Speakers

Amy Parsons is the 16th President of Colorado State University. Prior to being named the President of Colorado State University, Amy Parsons served in various senior executive leadership roles at CSU and the CSU System and combines her higher education experience with a private sector background. Prior to her most recent role as CEO of Mozzafiato, LLC, Parsons was executive vice chancellor of the CSU System from 2015-2020; vice president for university operations at CSU from 2009-2015; deputy general counsel and associate legal counsel at CSU Fort Collins from 2004-2009. As vice president of operations at CSU, she helped navigate through the fiscal challenges of the Great Recession, supported the first comprehensive salary equity survey to uncover and remedy gender-based inequities, and oversaw an historic physical transformation that included construction and renovation of state-of-the-art classroom buildings, parking structures, research facilities, and an on-campus stadium. She worked as a litigation attorney for Denver-firm Brownstein, Hyatt, & Farber (now Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Schreck) from 1999-2004.

Parsons holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from CSU and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Colorado.

Dr. Anthony Bradley is a professor of religious studies and director of the Center for the Study of Human Flourishing at The King’s College. Dr. Bradley is also a research fellow at The Acton Institute.

Dr. Bradley lectures at colleges, universities, business organizations, conferences, and churches throughout the U.S. and abroad. His writings on religious and cultural issues have been published in a variety of journals, including: the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Examiner, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Detroit News, Christianity Today, and World Magazine.

Dr. Bradley is called upon by members of the broadcast media for comment on current issues and has appeared on C-SPAN, NPR, CNN/Headline News, and Fox News, among others. He studies and writes on issues of race in America, mass incarceration and overcriminalization, youth and family, welfare, education, and ethics.

Kelly Caufield is the Executive Director of the Common Sense Institute. In this role, Kelly is the key management leader of CSI and oversees the administration, strategic plan, and programming for the organization. Kelly brings nearly 20 years of policy, research, and advocacy experience to CSI.

Before joining CSI, Kelly served as the Vice President of Government Affairs for Colorado Succeeds, a coalition of business leaders dedicated to improving public education. In this role she oversaw statewide coalition building efforts that brought diverse business, education, and community partners together in collaborative ways around a shared policy agenda.

Kelly also has experience as a federal lobbyist for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), focusing on labor and employment policy on behalf of 275,000 HR business professionals. Before joining SHRM, she spent a total of eight years on Capitol Hill working on the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and served as a legislative director for a U.S. Congressman. She attended the College of William and Mary in Virginia for her undergraduate degree and George Washington University for her master’s degree in Public Policy. She currently lives in Denver with her husband and two sons.

Senator James R. Coleman was born and raised in the Park Hill neighborhood of Denver and is a resident of the district he so proudly represents: Senate District 33. Coleman served his first term in 2016, becoming the youngest elected to Colorado’s state legislature. After serving 2 terms as the State Representative of House District 7, he went on to win his election to the Senate District 33 seat in November 2020. Senator Coleman currently serves as the Senate President Pro Tem, Chair of the Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee, Vice-Chair of the Senate Business, Labor, and Technology Committee, and Vice-Chair of the Legislative Oversight Committee Concerning Colorado Jail Standards. The Senator also serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Legislative Council Committee, and the Colorado Youth Advisory Council Committee.

Throughout his years in the Colorado General Assembly, Senator Coleman has energetically sponsored bills to better fund and resource schools, protect workers’ and veterans’ rights, bolster small businesses, create opportunities for and pathways to higher education, increase health coverage and mental/behavioral health supports, direct criminal justice reforms, and preserve our environment. His groundbreaking legislation is anchored not only in advocacy for the Black community, but also, in his three legislative priorities: eliminating the Black wealth gap, decreasing prison recidivism, and ending youth violence.

Ivette Díaz is a Program Officer at the Stand Together Foundation. She previously worked as the Family Manager for the LIBRE Institute and the Colorado Field Director for The LIBRE Initiative where she managed statewide outreach strategy and grassroots efforts that advance the principles of economic freedom to empower the U.S. Hispanic community.

Prior to joining LIBRE, Diaz served as the Associate Director for Constituent Relations at Focus on the Family’s Focus Leadership Institute where she led strategic engagement with organizational partners, universities, prospective students and alumni.

Diaz also served as a political appointee to President Bush in the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives where they promoted faith-based and community driven solutions for social need. In her role, Diaz programmed events highlighting best practices on issues such as citizenship, foster care and adoption.

