Keynote Speakers

The presentations from these speakers will be livestreamed from our in-person event in Napa, CA.

Breakout Speakers

The presentations by these speakers will be featured in our on-demand video library. 

Sohrab Ahmari

Sohrab Ahmari is the op-ed editor of the New York Post, a columnist for First Things, and a contributing editor of the Catholic Herald. Previously, he served as a columnist and editor with the Wall Street Journal opinion pages in New York and London, and as senior writer at Commentary. In addition to those publications, his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Times Literary Supplement, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Spectator, Dissent, and America.

Dr. John Bergsma

Dr. John Bergsma is Professor of Theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. A former Protestant pastor, Dr. Bergsma entered the Catholic Church in 2001 while getting his Ph.D. in Bible from the University of Notre Dame. A close collaborator of Dr. Scott Hahn, Bergsma speaks regularly on Catholic radio and at conferences and parishes nationally and internationally. He has authored seven books on Scripture and the Catholic faith, including Bible Basics for Catholics (Ave Maria Press), Stunned by Scripture: How the Bible Made Me Catholic (Our Sunday Visitor), and A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: Old Testament (with Brant Pitre; Ignatius Press). Dr. Bergsma’s talks and studies are available on CD and mp3 from catholicproductions.com. He and his wife Dawn reside with their eight children in Steubenville, Ohio.

L. Brent Bozell III

Lecturer, syndicated columnist, television commentator, debater, marketer, businessman, author, publisher and activist, L. Brent Bozell III is one of the most outspoken and effective national leaders in the conservative movement today.

Founder and President of the Media Research Center, Mr. Bozell runs the largest media watchdog organization in America. Since its launch in 1987, the MRC has developed the largest video archive in the world; the popular NewsBusters.org blog site; the CNSNews.com internet news service; MRC Business; MRC Culture; MRCTV; MRC Latino; and most recently, Free Speech America. The MRC has nearly 650,000 members nationwide, with over 12 million fans on Facebook, and over 7 million video views per week online.

Mr. Bozell received his B.A. in History from the University of Dallas, where he was named the 1998 Alumnus of the Year. In 2015, he received an honorary PhD from UD. He is married, with five children and fourteen grandchildren.

Brian T. Carl

Brian T. Carl, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, where he has taught since 2019. He received his Ph.D. from Catholic University of America in 2015, and he taught for nine years at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. His primary philosophical interests are in metaphysics and philosophical theology. He is a frequently invited speaker for the Thomistic Institute.

Fr. Ambrose Criste, O. Praem.

Father Ambrose Criste is a Norbertine priest from St. Michael's Abbey in Orange County, California.
He grew up in Colorado and graduated from Colorado College with a degree in Classics/History/Politics. He won the Rhodes Scholarship and began a graduate degree at Oxford University before answering God's call to religious life and the priesthood. He entered the monastery in 2000, made solemn profession in 2006, and was ordained a priest in 2008. He finished his priestly studies in Rome with pontifical degrees from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) and the Pontifical Gregorian University.
He is the novice master and the director of formation for his abbey.

Fr. Carter Griffin

Father Carter Griffin is a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC. Raised Presbyterian, he converted to Catholicism while attending Princeton University. After graduating in 1994, he served for four years as a line officer in the United States Navy prior to entering the seminary. He attended Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland for two years of philosophy followed by the North American College in Rome for five years of theology. Father Griffin was ordained to the priesthood in 2004 and served as priest-secretary for three years before beginning doctoral studies in Rome in 2008. After completing his doctorate and serving as the parochial vicar of St. Peter’s parish on Capitol Hill, in 2011 he was appointed Director of Priest Vocations for the Archdiocese of Washington and Vice-Rector of St. John Paul II Seminary, where he now serves as Rector. He is the author of Why Celibacy: Reclaiming the Fatherhood of the Priest, published in 2019 by Emmaus Road.

Mary Rice Hasson, J.D.

Mary Rice Hasson, J.D., is the Kate O’Beirne Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. She directs the Catholic Women’s Forum, a network of Catholic professional women and scholars and is co-founder of the Person and Identity Project, an initiative that equips Catholics and Catholic institutions to counter gender ideology and promote the truth about the human person. An attorney and policy expert, Mary has been a keynote speaker for the Holy See during the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, addressing education, women and work, caregiving, and gender ideology, and she serves as a consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family, Life and Youth. Mary has testified before the US Senate on the Equality Act and the Australian Parliament on issues related to parental rights and religious liberty. She is the author of several books on education, and her writing on faith, family, religious liberty and gender ideology has appeared in a variety of publications including the Wall Street Journal, First Things, Public Discourse, Our Sunday Visitor, and The Federalist. She speaks frequently at Legatus events around the country. Mary and her husband Seamus Hasson are the parents of seven and grandparents of two.

Timothy Jeffries

Timothy Jeffries, KM serves as the Executive Chairman and CEO of The Halcyon Movement, a non-profit focused on helping people live the authentic life they were created for. In addition, Jeffries is the Owner and Executive Chairman at ChemResearch Company, Inc. (dba CRC Surface Technologies, LLC). Jeffries is also pursuing a Master of Arts in Leadership for the New Evangelization at the Augustine Institute where he serves on the Board of Regents. Jeffries earned his Master of Business Administration from Duke University, and his Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Santa Clara University.

Jeffries and his beloved wife Mary Frances dated in college and have been married 34 years. They are abundantly blessed with two daughters, two goddaughters, two grandchildren, and a 165-pound Bull Mastiff puppy. They are also blessed to live in Arizona and serve the Order of Malta.

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

Aaron Kheriaty, MD is Professor of Psychiatry at UCI School of Medicine and Director of the Medical Ethics Program at UCI Health. He serves as chairman of the medical ethics committees at UCI Hospital and at the CA Department of State Hospitals. Dr. Kheriaty graduated from the University of Notre Dame in philosophy and pre-medical sciences, earned his MD degree from Georgetown University, and completed residency training in psychiatry at UCI.

He has authored books and articles for professional and lay audiences on bioethics, social science, psychiatry, religion, and culture. Dr. Kheriaty is Senior Fellow and Director of the Program in Health and Human Flourishing at the Zephyr Institute, and Scholar at the Paul Ramsey Institute. He also serves on the advisory board at the Simone Weil Center for Political Philosophy.

Francis X. Maier

Francis X. Maier is a senior fellow in Catholic studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a senior research associate in Constitutional studies at the University of Notre Dame. Mr. Maier’s work focuses on the intersection of Christian faith, culture, and public life, with special attention to lay formation and action.

Mr. Maier served as senior adviser and special assistant to Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., for 23 years in Denver and Philadelphia. He previously served as editor in chief of the National Catholic Register, and as a story analyst and screenwriter based in Los Angeles.

Fr. Paul Mariani, SJ

Paul Mariani is a Jesuit priest and the Edmund Campion, SJ Endowed Professor of History at Santa Clara University. He is the author of Church Militant: Bishop Kung and Catholic Resistance in Communist Shanghai (Harvard 2011) which explores church-state conflict in the early years of the People’s Republic of China. His articles have appeared in America, the Review of Religion and Chinese Society, the Journal of Church and State, the Catholic Historical Review, Studies in World Christianity, and the Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South. He is currently working on a book on the Shanghai Catholic community in the years after Mao. He has a B.A from Harvard, an M.A. from Fordham, an M.Div from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He also assists at the and the San Jose Chinese Catholic Mission.

