Smart Marriages 2008 Keynote
Bios and contact information
KEYNOTE PRESENTERS
Julie Baumgardner, MS, CFLE, is the executive director of First Things First (FTF),
a grassroots organization dedicated to strengthening marriages and families in
Chattanooga, Tennessee. The success of the model has sparked interest in duplicating
it in cities across the country. Prior to joining FTF, she worked as a social worker,
a program director for a child & adolescent program and as a marketing director.
She serves on the board of community organizations and frequently speaks on family
issues, including parenting, reducing out-of-wedlock childbearing and strengthening
fatherhood and marriage relationships. Her weekly column in the Chattanooga
Times-Free Press reaches thousands. She and her husband, Jay, have a daughter.
www.firstthings.org
Gary Chapman, PhD, is director of Marriage and Family Life Consultants, Inc. He is
author of 25 books, including the NY Times bestseller, The Five Love Languages, which
has been translated in 35 languages with additional versions for men, children, teenagers,
and singles. Other titles include The Five Languages of Apology, Desperate Marriages, and
Anger: Handling a Powerful Emotion in a Healthy Way. He leads marriage seminars nationally
and internationally. His nationally-syndicated radio program, A Love Language Minute,
airs daily on more than 100 stations. He and his wife Karolyn reside in Winston-Salem and
have two children and two grandchildren. www.fivelovelanguages.com
Bill Doherty, PhD, Professor and Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program
at the University of Minnesota, is past president of the National Council on Family Relations
and author of 12 books, including Take Back Your Marriage: Sticking Together in a
World That Pulls Us Apart and Take Back Your Wedding: Managing the People
Stress of Wedding Panning. He leads the federally funded Minnesota Family Formation
Project which works with urban couples who are unmarried new parents. He is co-founder
of the National Registry of Marriage Friendly Therapists, and co-founder (with daughter
Elizabeth) of The First Dance, a premarital program on the family dynamics of wedding planning.
He is developing a new reconciliation project for couples who have filed for divorce. He speaks
across the country to both lay and academic audiences and appears frequently in the media.
He and his wife, Leah, live in St. Paul and are the parents of two, and beaming grandparents of two.
www.drbilldoherty.org July 2008 interview in Minnesota Monthly
John Gray, PhD, lecturer, educator and author of 15 bestsellers including Men Are
From Mars, Women Are From Venus, the number one best-selling book of the last decade
and his latest, Mars and Venus Collide: The New War Between the Sexes.
In the last ten years, over 30 million Mars and Venus books have been sold in over 40
languages around the world. An expert in the fields of communication and relationships,
Gray's focus is to help men and women understand, respect and appreciate their differences.
He has appeared on Oprah, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The View,
Politically Incorrect, Larry King Live and others and has been profiled in USA Today,
Time, TV Guide, People, New Age Journal, Forbes and other publications and
is the premier Better Life relationship coach on AOL. He lives with his wife and three
children in northern California. www.marsvenus.com
Harville Hendrix, PhD and Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD, partners in life and work, are
authors of two new education programs: Couplehood As A Spiritual Path designed for
faith based couples and Imago Connects designed for all couples. These programs
are based on Imago Relationship Therapy, a therapy for couples which they co-created.
They also co-founded Imago Relationships International, a non-profit organization
that supports 2000+ therapists practicing in 30 countries. They lecture and train internationally
and have authored and co-authored nine books on intimate relationships including the
classic best sellers Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples; Keeping the
Love You Find: A Personal Guide; and Giving the Love That Heals: A Guide for Parents.
Getting the Love You Want is celebrating its 20th anniversary this years with a new
foreword and extensive revisions. All together their books have been published in over
57 languages. They have appeared on many radio and television shows and been written
about in many newspapers and magazines. Harville's appearances include sixteen
Oprah Winfrey Shows, one of which won Ms. Winfrey an Emmy and was included in her
top 20 shows in her 20th anniversary celebration. Helen is sole author of Faith and Feminism:
A Holy Alliance and has been inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame for her work in
empowering women and girls which includes launching a billion dollar campaign called
Women Moving Millions. They live in New Mexico and New York and have six children
and four grandchildren. www.ImagoRelationships.org www.ImagoRelationships.org
Sue Johnson, EdD, is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Ottawa
in Canada and Research Professor in Marital and Family Therapy at Alliant
University in California. She is the Director of the International Center
for Emotionally Focused Therapy and the Ottawa Couple and Family Institute.
