Julie de Azevedo Hanks, PhD, LCSW is the owner/director of Wasatch Family Therapy, a popular blogger, an online mental health influencer, a local and national media contributor. Dr. Hanks’ new book The Assertiveness Guide For Women (download a free chapter) helps women find and use their authentic voices to improve their lives and relationships. Julie and her husband are the parents of four children. Visit DrJulieHanks.com for more great tips on facing life's challenges and to schedule coaching sessions. For therapy services in Utah visit WasatchFamilyTherapy.com. Connect on social media with @DrJulieHanks.

Melinda grew up in Utah and met her Army officer husband in high school. After three kids, three years of deployments, and eleven moves since commissioning into the Army, they still jam to 90's ballads in the car, are constantly on the lookout for the world's best pizza (the winner so far is Nonna's in Peekskill, NY), and are really glad when they get to be together as a family. She loves office supplies, has never met a road trip she didn't like, is an expert power napper, and organizes her pantry when she's stressed out. Her faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been an anchor through out her life and she is so very grateful for her testimony and the peace it brings to her life.

Although Riley enjoys the arts, music, and a good, sappy romantic comedy, he is usually mistaken for a jock. He currently works full time as a sport psychology consultant, or mental performance coach, addressing innermost fears of most athletes: failure. He enjoys giving athletes, corporate employees, and young people the tools to handle a stressful and frightening world. Riley went back to school at the over-the-hill age of 40 (it’s the new the new 30, right?) to get his master’s degree in sport and performance psychology at the University of Utah in 2017. He is married to the wonderful and talented Georgann Manolis Jensen and they have three beautiful children under the age of 7 (yes, he’s tired). His dream is to serve another mission in France one day (he seems attracted to difficult scenarios), and to enjoy laughing and watching his children make some of the mistakes he made.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich was born in 1938 in Sugar City, Idaho. She graduated from the University of Utah in 1960 with a BA in English. That fall she moved with her husband, Gael Ulrich, to Boston, Massachusetts so he could begin graduate work at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). During the next ten years, while engaged with her growing family, she worked with a dynamic group of Mormon women to produce a popular guidebook to Boston (a fund-raising project for their local congregation) and helped to found a Mormon feminist newspaper. Exponent II (now a magazine available in print or on-line). Taking one course a semester, she completed an MA in English at Simmons College in 1971.

Lyndsey Howell was born and raised in beautiful Bangor, Northern Ireland, a country divided by religion. Her grandparents converted to the Church in the 1960s and she is thankful for their decision to listen to the missionaries. Despite being the only member of the Church through most of her high school years, she is grateful for the opportunity that gave her to develop and defend her testimony to her peers. She is married to the “world’s best home teacher” after they met at their BYU ward and he faithfully visited her every day with offerings of Diet Coke and an eternity of happiness. They are the parents of five children, and call the Pacific Northwest home. She holds a Bachelor of Music from BYU, and especially loves to share her testimony of the gospel through music. Her family is her greatest passion, and she loves spending time with them, whether it be snow skiing, boating, or snuggling together watching movies, eating good food, and making each other laugh until they cry.

Colleen Thomas is a Chicago-area journalist. She taught early morning seminary for five years and has “graduated” like the students to the stake institute program, where she now teaches young adults with her husband, Jonathan. Just for kicks, the two of them set a goal to climb to the highest point of every state in the US. They skipped Alaska but recently celebrated finishing the other 49.