2014
eleventh Annual Pro-Life Science and Technology Conference
Saturday, September 6, 2014
The Mandalay Banquet Center
2700 E River Rd, Moraine, Ohio 45439
All biographies current at time of conference.
Stephanie Krider
Overturning Unjust Laws: Protecting Life Through the Legislative Process
Stephanie Krider served as Special Projects Coordinator and later as Legislative Director of Ohio Right to Life before taking leave to stay home with her family and newborn daughter in the spring of 2013. Later in the year, she returned to work, serving as the Program Manager of the Governor’s Cabinet Opiate Action Team at the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services until rejoining Ohio Right to Life as Executive Director in July 2014.
Prior to joining Ohio Right to Life in 2010, Stephanie spent several years working within the Ohio General Assembly. She is the former legislative aide to then-Representative Peggy Lehner, and also worked as an aide for former State Representative John White, who sponsored legislation creating the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
Stephanie and her husband Jeff are active members at Vineyard Church of Columbus where she has completed both the two-year Vineyard Leadership Institute and the church planting residency program to be better equipped to serve in ministry and he serves on the worship team.
Stephanie, Jeff and their two daughters reside in Clintonville, a neighborhood in north-central Columbus.
Arthur Kunath, M.D.
Contraception: Societal and Demographic Implications
Dr. Arthur M. Kunath is a graduate of Xavier University, Honors AB Cum Laude in 1972. He attended the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, graduating in 1976. He completed an Internship in Internal Medicine at Tripler Army Medical Center in 1977, and completed Internal Medicine Residency at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in 1979. His rheumatology fellowship was done at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, completed in 1982. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and Rheumatology, scoring in the top 1% in the country in Rheumatology. Dr. Kunath founded Northern Kentucky's Tri-State Arthritis & Rheumatology practice in September of 1986. He is also founder and president of St. Edmund Campion Academy, a lay Catholic elementary and high school in Oakley, Ohio, which offers a complete classical education, including a strong pro-life emphasis. Dr. Kunath is the recipient of the Surgeon General’s Sabbatical Award, Army Service Medal, and Army Commendation Medal. He is also a skilled analytical speaker, most recently speaking at several forums addressing the Department of Health and Human Services mandate curtailing conscience rights and religious liberty.
Gary Anderson
The Silent Genocide: Down Syndrome Babies and Abortion (Awarded best presentation)
Gary Anderson is serving in his sixth year as the State Culture of Life Activities Director for the Ohio Knights of Columbus, for whom he has also held the offices of Grand Knight and District Deputy. He is past president of Greater Columbus Right to Life, and is a former member of the Board of Directors of Ohio Right to Life.
Mr. Anderson attended both the Ohio State University in Columbus and the University of Southern Maine in Portland.
He is married to Jackie, has two daughters and a son, and is a member of St. Paul Parish in Westerville, where he serves both as Lector and Eucharistic Minister.
David & Amber Lapp
Co-Directors, Love & Marriage in Middle America Project
Marriage Disappearance in 21st Century America: Considerations For the Respect Life Movement
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Jerry Cirino
Historical Lessons of Progress, Life, and a New Media Response
Jerry Cirino has been active with Cleveland Right to Life for the past 5-6 years and has been Chairman of the Board for the past one year. Prior to coming to Cleveland, Mr. Cirino was active with Lake County Right to Life.
Mr. Cirino spoke at Cleveland Right Life's Sympsium, Bringing America Back to Life, in March.
Mr. Cirino is a retired CEO and owns a consulting firm, Jerdon Partners Consulting, LLC.
Dr. Jeff Koloze
President, Koloze Consultants
Technology Meets Rhetoric: A Rogerian Methodological Review of the Visual Rhetoric of Websites and Social Media Vehicles Concerned with the Life Issues
Dr. Jeff Koloze is Associate Professor in English at the Cleveland, Ohio Campus of South University. He has taught Communications, undergraduate and graduate English, and Humanities courses since 1989 at several colleges and universities in the Cleveland, Columbus, and Springfield, Ohio metropolitan areas. His most recent administrative position was Campus College Chair for three colleges (the College of Humanities, the College of Natural Sciences, and the College of Social Sciences) from 2005-2011 at the Columbus, Ohio Campus of the University of Phoenix. In 2009 he was appointed one of twelve senior research fellows for Apollo Group, the for-profit company that owns the University of Phoenix.
Dr. Koloze's primary research interest is the presentation of the right-to-life issues of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia in literature; most of his publications are available in conference proceedings and on the web. He has presented over fifty papers before academic and professional organizations on these topics, most recently at conferences at Harvard University (2012), Ryerson University (Toronto, 2009), and the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana, 2011). He is the author of An Ethical Analysis of the Portrayal of Abortion in American Fiction: Dreiser, Hemingway, Faulkner, Dos Passos, Brautigan, and Irving (Edwin Mellen, 2005).
Dr. Koloze is president and founder of Koloze Consultants, whose objective is to assist faculty and students “to conduct research on the life issues for presentation and publication.” He invites colleagues and students to join him on LinkedIn and to consult the University Faculty for Life blog (http://uffl.org/blog). He can be emailed at DrJeffKoloze@att.net.
Denise Mackura
Feminism's Role on the Road to Legalizing Abortion
Denise Mackura received her juris doctor degree in 1977 from Cleveland State-Cleveland Marshall College of Law and is licensed to practice law in Ohio and Illinois as well as before the United States Supreme Court. She has served on the boards of Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, the National Lawyers Association, and St. Joseph School (Chicago); as a member of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Individual Rights & Civil Liberties Section Counsel; and as legal counsel to the Ohio House Reference Committee, Denise's professional experience includes teaching government, political science and more at several colleges, writing, maintaining a private law practice, directing government relations programs for non-profits, and establishing a free legal clinic on the west side of Chicago. Denise served as Senior Legislative Counsel for Americans United for Life, Executive Director of the Thomas More Pro-Life Law Center, and Director and General Counsel of Ohio Right to Life and the Life Legal Defense Fund. She is currently the President of the Human Family Research Center.
Colleen Gerke
A Vision for Ministry in the Promotion of Life
Colleen has been married to husband John for 33 years. They have 5 children; 3 biological and their goddaughter and her younger brother. Their children range from age 29 to 23. Four are married and one lives at home. They have four grandchildren ages 5 to newborn. Her bachelor’s is in special education from the College of Mount St. Joseph. She taught for 12 years in both public and Catholic schools. Her Master’s is in Religious Studies and Lay Pastoral Ministry from the Athenaeum of Ohio. She has 15 years of experience on parish staff as Director of Faith Formation and 4 years as Director of the Family and Respect Life Office in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Her husband is an ordained Deacon for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
She has been involved in a variety of parish ministries: RCIA, VBS, liturgical ministries, catechist, parish mission team and more. Colleen and John were foster parents, housed three unwed mothers, supporting them throughout their pregnancy and the early months of being a mother, and provided support to immigrants from Poland and Guatemala. She is currently a member of National Association of Catholic Family Life Ministers and is President-Elect of the Board. She also worked in the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.