Diaz has filled a range of roles in the nonprofit sector, particularly in work with at-risk populations. She helped implement the Ready4Work prisoner re-entry program in Los Angeles, which served as the model for the President’s Prisoner Reentry Initiative (PRI) and worked in public relations for one of the largest and oldest rescue missions in the nation.

Diaz holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies from Azusa Pacific University and earned her Spanish minor while studying abroad in the Dominican Republic.

David Eaton is the cofounder and CEO of Axis, a group of gospel-minded researchers, speakers, and content creators that desire to see all caring adults equipped with the conversation, discipleship, and culture translation skills needed to reach the next generation for Christ. Since 2007, Axis has helped millions of adults navigate conversations with teens and students, serving as the “cultural translator” for 327,000 parents and caring adults who disciple 600k teens in their home and 1.5M in classrooms, churches, and on sport teams.

Jenet Erickson, an associate professor in the Department of Church History and Doctrine in BYU Religious Education, teaches The Eternal Family (REL 200) course as well as Introduction to Family Process (SFL 160) for the School of Family Life. Her research has focused on maternal and child well-being in the context of work and family life, as well as the distinct contributions of mothers and fathers in children’s development. She is a research fellow of both the Wheatley Institution and the Institute for Family Studies and has been a columnist on family issues for the Deseret News since 2013.

Daniel Garza was born in the Central Valley of California, and would migrate with his family annually from their ancestral hometown of Garza Gonzalez in Nuevo Leon, Mexico- throughout California, Nebraska and Washington State following the crop season as farm workers until he was 19 years of age.

Mr. Garza began his public service career as congressional staff assistant for U.S. congressman Richard “Doc” Hastings and was later elected as councilman for the city of Toppenish, Washington in 1996. In 2001, he was tapped by the George W. Bush Administration to serve as Deputy Director of External and Intergovernmental Affairs in the Office of the Secretary at The Department of Interior. In 2004, Mr. Garza was appointed to Associate Director of the Office of Public Liaison in the White House. In 2007, Mr. Garza joined Univision to host and co-produce “Agenda Washington”, a weekly Spanish-language news talk show covering the issues impacting the U.S. Hispanic community. Mr. Garza was appointed to serve on the Board of The Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy in 2016, was designated as one of Washington, D.C.’s “Influentials” by Congressional Quarterly Magazine in 2018, and in 2019, Mr. Garza was named 1 of the 50 most influential voices in Washington DC, by The National Journal.

Mr. Garza currently serves as President of The LIBRE Institute and resides in Mission, TX with his wife and three children.

Dr. Jeremy Haefner is the University of Denver’s 19th chancellor, and he brings over three decades of leadership experience in higher education to DU. Named chancellor by the University of Denver Board of Trustees in 2019, Dr. Haefner seeks to continue and accelerate the momentum the DU community. He strongly believes DU is an institution uniquely able to serve students as they prepare for lives of purpose and careers of fulfillment—all while serving the public good. Indeed, he believes DU can and must excel in providing a student experience unlike any other university. In DU’s faculty, he sees limitless potential and talent and knows their research will further the creation of knowledge and serve the public good. As chancellor, Jeremy Haefner energetically supports the University’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusive excellence, and he will continue to build on DU’s long legacy of relentless innovation and ethical leadership.

Previously, Chancellor Haefner served as DU’s provost and executive vice chancellor. He’s also served in other leadership positions such as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and, at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, as dean of engineering and applied science, associate vice chancellor for research and dean of the graduate school. He has also held fellowships with the American Council on Education, the National Learning Infrastructure Institute and the University of Murcia in Spain.

As a mathematician, Chancellor Haefner studies integral representation and module theory, and his research has been supported by the National Security Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the government of Spain. He graduated from the University of Iowa with a B.A. in mathematics and has a Ph.D. and an M.A. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin.

