Dr. David Anderson

Dr. David Anderson, founder and President of Gracism Global, is one of the world’s leading authorities on bridging the deep divides of race, faith, culture, and wealth. Known as the bridge-building voice in the Nation's Capital, Anderson hosts the daily radio talk show "Real Talk with Dr. David Anderson" on WAVA (105.1 FM) – the most listened to Christian talk station on the East Coast. As the founder and senior pastor of Bridgeway Community Church, Dr. Anderson reaches a multicultural congregation of over 10,000 weekly attendees from more than 60 nations, viewed online in over 100 countries, with locations in Columbia and Owings Mills, Maryland.

Rick Denham

Rick Denham serves as the Global spreading manager with Desiring God ministries and is the International director of 9Marks. Raised in Brazil in a missionary family, Rick returned to the States for college and afterward started a merchandising company in the Christian Music Industry. In 2005, after 17 years in the music industry, Rick and his wife Kimberlie returned to Brazil to serve as missionaries. At this point, Rick began working with FIEL, a Brazilian publishing and teaching ministry his parents started in 1966, and continues to serve as their International Director. The Denhams live in São Paulo, Brazil, with their children, James, Lilah, and Julieta.

Peter Greer

Peter Greer is the president and CEO of HOPE International. Peter’s favorite part of his job is spending time with the entrepreneurs HOPE serves—whether harvesting coffee with farmers in Rwanda, dancing alongside savings groups in Haiti, or visiting the greenhouses of entrepreneurs in Ukraine. Prior to HOPE, he worked in Rwanda, Cambodia, and Zimbabwe and received a master's in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School. In his spare time, he has co-authored 13 books, including “Mission Drift” and “Rooting for Rivals.” He lives with his wife, Laurel, and their four children in Lancaster, PA.

Justin Paul Lawrence

Justin Paul Lawrence is Divisional Vice President for Go-To-Market at InterVarsity Press. A 20-year veteran of the Christian publishing industry, he has begun to conduct management and marketing training over the past five years. He holds an MBA from Grand Valley State University and has been trained by Manager Tools. His passion is for organizations to be great places to work while simultaneously being effective in their efforts.

Kristen McLean

Kristen McLean is the Executive Director of Business Development at Circana (formerly The NPD Group). With more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry in roles including retailing, sales, marketing, and industry advocacy, she oversees research into the consumer behavior of readers, and she is Circana's in-house specialist on both the Children's and the Christian markets. She is the editor of the recent ECPA Landscape Survey of Book Buying Trends in the Christian Market. As part of her role as an industry strategist, Kristen speaks extensively on issues facing the publishing world including the effect of technology and culture on books and reading, and evolving models for publishing. Kristen is deeply interested in the confluence of consumer behavior, technology, literacy, and global information in the Digital Age.

Sam Richardson

Sam Richardson is Chief Executive of SPCK, the UK’s largest Christian publisher. Sam started his career on the graduate scheme at HarperCollins, where he progressed to run the Religion department. He then returned to publishing general books at Hodder & Stoughton before being appointed Chief Executive of SPCK in 2014. Under Sam’s leadership SPCK has won Specialist Consumer Publisher of the Year four times and has increased its income by 150%, by organic growth and by acquisitions of IVP UK and Lion Hudson. Sam is passionate about the life-changing power of Christian books and media, and is treasurer of Media Associates International in Europe. Sam is married to Sarah and is a father of three boys, with his free time dedicated mostly to running and soccer.

Carolyn Weber

Carolyn Weber is a professor at New College Franklin and the author of the award-winning memoir Surprised by Oxford (Thomas Nelson), Holy is the Day: Living in the Gift of the Present (InterVarsity Press) and most recently Sex and the City of God: A Memoir of Love and Longing (InterVarsity Press). Surprised by Oxford is now being made into a feature film directed by Ryan Whitaker. A Commonwealth Scholar, Dr. Weber has served as faculty at Oxford University, Seattle University, University of San Francisco, and Westmont College, and was the first female dean of St. Peter’s College, Oxford. Carolyn enjoys living in a quirky old house out in the country with her husband, four spirited children, and grandma, along with their animal menagerie. She loves oh so many things, but especially books, tea, nature walks in solitude, messes with children, chocolate, animals, and a circle of good friends by a fire. She also loves loyalty, decency, courtesy, integrity and kindness. And her husband, who embodies these things, and more. Valiant, magnificent, gentle and just – the four crowns of Narnia – are what she aspires to be. Those with any wisdom to share are encouraged to reach out. New friends are welcome. There is always a comfortable chair waiting by the fire…

Philip Yancey

Growing up in a strict, fundamentalist church in southern USA, a young Philip Yancey tended to view God as “a scowling Supercop, searching for anyone who might be having a good time—in order to squash them.”  Yancey quips today about being “in recovery” from a toxic church: “We were taught that God answers prayers, miraculously, but my father died of polio just after my first birthday, despite many prayers for his healing.”  For Yancey, reading offered a window to a different world. So, he devoured books that opened his mind, challenged his upbringing, and went against what he had been taught.  A sense of betrayal engulfed him. “I felt I had been lied to… I realized that God had been misrepresented to me.  Cautiously, warily, I returned, circling around the faith to see if it might be true.”

Ever since, Yancey has explored the most basic questions and deepest mysteries of the Christian faith, guiding millions of readers with him.  Early on he crafted best-selling books such as Disappointment with God and Where is God When it Hurts?  More recently, he has explored central issues of the Christian faith, penning award-winning titles such as The Jesus I Never Knew, What’s So Amazing About Grace? and Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?  Philip has written over 30 books, most of them still in print, having sold more than 20 million copies.  His books have garnered 12 Gold Medallion Awards, one Christian Book Award®, two Christian Book of the Year® Awards, and have been published in some 50 languages worldwide.  In his new memoir, Where the Light Fell, Yancey reveals secrets of his turbulent childhood and teen years.  Serving as a type of prequel to all his other books, this memoir takes the reader on a journey from that strict fundamentalism of his youth to Yancey’s dedicated search for grace and meaning.

Philip Yancey worked as a journalist in Chicago for some twenty years, editing the youth magazine Campus Life while also writing for a wide variety of magazines including Reader’s Digest, Saturday Evening Post, National Wildlife, and Christianity Today.  In the process he interviewed diverse people enriched by their personal faith, such as President Jimmy Carter, Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller, and Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement.