

Both she and Wes are in the early stages of launching Adeia Institute to further educate independent filmmakers with unique training classes with working industry professionals in all aspects of filmmaking from production through post.

Wes and Amanda will be starting a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for 4L Films’ next feature, a teen texting drama called Amanda has nearly 30 years of experience as a make-up artist and hairstylist along with a variety of other jobs on the film set from script supervisor to set decorator to production co-coordinator, writer and producer throughout her career.

Her first collaboration on a screenplay was "The Moment After,” known in Christian filmmaking circles as “The Little Engine That Could” which has grossed 20 times its budget and is currently in distribution with Sony. She wrote “The Moment After 2: The Awakening” also with Sony. She has several awards for Best Screenplay and three Best Scriptural Integration from the 168 Hour Film Project and is now in her sixth year of producing the reenactment sections of the TV show, Sid Roth’s, “It’s Supernatural.” Amanda is currently in development for several reality shows for the family and faith-friendly markets.

Both she and Wes are in the early stages of launching Adeia Institute to further educate independent filmmakers with unique training classes with working industry professionals in all aspects of filmmaking from production through post.

Wes and Amanda will be starting a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for 4L Films’ next feature, a teen texting drama called Send.

John Carley is the Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer at Trinet Internet Solutions, Inc., a full service web firm specializing in web strategy consulting, web design and development along with ongoing web management, support and analysis. Under John’s leadership, Trinet has worked to make ministries and businesses successful on the web.  Since 1995, Trinet has worked with hundreds of clients, including Coca-Cola, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Focus on the Family, Sony, American Red Cross, The Salvation Army and more.

John has a 17-year track record of developing successful web marketing campaigns, advanced websites and web applications, including over 500 live webcasts and one of the first live streaming iPhone applications. John has been a featured speaker for many national tradeshows and organizations, speaking on web and emerging technologies. He has also served on the Board for the NRB Internet Committee as Chairman.

John studied at the University of California and Biola University, earning a B.S. degree in Organizational Leadership.  

August E. (“Augie”) Grant is J. Rion McKissick Professor of Journalism at the University of South Carolina. Grant is a technology futurist who conducts research, teaches, and writes regarding convergent journalism, media technologies, audience behavior, and media organizational behavior. Grant created the Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals series, The Convergence Newsletter, and the Newsplex Summer Seminars. He has extensive experience in radio and television broadcasting and is a world renowned expert in the area of convergent media. Grant earned his M.A.J.C. at the University of Florida and his Ph.D. from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California, and serves as a consultant to media and high-tech organizations.

Jeffrey S. Wilkinson is a Chair of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department at Houston Baptist University in Houston, TX.  Wilkinson is a renowned expert in new and convergent media, speaking at conferences across the globe on the subject and having co-authored two of the premier texts on the subject, including Understanding Media Convergence and Principles of Convergent Journalism. Wilkinson is a specialist in international journalism with more than a decade teaching and researching mass media in China and Hong Kong. He earned both his Master's and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. Wilkinson has extensive experience in both radio and television broadcasting as a reporter, presenter, producer, and talk show host.

Nina Barnes has a passion to share God’s message of redemption through salvation and through His ongoing work in life circumstances.

She has worked at Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN, for 12 years, where she currently serves as Human Resources Manager, focusing on hiring/onboarding, employee relations and organizational development. Nina holds a bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministries and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).

She has held positions in a variety of industries (retail, manufacturing, insurance, tourism, entertainment, health care, prison ministry, higher education) and lived in an abundance of places (Chicago, New England, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Los Angeles, the Bahamas, San Francisco, and Minneapolis/St. Paul).

Her activities outside of work include service on the Governing Board of Elders at her church, Board Member of Antioch Ministries in North Minneapolis, and mentoring/coaching. 
 

Marie Guthrie has significant experience in corporate and non-profit marketing and communications.  Her early professional career began with roles at Motorola, Accenture, and Arthur Andersen.  Having her own consulting business for several years, she led curriculum development projects on topics such as volunteerism, becoming a multi-racial church, and compassion and justice for the Willow Creek association.  Presently, she leads corporate branding and messaging for Awana – a global children’s and youth ministry.  Her team drives communication to internal and external Awana audiences.

Georgia is the Director of Production, and Content Strategy & SEO Subject Matter Expert at Five Q. Before joining Five Q, Georgia was Marketing, Communications, and Research Manager at Copesan in Menomonee Falls, WI, and the Director of Communications at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, WI, where she was responsible for developing and managing the 6,000-member church’s first Communication Department.  She graduated from Biola University with a degree in Business Administration and recently completed SEO certification with Bruce Clay.

“The people we serve and work alongside are watching and waiting to be inspired and led to greatness.” Inspiration, leadership, excellence, and fun are words Brian hangs his hat on. Throughout his career, Brian has served in senior leadership roles where he has had the unique ability to drive strategic direction and connect Human Resources to the business, operations, and organizations objectives. 

His skills and expertise in organizational leadership, coaching, and workforce development have translated into results. Brian currently serves on the Executive Council, as the Vice President of Human Resources, at the nation’s largest Christian music broadcaster, K-LOVE / Air1 Radio Networks. He is part of a unique leadership team - helping the organization successfully grow from 145 team members to now more than 350 working in 27 states, serving and supporting an audience of more than 12 million weekly.

Brian’s passion and approach in bringing talented people together, to accomplish substantially so much more as a team rather than as individuals, has moved organizations forward with momentum. He believes the “special sauce” in achieving key strategic initiatives is people, focus, flexible structure, and fun.  

His mission from day one has been to help shape the future of organizations and to positively impact the lives of those he partners with. Brian strongly believes that leaders have a responsibility to reflect the organizations values and equip their people to accomplish what’s next. 

For over fifteen years, Brian has excelled working with high energy fast-paced organizations, including UPS, Target, and consulting/software start-up companies. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from California State University of Sacramento and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) with the HRCI Society of Human Resource Management.

One C-Level executive describes Brian as, “Definitely not your typical HR guy, and if you ask Brian, he’ll say, ‘that’s a good thing’”.

Paul Sirmons has a 30-year track record as an assistant director, unit production manager, director, producer, and indie filmmaker. His focus for the last 10 years has been on creating faith-based products. Recently, he was the line-producer for Home Run, Renee, and Letters to God, all faith-based movies.

In 2005, Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Paul as Florida’s State Film Commissioner, where he rewrote Florida’s film incentive program and helped increase its funding to $25 million, attracting hundreds of millions of dollars to the state and creating thousands of new jobs.

Paul produced four independent features in Florida, including The Way Back Home. He also directed and produced the family film The First of May, starring Julie Harris, Dan Byrd, Mickey Rooney and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio.  The First of May won 13 film festival awards and has aired on HBO, TBN, and around the world.