Her best known professional books are, The Practice of Emotionally Focused
Couple Therapy (2004) and Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy with Trauma
Survivors (2002). Her latest book, for the public, Hold me Tight: Seven
Conversations for a Lifetime of Love has just been released. Sue has
received awards for her work from AAMFT and AFTA and is an invited fellow of
APA. Professionally, she is either traveling the world talking about love
and attachment and couple therapy, writing, seeing couples or conducting
research on couple interventions. Personally, she loves being with her
husband and kids, kayaking on Canadian lakes, and dancing tango. www.eft.ca
Pat Love, EdD, co-founder of the Austin Family Institute is a former distinguished
graduate professor, author, and master trainer who has contributed to marriage education
through her books, articles, training programs, With daughter, Kathleen McFadden,
she co-founded Love Education and the Certified Love Educator (CLE) training
program. Her classics, Hot Monogamy and The Truth About Love have taken her
around the world spreading the good news about marriage and commitment.
In 2007, she and co-creator, Jon Carlson launched the comprehensive DVD Course,
Love-What Everyone Needs to Know and with, co-author, Steven Stosny, introduced her
latest book, How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It. She
is a frequent media guest with multiple appearances on Oprah, Today, and CNN and
is a regular contributor to magazines such as Tango, Cosmopolitan, Men's Health,
Glamour, and Woman's World. She lives in Austin, Texas and is a mother and
grandmother. www.patlove.com
Cloé Madanes is the author of five books that are classics in the field:
Strategic Family Therapy; Behind the One Way Mirror; Sex, Love and Violence;
The Secret Meaning of Money and The Violence of Men. She is also co-creator of
The Ultimate Relationship Program – a series of films on strategic interventions.
She has won numerous awards for her contribution to psychology. For many years she
was the Director and Founder of The Family Therapy Institute of Washington, D.C.
Currently she is the President of The Robbins-Madanes Center for Strategic Intervention in La Jolla,
California. Cloé has been featured in Newsweek, Vogue, the Washington Post,
the Boston Globe and has appeared on Oprah. A volume of her selected
papers was published in 2006. www.robbinart Maradanes.com
Howard Markman, PhD, is a professor of psychology and co-director of the Center
for Marital and Family Studies at the University of Denver and a practicing marital
therapist and workshop leader. His groundbreaking longitudinal research on the prediction
and prevention of relationship discord and divorce, funded for 25+ years by NIMH and
NICHD, has produced over 125 journal articles, books and papers. With Scott Stanley, he
developed the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP), and more recently
the
LoveYour Relationship Couples Retreats based on PREP. He is the leading marital
researcher and marriage educator in the country and is an APA Fellow and recipient of the
2001 Distinguished Service Research Award from Smart Marriages. Markman & Stanley
and colleagues have conducted state of the art marriage education evaluation studies of
PREP including current ones involving religious organizations and the U.S. Army. He is
co-author of the book
12 Hours to a Great Marriage, as well as the best-selling
Fighting for Your Marriage. He is also co-author of
Why Do Fools Fall in Love?;
We Can Work It Out, and 4 books in the
Fighting for Your Marriage series. He appears
regularly in the media (
Oprah, Today, USA Today, etc.). His interests also include the
science of prevention, the dissemination of empirically-based interventions to communities
and social policy makers, the effects of relationship discord and divorce on mental illness,
and the psychology of love.
www.loveyourrelationship.com.
David Olson, PhD, is president, Life Innovations, and professor emeritus, Family Social Science,
University of Minnesota. He is a Fellow and clinical member of the American Psychological
Association (APA) and the American Association of Marital Therapy (AAMFT) and is past
president of the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) and the Upper Midwest Association
of Marital and Family Therapists (UMAMFT). He has received several research and theory awards
from a variety of organizations including ACME, APA, AAMFT, AFTA, ACA. He has developed
over ten couple and family inventories including PREPARE, ENRICH, PAIR, AWARE, Family Strengths,
Family Satisfaction and FACES (four versions). Over 50,000 counselors have been trained to
use PREPARE/ENRICH and over a million couples have taken the program. The Circumplex Model
of Marital and Family Systems he developed has been used in over 1,000 studies of couples and
families. He has written more than 100 articles and 20 books including the most recent:
Empowering Couples: Building on Your Strengths,
Marriage and Family: Intimacy,
Diversity and Strengths,
Building Relationships, and
Families: What Makes Them Work.
