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Sharon Cook

Sharon is a wife, a mother and Senior Vice President Marketing and Financial Education of Mountain America Credit Union, where she oversees the marketing, social and web departments. She has dedicated her life to helping people make smart decisions—whether financial, professional or personal. “It’s why I love all of my roles,” says Sharon. Reach her at scook@macu.com.

Astrid S. Tuminez

Astrid S. Tuminez was born in a farming village in the Philippines and grew up in the slums of Iloilo City. She was educated by Catholic nuns and teachers as a child and later received a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Brigham Young University, a master’s degree in Soviet studies from Harvard, and a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of Russian Nationalism Since 1856: Ideology and the Making of Foreign Policy and Rising to the Top? A Report on Women’s Leadership in Asia, as well as many other publications. She loves to travel, read, dance, run, and spend time with her family and students at Utah Valley University, where she serves as president.

Emily C. White

Emily White is an English Language educator who builds peace bridges one conversation at a time. Emily loves collecting small shells, tiny art, and big ideas.

Emily Brown

Trevor Alvord

Jennifer Champoux

Jennifer Champoux is the director of the Book of Mormon Art Catalog and a scholar of the visual culture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She co-edited Approaching the Tree: Interpreting 1 Nephi 8 (Maxwell Institute, 2023) and is currently writing a book on pioneer artist C. C. A. Christensen. Her scholarship on religious art can also be found in several articles at BYU Studies. Previously, she taught art history as adjunct faculty at Northeastern University and Emerson College. Jenny lives in Colorado with her husband, three children, and two dogs. She loves serving as the Young Women President in her ward.

Naelly Lavanda

I was born in Ecuador in a non religious family, when I was 6 I moved in Italy, a place that became my first home. At the age of 10 I met the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints and got baptized a few months later. I served a mission in the Rome, Italy mission, where I had the privilege to serve 10 months in the Rome visitor center. Recently I decided to start a podcast in Italian for the members of the church here in Italy, it’s called “Mano nella Mano” which means “hand in hand” and my mission is to inspire others while we walk hand in hand with God and our Savior Jesus Christ

Elder Gerrit W. Gong

Mauli Bonner

Mauli Junior Bonner works in both the music and film industry. He writes for or develops some of the biggest names in Pop music, including Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello, Stevie Wonder and others. In film, he is an award-winning writer and director of stories following black pioneers in the early Church Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mauli is also a highly sought-after public speaker and gives trainings on “The Art of Connection.”

Ryan Gabriel

Ryan Gabriel attended Utah State University and earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology in 2011. In 2016, Dr. Gabriel earned his PhD from the University of Washington then joined the Brigham Young University sociology department at the beginning of the 2016–2017 school year. Dr. Gabriel specializes in urban sociology, residential segregation, residential mobility and attainment, and race/racism and has taught courses pertaining to those interests—such as Sociology of Race and Ethnicity—since coming to BYU. Recently, Dr. Gabriel was able to participate in a seminar that involved traveling to the Southern United States with other students and faculty to visit key sites for the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 60s. Though Dr. Gabriel remains busy with researching and teaching, he always makes time to be with his wife, Erin.