Speakers
The Summit is a unique event that allows for directed learning and individual attention. With pro-life speakers from around the country, the Summit presents topics directly related to CEOs, board members, attorneys, volunteers, and medical personnel committed to serving life-affirming pregnancy centers.
Attendees will gain information to help them handle future legislation and cultural shifts in the pro-life ministry. In addition, attendees will leave the Summit with the knowledge of best practices in their centers and being a light in their community.
Missy Clifton Ph.D.
Founder of Learning Is Created, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Missy has the desire to impact God’s kingdom every day. God has blessed her with a Doctorate in Advanced Clinical Pastoral Psychology, a Master’s in Instructional Systems with a focus on Online Learning, A Master of Divinity with a focus on Biblical Studies and certified in Health Care Privacy and Security. God opened a door for ministry at Missy’s local pregnancy center. She began serving about the time the pregnancy center expanded its services to include low-cost STI testing. Learning and experiencing the battle, she wondered how other pregnancy centers not as strongly supported meet the incredible demands of training.
Missy discovered how pregnancy centers meet the demands of training and felt led to found Learning Is Created to come alongside and serve pregnancy centers. Learning is Created sets out to help you meet the demands of training in an affordable manner as a blessing to you and, ultimately, your clients; that is my heart. Missy hopes to help equip employees and volunteers so they impact the kingdom of God by sharing the Gospel and loving clients well.
Thomas A. Glessner, J.D.
Thomas A. Glessner is the founder and President of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), a public interest law firm founded in 1993 and committed to legal counsel and training for pregnancy centers.
Mr. Glessner graduated from the University of Washington, School of Law in Seattle in 1977 and practiced law in the Seattle area for ten years. As a practicing attorney, he used his legal skills to represent and counsel prolife organizations, including pregnancy centers. He founded and led four pregnancy centers in Seattle, Washington from 1981 to 1987.
Mr. Glessner was the president and CEO of the Christian Action Council (now Care Net) from 1987 to 1992, establishing legal guidelines and programs for the training of hundreds of Board members and directors of pregnancy centers throughout the nation. Currently, Mr. Glessner is on the Board of Directors for Washington State Family Policy Institute and the Board of Directors for the National Religious Pro-Life Coalition.
As the founder and CEO of NIFLA, Mr. Glessner has developed and implemented legal guidelines for pregnancy centers to enable them to convert their operations into licensed medical clinics and provide medical services, such as ultrasound.
Mr. Glessner is listed in Who’s Who in American Law and is the author of Achieving an Abortion Free America (Multnomah Publishing 1990), Destiny’s Team: A Story About Love, Choices and Eternity (Anomalos Publishing 2007), a novel, The Emerging Brave New World (Anomalos Publishing 2008), a nonfiction work, and Created Equal: Reflections on the Unalienable Right to Life (Page Publishing, 2016). He is also the author of an article published by the Law Review for the Regent University School of Law entitled, “Curbing Raw Judicial Power: A Proposal For A Checks and Balances Amendment.”
Mr. Glessner is a member of the bar associations for the United States Supreme Court, the State of Virginia and the State of Washington. As such, he has filed several “friend of the court” briefs in cases of major significance to the prolife movement in the United States Supreme Court
Dr. Kremkau is Professor of Radiologic Sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and the University of Rochester.
He is a Past President of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and holds fellowship in multiple organizations. He authors the textbook, Sonography Principles and Instruments, which is in its 10th edition. He is currently in his 50th year in academic medicine and in his 18th year of part-time transition to retirement.
Anne J. O’Connor, JD
Anne O’Connor has been with the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) since 1993. She served as NIFLA’s General Counsel until she joined the staff full-time as the Vice President of Legal Affairs in April 2013. During her decades with NIFLA, Ms. O’Connor has been responsible for writing the monthly NIFLA Legal Tips (now numbering more than 280 editions), performing more than 800 Legal Audits and consulting with hundreds of centers about the medical clinic conversion process. She currently teaches at board trainings, conference workshops, webinars and at NIFLA’s Institute of Limited Obstetric Ultrasound course. She also has written and/or updated many of NIFLA’s publications, including the Legal Primer, the Medical Clinic Conversion Manual, the Medical Policies & Procedures, the Basic Operational Policies & Procedures, the Employment Handbook, and the HIPAA Voluntary Compliance Manual. She has appeared on or been published in such media outlets as Associated Press, CBN News, Washington Times, The Daily Signal, The Hill, and the American Bar Association Journal.