Prior to that, Paul worked for 20 years as a DGA (Directors Guild of America) assistant director on various TV series such as Quantum Leap, Sea Quest, Falcon Crest, Our House, and The Waltons. He recently directed Last Stop, a pilot for a dramatic Christian TV series about a Christian counselor who has a gift for helping people – but who doesn't really like people.

Sirmons serves on the advisory boards for film & digital media at the University of Florida, Valencia College, and Full Sail University.
 

Payton Dunham has extensive credits in features, television, and commercials as a Producer, Line Producer, Unit Production Manager, Assistant Director and Location Manager.

Recent feature credits as Producer or UPM include Cowgirls ‘n Angels, The Lamp, and Heaven’s Rain. In 2007-08, Payton was the Creative Services - Director of Production, Operations and Talent Relations for Starz Entertainment Group.

Other film credits include the Oscar-nominated Junebug and 21 Grams, the Sundance Festival award-winning feature Forty Shades of Blue, Night at the Museum, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Bringing up Bobby, and Comedy Central’s television series Stella.

As a writer, Payton has written screenplays and treatments for various producers and production companies. He’s also created promotional copy for clients that range from Mountain Dew to Warner Brothers, and has written for various publications, newspapers and websites.

For centuries, the Western Protestant Church has divorced Image from Word, and many forms of visual art and beauty have been excommunicated. But visual art is making a comeback in today's worship culture with the help of technology like media and projection. This obviously raises a few questions, both technologically and theologically. Is there such a thing as "visual worship"? And if so, do we need visual worship leaders just like we have musical worship leaders?

Stephen is an illuminator and video jockey whose primary focus is designing and curating visually immersive experiences for worship. At the heart, Stephen is a curator of visual worship who seeks to unleash people’s imaginations through moments of wonder and astonishment.  He lives in Nashville, but his relationships and events keep him traveling all over the world. He and his business partner, Nate Griffin, run Grateful Inconvenience, a creative collective that focuses on visual storytelling through film, atmospheric design & media. Their work can be seen with Beth Moore's Living Proof Live, Travis Cottrell, Gungor, All Sons & Daughters, National Worship Leaders Conference, as well as a handful of other events. They are also very involved with many missional organizations that are spreading the name of Jesus to the unreached people groups of the world.

Though the road goes ever on and on, Stephen is rooted in his local church, Journey, where he serves on the creative team when home. He also shares resources, stories and his passion for visually creative worship on his blog, illuminate.co, as well as in his upcoming book Illuminate: A Tale of Visual Worship.
 

Guy Richards is the founder and CEO of Abiah, a brand development and creative firm that focuses on helping Christian organizations thrive. He is also the author of TALKABLE, Building your brand from the inside out, published by M&B. Abiah has received numerous awards, including helping three of their clients land on the Top Global Rebrand 100 list by ReBrand.com. A few of the clients Abiah has helped include: John Stott Ministries, Young Life, Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, Moody Publishers and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Chris Skaggs is a 13 year veteran of the web and mobile software industry. The founder and CEO of both Soma Games and Code-Monkeys, Chris has delivered software applications to some of the country’s most discerning clients like Intel, Four Seasons, Comcast and Aruba Networks. In addition to corporate customers, Code-Monkeys has programmed many casual games for iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac/PC platforms. Inside Soma Games is a group of dedicated believers who have chosen to walk the fine line between being “on the lampstand” Christians and making games full of Biblical allegory released into the mainstream market. Games like G: Into The Rain and Wind Up Robots have garnered much critical praise and market success. A Black Belt in Intel’s Software Developer Network, Chris also writes and speaks on topics surrounding the rapidly-changing mobile application environment at venues like Casual Connect, Serious Play, IDF, Christian Game Developers Conference, TechStart, and AppUp Elements.

After spending several years working in radio on multiple stations in Ohio, and for a syndicated network where he quickly established a strong presence on-air, Jeremy Parsons headed off to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of working in television.

Shortly after arriving in Hollywood, he landed various production positions with Dick Clark Productions, ABC's Good Morning America, and multiple entertainment networks. In addition to producing, Jeremy was tapped as an on-air contributor for an entertainment news show at the Los Angeles-based network LTN, where he covered red carpet premieres, press junkets, and hosted in-studio interviews with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. It was there that Jeremy's engaging and witty personality garnered the attention of his peers and network leaders.

Jeremy eventually found himself at ReelzChannel, where he works as a segment producer for Secret's Out with Leonard Maltin, as well as a co-host on The Big Tease. Hosting the show is a dream gig for this movie lover.

To Jeremy the important things in life are to cherish your friends and family and to have faith.
 

Over a 30+ year career, Craig’s television, film, video and documentary projects have taken him to 144 countries, flown him 14 times around the world and landed him on six continents.

More than 200 overseas assignments have imbedded him into dangerous hot spots like Iraq, Cuba, Burundi, the Congo, El Salvador, Palestine, Cambodia, Vietnam, Uganda, Haiti, Burma, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Chad, Bosnia & Kosovo.

His strengths include digital cinema, broadcast segments and shows, short films, documentaries – plus single & multi-camera production. He has worked professionally at the network level for CBS’s The Amazing Race, ABC’s In Concert, Discovery Channel’s World of Wonder, Travel Channel, Animal Planet, PBS, History Channel, Fox Sports, A&E, TLC, and American Movie Classics’ Movie Memories.

Craig has produced, directed or shot camera for such notable clients as Family Channel, DuPont, Nestlé, Hyatt Hotels, Memorex, Toshiba, McDonalds, Northwest Airlines, Ford, Wells Fargo Bank, Blue Shield, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Samaritan’s Purse, World Vision, Voice of the Martyrs, Far East Broadcasting, OneHope, Dream Center and Teen Challenge.

He is the author of the books Commando Tactics for Digital Filmmakers and The Influence of Alexander Mackendrick on the Kailyard Film Sub-genre. Craig holds a masters degree in Film Studies from the Conservatory of Motion Pictures at Chapman University (a Top 10 film school), and a bachelor's in Biblical & Theological Studies from Bethany University. A voting member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Emmys), he also holds membership in the International Press Association and the prestigious Travelers’ Century Club.
 

Nathan Tabor is President of TCVmedia.com.  TCVmedia.com is a professional full-service Internet and branding firm that specializes in website design and application, marketing, advertising and consulting services.

Jim Taszarek is helping reorganize and run the business underwriting for K-LOVE and Air1. Before joining K-LOVE, Jim was a well-known consultant, trainer and speaker.  He spent 15 years as a General Manager of stations in St. Louis and Phoenix, and also spent four years as Chief Revenue Officer of the American City Business Journal chain of newspapers.  His bachelor’s degree is from St. Louis University and master’s from Webster University. 
 

Kay Peters is the Director of Business Development for KTIS Radio Station - inviting partners to invest their resources into relevant marketing opportunities that help support the Christ-centered ministry of KTIS.  Her 30+ years of major market radio sales /management experience has provided her the opportunity to work for CBS, Hubbard Broadcasting and Clear Channel Radio group. Kay is a certified Creative Ideation Brainstorming Consultant, trained at The Center for Sales Strategy in Dallas, TX.  Kay has a B.A. in Psychology and a master’s in organizational development counseling. 

