Lou Ann Sabatier has spent thirty-seven years working in media and communications. For 10 years she held senior publishing management positions in organizations focused on politics and international economics. For the next 22 years she managed her own media and communications consulting practice and they worked with hundreds of organizations, companies and non-profits in the U.S. and worldwide. Former clients include a list as diverse as World Vision/Save the Children, the International Monetary Fund, the OECD, the Federal Reserve Bank, the U.S. Marine Corps and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Since it’s launch three years ago, Sabatier has served as the Director of Communications at the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, working alongside Distinguished Senior Fellow Frank Wolf, founder Randel Everett and staff.

Previously she served on the board of Magazine Training International where she also trained faith-based organizations around the globe in media.

sabatierconsulting.com

Al Tompkins is The Poynter Institute’s senior faculty for broadcasting and online. He has taught thousands of journalists, journalism students and educators in newsrooms around the world. His teaching focuses on writing, reporting, storytelling, ethics, critical thinking, photojournalism, social media and online journalism. He has taught and coached print newsrooms in the U.S. and abroad how to build interactive news websites, how to use video more effectively online and how to manage ethical issues that arise online.

Tompkins is the author of the book Aim For The Heart: Write, Shoot, Report, Produce for TV and Online, which is being used by more than 125 universities as their main broadcast writing, reporting and ethics textbook.

During his two and a half decades as a journalist, and nearly two decades as a teacher at Poynter, Tompkins has been awarded many of journalism’s highest honors. Tompkins won the National Emmy, the Peabody Award (group award), the Japan Prize, the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel for Court Reporting, seven National Headliner Awards, two Iris Awards and the Robert F. Kennedy Award. Tompkins was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame and in 2008 was awarded The Governor’s Award, the highest honor given by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He has also been honored by the National Press Photographers Association and the Radio and Television News Foundation for contributions to journalism and journalism education.

Al is a juror for the Scripps Howard National Journalism Awards and served as a final juror on the duPont-Columbia Awards, and the Investigative Reporter and Editor awards. Al earned a Master’s Degree in Digital Journalism and Design from the University of South Florida and a B.A. degree in journalism from Western Kentucky University.

José has been the creative director at Metaleap Creative since he founded the firm in 2002. After earning his BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design, he worked as a designer at several major advertising and design firms in the South.

Over the years he has received a variety of accolades, the most memorable being the “My Hero” trophy crafted and given to him by his daughter when she was eight years old. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Turkey, Utah, New Mexico and Florida, his love and curiosity of all things keeps him traveling and searching for inspiration in the world around him.

metaleapcreative.com

Manny Garcia, a Cuban-American, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who spent 23 years with the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald (Spanish-language publication of the Herald). He has guided staffs from print-emphasis approaches to multi-platform coverage of stories for multicultural audiences.

He served on two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams, investigating voter fraud in a 1997 Miami city election and documenting the 2000 raid that resulted in Elian Gonzalez reuniting with his Cuban father. During Garcia’s tenure as editor of El Nuevo Herald, the newspaper was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2010 for its coverage of the Haiti earthquake, the first such recognition for a Spanish­-language media outlet.

In 2013 he took on news leadership at the Naples Daily News, part of the USA TODAY network. In 2016 he was named the east region executive editor for the USA TODAY Network.

Nicola A. Menzie is a media professional living in New York City who writes about the intersection of race, culture and Christianity. Nicola is also the founder of Faithfully Magazine, a website (faithfullymagazine.com) and quarterly print/digital publication centering on Christian communities of color.

In addition to her work appearing on the Religion News Service wire, CBSNews.com and on other news sites, Nicola reported on faith and culture issues for a leading online Christian newspaper for four years and hosted its weekly web show for more than two years. She has broken major stories, produced exclusives, and interviewed some of Evangelicalism’s most influential figures. Nicola has also pursued graduate studies in Theology at Alliance Theological Seminary.

Mark Galli has been part of the editorial staff at Christianity Today since 1989 serving as an editor for both Christian History and Leadership and as Senior Managing editor for Christianity Today. In 2012 he was named editor of Christianity Today.

Early in his career, Mark was a pastor for ten years in Sacramento and Mexico City. He is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz and holds a M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary.

christianitytoday.com