KEYNOTE Speakers
Shane Claiborne
Prominent Speaker, Activist, Best-selling AuthorCo-Founder, Red Letter Christians
Shane Claiborne is a prominent speaker, activist, and best-selling author. Shane worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, and founded The Simple Way in Philadelphia. He heads up Red Letter Christians, a movement of folks who are committed to living “as if Jesus meant the things he said.” Shane is a champion for grace which has led him to jail advocating for the homeless, and to places like Iraq and Afghanistan to stand against war. Now grace fuels his passion to end the death penalty and help stop gun violence.
Shane’s books include Jesus for President, Red Letter Revolution, Common Prayer, Follow Me to Freedom, Jesus, Bombs and Ice Cream, Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers, Executing Grace, his classic The Irresistible Revolution, and his newest book, Beating Guns. He has been featured in a number of films including “Another World Is Possible” and “Ordinary Radicals.” His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Shane speaks over one hundred times a year, nationally and internationally. His work has appeared in Esquire, SPIN, Christianity Today, TIME, and The Wall Street Journal, and he has been on everything from Fox News and Al Jazeera to CNN and NPR. He’s given academic lectures at Harvard, Princeton, Liberty, Duke, and Notre Dame.
Shane speaks regularly at denominational gatherings, festivals, and conferences around the globe.
Reggie Williams
Reggie Williams, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Christian EthicsFounder, Initiative for Incarnational Ethics
McCormick Theological Seminary
Member, Society for the Study of Black Religion
Dr. Reggie Williams book Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance (Baylor University Press, 2014) was selected as a Choice Outstanding Title in 2015, in the field of religion. The book is an analysis of exposure to Harlem Renaissance intellectuals, and worship at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist on the German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, during his year of post-doctoral study at Union Seminary in New York, 1930-31.
Dr. Williams’ research interests include Christological ethics, theological anthropology, Christian social ethics, the Harlem Renaissance, race, politics and black church life. His current book project includes a religious critique of whiteness in the Harlem Renaissance. In addition, he is working on a book analyzing the reception of Bonhoeffer by liberation activists in apartheid South Africa.
Dr. Williams received his Ph.D. in Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in 2011. He earned a Master’s degree in Theology from Fuller in 2006 and a Bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies from Westmont College in 1995. He is a member of the board of directors for the Society for Christian Ethics, as well as the International Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society. He is also a member of the American Academy of Religion and Society for the Study of Black Religion.
Essay published in The Christian Century, What is White Supremacy
Breakout SPEAKERS
Shane Claiborne
Prominent Speaker, Activist, Best-selling Author
Co-Founder, Red Letter Christians
Reggie Williams
Associate Professor of Christian Ethics
Founder, Initiative for Incarnational Ethics
McCormick Theological Seminary
Member, Society for the Study of Black Religion
Jon Huckins is a pastor and the Co-Founding Director of The Global Immersion Project; a peacemaking training organization helping people of faith engage our divided world in restorative ways. Having done extensive work in the Middle East and at the US/Mexico border, Jon focuses much of his writing, training and speaking on peacemaking, local/global engagement and activating the Church as an instrument of peace in our world. He writes for numerous publications including USAToday, Red Letter Christians, Sojourners, and RELEVANT and is a contributing author to multiple books. Jon has written three books; his latest being the award winning, Mending the Divides: Creative Love in a Conflicted World, co-authored with Jer Swigart. He regularly speaks at churches, universities and conferences and has a master’s degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Theology and Christian Ethics. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Jan, three daughters (Ruby, Rosie & Lou) and one son (Hank) where they co-lead an intentional Christian community seeking to live as a reconciling presence in their neighborhood of Sherman Heights. Find Jon at jonhuckins.net, Twitter (@jonhuckins) or Facebook.
Matt Elam currently serves as the Associate Pastor of Youth and Mission at Monte Vista Presbyterian Church in Newbury Park, where he has worked for the past 13 years. He graduated from Fuller Seminary in 2007. He has served college students at First Pres Berkeley, youth and families living as a missionary in Honduras, and has been learning how to reach disconnected students in his own community and abroad for the last 21 years. His professional background and other interests include sports, personal training, film and music production, consulting…and loves maple doughnuts. People have noticed a bounce in his step since the Dodgers won the 2020 World Series. He has been married to his wife Lori for 16 years, and they have 2 boys, Trent (13) and Wesley (11).
June L. Lorenzo, Laguna Pueblo/Navajo (Diné), is a member and Clerk of Session at Laguna United Presbyterian Church, the only Native American congregation in Santa Fe Presbytery. She is an attorney and consultant and has devoted most of her law practice to public interest law, including human rights. She has served on the Native American Consulting Committee, the Advisory Committee on Women’s Concerns, the Peacemaking Planning Team, the GA Task Force on Native American Ministries, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, and most recently on the Native American Advisory Committee which focuses on implementation of the PCUSA General Assembly repudiation of the doctrine of discovery. She represents clients in New Mexico (tribal and state courts), serves as Chief Judge for Zia Pueblo and advocates for the rights of Indigenous peoples before the United Nations and the Organization of American States, and remains engaged in projects in her own community, including advocacy on uranium legacy issues, protection of sacred sites, and protection of cultural patrimony. She holds a JD from Cornell Law School and a Ph D in Justice Studies from Arizona State University.
Robert Chao Romero has been a professor of Chicana/o Studies and Asian American Studies at UCLA since 2005. His most recent book, Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice Theology, and Identity (IVP Academic, 2020) has been featured in Christianity Today and the Christian Century. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA in Latin American History and his Juris Doctor from U.C. Berkeley, and he is also an attorney. Together with his wife Erica he is the co-founder of Jesus 4 Revolutionaries, a Christian ministry to activists, as well as board member of the Matthew 25 Movement in Southern California.
Jenny Yang is the Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at World Relief where she provides oversight for all advocacy initiatives and policy positions and leads the organization’s strategy regarding public relations. As the chief media strategist at World Relief, she coordinates and leads the marketing, programs, and strategic engagement division teams on public engagement and brand elevation strategies. She also represents the organization’s advocacy priorities to the U.S. government and leads mobilization efforts for churches on advocacy campaigns. She has worked over a decade in refugee protection, immigration policy, and human rights and is on an active deployment roster for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Previous to World Relief, she worked at one of the largest political consulting companies in Maryland. Jenny is co-author of “Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion and Truth in the Immigration Debate" and contributing author to three other books.