Ralph Martin

Ralph is the president of Renewal Ministries (www.renewalministries.net), an organization devoted to Catholic renewal and evangelization. Renewal Ministries is the sponsor of “The Choices We Face” a widely viewed weekly Catholic television and radio program distributed throughout the world and engages in a wide variety of mission work in more than 30 countries.
He is also the Director of Graduate Theology Programs in Evangelization and a professor of theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Detroit (www.shms.edu). He holds a doctorate in theology from the Angelicum University in Rome.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Ralph as a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization where he currently serves. He was also appointed as a theological expert for the Synod on the New Evangelization.
He is the author of the widely read The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints, and many books on spirituality and evangelization, such as Will Many Be Saved? What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization, and The Urgency of the New Evangelization, as well as many articles in scholarly and popular publications.

Anna Bonta Moreland, Ph.D.

Anna Bonta Moreland is an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities at Villanova University. She received her B.A. in Philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston College.

Anna Bonta Moreland’s areas of research include faith and reason, medieval theology with an emphasis on Thomas Aquinas, the theology of religious pluralism, and comparative theology, especially between Christianity and Islam. She has written Known by Nature: Thomas Aquinas on Natural Knowledge of God (Herder & Herder, 2010), and edited New Voices in Catholic Theology (Herder & Herder, 2012), and has just published Muhammad Reconsidered: A Christian Perspective on Islamic Prophecy (Notre Dame Press, 2020). Dr. Moreland completed this work as the Myser Fellow at the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Ethics and Culture during AY 2016-2018. Her current book projects include a co-written manuscript with Dr. Thomas Smith, The College Guide to Adulting: How to Major in Life, and a manuscript on method in comparative theology.

Nathan Tijerina

Nathan Tijerina, KM is the Co-Founder and COO of The Halcyon Movement, a non-profit focused on helping people live the authentic life they were created for. In addition, Nathan is a partner and COO at Longbeard Creative Inc. A premier Catholic digital strategy and design agency. Nathan has an MBA and an undergraduate degree in Marketing.

Nathan and his wife Brooke met at 14 years of age and have been together ever since. They have 2 amazing girls and 1 awesome boy. They live in Arizona, and Nathan serves the Order of Malta.

Fr. Bill Watson, S.J.

Fr. Bill Watson, S.J. is the President and Founder of Sacred Story Institute. Fr. Bill is in his fourth major career with Sacred Story Institute. Preceding were director positions at Georgetown University in Retreat Programs & VP for Mission at Gonzaga University (many more Ignatian programs created and still operational in both universities). He served as Provincial Assistant for International Ministries for the Oregon Province where his interest in ecology and sustainability was nurtured by his work with the Colombian Jesuits. He has also found time to serve with Fr. Spitzer in founding the original Magis Institute as well as serving in leadership positions with the Gregorian University Foundation and the Pontifical Oriental University.

Kevin Wells

Kevin Wells is a former sports reporter with the Tampa Tribune, where he covered Major League Baseball and other sports. He is the best-selling author of The Priests We Need to Save the Church. In June 2021, Ignatius Press released Kevin’s latest book, the biography on an American hero on the path to canonization, Priest and Beggar: the Heroic Life of Venerable Aloysius Schwartz. Kevin is an active evangelist, writer, and podcaster (One 2 One Podcast). More information on his ministries can be found at KevinWells.org.

Kevin is President of the Monsignor Thomas Wells Society for Vocations, which financially and prayerfully commits itself to the promotion of strong priests, seminarians, and practicing the fullness of the Catholic Faith. His work with youth earned him the James Cardinal Hickey National Figure Award from the Archdiocese of Washington. He lives in Maryland with his wife and three children. He loves baseball, reading, writing, and his backyard fire pit.

In 2009, he survived a brush with death after a malformed line of vessels in his brain hemorrhaged. He wrote, Burst, A Story of God’s Grace When Life Falls Apart in the boredom of his recovery after a supernatural event unfolded in his ICU room.

Daniel Mahoney, Ph.D.

Daniel J. Mahoney is Professor of Politics at Assumption College. He received his B.A. from the College of Holy Cross and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Catholic University of America in political science. In 1999, Professor Mahoney was the recipient of the prestigious Prix Raymond Aron. He is associate editor of Perspectives on Political Science and book review editor for Society magazine. A renowned expert on French political philosophy, his books also include the critically acclaimed Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Ascent from Ideology.

