The Speakers (2022)

Terrance is a brother, son, father of 3, and husband of 5 years. With his degree in Human Development and Family Studies from Michigan State University, and life experience, he has been able to navigate fatherhood in a very insightful way. He served as the Fatherhood Facilitator for Ingham County’s Strong Start Healthy Start for 3 years before he and his family relocated to the Metro Detroit area where he accepted the Fatherhood Coordinator position with the Detroit Healthy Start Program through the Institute for Population Health. This job has shown him a passion for fatherhood advocacy he did not know he had. And it has allowed him to impact an audience of parents, colleagues, and peers with information, inspiration, and encouragement.

Shon Hart is a married father of three, a certified Eric Thomas, Game Changer, motivational speaker and an authority on fatherhood. He is the founder and Executive Director of InvolvedDad, where he strengthens families through father engagement. His organization provides various front-line and gap services that impact and transform families and communities. Despite Shon not excelling in high school academically, he used the negativity of others to take control of his life and earn an athletic scholarship and degree from Michigan State University. He later authored 5 books; his most well-known is From Average to Elite. With his energetic and infectious personality, he is driven to help those he serves to grow from the inside out to dominate their lanes. The motto he lives by is, “Don’t chase the bag (money), chase your assignment; the bag is wrapped in your assignment!”

Bakari Wallace, PhD, is a post-doctoral research fellow at Wayne State University, School of Social Work. He completed his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in community-based research. Specifically, his research focuses on how racial-structural paradigms like antiblackness shape the experiences, perceptions, knowledge, and behaviors of those who identify, and are identified as, Black men and boys.

Broadly, as an interdisciplinary scholar, his research interests range from the effects of mass incarceration on the Black community, police and prison abolition, Black youth civic participation, Black radical social movements, and historical methods of Black radical community organizing.

Paul Osbourne was born in Toronto, Canada, of Jamaican Maroon parentage. He is the proud father of 4 children and has been active in community development for over 20 years. As a self-described cultural community cultivator, he has created a niche for developing African-centered transformational change by creating program, workshops, and curricula, community conversations, and organizational training.

Paul Osbourne is the co-founder of Ujima house, the home of the Young and Potential Fathers Initiative, which is Canada's only father-focused parenting center.

Paul Osbourne is the Director of NSAA Community Cultivators, who support and strengthen organizations that work with African-Canadian community members.

Jason is an enrolled member of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. He holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in social work from Michigan State University with a focus on organizational and community leadership. The Children’s Advocacy Center of Michigan awarded Jason the Champion of Advocacy award in 2019.

Civi Mahdi is a mentor, consultant, speaker, father, and member of the Kingz Table.

Ben Hughes has dedicated his career to leadership and helping others. He currently is a Customer Experience Lead at General Motors, with past roles leading customer service teams in hospitality (Booking.com & Postmates), hearing aids (Whisper AI) and health insurance (Priority Health). His leadership experience also includes serving as a board member for the Down Syndrome Diagnosis Network, volunteer roles with the Down Syndrome Association of West Michigan and as a current participant in the Men's Leadership and Advocacy project. Ben's biggest accomplishment is his family - he lives in Rockford, MI, with his wife Dana (married 7 years), father to his stepson Carter (17) and daughter Elliott (5.5). Elliott is energetic, exhausting, funny, compassionate, stubborn, opinionated, and many other things that you would expect from a 5-year-old. She also has Down syndrome, autism, a congenital heart defect, Hirschsprung's disease, Crohn's disease and is non-verbal. She refuses to quit or be underestimated, and has helped Ben grow tremendously - as a father, leader and advocate.

Rich Kloeckner has been open to service and leadership opportunities throughout his career and personal pursuits. While attending Grand Valley State University, he found opportunities with Alternative Breaks, The American Cancer Society and the Office of Student Life. After graduating from GVSU with a BA in Communications and Business, he served in AmeriCorps NCCC as a Team Leader. While guiding 11 other peers, Rich led his team through projects focused on hurricane disaster relief, after-school programs, wildland firefighting and Habitat for Humanity. After AmeriCorps, Rich began working for Mitsubishi's forklift division, Logisnext. Applying his previous leadership experiences, Rich has been blessed to advance within the same company for the last 16 years. He is currently the Senior Manager of Products and Inventory Management. When he isn't working, he focuses on his family and friends. He has been married for 14 years to his wife Lindsey. Together, they share two daughters, Grace (9) and Natalie (6), who are their pride and joy. Natalie was born with Down syndrome, which comes with challenges, but Rich sees them as opportunities. Since Natalie's birth, Rich has signed up for just about every training, seminar, and networking event possible. He currently leads the dads group for the Down Syndrome Association of West Michigan, while also participating in the Men's Leadership and Advocacy project.

Amy Lindholm is a Management Analyst for the Michigan State Court Administrative Office’s Friend of the Court Bureau (FOCB) and has worked in that role since 2017. She previously worked at the Kent County Friend of the Court for five years. Amy has a master’s degree in Public Administration from Grand Valley State University with a concentration in Policy and Planning).

One responsibility in her current role with the FOCB is stakeholder engagement. Amy currently serves as Fatherhood Liaison and Corrections Liaison to friends of the court, bridging gaps for fathers and incarcerated parents – two groups who often struggle to navigate the friend of the court system and to feel heard by it. Amy currently serves as a Co-Chair of the Michigan Action Plan for Father Involvement.