As Senior Director of Creative Services for KSBJ, Nikki Sparks creatively shares the story of the KSBJ ministry through strategic planning, brand management and development, traditional and non-traditional marketing campaigns, online communications, and public relations. With 30 years in the Houston market, KSBJ is the largest non-profit, listener supported radio station in the country. Two years ago, KSBJ launched a sister station, NGEN Radio, to reach today’s generation striving for constant connection and hit music.  Nikki is the champion for integrated communications among all KSBJ ministries, also including KSBJ Special Events and Ticket Servant.  Recently celebrating a five-year anniversary at KSBJ, Nikki is ready and excited to explore God’s next plan for this journey. Prior to joining KSBJ, Nikki served on the agency side of marketing, working with non-profit, business-to-business and consumer clientele.

Jeremy Ruck is a graduate of Bradley University in Peoria, IL, with the Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Illinois. Jeremy has 20 years of professional engineering experience and more than 25 years of experience in broadcasting and communications engineering. He is a full member of the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers (AFCCE).

Jeremy is a bimonthly contributor to Radio magazine. Since 2000, he has spoken at numerous events, including the Wisconsin Broadcasters Clinic in Madison, WI, and the Indiana Broadcasters Association.

Rick is a 34-year veteran in direct response marketing and fundraising for nonprofit organizations. In 2002, Rick founded Dunham+Company to establish a new model to serve ministries, a model which seeks to integrate the variety of organizational and marketing components that must work in concert in order to optimize income generation and impact long-term organizational effectiveness.

Rick holds a B.A. from Biola University and a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary. He is an active member of the National Religious Broadcasters and the Direct Marketing Association, where he serves annually as a judge for the International ECHO Awards.

Rick is the author of Secure: Discovering True Security in Turbulent Financial Times and If God Will Provide, Why Do We Have to Ask for Money? He has also been published and quoted in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, USA Today, Dallas Morning News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, and Townhall.com, and has served as a commentator on Fox Business News.
 

 In a time where the world's attention is riveted on events in the Middle East, CBN viewers have come to appreciate Chris Mitchell's timely reports from this explosive region of the world. Chris brings a biblical and prophetic perspective to these daily news events that shape our world.

Chris first began reporting on the Middle East in the mid-1990s. He repeatedly traveled there to report on the religious and political issues facing Israel and the surrounding Arab states. One of his more significant reports focused on the emigration of persecuted Christians from the Middle East.

Chris also earned a "Short Story of the Year" award for his examination of religious coverage in network news. He has also reported on such movements as the Promise Keepers and the annual "Prayer and Fasting" campaign led by the late Campus Crusade founder Dr. Bill Bright.

In addition to his reports for The 700 Club, Chris is a regular contributor to Christian World News, a weekly 30-minute newscast that airs nationally in multiple markets.

Prior to joining CBN News in 1992, Chris worked for three years as a researcher, producer, and reporter for the Features/Testimonies department of The 700 Club.

A native of the Boston area, Chris earned a B.A. in History at the University of New Hampshire in 1975. In 1987, he graduated with honors from Regent University, earning an M.A. in Communication. While a student at Regent (then CBN University), Chris anchored Newsight, a student-produced Christian news program.

After almost a decade with CBN News, Chris's goal is to provide in his stories the biblical "understanding of the times" described in 1 Chronicles 12:32.
 

Jim Taszarek is helping reorganize and run the business underwriting for K-LOVE and Air1. Before joining K-LOVE, Jim was a well-known consultant, trainer and speaker.  He spent 15 years as a General Manager of stations in St. Louis and Phoenix, and also spent four years as Chief Revenue Officer of the American City Business Journal chain of newspapers.  His bachelor’s degree is from St. Louis University and master’s from Webster University. 
 

Kay Peters is the Director of Business Development for KTIS Radio Station - inviting partners to invest their resources into relevant marketing opportunities that help support the Christ-centered ministry of KTIS.  Her 30+ years of major market radio sales /management experience has provided her the opportunity to work for CBS, Hubbard Broadcasting and Clear Channel Radio group. Kay is a certified Creative Ideation Brainstorming Consultant, trained at The Center for Sales Strategy in Dallas, TX.  Kay has a B.A. in Psychology and a master’s in organizational development counseling. 

Irish singer/songwriters Keith & Kristyn Getty are among the preeminent modern hymn writers of this generation. Best known for In Christ Alone (penned by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend), the renowned hymn has been recorded by numerous artists and is a classic sung in churches around the globe. The couple’s popular U.S. recordings include In Christ Alone, Awaken the Dawn and Joy – An Irish Christmas. Their latest release, Hymns for the Christian Life, is a thematically-focused original collection showcasing traditional Irish melodies as well as American bluegrass and country influences. Keith & Kristyn Getty have shared their music at Franklin Graham crusades, the GMA Dove Awards, and performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall and the legendary Grand Ole Opry, among other noted platforms and international tours.

Dr. Tony Evans is one of the country’s most respected leaders in evangelical circles. He is a pastor, best-selling author and frequent speaker at Bible conferences, crusades and seminars throughout the nation.

He has served as the senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship for over 36 years, witnessing its growth from 10 people in 1976 to now over 9,700 congregants and 100+ ministries.

Through his local church and national ministry Dr. Evans promotes a Kingdom agenda philosophy that teaches God’s comprehensive rule over every sphere of life as demonstrated through the individual, family, church and society

Dr. Evans also serves as president of The Urban Alternative, a national ministry that seeks to restore hope and transform lives through the proclamation and the application of the Word of God. His daily radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on more than 850 stations throughout the United States and in more than 80 countries.

He has written numerous books and booklets including his legacy work, Oneness Embraced, as well as his vision work, The Kingdom Agenda. Some of his most recent books include, Kingdom Man, A Moment For Your Soul, Marriage Matters, and Victory in Spiritual Warfare.

Dr. Evans served as chaplain for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, and continues to serve as chaplain for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, a ministry he has had for over 30 years.

He is the first African-American to graduate with a doctoral degree from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS), he served as an associate professor in DTS’ Pastoral Ministries Department in the areas of evangelism, homiletics and black church studies.
 

“The people we serve and work alongside are watching and waiting to be inspired and led to greatness.” Inspiration, leadership, excellence, and fun are words Brian hangs his hat on. Throughout his career, Brian has served in senior leadership roles where he has had the unique ability to drive strategic direction and connect Human Resources to the business, operations, and organizations objectives. 

His skills and expertise in organizational leadership, coaching, and workforce development have translated into results. Brian currently serves on the Executive Council, as the Vice President of Human Resources, at the nation’s largest Christian music broadcaster, K-LOVE / Air1 Radio Networks. He is part of a unique leadership team - helping the organization successfully grow from 145 team members to now more than 350 working in 27 states, serving and supporting an audience of more than 12 million weekly.

