Breakout Speakers
Kenny Burchard served for twenty years in full-time Protestant ministry, including twelve years
as the founding pastor of a Foursquare Gospel church in California. He holds an M.A. in New Testament Biblical Theology from Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary (Fresno Pacific). In 2019, he and his family were received into full communion with the Catholic Church.
Kenny currently serves as Director of Development for The Coming Home Network International and co-hosts their podcast On the Journey with Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley. He is the creator and host of Catholic Bible Highlights on YouTube, where he demonstrates the biblical foundations of Catholic teaching. Kenny is co-author of God of Love, Fire, and Light: A Biblical Defense of Purgatory (with Dave Armstrong) and has appeared twice on EWTN's The Journey Home.
Laura Kempa Bogan serves as the choir director at Saint Francis of Assisi Parish in Ann Arbor. She leads the adult Chorale in singing weekly Sunday Mass, where they sing sacred choral repertoire ranging from chant to contemporary compositions. Ms. Bogan also directs the children’s choir program at St. Francis school, where over one hundred young singers serve at school and parish liturgies throughout the academic year. The school choirs actively participate as members of the American Federation of Pueri Cantores, hosting the Michigan festival and travelling to regional and international Pueri Cantores festival events, including the International Congress in Rome.
Ms. Bogan is a proud alumna of the University of Michigan (B.M. Choral Music Education) and Boston University (M.M. Choral Conducting).
Freisy Bobadilla is a Catholic speaker, preacher, and author. Of Hispanic heritage, he is a Spanish-language Bible study teacher and a member of the leadership team for Made for Joy and the Rescue Project at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Ann Arbor. He has authored over eight books and possesses more than 18 years of experience in evangelization, faith formation, and the management of ministries, prayer groups, and religious education programs.
Colleen Reiss Vermeulen serves as a director, teacher, and speaker with Catholic Biblical School.
After receiving her undergraduate degree from Cornell University, Vermeulen served on active duty in the US Army. She earned a master of divinity degree and a master of nonprofit administration from the University of Notre Dame, and has served in parish ministries including children’s faith formation, young adult ministry, music ministry, and evangelization.
A contributing writer to the Living the Word Catholic Women’s Bible and author of Simply Scripture, Colleen Vermeulen has taught children and adults the Bible for more than fifteen years. An officer in the Army Reserve, she lives with her husband and four sons in southeastern Michigan.
Christian Casper teaches rhetoric and argumentation in the College of Engineering, and serves as a faculty affiliate of the Kateri Institute for Catholic Studies. He worships at St. Francis of Assisi Parish.
John C. Pinheiro, Ph.D., is director of research and publications at Acton Institute. He was professor of history and the founding director of Catholic Studies and the Semester-in-Rome Program at Aquinas College. He is author or editor of five books, including the award-winning Missionaries of Republicanism: A Religious History of the Mexican-American War (Oxford, 2014). His 2019 book, The American Experiment in Ordered Liberty (Acton, 2019), examines the compatibility of America’s founding principles with Catholic Social Teaching. His newest book, edited with Dylan Pahman, is The Christian Roots of American Liberty: A Reader (Acton Institute, 2026).
John Pinheiro is on X as @DrJohnPinheiro. His Substack is Liberty & Order.
Craig Pohl is a Michigan native living in Westphalia with his wife, Allison, and their six children. He holds bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy and Catholic Studies, a master’s degree in Theology, and is a trained life and leadership coach through the Professional Christian Coaching Institute.
With over 25 years of extensive and diverse ministry experience– including 14 years leading diocesan renewal alongside Bishop Earl Boyea in the Diocese of Lansing– Craig is passionate about walking with Church leaders and parishes to mobilize for the mission of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Throughout his ministry, he has trained and formed disciples for effective evangelization and leadership.
Currently he works with Amazing Parish as a Parish Transformation Coach, coaching Catholic pastors and their teams from around the country through a process of renewal.
