Alycia Wood graduated from Roberts Wesleyan College with a degree in Criminal Justice and from Marygrove College with a Master’s in Social Justice. She also graduated from the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and spent two years as a Fellow with RZIM in New England. Alycia’s speaking background is quite diverse. From universities (such as MIT, UCONN, Harvard, University of Massachusetts, Boston University, Dartmouth College, and Brown University), to retreats, from conferences to men’s and women’s prisons, Alycia has addressed major issues surrounding faith to diverse audiences.

Additionally, she has traveled to countries such as Haiti, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica, volunteering at soup kitchens and orphanages as her passions for “showing Christ” extends beyond her local environment.

In her spare time, Alycia enjoys music and is a lover of all things football and hockey.

Derek Rishmawy is a Ph.D. student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School attempting to study Systematic Theology. Adopted by the Triune God. Husband of McKenna. Former college pastor. Beyond that, he is an admitted cliche: books, beer, beard, and a blog that takes too much of his time. He is a regular contributor to sites like The Gospel Coalition, Christ and Pop Culture, The Local Church, Mere Orthodoxy, and Christianity Today. Derek also co-hosts a podcast called Mere Fidelity.

Carl DeJONG is married to a courageous wife with five young children aged 10 and under. He is a Sergeant with the Ottawa Police Service having served in law enforcement for over 12 years. His background in policing includes front-line patrol in Ottawa’s downtown core, assistance in homicide investigations, Northern Investigations in Nunavut for incidents of death or sexual assault involving RCMP officers, and as a detective in the domestic violence section.

His passion to fight human trafficking and engage Ottawa’s homeless community has led to various enforcement efforts in his career as well as awareness and speaking engagements in the National Capital Region.

Carl serves on the Board of Directors at the Ottawa Mission and on the Pastoral Team at Celebration! Church Ottawa.

Greg was born and raised in Poland. During his studies at the University of Economics in Poznan, he began to wrestle with the question of reality and presence of God. After graduating with MA in Economics he decided to take one year to explore his questions in an academic setting in the US. That led to four and a half years of theological studies and an MDiv degree.

Greg and his wife CJ planned on returning to Poland to work with students and young adults. However, in the winter of 2005, a few weeks before their return, they found out that their yet to be born son is sick with a serious, incurable disease. They decided to change their plans and move to Canada, where CJ is from, to fight for the life of their unborn child.

By God’s grace, who surrounded them with incredible support from their church family and medical professionals, they continue to walk through the ups and downs of their son’s condition for the last 13 years. Exceeding even the most optimistic outlooks, he is now a junior high student at Mother Theresa School.

They are blessed with 2 other sons. Together they enjoy playing board games, running around with NERF blasters, and making year-round trips to the neighbourhood slushie store.

Lisa was born in Mississauga, Ontario. She grew up there later moving to Quebec in Grade 5.

She met her husband Andrew in high school. Lisa joined Andrew in Ottawa and were soon married.

Lisa worked as a secretary/bookkeeper and is now at home raising their children.

Jimmy Ruggiero is an Educational Assistant with the Ottawa Catholic School Board for the last 10+ years. His role is to assist students with various exceptionalities (special needs) working alongside them with the goal of integrating them in regular classroom settings (inclusion).

Almost 8 years ago, Jimmy’s family was involved in a terrible car accident which left their 2 and a half-year-old son, Luca, without much chance of surviving. There were many questions of ‘WHY’ without many answers that followed. Why did God allow this? Why our son? What happened next was definitely not the life that we envisioned as a family.

John Scott is a palliative care physician caring for patients with advanced or terminal illness at The Ottawa Hospital and an Associate Professor in the medical school. He has been doing this work since 1975 when the name ‘palliative care’ was first coined to describe this new approach to affirming life and controlling symptoms, thus enabling us to ‘live until we die’.

George Sinclair studied at the undergraduate and graduate level at Carleton University where he received a degree in Sociology with a minor in Philosophy. He studied Theology and Pastoral Counselling at St. Paul University where he completed an MA in Pastoral Studies.

George was ordained in 1985. For 22 years he served in the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC). In 2008 his church was the second church in the country to separate from the ACoC and join the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). George has served in a suburban and in a rural “multi-point” church.

George was the Chair of Essentials Canada and founding Chair of his denomination (ANiC). He currently serves as the Chair of the ANiC task force to make ANiC more deeply biblical at every level. He is the Principal of Ryle Seminary. He is the Chair of the Dig & Delve servant leadership team which puts on a yearly apologetics conference in Ottawa. He speaks once a month on the main talk radio channel in Ottawa under the banner of “Good News in the Morning”. He also speaks regularly on Parliament Hill to the Parliament Hill Christian Fellowship. George is an original Council Member for The Gospel Coalition (GTC) Canada.

George is blessed to have been married to Louise since 1981. They have 9 children and lots of sons and daughters-in-law and grandchildren.