Brian’s passion and approach in bringing talented people together, to accomplish substantially so much more as a team rather than as individuals, has moved organizations forward with momentum. He believes the “special sauce” in achieving key strategic initiatives is people, focus, flexible structure, and fun.  

His mission from day one has been to help shape the future of organizations and to positively impact the lives of those he partners with. Brian strongly believes that leaders have a responsibility to reflect the organizations values and equip their people to accomplish what’s next. 

For over fifteen years, Brian has excelled working with high energy fast-paced organizations, including UPS, Target, and consulting/software start-up companies. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from California State University of Sacramento and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) with the HRCI Society of Human Resource Management.

One C-Level executive describes Brian as, “Definitely not your typical HR guy, and if you ask Brian, he’ll say, ‘that’s a good thing’”.

Nina Barnes has a passion to share God’s message of redemption through salvation and through His ongoing work in life circumstances.

She has worked at Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN, for 12 years, where she currently serves as Human Resources Manager, focusing on hiring/onboarding, employee relations and organizational development. Nina holds a bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministries and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).

She has held positions in a variety of industries (retail, manufacturing, insurance, tourism, entertainment, health care, prison ministry, higher education) and lived in an abundance of places (Chicago, New England, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Los Angeles, the Bahamas, San Francisco, and Minneapolis/St. Paul).

Her activities outside of work include service on the Governing Board of Elders at her church, Board Member of Antioch Ministries in North Minneapolis, and mentoring/coaching. 
 

Brad Wright is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, where he studies American Christianity.  He received his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, where he was trained in social psychology and criminology.  He has authored 20 scholarly articles and two books: Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites... and Other Lies You've Been Told (2010), and Upside: Surprising Good News about the State of Our World (2011). Hypocrites won the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award for Christianity and Culture.

Phil Boyce is currently the Vice President and Director of Spoken Word for Salem Communications.  In this capacity Phil supervises the 24 NewsTalk stations owned by Salem, in addition to the 40 Christian Talk and Teach stations, and the 11 Business Talk stations.  Phil is directly responsible for on-air programming at WNYM and WMCA Radio in New York City.

Previously, he was the Program Director for NewsTalkRadio WABC (AM) in New York City, as well as Vice President of news/talk programming for ABC Radio and Program Director for Talk Radio Network.

Phil programmed nationally syndicated ABC Radio shows, including The Sean Hannity Show and The Mark Levin Show.  He handled programming at all ABC Radio news/talk stations, including KABC-AM in Los Angeles, WLS-AM in Chicago and WMAL-AM in Washington, D.C.

Eric Metaxas is the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Named “Book of the Year” by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) and called a “biography of uncommon power,” Bonhoeffer appeared on numerous 2010 “Best of the Year” lists and was featured in the Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, NPR,CNN, FoxNews, C-SPAN’s Book TV, Christianity Today, and The Weekly Standard.

Eric was the keynote speaker at the 2012 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, an event attended by the President and First Lady, the Vice President, members of Congress, and other U.S. and world leaders.

Eric currently co-hosts BreakPoint, a radio commentary that airs daily on more than 1,200 outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people.

In 2011, Metaxas was the 17th recipient of the Canterbury Medal awarded by the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom. Previous medalists include Mitt Romney, Chuck Colson, and Elie Wiesel.

In a decidedly eclectic career, Eric has written for VeggieTales, Chuck Colson, and the New York Times, three things not ordinarily in the same sentence. He is a best-selling author whose biographies, children’s books, and works of popular apologetics have been translated into German, Albanian, Portuguese, Spanish, Korean, Turkish, Galician, French, Chinese, Dutch, Danish, Italian, Polish and Macedonian.
 

Irish singer/songwriters Keith & Kristyn Getty are among the preeminent modern hymn writers of this generation. Best known for In Christ Alone (penned by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend), the renowned hymn has been recorded by numerous artists and is a classic sung in churches around the globe. The couple’s popular U.S. recordings include In Christ Alone, Awaken the Dawn and Joy – An Irish Christmas. Their latest release, Hymns for the Christian Life, is a thematically-focused original collection showcasing traditional Irish melodies as well as American bluegrass and country influences. Keith & Kristyn Getty have shared their music at Franklin Graham crusades, the GMA Dove Awards, and performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall and the legendary Grand Ole Opry, among other noted platforms and international tours.

Dr. Tony Evans is one of the country’s most respected leaders in evangelical circles. He is a pastor, best-selling author and frequent speaker at Bible conferences, crusades and seminars throughout the nation.

He has served as the senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship for over 36 years, witnessing its growth from 10 people in 1976 to now over 9,700 congregants and 100+ ministries.

Through his local church and national ministry Dr. Evans promotes a Kingdom agenda philosophy that teaches God’s comprehensive rule over every sphere of life as demonstrated through the individual, family, church and society

Dr. Evans also serves as president of The Urban Alternative, a national ministry that seeks to restore hope and transform lives through the proclamation and the application of the Word of God. His daily radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on more than 850 stations throughout the United States and in more than 80 countries.

He has written numerous books and booklets including his legacy work, Oneness Embraced, as well as his vision work, The Kingdom Agenda. Some of his most recent books include, Kingdom Man, A Moment For Your Soul, Marriage Matters, and Victory in Spiritual Warfare.

Dr. Evans served as chaplain for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, and continues to serve as chaplain for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, a ministry he has had for over 30 years.

He is the first African-American to graduate with a doctoral degree from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS), he served as an associate professor in DTS’ Pastoral Ministries Department in the areas of evangelism, homiletics and black church studies.
 

Brad Wright is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, where he studies American Christianity.  He received his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, where he was trained in social psychology and criminology.  He has authored 20 scholarly articles and two books: Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites... and Other Lies You've Been Told (2010), and Upside: Surprising Good News about the State of Our World (2011). Hypocrites won the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award for Christianity and Culture.

Phil Boyce is currently the Vice President and Director of Spoken Word for Salem Communications.  In this capacity Phil supervises the 24 NewsTalk stations owned by Salem, in addition to the 40 Christian Talk and Teach stations, and the 11 Business Talk stations.  Phil is directly responsible for on-air programming at WNYM and WMCA Radio in New York City.

Previously, he was the Program Director for NewsTalkRadio WABC (AM) in New York City, as well as Vice President of news/talk programming for ABC Radio and Program Director for Talk Radio Network.

Phil programmed nationally syndicated ABC Radio shows, including The Sean Hannity Show and The Mark Levin Show.  He handled programming at all ABC Radio news/talk stations, including KABC-AM in Los Angeles, WLS-AM in Chicago and WMAL-AM in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer Rothschild has been cleaning out her thought closet and reconciling the missing pieces in her blanket of faith ever since her life drastically changed at the age of 15, when she lost her sight. Now, more than 30 years later, she boldly and compassionately teaches women how to walk by faith, and not by sight.