Mary Ann Bittner, OFS, is a Secular Franciscan who was professed in 1990 and currently serves as the minister of St. Joseph Fraternity, the local fraternity that meets at St. Francis. She previously served as the vice-minister and minister of Divine Mercy Regional Fraternity (2000–2010), and on the OFS National Executive Council as Councilor and Vice-minister (2010–2022). She is currently collaborating on an Initial Formation Procedures Manual for the Order in the U.S.
She is a long-time member of St. Francis Parish (42 years) and has been active in various ministries, including Problem Pregnancy Help, Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist, the Adult Ed Committee, leader for Renew and other Small Group experiences, and the Confirmation prep team.
She is now retired from her research faculty position in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan Medical School.
Scott Lyons is an English professor at the University of Michigan, where he teaches courses in Native American literature, literary theory, the Catholic novel, and the thought of René Girard. He is the author of X-Marks: Native Signatures of Assent and The World, the Text, and the Indian: Global Dimensions of Native American Literature, and his forthcoming book is Peacemakers: Violence and Desire in Native American Myth and Fiction. He was the founding director of the Kateri Institute for Catholic Studies in Ann Arbor.
Dr. Kristin Collier is an associate professor of Internal
Medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor Michigan where she serves
as the director of the University of Michigan Medical School Program on Health,
Spirituality, and Religion and as an associate program director of the Internal
Medicine Residency Program.
She
completed medical school, residency, and chief residency at the University of
Michigan. Her academic interests center on human dignity and the ways this
concept grounds moral obligations at the margins of life. Her peer reviewed work has been published in
JAMA Internal Medicine, the British Medical Journal, the Annals of Internal
Medicine, and The Journal of General Internal Medicine. She has had writings
published in Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal, Theopolis, America Magazine,
Public Discourse, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. She is also a wife and the proud mother of
four sons.
Jonathan Hasey is director of music at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and has been a full-time director of music in the Diocese of Lansing for more than 15 years. He studied piano and organ at Eastern Michigan University, where he also sang with the Chamber Choir. He previously released an album of piano compositions, Añoranza (2017), and is currently active as a composer and arranger of liturgical music, including Mass settings, Psalms, and hymns. He publishes music and writings on liturgy and art at www.jonathanhasey.com.
William Kangas is the CEO of Ave Maria Communications, a Catholic media apostolate dedicated to proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ across the world through radio, television, and digital media. He is leading the organization toward an ambitious ten‑year goal: reaching 10 million people on each platform with the hope of the Cross and the transforming message of Christ.
After entering the Catholic Church in 2013, William dedicated his life to strengthening communities capable of proclaiming Christ and making Him known in a world hungry for hope. His work since then has spanned nonprofit leadership, community development, and innovative service models for vulnerable populations.
In addition to his executive leadership, William is a frequent instructor and lecturer on Scripture, liturgy, and Christian spirituality, and is an international speaker and author known for connecting theological depth with pastoral clarity and practical mission.
Katie Hartsock is an associate professor of English at Oakland University in Rochester, MI, and a faculty affiliate of the Kateri Institute for Catholic Studies. The author of two poetry collections, Wolf Trees (2023) and Bed of Impatiens (2016), her poetry appears in journals such as Threepenny Review, Kenyon Review, Poetry, Image, Dappled Things, and elsewhere. She and her family are parishioners of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church.
Cameron Gibelyou is a Teaching Professor at the University of Michigan and a faculty affiliate of the Kateri Institute for Catholic Studies. He has taught at UM since 2007, first as a GSI while completing a PhD in the Physics Department and then as a lecturer. He has taught in the Departments of Physics, Astronomy, Psychology, English, and History, as well as for the School of Education, Wolverine Pathways, and LSA’s University Courses and Applied Liberal Arts. His loves in life include the One "in [Whom] all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17), his wife and son and family, and UM and its people--who played a prominent role in his conversion to Catholicism.