Mandy Green grew up in Orem, Utah, served a mission in Moscow, Russia, and graduated from BYU with a humanities degree. She is married to an exceptional human, Brent, and they are the proud, if not perplexed, parents of three children. Mandy loves learning, great literature, leather jackets, family, caffeinated beverages, and flamingos. Her post-graduate studies include: Egyptian Religion, Biblical Hebrew, Koine Greek, Grail Lore and Hermeticism. Her research focus is the Divine Feminine with a special emphasis on Mary Magdalene. She currently teaches Biblical Hebrew classes online, produces a weekly podcast, Reflecting Light, and is a Tour Educator for specialized, international, Christ-centered tours with "Forbidden Adventure" and "Legacy Tours and Travel."

Ellery Howarth calls Holladay, Utah, home. She grew up constantly playing sports, answering trivia questions, and developing her love for popcorn, her four brothers, and her parents. After graduating high school, Ellery attended BYU for a year before serving a mission in the Guatemala City East Mission. She is currently a senior at BYU majoring in psychology. She enjoys traveling the world, watching films, and laughing every day.

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.

Allison Grant Dayton designed jewelry for the TV series Grey’s Anatomy and for companies like Athleta, Sundance Catalog, and Deseret Book. In 2015, she followed spiritual promptings to stay home and help her boys through the perils of high school. During these last precious years, Allison’s oldest brother, who was gay, took his own life. At the same time, her oldest son was starting his own process of coming out. Having watched her brother’s painful life and wanting much more for her amazing son, Allison started Lift and Love, an Instagram account, to reframe how we see our LGBTQ Latter-day Saints. In the two years since, Lift and Love has become a foundation supporting hundreds of LGBTQ Latter-day Saint Families, like her own. Allison and her husband, Kenn, have a daughter, two sons, and one son-in-law. They live in Salt Lake at the base of Mount Olympus with their dog, eight chickens, and open doors for friends and their large extended families.

Mark J. Lusvardi recently served as the President of the Illinois Nauvoo Mission. He is the former Director of Public Programs for the Missionary Department. He had responsibility for Visitors' Centers, Historic Sites, and Pageants worldwide. He also worked with Temple Open Houses, live events, and missionary training.

Karl Ricks Anderson is affectionately known as “Mr. Kirtland” throughout the Church because of his love, research and writings on Kirtland Ohio area church history. Although he grew up in Utah, he has lived near Kirtland, Ohio for over 50 years. He is a popular author and entertaining speaker. Karl has worked with historians and prophets, written books, including Joseph Smith’s Kirtland and The Savior in Kirtland, helped acquire Kirtland properties and has done much to put Kirtland on the Church history map. He received a bachelor’s and MBA degree from University of Utah and had a career in the corporate world for over 20 years. He then taught and supervised seminaries and institutes for the Church in Northern Ohio.

Matthew J. Grow is Managing Director of the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In that capacity, he leads a team of history professionals who collect documents and artifacts, preserve them, and promote understanding of the Church’s past through a publishing program, a research library, a museum, and many historic sites. Grow also serves as a general editor of the Joseph Smith Papers and Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days. He has published widely on Latter-day Saint history and American religious history. Grow received his PhD in American history from the University of Notre Dame. He and his wife Alyssa live with their four children in Sandy, Utah.

Hanae Yamamoto was born and raised in Miyazaki, Japan. She has been playing piano for over 20 years! Hanae served a full time mission in the Hawaii, Honolulu mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To this day Hanae continues to play the piano and is currently studying Piano Performance at Brigham Young University. She is busy attending school while taking care of her husband and 2 little boys. Hanae loves cats, ramen, online shopping, and playing with children. She is a talented young woman who works hard and loves meeting new people. She aspires to be a homemaker and professional piano teacher.