As a speaker, author and accomplished singer-songwriter, she travels internationally, offering fresh, sensible, biblical advice to audiences who, like her, are determined to pursue healthy and fulfilling lives in spite of their circumstances. She has shared her practical and inspiring messages to arena-sized audiences and on media outlets including Dr. Phil, Good Morning America, Life Today, The Learning Channel and The Billy Graham Television Special.

She’s the author of eight books, including her recently released Bible study, Missing Pieces: Real Hope When Life Doesn’t Make Sense. She is the featured teacher and founder of Fresh Grounded Faith Conferences. She is also publisher of womensministry.net, a popular online magazine for women in ministry.

GRAMMY®-nominated singer/songwriter Nichole Nordeman is a nine-time GMA Dove Award-winner with career sales of more than a million units to date. Lauded for her thought-provoking, poignant lyrics, Nordeman’s signature songs include This Mystery, Holy, and Legacy.  Her 2012 literary debut, Love Story (Worthy Publishing), traces God’s unyielding mission from the beginning of time to rescue His beloved. Based on the best-selling multi-artist recording Music Inspired by The Story, which she co-wrote, Love Story is an exquisite and personal narrative exposing the humanity and more emotional underside of a range of biblical characters.

Claire Diaz-Ortiz leads social innovation at Twitter, where she has worked since 2009. She wrote Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time.

She is a frequent international speaker and is known for developing the “TWEET model” — a framework to help organizations and individuals best excel on Twitter.

Claire holds an M.B.A. from Oxford University, where she was a Skoll Foundation Scholar for Social Entrepreneurship. She also holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Anthropology from Stanford University.

She is the co-founder of Hope Runs, a non-profit organization operating in AIDS orphanages in Kenya.

Claire has lived on four continents and travelled to more than 50 countries. Called a “mover and shaker” by Mashable, she has been widely written about in publications such as Business Week, The Washington Post, and The Independent.
 

Katie Harbath is a Manager for Policy at Facebook, where she focuses on political outreach. Prior to Facebook, Katie was the Chief Digital Strategist at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She previously led digital strategy in positions at DCI Group, the Rudy Giuliani for President Campaign and the Republican National Committee. In 2009, she was named a Rising Star by Campaigns and Elections magazine. Katie holds a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Rob Saliterman heads the Google advertising team’s sales and outreach efforts to Republican political campaigns, building relationships with campaign managers, digital agencies, and issue advocacy groups to drive adoption of online advertising. He previously served as Communications Director to former President George W. Bush in Dallas, TX. From 2008 to 2009, he was spokesman for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and earlier served as Director of Rapid Response in the White House Office of Communications. He has also worked at the Republican National Committee and on the Bush-Cheney ’04 Presidential Campaign. Saliterman is originally from Minnesota and received a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Jeff’s heart is to reach this generation with the timeless message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a speaker, his aim is to go right to the heart of the matter, in light of the fact that God didn’t wait until we cleaned ourselves up, but rather entered directly into our mess offering grace, mercy, and love at the Cross of Jesus.

As a poet, Jeff joined forces with Matthew Robertson and CIK Productions on a recent viral YouTube hit Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus which has had well over 21 million views, gaining over 15 million views in the first week.

Ultimately, Jeff is passionate about people understanding the magnitude of God’s grace and the freedom it provides from the past, the power it provides for the present, and the hope it provides for the future.

He currently resides in Tacoma, WA, where he is helping plant a college ministry called “For the King.” He also makes YouTube videos, writes blogs, and is working on a book that will be out in fall 2013.

Matthew Robertson founded CIK Productions, a professional-grade video production company near Seattle, WA. CIK stands for "Christ is King" and embodies his hope of creating content that is both technically excellent and that does not compromise his convictions to glorify God in all that he does.

Matthew has a passion for producing unique content that genuinely interests people. He is excited to see his work come to completion in a popular product, which happened in his joint effort with poet Jeff Bethke on the recent viral hit video on YouTube Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus. Currently with more than 21 million views, the video gained over 15 million views in the first week it was uploaded.

Matthew believes that the wide variety of productions he has participated in has given him a well-rounded sense of the craft, and driven him to work hard even in uncomfortable or new situations.

Gabe Cooper has a passion for creating life-changing products and helping organizations re-imagine how to reach their constituents through technology. After receiving his M.B.A from Arizona State University in 2002, Gabe moved into a technology leadership role as the VP of Software at the ADF, a large non-profit organization in Scottsdale, AZ.  In 2006, he became a founding member of Perk Software (later Brushfire and Shotzoom Software) and went on to build a series of highly successful digital properties in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors.

Charles Lee is the CEO of Ideation, an idea agency that specializes in helping organizations and businesses take their ideas and make them remarkable via creative strategy, organizational development, branding, design, marketing, web, social media, and influencer engagement. He is also the author of Good Idea. Now What?, a book that guides people in implementing ideas well. In addition, Charles is the creator of grassroots efforts including the Idea Camp, Ideation Conference, and the Freeze Project, as well as the co-founder of JustOne. Charles regularly speaks around the country on topics such as creative process, idea-making, innovation, branding, new media, and social entrepreneurism.

Brod Boyd serves as a consultant to media, non-profit and governmental agencies with Abram-Leslie Media Consulting. Prior to this, he served as the Director of Media for Amazing Facts, Inc., based in Sacramento, CA. Brod oversaw the recent acquisition of the newly launched Amazing Facts TV (AFTV) channel as General Manager. He served as a lead strategic media buyer and planner providing over 600 television and radio outlets in North America, Southeast Asia and parts of the Middle East with programming. During Brod's tenure at Amazing Facts, direct response results rose 120%. The successful launch of a YouTube channel and a Facebook Fan page with over 50,000 active fans developed over a 1 1/2 year period was also his brain child.

Before joining Amazing Facts, Brod served as the Coordinator of Broadcast and Head of New Media for Florida A&M University where he specialized in growing online content from two events to over 300 educational, entertainment, and sporting events. He was charged with identifying strategic media opportunities tied to university enrollment growth and academic expansion of distance and online course offerings. He’s also served as Vice President of Operations and Producer for Moonlight Productions, a film, theatre, and TV production company with offices in California and Florida. Brod began his career as an educational consultant targeting elementary and secondary school teachers and students.

Brod earned a degree in Music Education and studied Public Administration at the graduate level while also earning an M.B.A. with a specialization in Marketing.
 

Stephen Brewster has worked in creative environments for over 12 years.  From artist development, marketing, and management in the music business, to creative team leading and artistic direction, he has worked with a vast array of artists.  Leveraging creativity and leadership, it is Stephen’s desire for the church to regain its position as a leader of the creative frontier.  Stephen currently serves as Creative Arts Pastor at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN. If you would like to follow Stephen on Twitter, he can be found at: @B_rewster or on his daily blog about creativity, http://www.StephenBrewster.me

Jerry Grimes focuses on donor communications, donor intelligence research, marketing, branding, and strategic planning, all derived from his decades of experience in development, leadership and media. Currently, Jerry is serving some of the largest Christian broadcasters in the country, including those serving listeners in New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Indianapolis, Seattle, and Austin.  His work also includes growing support for missions agencies, conservative action groups, social service agencies, and private schools.  

