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Founder & President, Struinova

Favorite Innovation Quote: "When opportunity comes, it's too late to prepare." John Wooden

Biography: Ron Brumbarger is an author and seasoned entrepreneur with multiple exits from Bitwise Solutions - a technology firm he started in 1992 and exited in 2018, and Apprentice University, which he started in 2012 and exited in 2023. He has a passion for entrepreneurship, innovation, and creative problem-solving, which has led him to assist organizations around the world for the last twelve years. Today, Ron is the founder and President of Struinova Innovation, where he and his team serve as "Innovators in Residence" for organizations, helping them conceive, identify, develop, and market new products and services.

Sr Director Strategy & Innovation, Living Water International

Favorite Innovation Quote: "To be creative you have to be fed by the divine source." Johnny Cash

Biography: Russ Debenport works with organizations to build strong teams, establish clarity, and advance mission. Russ has over 30 years of experience in over 40 countries and has worked with organizations like the Chalmers Center, the Mayo Clinic, and Compassion International. In his role as Sr Director of Strategy and Innovation with Living Water International, he helps create an environment where every staff member feels empowered and equipped to join God in making things new for the neighbors they serve. With a human-centered, cross-disciplinary, conversational strategy style, Russ has helped dozens of nonprofits—from startups to well-established organizations—to implement and scale their mission.

Catalyst for Innovation, Frontier Ventures

Favorite Innovation Quote: "We realized that at its heart, innovation in mission is about the process of transformation as God shifts our ministry paradigms... we are not only seeking fresh ideas or new ways of delivering the gospel message, but we are also expecting God to reshape us in the process" Steven Spicer

Biography: Paul Dzubinski is the Director of Innovation at Frontier Ventures, where he leads the Winter Launch Lab to integrate spiritual discernment, design thinking, and theological reflection into transformative mission strategies. He collaborates across global networks and internal teams to develop innovation experiences that serve unreached people groups and foster whole-person outreach. With a background in missiology and systems thinking, Paul equips leaders to explore innovation as a spiritual discipline rooted in prayer, listening, and community.

Principle, Clarity Research

Favorite Innovation Quote: "We are the music makers,

    And we are the dreamers of dreams,

Wandering by lone sea-breakers,

    And sitting by desolate streams;—

World-losers and world-forsakers,

    On whom the pale moon gleams:

Yet we are the movers and shakers

    Of the world for ever, it seems." Arthur O'Shaughnessy (and later requoted by the famed innovator William Wonka)

Biography: Scott Friderich started Clarity Research in 2009 to help clients by designing and executing clear research strategies that connect vision to action. Over the last fifteen years, Clarity has provided a wide variety of research methods from focus groups to surveys on every continent (except Antarctica) that has empowered more than 40 ministry clients to expand and improve their services and communicate impact to stakeholders.

Founder/CEO, Way Forth Collective

Favorite Innovation Quote: "Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard." Guy Kawasaki

Biography: Jennifer has helped faith-based nonprofits make their goals a reality for 25 years. Her background includes strategy, project management, operations, and team + ministry leadership; she now helps nonprofits move from dreaming to doing through strategic planning to implementation. 

Vice President of Marketing Services, The FOCUS Group

Favorite Innovation Quote: “At its best, innovation mirrors God’s own work: creating, redeeming, and making all things new.” Anonymous 

Biography: Dan has taken a journey from brand management at Procter & Gamble to Christian retail and then three years working in China as the marketing leader for an NGO. There, the entrepreneur in him created the vision for Kumveka – a nonprofit firm that provided research, brand, and marketing services to like-minded organizations worldwide. He returned to the US to found and run Kumveka for 13 years. In a desire to focus on audience research, he and a colleague founded Boaz Research to hone in on helping organizations make better-informed decisions by deeply understanding the needs of their audiences. His role today is The FOCUS Group’s first Vice President of Marketing Services. Dan serves on the board of Imago Dei Neighborhood School. He lives in Richmond, Virginia with his his wife Sara of 29 years. They have four adult children.

Principal Consultant, McGee Research

Favorite Innovation Quote: "One cannot reframe while one operates in a state of fear. Fear only clouds one's perspective and inhibits one's reactions." Navi Radjou

Biography: Jim McGee conducts quantitative and qualitative research to support decision making. He specializes in research for international charitable and membership organizations, having worked in 20+ countries, and in fields as diverse as consumer goods, finance, telecom, travel, education, utilities, and government. Jim has lived in Russia and Malaysia; he now resides in Colorado.

