Karen Zelnick Rivera works in venture capital developing portfolio communities. That is a huge step up from her first job after college, where she at one point found herself having to stuff a gift bag at each of the 6,015 seats at Radio City Music Hall with Aqua di Gio cologne samples at 4 a.m. (It took years before she could stand the smell of that cologne again.). She loves pancakes and anything strawberry flavored. If she could spend an entire day climbing trees, she would. The fictional character she most identifies with is Anne of Green Gables. Her strengths include watercoloring, water skiing, and water drinking.

Shilo Kino lives in Auckland, New Zealand, and is from the Māori tribes of Ngā Puhi and Tainui. She is an author and journalist, who works at an indigenous current affairs show called Marae and has had her work published in international media such as The Guardian and multiple media outlets in New Zealand. Shilo's debut book The Porangi Boy was released this month, which is a fictional story inspired by historical events where a Māori community protested against the government for building a prison on sacred land. Shilo became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2013 and served a mission in Hong Kong where she taught the gospel in Mandarin. Shilo loves the gospel and is grateful to Jesus Christ for all that she has been given.

Shauna recently left her life as a city girl and returned to her roots as a country girl, which includes cows, chickens, horses, dogs, cats, and various uninvited “wildlife”! Shauna is grateful to be allowed to come to earth at this time to be part of the Lord’s Battalion. She loves the work of gathering Israel on both sides of the veil.

Lisa, the youngest of six children, was raised in Novato, California, and New Canaan, Connecticut. Lisa and her husband, Josh, have spent the past 17 years in Ladera Ranch, California, raising their five children (their oldest just started her first year at BYU). Lisa, a credentialed elementary school teacher, left teaching to join her husband in opening a residential real estate company servicing Orange County, California. But life has seemed to tell her "not so fast" this year, causing Lisa to go back to her roots and deciding to homeschool her remaining four children at home, all while continuing to sell homes. She lives a crazy life but loves the gospel, which is sustaining her during these unusual times.

Liz Hansen is a lead writer for the Church's Book of Mormon video, director, and consultant who has gone from acting on Broadway to a Byline at the Los Angeles Times to the classrooms of Brigham Young University. She holds an MFA in screenwriting from the American Film Institute, has won the prestigious Writers Guild Award, an EMMY nomination, and was a finalist for the Humanitas Prize for excellence in children's television programing. In addition, she has a Telly award and two Crystal Awards for excellence in corporate video writing.

Lenna Panisi Loveridge was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, and currently lives in Colorado with her husband and six children. You may find it interesting that she has a BS in political science from the University of Utah, but it’s just as important that you know she was regularly featured on Tamara Uzelac Hall’s quote wall during those heady U of U days. Lenna is studying the Tongan language to increase fluency so she can follow up her favorite question, “Ko ho’o Alu ki fe?” (Where are you going?) with “Please bring me a sandwich and a Diet Coke before you do.” Lenna feels a deep and abiding connection to her Tongan ancestors; for their faith enough to move mountains and especially for their faith to move TO the mountains. For which she is so grateful.

Brent

Kerri, the second of seven children, grew up in Sandy, Utah. Kerri and her husband, Bob, met at Brigham Young University. After Kerri graduated with a BA in design and a minor in business, they moved to the Seattle area where their three children were born. The Brown family later moved back to the Wasatch Front where Kerri has enjoyed volunteering at her children’s school and extracurricular activities.

Kristin Candland Simmons is from Mesa, Arizona, where she lives with her husband and 12 and 14-year-old daughters. She served a full-time mission (Spanish speaking) in Fresno, California, which is where she met Tammy Uzelac Hall the last two months of her mission. They loved being companions so much that they decided to be roommates while finishing their degrees at BYU. She earned a bachelor's degree in Spanish in 1996 and worked, wandered, and traveled as much as possible before discovering that she wanted to become a speech pathologist. She earned her Masters of Arts in Communication Disorders with a bilingual emphasis from CSU, Los Angeles, in 2001 and has worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist ever since. She was honored, intimidated and basically frozen with fear when Tammy asked her to be a guest on the podcast with her sister-in-law, Jill Candland, but her love of these two women and the gospel gave her the strength to take the challenge.