Jerry enjoys writing, public speaking and ministry.  Ordained as a minister in the Independent Christian Church, Churches of Christ movement, Jerry holds an M.A. degree in Leadership from Columbia International University.  He has more than 30 years of experience combining media management, marketing and development. Prior to Joining Advocace, Jerry served as Donor Marketing Director for WAY Media Group and Director of Development for the University of South Carolina School of Law.  He was also Executive Director for South Carolina Friends of Juvenile Justice, a non-profit organization he helped start and now serves as a member of its Board of Directors.

Jerry is the former General Manager for 89.7 WMHK, a National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Award-winning station that was named “Station of the Year” during his tenure. In addition to his work in non-profit organizations, Jerry helped promote local television stations to become market leaders in viewership.

Founder and President of Vertical Horizons Group, Tom desires to spend time developing other ministries into self-sustaining models of efficiency and effectiveness.  His passion is to make ministries better at what they do.  With experiences working in business with Johanna Farms to ministries such as Word of Life Fellowship, The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and EQUIP Leadership, Tom has always been committed to lasting kingdom impact.  He has helped impact ministries in every nation of the world but his desire is to help those ministries in the United States.

Currently Tom is COO of Heart for Lebanon, a non-profit organization started to help disenfranchised people in Lebanon.  He also serves on the Board of 4BServe in Hyderabad, India, and works in the discipleship ministry of his local church. 

Tom has authored a book titled Leadership in Blue Jeans that reflects the leadership lessons he has learned from his wealth of experiences in ministry and the business world.

Jeff Goins is a writer.  He loves compelling stories and worthy causes. He has been writing for most of his life. He is a gifted communicator, writer and creative force. His blog answers important questions young writers ask:  How do successful writers make a living?  What does it really take to get published?  When do you pursue your writing passion?  Through these questions on his blog, he has found a community of like-minded individuals sharing many of the same struggles.

Michael Hyatt, Chairman of Thomas Nelson, says, “Jeff Goins has become one of my favorite bloggers.”
 

Steve Taylor studied music, filmmaking and acting at Colorado University in Boulder, then began a career as a recording artist that spanned 12 years and garnered him two Grammy nominations for Meltdown and Squint. In the process, he made history as the only artist to twice win Billboard Music Video Awards for self-directed music videos. He was also lead singer/co-writer in the MCA-signed modern rock band Chagall Guevara, who were first introduced on the soundtrack to the movie Pump Up The Volume.

Among his many credits as a music video director, his best-known is the Francois Truffaut homage he shot in Paris for Sixpence None The Richer's Kiss Me. Taylor also directed and starred in the award-winning long-form video Squint: Movies From The Soundtrack, shot in 10 countries around the globe, including Vietnam, Nepal, The United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

In preparation for his first movie, Taylor spent two years studying the Meisner technique under acting teacher Bill Feheely. The film that followed - The Second Chance - marked Taylor's debut as director/co-screenwriter. It was produced independently in Nashville and featured a number of first-time actors in prominent roles. The movie was subsequently picked up for a 2006 theatrical release by Sony Pictures Releasing.

Taylor's follow-up feature, Blue Like Jazz, is an adaptation of the New York Times best-selling memoir by Donald Miller.
 

Katie Harbath is a Manager for Policy at Facebook, where she focuses on political outreach. Prior to Facebook, Katie was the Chief Digital Strategist at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She previously led digital strategy in positions at DCI Group, the Rudy Giuliani for President Campaign and the Republican National Committee. In 2009, she was named a Rising Star by Campaigns and Elections magazine. Katie holds a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Craig Parshall is Senior Vice President & General Counsel for National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) where he handles the legal, regulatory and constitutional issues that impact Christian broadcasters and communicators. Mr. Parshall is also the Director of NRB’s John Milton Project for Free Speech, monitoring the threat of anti-Christian censorship of new media platforms like Apple’s iTunes App Store, Facebook, and Google.

Mr. Parshall has testified numerous times in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, has worked with members of Congress on communications policy and religious liberty legislation, and he advocates NRB’s position to the FCC on broadcast and media matters. As a former civil liberties trial attorney, Mr. Parshall represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal District Courts or Courts of Appeal in most of the federal circuits, and before several state supreme courts. Mr. Parshall is also a New York Times best-selling fiction writer and has authored or co-authored 10 suspense novels

Janet Parshall is the host of In the Market with Janet Parshall, a daily two-hour broadcast, nationally syndicated on the Moody Radio Network and carried on hundreds of stations across the country.  She also hosts a three-minute weekly commentary.

Janet was the recipient of the NRB On-Air Personality of the Year Award in 2008 and in 2011.  She was selected by President George W. Bush to represent the White House in the capacity of public delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. 

Kelly Shackelford, Esq., has been President and CEO of Liberty Institute since 1997.

Mr. Shackelford is a constitutional scholar who has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, testified before the U.S. House and Senate on constitutional issues, and has won three state landmark First Amendment and religious liberty cases in the past few years alone.

He was recently named one of the 25 greatest Texas lawyers of the past quarter-century by Texas Lawyer, and is the recipient of the prestigious William Bentley Ball Award for Life and Religious Freedom Defense for his leadership and pioneering work protecting religious freedom.

Mr. Shackelford is a highly sought-after speaker and frequent guest on national TV news and talk show programs, including The O’Reilly Factor, Fox and Friends, Hannity, Good Morning America, NBC’s Today Show, CNN, and MSNBC. He also has been featured in the National Law Journal, Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Times, The Washington Post, and The L.A. Times, among many others.

Mr. Shackelford is on the Board of Trustees of the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society and is a graduate of Baylor University.

Tim Challies is an Associate Pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto.  He is an author, blogger and conference speaker.  His blog (challies.com) is one of the most influential and widely read Christian blogs.  Tim also edits Discerning Reader and is a co-founder of Cruciform Press.  Even though Tim’s ministry is to an audience much broader than the local church alone, his heart is still for ministry in the local church.   He is involved as a leader and mentor to the youth of Grace Fellowship. 

Mark Seignious worked in radio 20 years before joining Northwestern College in 2001.  He has worked at radio stations in San Diego, Seattle, Sacramento, and Minneapolis/St Paul. The first half of his radio career focused on marketing and promotions, while the second half enjoyed working on a morning show. He says the Lord has blessed Northwestern media students the past dozen years and is thrilled to see them flourish in their media vocations throughout the world. He has a passion for the supremacy of Christ.

Claire Diaz-Ortiz leads social innovation at Twitter, where she has worked since 2009. She wrote Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time.