His frequent media appearances include the Today Show, CBS Morning Show, Good Morning
America and Oprah.
www.lifeinnovations.com
Scott Stanley, PhD, is a research professor at the University of Denver and co‑director of
the Center for Marital and Family Studies. He has published widely, with research interests
including commitment, communication, sacrifice, the prevention of marital distress, and
cohabitation. Along with Howard Markman and colleagues, he has been involved in the research,
development, and refinement of the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP)
since 1977, with research funded by NIMH. The team is currently conducting a long-term study
of PREP in the U. S. Army, funded by the NICHD. He heads up a team that is also conducting
a large, nationally sampled, long-term study of the risks of various patterns of cohabitation and
couple pathways into marriage, funded by NICHD. Stanley and colleagues have recently produced
curricula for lower income participants (Within My Reach, for individuals, and Within Our Reach,
for couples). Stanley is the author of The Power of Commitment, and co-author of Fighting for
Your Marriage, A Lasting Promise, and 12 Hours to a Great Marriage. He lives in Denver
with wife, Nancy, and two sons. www.prepinc.com
Dennis Stoica, MBA, is President of the California Healthy Marriages Coalition, which
through its CCF Intermediary Grant has pioneered the "coalition of coalitions" model for
Healthy Marriage Initiatives on a statewide basis. Dennis also founded the Orange County
Resource Center which has been one of the strongest community-based coalitions in the country.
His Community Marriage Resource Center Website, an electronic clearinghouse of marriage-related
programs and resources that acts as a catalyst in building community collaboration, is now being
replicated throughout the country. Dennis also pioneered the Grantwriting Boot Camp, a Training
and Technical Assistance intervention that has been phenomenally successful in helping numerous
HM organizations develop winning grant applications. He received an MBA from Harvard and
combines his business acumen and a "passion for Marriage" into a whirlwind of innovative
activities that support Healthy Marriages both in California and beyond. He lives in Southern California
with his wife, Sandy. www.CaliforniaMarriages.org
John Van Epp, PhD, is the founder and director of the Marriage LINKS and PICK a Partner
programs, commonly referred to as How To Avoid Marrying A Jerk (ette). His
book of the same title blends in-depth research with humorous stories to provide a map for
making healthy relationship choices. Known for his humor and insight, he conducts numerous
presentations and workshops, and has trained over five thousand instructors in his programs.
His twenty+ years of clinical experience and research in premarital, marital and family
relations, enriched by his previous experience as a minister and adjunct professor, have paved
the way for his programs to be taught in thousands of churches, singles organizations, educational
settings and social agencies in 45 states, ten countries and by more than 2,000 chaplains and
family advocacy workers. He and his wife, Shirley, are the proud parents of two daughters.
www.nojerks.com
Michele Weiner-Davis, MSW, is Director of The Divorce Busting Center in Boulder, CO,
where she and her clinical staff help clients strengthen marriages and prevent divorce using
her solution-oriented, down-to-earth approach to marital problem-solving. Among the first in
her field to courageously speak out against unnecessary divorce, Michele is passionate offering
couples tools to make their marriages work and keep their families together in her lively seminars.
She also teaches those in the front lines - therapists, clergy and lay people how to work with
couples to stack the deck in the favor of marriage. Her Marriage Breakthrough and
Keeping Love Alive programs are taught by marriage educators in church, military, community and
professional settings worldwide. She is the author of seven books including her best-selling,
Divorce Busting, The Divorce Remedy, The Sex-Starved Marriage and her latest,
The Sex-Starved Wife (2008). Her work has been featured in nearly every major newspaper and
magazine and she is a frequent guest on shows such as TODAY, 20/20, 48 Hours, CBS
Morning Show, Oprah, O'Reilly Factor and CNN. She and her husband, Jim, are the parents of
two children. www.divorcebusting.com
Back to Keynotes
Smart Marriages Conference Details and Registration