Vincent Phillip Muñoz

Vincent Phillip Muñoz is the Tocqueville Associate Professor of Political Science and Concurrent Associate Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame. He is the Founding Director of ND’s Center for Citizenship & Constitution Government. undergraduate minor in Constitutional Studies and also directs Notre Dame’s Tocqueville Program for Inquiry into Religion and Public Life. Under his leadership the programs have raised over $15,000,000 in grants, gifts, and pledges.

Dr. Muñoz writes and teaches across the fields of constitutional law, American politics, and political philosophy with a focus on religious liberty and the American Founding. His first book, God and the Founders: Madison, Washington, and Jefferson (Cambridge University Press, 2009) won the Hubert Morken Award from the American Political Science Association for the best publication on religion and politics in 2009 and 2010. His First Amendment church-state case reader, Religious Liberty and the American Supreme Court: The Essential Cases and Documents (Rowman & Littlefield) was first published in 2013 (revised edition, 2015) and is being used at Notre Dame and other leading universities. In 2019, he joined the editorial team of American Constitutional Law (11th edition, Routledge, 2019), the leading constitutional law casebooks designed for undergraduate instruction. His scholarship has been cited numerous times in church-state Supreme Court opinions, most recently by Justice Alito in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021) and by both Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Thomas in Espinoza v. Montana (2020).

Dr. Muñoz won a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to support his forthcoming book on the natural right of religious liberty and the original meanings of the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses. The book will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2022. Articles from the project have appeared in American Political Science Review, The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Notre Dame Law Review, American Political Thought, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Journal of Constitutional Law.

An award-winning teacher and a popular lecturer, Dr. Muñoz has spoken at over 75 colleges and universities in the past several years. He received his B.A. at Claremont McKenna College, his M.A. at Boston College, and his Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate School.

Ignat Solzhenitsyn 

Recognized as one of today's most gifted artists, and enjoying an active career as both conductor and pianist, Ignat Solzhenitsyn's lyrical and poignant interpretations have won him critical acclaim throughout the world.

Principal Guest Conductor of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Ignat Solzhenitsyn has recently led the symphonies of Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Seattle, and Toronto, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Czech National Symphony, as well as the Mariinsky Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. He has partnered with such world-renowned soloists as Richard Goode, Gary Graffman, Gidon Kremer, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Garrick Ohlsson, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Mitsuko Uchida.

His extensive touring schedule in the United States and Europe has included concerto performances with numerous major orchestras, including those of Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore, Montreal, Toronto, London, Paris, Israel, and Sydney, and collaborations with such distinguished conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, André Previn, Gerard Schwarz, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Yuri Temirkanov and David Zinman.

A winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Ignat Solzhenitsyn serves on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music. He has been featured on many radio and television specials, including CBS Sunday Morning and ABC’s Nightline.

Rev. Dr. Eric Albert Zimmer

The Rev. Dr. Eric Albert Zimmer became President of the University of Saint Francis on July 1, 2020, adroitly directing USF through the COVID-19 pandemic. He has heightened the Catholic stature of the university by hiring USF’s first full-time residential priest in decades, initiating a Franciscan leadership program, beginning an evaluation process for our Catholic mission, and establishing the Catholic Foundation Scholarship Fund for faithful Catholic students.

Prior to USF, he simultaneously taught negotiations at Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame and was pastor of Saint Patrick’s Church in Walkerton, Indiana. He has been a professor at Creighton University School of Medicine and at Georgetown University. His numerous other experiences include serving at the Holy See Permanent Mission to the United Nations and at the Congregation for Catholic Education of the Universities Section of the Vatican. A military veteran, he has also served as State Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus and on both Catholic high school and university boards. He holds five graduate degrees, including an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

A more extensive biography is available online at president.sf.edu.