2026 National Summit

Ryan Petty is a serial entrepreneur and technology executive with over 25 years in the telecom, media & technology industries including; co-founder of Myrio, as a senior executive with Siemens and Nokia, Senior Vice President of B2B Solutions with Liberty Latin America’s Cable & Wireless subsidiary and as the Vice President of Product Development and Innovation at ADT. Ryan is currently the managing partner at Evio Group, a management consultancy. Ryan was appointed in March 2018 by Governor Rick Scott to serve on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission. Ryan was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to the Florida State Board of Education in January of 2020. He is currently the Vice Chair of the Florida State Board of Education. 

Jeff Childers is a commercial litigation attorney in Gainesville, Florida, where he lives with his wife and three boys and has been actively involved since March 2020 providing truth, optimism and hope as the author of the widely read international blog: www.coffeeandcovid.com. He is one of the nation’s leading attorneys standing against unconstitutional mandates invading citizens’ bodily and medical autonomy. Since the 2020 pandemic, Jeff has represented a variety of clients and cases covering many
controversial topics. He has managed to get an appellate decision finding that mandatory masking was presumptively unconstitutional, and he also shut down the City of Gainesville’s “vaccinate or terminate” policy as unconstitutional with a first-in-the-nation broad injunction against a vaccine mandate.

Jamie is a proud wife, mom of three daughters, and photographer. She served as a Moms for Liberty chapter chair in Virginia for 2.5 years and now serves as the M4L Coalitions Coordinator. In this role, Jamie is dedicated to building relationships, fostering collaboration and amplifying organizations fighting to preserve America’s founding principles. Strong relationships create powerful partnerships, and together, we will protect liberty for future generations.

Deborah Flora is an Award-Winning Filmmaker, National Speaker and Parental Rights Advocate. As a Mom, the Founder of Parents United America and the Senior Vice President of Public Policy of ACE Scholarships, she has been on the front line fighting for parental rights and educational freedom nationwide.

Deborah also has an extensive media background including hosting a daily Salem radio show and being featured on numerous national media outlets.  As a Partner in Lamplight Entertainment with her husband Jonathan, an 82^nd Airborne Veteran, she has also produced numerous projects, including the acclaimed documentary Whose Children Are They? which screened in theaters nationwide exposing the hidden agendas in our public schools.

 Deborah is a Club for Growth Fellow, a member of the American Enterprise Leadership Network, the Independence Institute’s Center Right Coalition and serves on the Leadership Program of the Rockies Advisory Council. She has also served on several national boards, overseeing multimillion dollar budgets, including currently as a Board Member for ACE Scholarships and Cantinas Arts Foundation. Deborah earned her degree at SMU as a President and National Merit Scholar and has spoken around the world with organizations like Youth for Christ International including in the former Soviet Union.

Kimberly Hermann serves as Executive Director for Southeastern Legal Foundation. Since 2009, she has been working with SLF where she has dedicated her legal career to the freedom-based law movement.

Katie Gorka was director of The Feulner Institute’s Center for Civil Society and the American Dialogue at the Heritage Foundation from 2020 to 2022. In 2016, Katie joined the Trump Transition Team and then served as a senior advisor in the Office of Policy at the Department of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019, where she focused on strategies for prevention of terrorism and targeted violence and combatting use of the internet for terrorism and human trafficking. From June to August 2019, she served as the press secretary for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

As President of the Threat Knowledge Group from 2014 to 2017, Katie provided expertise and training on irregular warfare and terrorism to the FBI, US Army Special Forces, Marine Corps, and law enforcement. From 2009 to 2014, was the Executive Director of the Westminster Institute, which conducted research and education on threats posed by extremist ideologies.

Katie was born in Boston and grew up in various places on the East Coast, from Franconia, New Hampshire, to Asheville, North Carolina. She earned her B.A. in Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her M.Sc. in Politics of the World Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She lived in Budapest, Hungary for twelve years, where she worked on aspects of the post-communist transition, including projects to help rebuild civil society.

An American-born author, mathematician, and political commentator, Dr. James Lindsay has written six books spanning a range of subjects including religion, the philosophy of science and postmodern theory. Dr. Lindsay is the Founder of New Discourses, an organization dedicated to shining the objective light in the subject darkness. Dr. Lindsay is currently promoting his new book “Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody.” Dr. Lindsay has been a featured guest on Fox News, Glenn Beck, Joe Rogan, and NPR.

Education expert and entrepreneur Erika Donalds is the Founder and Chairman of OptimaEd and the Chair of America First Policy Institute’s Center for Education Opportunity. Erika is known as a national expert on education policy and school choice and is a frequent media commentator and speaker. A seasoned business executive, she has offered her expertise to help further the expansion of high-quality school choice options and to improve accountability and governance in America’s schools.

Erika is a former elected member of the Collier County School Board and served as a visiting fellow for The Heritage Foundation Center for Education Policy and Guest Faculty for the Leadership Institute’s School Board Programs. She previously sat on Florida’s 2017-2018 Constitution Revision Commission, Governor DeSantis’ Advisory Committee on Education and Workforce Development, and the Florida Gulf Coast University Board of Trustees. She is an advisor for Heritage Foundation Advisory Council on Education Reform, Classical Learning Test, Moms for Liberty, and the Independent Women’s Forum Education Freedom Center.

Prior to launching Optima, Erika spent 20 years in the financial services industry. She was Chief Financial Officer/Chief Compliance Officer and Managing Partner at a multi-billion-dollar investment management firm, responsible for finance, compliance, and operations.