She is a frequent international speaker and is known for developing the “TWEET model” — a framework to help organizations and individuals best excel on Twitter.

Claire holds an M.B.A. from Oxford University, where she was a Skoll Foundation Scholar for Social Entrepreneurship. She also holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Anthropology from Stanford University.

She is the co-founder of Hope Runs, a non-profit organization operating in AIDS orphanages in Kenya.

Claire has lived on four continents and travelled to more than 50 countries. Called a “mover and shaker” by Mashable, she has been widely written about in publications such as Business Week, The Washington Post, and The Independent.
 

With over 15 years of experience in sales, marketing and business management, Jason DeMeo represents many of the largest advertisers, producers, first run syndicated properties and direct response clients in the country.  His creative and analytical thinking has positioned him as one of the leading content and spot TV salespersons and distributors.   Recognized for his high impact and motivational sales and marketing presentations, he continues to work with brand managers and prominent leaders and is often called upon for advice.

Jason also is the principal behind Omniverse One World Television with a new product called the “OmniBox” launching in the fall of 2012.  Omniverse empowers producers, content rights holders, syndicators, and broadcasters large and small to effectively monetize their content through a Multi-Media Platform that covers all 211 domestic markets, worldwide markets, has unlimited channel capacity, and allows for very low broadcasting costs which allows them to transfer those savings to their subscribers.  Omniverse is built to allow the viewer to watch what they want to, on the device they want to, whenever they want to. Viewers can watch content from anywhere whether at home, at work, in the park, on business trips.

The Omniverse service opens the next generation for TV broadcasters, producers, content rights holders, and syndicators. It offers opportunities denied to them by the limitations of cable and satellite infrastructure.

Steve Burzynski is an entrepreneur and leader with a proven track record of revolutionizing organizations through creativity combined with Internet marketing strategies. Prior to co-founding IMAVEX, an Internet marketing and design firm with a focus on Internet TV and Video Streaming in 2001, Steve demonstrated his vision, expertise and passion while working for Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and Ernst & Young. Drawing on over 20 years of experience, he has become a leading voice and pioneer in bringing creative and trending Internet-based solutions to many industries and organizations.

Craig Parshall is Senior Vice President & General Counsel for National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) where he handles the legal, regulatory and constitutional issues that impact Christian broadcasters and communicators. Mr. Parshall is also the Director of NRB’s John Milton Project for Free Speech, monitoring the threat of anti-Christian censorship of new media platforms like Apple’s iTunes App Store, Facebook, and Google.

Mr. Parshall has testified numerous times in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, has worked with members of Congress on communications policy and religious liberty legislation, and he advocates NRB’s position to the FCC on broadcast and media matters. As a former civil liberties trial attorney, Mr. Parshall represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal District Courts or Courts of Appeal in most of the federal circuits, and before several state supreme courts. Mr. Parshall is also a New York Times best-selling fiction writer and has authored or co-authored 10 suspense novels

Harry C. Martin is a member of the law firm of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, PLC, in Arlington, VA. Harry Martin specializes in mass media law, with his time divided between regulatory and transactional matters. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and is an honors graduate of George Washington University Law School.

Harry is a past president of the Federal Communications Bar Association (2004-2005) and served on the FCBA's Executive Committee from 1995-2006. Over this period, he served as assistant treasurer, treasurer, assistant secretary, secretary and president; and co-chaired the FCBA's committees concerned with adjudicatory practice, professional responsibility, judicial practice, mass media practice and continuing legal education. While a co-chair, he organized and moderated CLE programs for each of these committees. This year, Harry is co-chair of the FCBA committee, which coordinates activities with other bar associations.

Harry has been a monthly FCC update columnist for Broadcast Engineering magazine for 30 years. He also regularly participates as a speaker at NAB, NRB and state broadcast industry conventions.

Jeff Southmayd is the founding partner of the Washington, DC, communications law firm of Southmayd & Miller.  This practice represents Christian broadcasters before the Federal Communications Commission.  Jeff has also been involved in the ownership of broadcast stations since 1986 and currently owns a Christian noncommercial station, WNSS-FM in Palm Coast, FL.

Joe Chautin is managing partner of Hardy, Carey, Chautin & Balkin, LLP, in Mandeville, LA, a law firm that advises broadcasters on all aspects of operations, including FCC compliance issues. Joe frequently assists NRB on FCC broadcast regulatory matters, including preparing and filing comments in FCC regulatory proceedings, presentations on current FCC matters, and as co-counsel on two amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court on FCC indecency enforcement.

Joe graduated in 1987 from the University of Southwestern Louisiana with a B.A in Mass Communication. He is also an alumnus of Loyola New Orleans School of Law (J.D., 1997). He is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, Federal Communications Bar Association, and is admitted to all state and federal courts in Louisiana, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. He retired from the USAF as a Lt. Colonel in 2008 after 21 years of active and reserve service.
 

Rob Saliterman heads the Google advertising team’s sales and outreach efforts to Republican political campaigns, building relationships with campaign managers, digital agencies, and issue advocacy groups to drive adoption of online advertising. He previously served as Communications Director to former President George W. Bush in Dallas, TX. From 2008 to 2009, he was spokesman for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and earlier served as Director of Rapid Response in the White House Office of Communications. He has also worked at the Republican National Committee and on the Bush-Cheney ’04 Presidential Campaign. Saliterman is originally from Minnesota and received a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

With leadership experience spanning over two decades, Rebecca Gregory has a strong vision and passion to help nonprofits reach donors and raise dollars to further their mission. Currently, Rebecca serves as Senior Vice President of Marketing & Strategy at The Pursuant Group. Her strength is to come alongside nonprofit organizations regardless of size or tenure and help them achieve their long-term vision and goals. Her specialties include integrated marketing, direct response fundraising, and leveraging technology to achieve results.

Prior to joining Pursuant in June of 2010, Rebecca was the lead account manager and technology strategist for 50+ faith-based nonprofit accounts at Convio, Inc., a SAAS CRM solution for nonprofits. She has also served as the Communications & Mobilization Director for globalX (world missions) at North Point Ministries, Inc., Director of Marketing & Product Development at Walk Thru the Bible Ministries in Atlanta, GA, and Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Her prior corporate experience includes a retail and financial management background.

While at Walk Thru the Bible, her team received the NRB 2007 Website of the Year award and three Telly awards for their production of small group curriculums. Currently, Rebecca serves on the NRB Internet Committee and the 2012 Educational Task Force. She is also Chairman of the Board for LUO, Inc., a nonprofit setting children free from poverty. Rebecca has a bachelor's degree in Commerce and Business Administration from the University of Alabama.

Tim Kachuriak is the Founder and Chief Innovation and Optimization Officer for Next After, a research and consulting firm that works with nonprofits and NGOs to help them grow their resource capacity.