Freelance/Independent

Favorite Innovation Quote: “Whenever Thomas Edison was about to hire a new employee, he would invite the applicant over for a bowl of soup. If the person salted his soup before tasting it, Edison would not offer him the job. He did not hire people who had too many assumptions built into their everyday life. Edison wanted people who consistently challenged assumptions.” Michael Michalko, Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques

Biography: Matt Merritt has spent years leading innovation pilots through Prescience Labs, the innovation arm of a global Bible translation organization. His work draws on deep research and empathetic insights, helping organizations surface the hidden assumptions and frameworks that quietly undermine their values and mission.

Matt brings a contrarian edge to leadership—unafraid to challenge “sacred cows” and to ask the hard questions that others avoid. Through years of engaging with organizational cultures, he has developed a keen sense of when institutions drift from their founding mission, too often bending to the lowest common denominator of ease, self-protection, and reputation-management.

By combining thoughtful inquiry with bold experimentation, Matt has built a reputation for guiding organizations back toward clarity of purpose, helping them realign innovation with their core calling.

Director of Digital Engagement & Innocation, Dallas Theological Seminary

Favorite Innovation Quote: “In the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity.” Albert Einstein

Biography: Davis Mursalie serves as Director of Digital Engagement & Innovation at Dallas Theological Seminary, where he works to shape infrastructure that supports innovation. Drawing on over 20 years of experience in corporate, nonprofit, and theological education settings, he is passionate about bridging creativity, digital transformation, and cross-cultural strategy for Spirit-led mission.

Director of Innovation, OneHope

Favorite Innovation Quote: Failure should always be considered a symptom of an innovative opportunity. Peter Drucker

Biography: Liam Savage is passionate about helping the Global Church innovate in order to fulfill the Great Commission. He currently serves as the Director of Innovation for OneHope, an international nonprofit that reaches the next generation with Godʼs Word. Liam is the author of Green Sky Innovation, a book that equips people to make the future of ministry. He created the Innovation Launchpad, an online learning journey that raises up innovators for ministry. Liamʼs innovation work is grounded in his study of theology at Biola University and Knox Theological Seminary. He holds an executive MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology, and a Doctorate of Ministry in Missiology from Southeastern University.

Doctoral Researcher, Strategic Innovation Catalyst 

Favorite Innovation Quote: “Innovation opportunities do not come with the tempest but with the rustling of the breeze.” Peter Drucker

Biography: Marcelle is a strategic Innovation Catalyst and Doctoral Researcher with seven years in innovation management in the faith-based non-profit sector. She helps mission-driven innovators turn their opportunities into tangible concepts through experimentation and fosters collaboration that drives lasting transformation.

Author, Human Is the New Vinyl | Founder, VerifiedHuman™ | Market Development Manager, Southeast Restoration Group

Favorite Innovation Quote: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” Albert Einstein

Biography: Micah Voraritskul builds ideas, brands, and teams that work. He is the founder of VerifiedHuman™, a movement that equips creators, educators, and mission-driven organizations to preserve authenticity and transparency in the age of AI, and author of Human Is the New Vinyl: Why Human Creativity Still Wins in the AI Revolution. With more than 20 years of experience in ministry, organizational development, and content strategy, Micah helps leaders clarify vision, navigate change, and strengthen culture. His work emphasizes that innovation in mission is less about chasing tools and more about keeping human purpose, trust, and community at the center.

Independent Advisor

Favorite Innovation Quote: Joshua 1:9 is my favorite Bible verse and I love how it applies to innovation and serves as a lens through which innovators should view the world: "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

Biography: Joe is a visionary leader with a proven record in business transformation. He specializes in leveraging AI-driven strategies to propel corporate growth and operational excellence. With a career spanning key roles at industry-leading companies, Joe has expertise in SaaS-based learning, artificial intelligence, media, and digital innovation.

CEO/Publisher, Chasm Gaming

Favorite Innovation Quote: “Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.” Theodore Levitt

Biography: DG Wynn is an author, speaker, creative, and a publisher of creatives. She has been in missions book publishing for over twelve years and recently felt called to innovate Great Commission themes into the medium of card and board games as a new way to cast vision for the Kingdom to the masses.