Chancellor Haefner’s enthusiasm for using technology as a learning tool led him to receive the inaugural President’s Faculty Excellence Award for Advancing Teaching and Learning through Technology (1998) from the University of Colorado System and the inaugural Innovations in Teaching with Technology award (1998) from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Helen Young Hayes is the founder and CEO of Activate Workforce Solutions, PBC. Activate’s mission is to help underserved individuals achieve their fullest potential through the dignity of work. Since 2016, Activate Workforce Solutions has connected talented individuals from untapped communities with rewarding careers in financial services, business services, healthcare, and the skilled trades. By creating a business solution for a social challenge, Activate moves individuals to self-sufficiency through the transformative power of work. Helen is a twenty-year veteran of the financial industry. She was the portfolio manager of the flagship Janus Worldwide Fund, Janus Overseas Fund, and related assets totaling $50 billion at Janus Capital, a mutual fund company headquartered in Denver, Colorado. She also served as Managing Director of Investments, heading the research and investment arm of Janus Capital that encompasses equities, fixed income, money market, and trading. Helen is a recipient of the Denver Business Journal’s Outstanding Women in Business award and the Girl Scouts of Colorado Women of Distinction award. She graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in economics.

Deborah Hendrix is the Executive Director at Parents Challenge in Colorado Springs. Parents Challenge disrupts the legacy of educational failure by empowering parents. We provide our families with information, training, mentoring, tools, and financial resources to equip them to choose the education they think best for their children.

Jason Janz is a social entrepreneur and pastor, desiring to help spark a neighbor-loving movement in and through the Church. Prior to co-founding CrossPurpose, Mr. Janz served as the Executive Director of the Friends of Cole Foundation, and was instrumental in starting several key initiatives in the neighborhood, including a faith-based addiction recovery program, a nondenominational church, a ministry to uplift orphans, single moms, and widow, and a ministry helping formerly incarcerated men reenter society.

Mayor Mike Johnston is a Colorado native who started his career as a school teacher in the Mississippi Delta, an experience that inspired him to write his award-winning book “In the Deep Heart’s Core.” Shortly after, he came home to Colorado to address educational inequities as a school principal, leading three different schools in the Denver metro area. Additionally, he served as a Senior Advisor to President Obama during his presidential campaign and transition. He was then elected to the Colorado State Senate serving two terms representing Northeast Denver, where he worked to get bipartisan support to pass Colorado’s version of the DREAM Act, pass major gun safety legislation, and speed the state’s transition to renewable energy.

He went on to serve as the CEO of Gary Community Ventures, a local philanthropic organization, where he built broad, diverse coalitions to pass the state’s first plan for universal preschool, pass the first successful effort to fund affordable housing and homelessness statewide, and create the Dearfield Fund, an award winning organization committed to closing the Black wealth gap through access to homeownership.

As Mayor, he is committed to transforming Denver into America’s best city by delivering a city that is vibrant, affordable, and safe for everyone. Mike  lives in East Denver with his wife Courtney, and their three kids, Emmet, Seamus, and Ava.

Rebecca Knudsen is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who is licensed in both California and Colorado and has been practicing for over 15 years.  She obtained her BS in Psychology from Brigham Young University and her MS in Marriage and Family Theray from Loma Linda University.  She has advanced training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy in Sex Addiction, Partner’s Recovery, and Intimacy Anorexia Recovery Therapy. She is passionate about helping couples and families heal from addiction, trauma and betrayal.  She is the founder and director of Thrive Relational Recovery, a group psychotherapy clinic that specializes in couples counseling, trauma and sex addiction.   She is a loving wife and mother of 3 wonderful children, and has an overwhelming love for her clients and a passion for helping them heal and thrive.

Brent Orrell is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he works on job training, workforce development, and criminal justice reform. Specifically, his research focuses on expanding opportunity for all Americans through improved work readiness and job training and improving the performance of the criminal justice system through rehabilitation and prisoner reentry programs.

Before joining AEI, Mr. Orrell worked in the executive and legislative branches of the US government for over 20 years. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to lead the Employment and Training Administration of the US Department of Labor, and he served as deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Mr. Orrell is the editor of “Rethinking Reentry” (AEI, January 2020), in which he authored the chapter “Identity and Agency: A New Approach to Rehabilitation and Reentry.” He is also the host of the podcast “Hardly Working.” A frequent contributor to the popular press, Mr. Orrell has been published in Law & Liberty, RealClearPolicy, RealClearMarkets, and The Hill.

He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon.

Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she focuses on child welfare and foster care issues. Specifically, her work analyzes the role of faith-based and community organizations in changing the foster care and adoption services landscape. She also studies how race, class and family structure affect foster care placement and services and the impact of the drug crisis on child welfare. She is concurrently a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum.

