Featured Speakers

Dr. Reyes has been a member of Gonzaga University since 1988 and is currently the Associate Vice President for Diversity. He has taught both graduate and undergraduate courses for the Department of Teacher Education, Department of Administration, Curriculum & Instruction, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Sociology and the Department of Religious Studies. Dr. Reyes has twenty-seven years experience in Indian Education and professional development training and has conducted hundreds of training and technical assistance seminars throughout the United States and Canada. His areas of expertise include diversity, human development and learning, leadership development, multicultural education and application of neuroscience research to the classroom. His seminars include healing and recovery, talented and gifted program development, team building using laughter, humor and play, and strategic planning as well as topics addressing culture related academic needs. His publications include articles and books chapters relating to these topics.

Stephen Bly has authored 100 books and hundreds of articles. His book, THE LONG TRAIL HOME, (Broadman & Holman), won the prestigious 2002 CHRISTY AWARD for excellence in Christian fiction in the category western novel. Three other books, PICTURE ROCK (Crossway Books), THE OUTLAW'S TWIN SISTER (Crossway Books), and LAST OF THE TEXAS CAMP (Broadman & Holman), were Christy Award finalists. He speaks at colleges, churches, camps and conferences across the U.S. and Canada. He is the pastor of Winchester Community Church, and served as mayor of Winchester, Idaho (2000-2007). He has spoken on numerous television and radio programs, including Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family. He is an Active Member of the Western Writers of America. He and his wife, Janet (who is also a writer) live at 4,000 ft. elevation in the mountains of north-central Idaho, in the pine trees, next to a lake on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. A third generation westerner, Steve spent his early years working on ranches and farms. Janet Chester Bly received a B.S. degree in Literature & Languages and Fine & Performing Arts from Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho. She speaks at women's retreats, writer's conferences, and family seminars. She is a member of Winchester Community Church where her husband serves as pastor. She is author of ten books, co-author of eighteen books, and contributing author to five other books. The Blys mentor beginning writers for Jerry B. Jenkins' Christian Writers Guild .

John Nicoletti received his doctorate in psychology from Colorado State University. Dr. Nicoletti is a Clinical/Police Psychologist who specializes in identifying, assessing and defusing attack related behaviors and violence in various workplaces and schools. He provides on-site psychological screenings and consultations at the U.S. bases of McMurdo and the South Pole in Antarctica. Dr. Nicoletti has written three books in the areas of violence, entitled Violence Goes to Work (1994); Violence Goes to College (2001), published by Charles C. Thomas; and Violence Goes to School (2002), National Education Services. Dr. Nicoletti consults nationally to various state and federal law enforcement agencies, airlines, financial institutions and private corporations. Dr. Nicoletti consults nationally to various school districts. He was on-scene at the April 20, 1999 Columbine school shooting and also responded to the Platte Canyon High School shooting in September 2006. He also provides training for parents of young children on stranger awareness and personal safety. Dr. Nicoletti is on the Colorado Governor’s Task Force on Expert Emergency Response and is past Chair of the Police Psychologist Section for the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Jen Bryant writes biographies, poetry, and children’s fiction. Her work has appeared in >The American Literary Review, Image: A Journal of the Arts & Religion, Poet Lore, The Laurel Review, The Clackamas Review, The Paterson Literary Review, The Journal of New Jersey Poets, and The Schuylkill Valley Journal. Her poem “Hunger” won the Y2K Milton Center Prize for Poetry, judged by Henry Taylor, and her chapbook Hand Crafted was published by Nova House Press in 2001. She is the recipient of an Arts & Letters Poetry Fellowship from Georgia College & State University, and her manuscript The Whole Measure was a finalist for this year’s Hollis Summers Prize. Jen’s newest children’s title is Into Enchanted Woods, a fantasy based on the Winterthur Estate’s award-winning children’s garden in Delaware. Three picture books are also forthcoming from Wm. B. Eerdmans, who published her biographies of poet Thomas Merton, and feminist Lucretia Mott.