Plenary Speakers
Morgan Cutlip, Ph.D. ** joined the Love Thinks team officially in 2008, although she developed an interest in romantic relationship health at a young age, and traveled with her father when he first started teaching the How to Avoid Falling for Jerk program over 20 years ago.Morgan has completed her Bachelor's degree in psychology at Miami University, her Master's in Human Development and Family Science at the Ohio State University, and earned her Doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Akron. While at Ohio State, Morgan worked on a research project that evaluated the effectiveness of the No Jerk program with single Army soldiers. She was lead author on the research article published about the study, which was awarded the 2008 Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal article of the year. Her dissertation was a qualitative study on the Relationship Attachment Model with married couples and can be downloaded here.
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John Van Epp, PhD ** in Counseling/Psychology, is the author of How to Avoid Falling in Love with a Jerk. The combination of his twenty‐five years of clinical counseling in his private practice and teaching graduate marriage and family coursework as adjunct professor, and his extensive research in premarital, marital and family relations have paved the way for his five relationship programs: PICK (How to Avoid Falling for a Jerk) (which is for singles of all ages), Couple LINKS (which is a program for committed couples), and Our Home Runs (for entire families and designed to facilitate family bonding).
Dr. Van Epp has trained and certified more than 10,000 instructors from all fifty states and ten countries. PICK, LINKS and Our Home Runs are also widely used in the military with more than 250,000 servicemen and women taking the classes in his programs since 2001. He has been happily married for thirty‐five years and is the proud father of two daughters.
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Scott Stanley, Ph.D. ** is a research professor in the department of psychology at the University of Denver. He authors the popular blog "Sliding vs Deciding®," highlighting research insights about commitment, and relationship development. He has appeared in a wide range of major broadcast and print media, where he is sought as a relationship expert on, marriage, and cohabitation. Dr. Stanley has appeared in USA Today, Psychology Today, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, and many others, and on shows such as 20/20, The Today Show, CNN, and Fox News. And has authored/co-authored many books, including Fighting for Your Marriage, The Power of Commitment , and A Lasting Promise.
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Michele Weiner-Davis, MSW ** is an internationally renowned relationship expert, best-selling author, marriage therapist, and professional speaker who specializes in helping people change their lives and improve important relationships. Among the first in her field to courageously speak out about the pitfalls of unnecessary divorce, Michele has been active in spearheading the now popular movement urging couples to make their marriages work and keep their families together. She is the author of seven books including her best-selling books, DIVORCE BUSTING: A Step-by-Step Approach to Making Your Marriage Loving Again (Simon & Schuster), and THE SEX-STARVED MARRIAGE: A Couple's Guide to Boosting Their Marriage Libido (Simon & Schuster).
Michele is the Director of The Divorce Busting® Center with offices in Boulder, Colorado and Woodstock, Illinois.
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Jim Thomas, LMFT ** obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in psychology from Ohio State University. He studied alternative approaches to psychotherapy for two years at Boulder College, and earned his Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Colorado at Denver. He is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, EFT Therapist, and an AAMFT, Clinical Fellow and an AAMFT Approved Supervisor as well as an ICEEFT EFT Supervisor.
Jim is the Director of the Colorado Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy. He is active as an EFT Therapist, Trainer and Supervisor. He also enjoys providing life coaching and positive psychology therapy support to individuals in his private practice.
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Sam Himelstein, Ph.D ** works as a licensed Psychologist in the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center (ACJJC) and in private practice in Oakland, CA, researches the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions with incarcerated and underserved adolescent populations, is an author of multiple scholarly journal articles and two books, travels the country speaking at conferences and conducting professional trainings, and is the founder and president of the Center for Adolescent Studies.
Dr. Himelstein is passionate about training professionals from multiple disciplines in creating authentic, healing relationships with adolesents that contribute to positive outcomes. A formerly incarcerated youth himself, Dr. Himelstein was privileged to change his life from a path of drugs, violence, crime, and self-destruction to that of healing and transformation. His mission is to help young people become aware of the power of self-awareness and transformation, and train professionals with similar interests.
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Hal Runkel, LMFT ** is an experienced, credentialed relationship expert who has helped transform thousands of lives, families and communities around the world. He is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, Registered Conflict Mediator, international speaker, and a NYT bestselling author. His books, ScreamFree Parenting and ScreamFree Marriage, have helped spur a worldwide movement toward calmer, nonreactive family relationships. Both books have been translated into over 10 other languages, and their related small group curricula have been taught in over 15 different countries. Hal is President of ScreamFree Omnimedia, LLC, a relationship improvement organization helping people transform their mindsets and habits to live happier, calmer lives. Hal and his wife have been married for 23 years and they have two children, Hannah (20), and Brandon (18).
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Dr. Kathleen Patterson, Ph.D. currently serves as a Professor and the Director of the Doctor of Strategic Leadership program in the School of Business & Leadership at Regent University, where she has been since 1999. Dr. Patterson is noted as an expert on servant leadership. She coordinates an annual Servant Leadership Research Roundtable, where both scholars and practitioners meet together to engage in servant leadership discourse. She has also co-coordinated three Global Servant Leadership Research Roundtables, in the Netherlands, Australia, and Iceland. Dr. Patterson is involved in numerous consulting projects locally, nationally and abroad. Additionally she sits on the board of directors for the Larry C. Spears Center, CareNet, and Millennials for Marriage.
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Dede Lomenick is a speaker and entertainer and lives in Fort Lauderdale Florida. She is an incredibly happily married wife and mother to three wonderful daughters. She has been speaking and sharing her stories with people of all ages and stages for fifteen years with an emphasis on marriage. Her passion is to see families flourish and she believes that humor is essential in every family!
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David Salyers is Vice President of Brand Activation at Chick-fil-A, Inc. In his current role, David is responsible for national, market and local marketing activation efforts. He and his team focus on New Restaurant Marketing, Partnerships & Activation Marketing, Marketing Services and Local Marketing for Chick-fil-A.
David holds a Bachelors of Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Georgia and spent time at Wake Forest University and the Universidad de Madrid. He is also an alumnus of the Harvard Business School. David and his wife, Lynn, have three children.
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Pastor Del Phillips has given his life to ministry for over 35 years. His leadership in ministry has placed him as the Pastoral leader of The House Worship Center a multi-cultural and multi-generational congregation in Denver, Colorado. The mark of his leadership has impacted the Denver community in his work as founder of the Colorado Coalition of Faith formed in 2005 in response to Hurricane Katrina. The Coalition brought together Pastors, churches, community leaders and professionals representing nearly every facet of crisis support within the state of Colorado. In the fall of 2014 he organized the Colorado Black Leadership Caucus which is comprised of key community organizations representing the interest of African Americans, including the NAACP (Denver/Aurora), Urban League, Greater Metro Denver Ministers Alliance, Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce, Colorado Black Women for Political Action, Northeast Islamic Center and several others. Pastor Del is the father of five adult children and recently married to Aleina in January of 2014.