His work is primarily focused on optimizing the donor funnel through applied research using the Internet as a living laboratory. Tim has developed a number of innovative fundraising programs and methodologies that are utilized by national and international nonprofits,

Prior to founding Next After, Tim served as Senior Vice President of Innovation and Optimization for The Pursuant Group and KMA. During his tenure, Tim developed online fundraising strategies for a number of national and international nonprofits.

Tim also has spent some time on the client side of the nonprofit world. He served in a leadership role over digital communications at Coral Ridge Ministries in Fort Lauderdale, FL, the broadcast ministry of the late Dr. D. James Kennedy.

Prior to his work in the nonprofit space, Tim was President of Ambience Interactive, a Pittsburgh-based digital marketing agency, and launched PowerDealerPro, an online automotive software company. He currently serves as Vice Chairman for Online for Life and is on the MECLABS Advisory Board for Optimization.

With over 15 years of experience in sales, marketing and business management, Jason DeMeo represents many of the largest advertisers, producers, first run syndicated properties and direct response clients in the country.  His creative and analytical thinking has positioned him as one of the leading content and spot TV salespersons and distributors.   Recognized for his high impact and motivational sales and marketing presentations, he continues to work with brand managers and prominent leaders and is often called upon for advice.

Jason also is the principal behind Omniverse One World Television with a new product called the “OmniBox” launching in the fall of 2012.  Omniverse empowers producers, content rights holders, syndicators, and broadcasters large and small to effectively monetize their content through a Multi-Media Platform that covers all 211 domestic markets, worldwide markets, has unlimited channel capacity, and allows for very low broadcasting costs which allows them to transfer those savings to their subscribers.  Omniverse is built to allow the viewer to watch what they want to, on the device they want to, whenever they want to. Viewers can watch content from anywhere whether at home, at work, in the park, on business trips.

The Omniverse service opens the next generation for TV broadcasters, producers, content rights holders, and syndicators. It offers opportunities denied to them by the limitations of cable and satellite infrastructure.

Steve Burzynski is an entrepreneur and leader with a proven track record of revolutionizing organizations through creativity combined with Internet marketing strategies. Prior to co-founding IMAVEX, an Internet marketing and design firm with a focus on Internet TV and Video Streaming in 2001, Steve demonstrated his vision, expertise and passion while working for Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and Ernst & Young. Drawing on over 20 years of experience, he has become a leading voice and pioneer in bringing creative and trending Internet-based solutions to many industries and organizations.

Dr. Jennifer Epperson recently received her doctorate in organizational leadership with a minor concentration in human resource development from Nova Southeastern University in Florida. Her research interests include providing training solutions for media leaders, organizational learning and ethics. In addition, she graduated summa cum laude in French literature and music from Wheaton College, in Norton, MA, and received her master’s degree in broadcast management from Bob Jones University, Greenville, SC.

In 1987, she began in radio at WARV-AM in Warwick, RI, overcoming a very strong, regional accent. Since then, she has served in various capacities, including music, production, operations, and management.  Currently, she is the station manager of Moody Radio South Florida in Boynton Beach. Jennifer has also served as the Executive Producer and Host of Trans World Radio (TWR)’s “Women of Hope” program, and has enjoyed facilitating/presenting radio concepts, in varied contexts including university, cross-cultural, and adult learning.
 

John Stonestreet is a Speaker and Fellow of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. He is a gifted communicator on areas of faith and culture, theology, worldview, education, and apologetics, and is a sought-after speaker at conferences, colleges, churches, schools, and other various gatherings each year.

John is the co-host with Eric Metaxas of Breakpoint, the Christian worldview radio program founded by the late Chuck Colson, and the voice of The Point, a daily national radio feature on worldview, apologetics and cultural issues.  He also serves as a Senior Content Advisor for Summit Ministries in Manitou Springs, CO.

John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview (Sheffield Press).
 

Dr. Mitch Land is the Dean of the School of Communication & the Arts at Regent University. His expertise is in international communication and media ethics.  In addition, he consults on journalism training efforts that are sponsored by organizations with the U.S. Department of State.  Dr. Land earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas in radio, television and film, with emphases in international/development communication and cultural anthropology. Dr. Land is fluent in French and studied French language and culture at the Universite de Haute Bretagne and Universite de la Touraine, France.

“The people we serve and work alongside are watching and waiting to be inspired and led to greatness.” Inspiration, leadership, excellence, and fun are words Brian hangs his hat on. Throughout his career, Brian has served in senior leadership roles where he has had the unique ability to drive strategic direction and connect Human Resources to the business, operations, and organizations objectives. 

His skills and expertise in organizational leadership, coaching, and workforce development have translated into results. Brian currently serves on the Executive Council, as the Vice President of Human Resources, at the nation’s largest Christian music broadcaster, K-LOVE / Air1 Radio Networks. He is part of a unique leadership team - helping the organization successfully grow from 145 team members to now more than 350 working in 27 states, serving and supporting an audience of more than 12 million weekly.

Brian’s passion and approach in bringing talented people together, to accomplish substantially so much more as a team rather than as individuals, has moved organizations forward with momentum. He believes the “special sauce” in achieving key strategic initiatives is people, focus, flexible structure, and fun.  

His mission from day one has been to help shape the future of organizations and to positively impact the lives of those he partners with. Brian strongly believes that leaders have a responsibility to reflect the organizations values and equip their people to accomplish what’s next. 

For over fifteen years, Brian has excelled working with high energy fast-paced organizations, including UPS, Target, and consulting/software start-up companies. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from California State University of Sacramento and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) with the HRCI Society of Human Resource Management.

One C-Level executive describes Brian as, “Definitely not your typical HR guy, and if you ask Brian, he’ll say, ‘that’s a good thing’”.

Brod Boyd serves as a consultant to media, non-profit and governmental agencies with Abram-Leslie Media Consulting. Prior to this, he served as the Director of Media for Amazing Facts, Inc., based in Sacramento, CA. Brod oversaw the recent acquisition of the newly launched Amazing Facts TV (AFTV) channel as General Manager. He served as a lead strategic media buyer and planner providing over 600 television and radio outlets in North America, Southeast Asia and parts of the Middle East with programming. During Brod's tenure at Amazing Facts, direct response results rose 120%. The successful launch of a YouTube channel and a Facebook Fan page with over 50,000 active fans developed over a 1 1/2 year period was also his brain child.

Before joining Amazing Facts, Brod served as the Coordinator of Broadcast and Head of New Media for Florida A&M University where he specialized in growing online content from two events to over 300 educational, entertainment, and sporting events. He was charged with identifying strategic media opportunities tied to university enrollment growth and academic expansion of distance and online course offerings. He’s also served as Vice President of Operations and Producer for Moonlight Productions, a film, theatre, and TV production company with offices in California and Florida. Brod began his career as an educational consultant targeting elementary and secondary school teachers and students.

Brod earned a degree in Music Education and studied Public Administration at the graduate level while also earning an M.B.A. with a specialization in Marketing.