Featured Authors

For our 2025 conference, we’ve had the opportunity to feature authors that believe and align with this project’s call to bring together believers, leaders, and visionaries — to integrate faith with purpose in every sphere of life.


  • Educator • Executive Leader • Change Agent

    A pastor, educator, and executive leader who bridges the sacred and the strategic. Since 2021, he has served as Pastor of Israel A.M.E. Church in Albany, NY, where his ministry blends worship, justice, and innovation through initiatives. Beyond the pulpit, Kevin brings over 20 years of C-suite and nonprofit leadership experience, including roles as Chief Finance & Talent Officer at the Connecticut RISE Network, Interim CEO & CFO of Greentown Labs, CEO of City on a Hill Charter Public School, and COO of KIPP Massachusetts. A proud Tuskegee University alum, he has been honored by Marquis Who’s Who (2025), 100 Men of Color, and the National Council of Negro Women. Through preaching, teaching, writing, and community service, Rev. Taylor equips organizations and congregations for spiritual growth and lasting transformation.


  • Lumen Institute National Chaplain

    Fr Nathaniel Haslam was born in Harrisburg, PA in 1976. He is an RPI graduate with Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Minor in Mechanical Engineering. While working for Xerox, he planned to create his own Fortune 500 company. As a Catholic-turned-atheist, he had several experiences meeting Jesus which brought him back to the Church and eventually the priesthood.

    In his book, Seek The Treasure, Fr Nathaniel shares his journey from business to the priesthood. Each chapter shares lessons on life and leadership from his journey and ends with several questions for personal reflection.

Featured Artist

We were kindly introduced to this year’s conference artist, and he resonated with our theme and values. — Through this year’s featured Silent Auction piece, ‘Song of Sunshine’, we are reminded of our call to maintain a clear vision at the center of our daily work (bird’s eye), and a sustained trust in daily providence (being like the birds who do not worry and are sustained daily, from the rising of the sun, to its setting).


  • Houston TX and Manhattan NYC based artist Chu Okoli is an accomplished and world-renowned visual artist trained in classical drawing and painting. Taking inspiration also from his background as a sculptor, installation artist, designer, writer, innovator, and visionary - he forged a new style in painting using concentric circles as a filter through which he sees the universe and the world around him.

    “The use of circles in art has its root in the ancient tradition of spiritual art and symbolism. However, I employ the use of concentric circles in a new way to celebrate the way I see the world around me. My vehicle to narrate compelling visual stories. – In making my art, I build up multiple layers of paint following cyclical pathways with thick premium oil pigment to create these textural motions. Delicately, but with flourish, every inch of space is given meaning through a breathtaking range of color matching and mixing. – Like a pebble dropped in water, the whole painting takes cue from a focal point and radiates onto an expanding motion of energy. The goal is to achieve symmetry with flair, and precision without the mechanical. The circles are created free hand, guided by mathematical impulse. The process is very intense; requiring solitude and focus during production.”

    Chu has exhibited at eminent art fairs such as Art Basel Miami from 2022 - 2024. He also exhibited at the Coral Gable Museum in Miami Florida, the ArtExpo New York, and the Contemporary Art Fair Santa Fe NM. His works reside in public and private collections; and at both his studios in Manhattan, New York City and Sawyer Yards Heights, Houston Texas.

Medici Medal Award Winner in Painting at the 10th Edition of the Florence International Contemporary Art Biennale Italy.