Ms. Riley’s books include No Way to Treat a Child: How the Foster Care System, Family Courts, and Racial Activists Are Wrecking Young Lives (Bombardier Books, 2021) and Be the Parent, Please: Stop Banning Seesaws and Start Banning Snapchat: Strategies for Solving the Real Parenting Problems (Templeton Press, 2018). Her book, Til Faith Do Us Part: How Interfaith Marriage Is Transforming America (Oxford University Press, 2013), was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. She was interviewed by Brian Lamb on C-SPAN’s Q&A about her book The Faculty Lounges: And Other Reasons Why You Won’t Get the College Education You Paid For (Ivan R. Dee, 2011).

Ian Rowe is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on education and upward mobility, family formation, and adoption. Mr. Rowe is also the cofounder of Vertex Partnership Academies, a new network of character-based International Baccalaureate high schools opening in the Bronx in 2022; the chairman of the board of Spence-Chapin, a nonprofit adoption services organization; and the cofounder of the National Summer School Initiative. He concurrently serves as a senior visiting fellow at the Woodson Center and a writer for the 1776 Unites Campaign.

Until July 1, 2020, Mr. Rowe was CEO of Public Prep, a nonprofit network of public charter schools based in the South Bronx and Lower East Side of Manhattan. Before joining Public Prep, he was deputy director of postsecondary success at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, senior vice president of strategic partnerships and public affairs at MTV, director of strategy and performance measurement at the USA Freedom Corps office in the White House, and cofounder and president of Third Millennium Media. Mr. Rowe also joined Teach for America in its early days.

Mr. Rowe has been widely published in the popular press, including in the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Examiner. He is often interviewed on talk radio programs. With his forthcoming book “Agency” (Templeton Press, May 2022), Ian Rowe seeks to inspire young people of all races to build strong families and become masters of their own destiny.

Tamra Ryan is the CEO of Women’s Bean Project, a social enterprise providing transitional employment in its food manufacturing business to women attempting to break the cycle of chronic unemployment and poverty. She serves as an Economic Mobility Fellow for Common Sense Institute Colorado.

Ms. Ryan is a former partner and board member for Social Venture Partners-Denver and Social Enterprise Alliance. Congressman Mike Coffman (R-CO) recognized Ms. Ryan’s servant leadership and entered it into the Congressional Record of the 115th Congress, Second Session in May 2018. She was honored by the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce as one of the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Colorado, and in 2022 as a Titan100 CEO and Social Entrepreneur of the year by the Colorado Institute for Social Impact. She was a presenter at TEDxMilehigh and is a highly sought-after speaker for topics such as compassionate leadership and social enterprise.

Ms. Ryan is the author of The Third Law, a book which highlights the societal obstacles and internal demons that must be overcome for marginalized women to change their lives. The Third Law has won eight awards for women/minorities in business and social activism. She is currently working on her second book, Followship: How to be a leader worth following.

Ms. Ryan received her undergraduate degree from University of Colorado Boulder and her Master of Arts and Sciences from Adelphi University. She lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, two teenage children and two goldendoodles.

Isabel Soto is the Director of Policy for The LIBRE Institute.
Previously, she was a Senior Policy Advisor at the United States Congress Joint Economic Committee.
Before that role, Isabel was Director of Labor Market Policy at the American Action Forum.
Her work has been featured by several media outlets, including CNBC’s Squawk Box, The Wall Street Journal, CSPAN, and The Washington Post.
Before joining AAF, Isabel worked on the Aspen Institute initiative, Weave: The Social Fabric Project, which focused on understanding and strengthening associational life in the U.S. Isabel is a member of the American Enterprise Institute’s Millennial Leadership Network and previously a Public Policy Fellow with The Fund for American Studies.
She is an alumna of AEI academic programs and the Hertog Foundation’s Political Studies Program.
Isabel is a Davidson College graduate and is pursuing a master’s in Applied Economics at American University.

Professor López Turley directs the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, which brings together data, research, engagement and action to improve lives. In 2011, she founded the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC), a research-practice partnership between Rice University and 11 Houston area school districts, representing over 700,000 students. A program of the Kinder Institute, HERC works to improve educational equity by connecting research to policy and practice, working directly with district leaders. She directed HERC from 2011 to 2022, during which she raised over $30M so that school districts would not have to pay for research. She also founded the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships, which connects and supports over 60 partnerships between research institutions and education agencies throughout the country. In 2022, President Joe Biden appointed her to the National Board for Education Sciences, which advises and approves priorities for the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education. She is a graduate of Stanford and Harvard and is originally from Laredo, Texas.