Mary Summerhays

Mary Summerhays is a consultant for Princeton New Jersey’s Witherspoon Institute.  She Is the Utah State Leader for their CanaVox project. She is better known in Utah for creating the  Celebration of Marriage, an organization that  works to increase public awareness about the consequences of a possible of redefinition of  marriage or gender  in the state of Utah.   Her optimism and  down to earth speaking style makes it easy for every audience to relate to the issue, and get excited about protecting the family.   Surprisingly, her interest in gender issues stemmed from her work as an award winning artist whose paintings explore the transformative nature of relationships.  She is married to a fascinating LDS apologist and academic editor.  They and their five children live in Provo, and share a fondness for the state vice—ice cream.

JoAnne Roberts

JoAnne Roberts is a wife, mother and grandmother. She and her husband, Greg, reside in Provo, Utah, where they have raised seven children. They feel privileged to live in close proximity to many of their extended family members including their 19 (and counting) grandchildren.

JoAnne attended Ricks College and Brigham Young University and has worked in the medical services field and in a family business. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints she has served in numerous callings associated with youth.

Her interest in the need to defend the family grew out of the questions of her children that she did not feel prepared to answer. She believes that parents have the responsibility to teach their families both the spiritual law of the Divine Institution of Marriage as well as the value of strengthening families for the benefit of society.

Her focus is in helping parents teach their own families to understand why preserving traditional marriage matters.

Kimberly Ells

Kimberly Ells is the president of the Utah Chapter of Family Watch International and is a loyal defender of the family, marriage and children.

She is dedicated to telling the truth about the family and to help people see the perils that the family and society are facing. Many of these perils stem from international efforts to advance the "sexual rights" agenda at the United Nations and elsewhere.

Her message stresses how we can and must intervene on behalf of the family. Kimberly and her husband are the parents of four girls.

Ralph C. Hancock

Ralph C. Hancock (PhD 1983, Harvard) is Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University, where he teaches the tradition of political philosophy as well as contemporary political theory.  His research and writing focus on the meaning and limits of modern rationalism in relation to religious and ethical-political  traditions. 

He has twice taught as a Visiting Professor at the University of Rennes, France, and was a Visiting Scholar at Liberty Fund in Indianapolis.  He is the author of Calvin and the Foundations of Modern Politics (Cornell  1989; new edition from St. Augustine’s Press) and  The Responsibility of Reason: Theory and Practice in a Liberal-Democratic Age (Rowman & Littlefield). 
Dr. Hancock is also the editor of four books, translator (from the French) of three  others and of numerous articles and chapters, and author of numerous articles and reviews in moral and political philosophy. 

He is the founder and President  of the John Adams Center  for the Study of Faith, Philosophy, and Public Affairs (johnadamscenter.com).  Meridian Magazine has published a number of his essays on problems of religion and politics for LDS.

Nettie H. Francis

Nettie H. Francis is the mother of nine children, ages 2 through 17.  She graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Elementary Education and has taught in both public and private schools.
 
Nettie is also an avid writer and she promotes families, traditional values, and womanhood in her articles.  Her work has appeared in national and international publications. 

Nettie is the former editor of the Wyoming Woman Magazine.  Although she now resides in Utah, Nettie continues as a columnist for the Casper Journal in Wyoming  She also works as a freelance writer for a variety of additional publications.

Nettie and her husband, Mark, have raised their children in Santa Clara, Utah; Las Vegas, Nevada; Casper, Wyoming; and currently enjoy living on their small family farm in Kaysville, Utah.

Pamela Romney Openshaw

Pamela Romney Openshaw, an avid student of the Constitution, developed her love of the political process and citizen involvement as an elected delegate from Nebraska to President Jimmy Carter’s White House Conference on Families in 1980. She is an avid reader and student of history, a BYU graduate in education, a former business owner, kindergarten, elementary and high school teacher, and teacher for constitution-based organizations. She is an experienced public speaker, addressing groups on the Constitution and other related topics. She is a former speaker for National Right to Life.

Pamela is the author of three books--Promises of the Constitution: Yesterday, Today Tomorrow, which tells the history, principles, changes to our inspired Constitution, and suggestions for effective action in short, 1 ½ page vignettes. Two additional volumes, Lessons of the Constitution: Parent/Teacher Supplement and Lessons of the Constitution: Student Workbook add student materials and lesson plans to Promises of the Constitution. The Biblical scriptures used by the Founders enrich each lesson. Together, the three volumes create a conservative Christian study program on the Constitution for students in private and home schools, and for family study programs. (www.promisesoftheconstitution.com)

Pamela is the wife of a retired Air Force officer, mother of eight, and grandmother of twenty-nine. She blogs at www.PromisesOfTheConstitution.blogspot.com, and writes a weekly column for the Daily Herald, which appears each Tuesday under the title “Get It Right”. She is currently at work on her next book.