Erika holds a BS in Accounting from Florida State University and a Master of Accountancy from Florida Atlantic University, where she is a Distinguished Alumni Honoree. She is a former Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA).

Erika and her husband Byron have lived in Naples since 2002 and have three sons – Damon, Darin, & Mason.

Keith Wharton has many decades of broad management and hands-on experience in the technology space, with a focus on application implementations.  He has also obtained a Master of Science in Computer Science.  His breadth of knowledge and experience is a good fit for the broad application and technology footprint that is in use in this organization.  He is committed to the principles of limited government and separation of powers that has made this country great, and the organizational principles around the rights of parents to raise and education their children free from the intrusion of government and their surrogates. 

Charlie Misseijer is the national Director of Policy & Legislative Affairs at Moms for Liberty. He is a freedom fighter for truth and from government interference. With a career spanning 25 years in education, law, and public policy, Charlie now works with M4L’s State Legislative Committees, state legislators, and other allies to support, craft, and employ policies that respect and protect the fundamental rights of parents to know what’s best when it comes to their child’s education, care and upbringing, while vociferously and strategically opposing policies and practices that seek to usurp those rights. Married twenty-five years to the love of his life, Tamra, they have eight children and one grandchild.

Missy comes from the business world, with a diverse background in marketing, operations, data analytics, and tech consulting. She is a mom of 3 beautiful girls and wife to an Air Force Loadmaster for the best 22 years of her life. When she’s not on a deep dive into political issues or apologetics, she loves to play the piano, hike very tall mountains, and explore the world through mom-and-pop ice cream shops and local brewpubs. After seeing the spread of concerning ideologies and policy, she took the first step into local politics as the Judge of Elections for her precinct. She has been a proud supporter of M4L since her sister-in-law started their local chapter in Washington County, PA. When M4L was targeted by the SPLC, Missy knew (they/we/M4L) must be on the right track. She is thrilled to join as the new Program Director of M4LU, supporting the team to equip the leaders needed in this current and future generation.

Colette’s varied background has prepared her for her roles as Human Resource and Compliance Manager for M4L and M4LF, and Treasurer of her Brevard County, Florida chapter. She managed a literacy program for Utah’s Governor and First Lady (1999-2002), advocating for reading to children statewide. With experience in human services, including advocacy for domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, and human resources expertise in soft skills and policy development, Colette works diligently in all she does. Present at the Madison Meetings where Moms for Liberty began, she’s humbled to support this vital grassroots effort and it’s members. Colette is a devoted wife, mother of five, and daughter of God.

After graduating from Penn State University in 1994, Lisa went to work for ARAMARK Corporation for eight years.  She began her career with ARAMARK as a National Trainer, working all over the US instructing end-users on their proprietary software.  In 1999, she became the assistant CFO for the Southeastern region of ARAMARK. After the birth of her second child, Lisa decided to take on the most challenging role of her life, Stay- at-Home Mom.  In 2015, Lisa became involved with the South Brevard Debutantes and quickly went through the chairs of involvement, ultimately becoming the Vice President.  She worked with over 300 juniors/seniors, during her nine years of involvement with the organization, putting them through the 15-month leadership program.  Her favorite part of the program was hosting the annual debutante balls, which yields groups of 300 plus attendees.  She now serves as a board member to the Debs & Gents of South Brevard.  In 2023, Lisa became the Event Coordinator for Moms for Liberty and enjoys the management process of pulling together large events for the organization.  Lisa is married to Sean for the last 28 years and they have three children, Lauren, Matthew and Brycen. 

Erika is married to husband Matt, and they have two young adult children. Erika co-founded the Moms for Liberty – Johnson County, KS chapter in August of 2021 and served as Vice Chair until moving to Chapter Chair in November 2024. Erika is responsible for leading our 320+ chapters in identifying, vetting & endorsing candidates for their local school boards and supporting them in their efforts to help their candidates win. When parents win, their children win!

Tina Descovich has a long record of fighting for students and parental rights in Florida, and at the national level. She was elected to the Brevard County, FL school board in 2016. She was selected by her peers to serve as Chairman in 2018. While on the school board she was a member of The Florida Coalition of School Board Members and served as the organization’s president in 2018.

As a graduate of Valdosta State University with bachelor’s degree in communication, Tina worked as a consultant on projects ranging from helping fast growing startup companies, to creating and implementing strategic and communication plans. She served on the executive planning team for the National Air, Space and Sea Foundation planning airshows and on the executive staff for the United States Army Commanding General of the Combined Arms Support Command and Fort Lee.

In 2021, Tina co-founded Moms for Liberty, a grassroots national non-profit organization that works to unify, educate, and empower parents to defend their parental rights, which has grown to over 300 chapters in 48 states with over 130,000 members and she currently serves as the organization’s Executive Director. In September of 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Tina to the Florida Commission on Ethics.

Tina has been a frequent guest on all major cable news stations, talk radio, leading podcasts, and penned opinion pieces in some of America’s largest newspapers. These appearances include Fox, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, CSPAN, The Glenn Beck Show, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsmax, and on CBS Sunday Morning and 60 Minutes. In November of 2023 she and her co-founder were awarded Fox News’ “Most Valuable Patriot” Award.

Tina and her husband Derek have five children. She is passionate about America and is dedicated to protecting liberty and freedom for the future of all children.