Leslie Probert

Leslie Probert graduated from BYU with a degree in Home Economics with emphasis on child development and taught in public schools. She married Australian husband, Guy, and lived in Australia for 13 years. They have 3 grown children, and 3 grandchildren. While a full-time mother, Leslie worked for 8 years with handicapped children at all levels, from elementary to high school.

Leslie has spoken to numerous groups and at BYU Education Week over the last 13 years.  She has been a columnist for the Deseret News online for 5 years.  She presents a neighborhood meeting which helps people see through some of the confusion surrounding acceptance of those with same sex attraction and learn what to say in defending marriage between a man and a woman.

Watching what has happened in other states where same sex marriage has been legalized provides great reason to speak out.  People leave with a "can do list" of what to do to make a difference in this debate.

Jenet Erickson

Jenet Erickson is a former Assistant Professor in the School of Family Life, at Brigham Young University, Utah. She has published a variety of peer-reviewed family related issues in Human Relations, Journal of Family Issues, Journal of Family Psychology, Family Relations, Early Child Development and Care, the Family and Consumer Research Journal, International Journal of Family Sociology, The Psychologist-Manager Journal, and Open Family Studies Journal.

Jenet has also published a variety of book chapters and commissioned reports, and has presented at the National Council on Family Relations Conference, the Utah Council on Family Relations, the Work-Life Summit,and the BYU Families and Work Research Conference.

Michael Erickson

Michael Erickson is an attorney in Salt Lake City, who worked extensively with California’s Proposition 8 during 2008.
 Michael and Jenet write a monthly editorial column for the Deseret News on issues related to the family. They are the parents of a young daughter and son.

David Hunsaker

1. David Hunsaker has been speaking and writing about the topic of same-sex marriage for about 10 years. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and in 2013 with a Master of Public Administration.
   
   While at BYU, David participated in collegiate debate and served as the president of Stand for the Family, a student club on campus. He and his wife also participated in the It Takes a Family Conference sponsored by the Ruth Institute in Southern California.
   
   In 2013, David sold 289 loaves of homemade bread so that he could take his family to participate in the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C. organized by the National Organization for Marriage. He is now studying to receive a PhD in business at the University of Utah.
   
   He and his wife hold marriage reading groups in their home to teach friends and neighbors about the good of man-woman marriage, and David trains others on how to begin their own reading groups. He is particularly passionate about helping younger individuals, including teenagers, to understand the importance of marriage in society.

Nicole Kay

Nicole Kay is the 2012-2013 Executive Director of Students for the Family. She recently graduated from BYU with a research degree in Marriage, Family, and Human Development (MS), along with a Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Non-Profit Management.

She previously worked with such organizations as The Heritage Foundation in Washington DC as a Research Fellow, and The National Organization for Marriage/The Ruth Institute as the Director of Programs and Outreach.

While a student in her first masters degree, Nicole was the President of a student organization called Stand for the Family, which co-sponsored the first Students for the Family conference in March 2010.  She has planned, attended or spoken at many family issue conferences over the years.  She has extensive experience in student involvement, conference planning, and directing and managing programs.

Bill Duncan

William Duncan is director of the Marriage Law Foundation whose mission is providing legal resources in defense of marriage as the union of a husband and wife. He also directs the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy and the Center for Family and Society at the Sutherland Institute.

He was formerly a visiting professor at the J. Reuben Clark, Jr. Law School at Brigham Young University and acting director of the Marriage Law Project at the Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America.

David Pruden

David Pruden is the President of Evergreen International, a non-profit education and religious organization assisting Latter-day Saints experiencing same-sex attraction and is an adjunct faculty member at Utah State University in the department of Family, Consumer, and Human Development.

 In addition, he serves as Vice-President of Operations for the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality and is the Managing Editor of the Journal of Human Sexuality.

David is an author and speaker on issues related to adolescent and young adult development. Active in community and church service, he is most proud of his three adult children and nine small grandchildren. He and his wife Ramona live in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Shelly Locke

Shelly Locke sees the world through the eyes of Mothers.  She values Motherhood above all things, and shares her passion with the world at large as author, speaker, advocate.

She has just completed filming for her international documentary entitled “The Power of Mothers and Their Effect Upon the World” whose message highlights the irreplaceable contribution of Mothers in every society in which they live.  Shelly is the author of The Worldwide Motherhood Initiative and the Motherhood Manifesto, two powerful documents that bring the nations of the earth to bear, regarding the issues of our day, as they relate to Mothers.

Wherever Shelly is invited to speak throughout the world, her family administers humanitarian aid to the Mothers and children in the region, in dedication to the most significant role a woman can aspire to–that of Mother!

“For as the Mother goes, so goes the nation.” (S. D. Locke)