Ms. O’Connor is a 1987 graduate of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif, an honorary scholastic society the purpose of which is to encourage excellence in legal education. She spent her first year of law school at Georgetown Law School where she was named on the Dean’s List. In 1983, she earned her Bachelor of Arts in History from Rutgers College, New Jersey, where she was admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, which invites for induction the most outstanding arts and sciences students at America’s leading colleges and universities.
Admitted to the Bars of the State of California and the State of New Jersey, as well at the U.S. District Court, California Central District, and the United States Supreme Court, Ms. O’Connor has been involved in multiple cases related to the civil rights of the unborn and protection of pregnancy centers. She has assisted in the preparation of several Amicus Briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts on pro-life matters. In the past she has represented numerous individuals exercising their first amendment rights outside of abortion clinics. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ms. O’Connor was the Executive Director of the Right to Life League of Southern California, which operated 24 pregnancy resource centers, and assisted many of them to become licensed medical clinics. Most recently, Ms. O’Connor served on the legal team that successfully challenged the constitutionality of a California law forcing pregnancy centers to advertise for abortion, NIFLA v. Becerra, 138 S.Ct. 2361 (2018).
For the past 15 years, Heidi has worked at Vida Medical Clinic & Support Services, located in Appleton, Wisconsin. She served as the nurse manager for our medical services, working with an incredible team of five nurses, one nurse practitioner and a medical director.
In collaboration with the medical leadership, Heidi implemented a STI and Well Woman program, and worked to expand services over the last 10 years. She works with community engagement activities. Prior to Vida, Heidi worked in cardiovascular patient care and education as well as allergy and asthma clinic patient care
Panelist: Heidi Weiland, RN
Angie Thomas, JD
Angie Thomas, JD serves as Staff Attorney for National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA). She is also the Associate Director for Louisiana Right to Life, specializing in development, legislative advocacy, and education about life issues. Prior to these positions, she served as CEO of the Woman’s New Life Clinic, a professional counseling and medical clinic offering life-affirming services for women in unplanned pregnancies, port-abortive men and women, and women’s health. She led the effort to expand authentic women’s health services in south Louisiana, reclaiming reproductive healthcare and offering alternatives to Planned Parenthood.
Her work at NIFLA includes legal education and training for pregnancy centers, The Life Choice Project, board trainings, and legal audits. She is passionate about helping pregnancy centers develop holistic, sustainable models and about implementing new programs in building a culture of life.
She was trained through the Blackstone Fellowship, an intensive training in Christian worldview principles and how they apply to the study and interpretation of law. She worked for Americans United for Life and Bioethics Defense Fund during and following law school.
Angie is a graduate of the Manship School of Mass Communications at Louisiana State University (B.A. 2001, magna cum laude) and Loyola Law School (J.D. 2004, cum laude). She lives in New Orleans with her husband and four daughters.
QUOTE FROM ANGIE THOMAS
I began my journey in the pregnancy help movement while in law school. While I always knew the importance of law and policy in the abortion battle, I very quickly fell in love with the social service side of the battle: loving and saving one life at a time.
In my role as CEO of Woman’s New Life Clinic over the past twenty years, I have learned so much about all aspects of this battle. It is an honor to offer all I have learned as both a pregnancy center director and lawyer to the great work of NIFLA, and to continue to learn even more as we journey to an abortion-free America.
Kristi Hamrick graduated from Anderson University with departmental honors in Communications and cum laude. She has a degree in Mass Communications & Journalism with a Cognate in Political Science.
During college, she interned and worked in the Pennsylvania State House as well as in the offices of the late Sen. John Heinz of Pennsylvania and the late Sen. Arlen Specter. She also was part of an award-winning PBS production featuring a Holocaust survivor. Her career as a journalist began in Indiana, in news outlets including the Indianapolis Star and Muncie Star, leading to Washington D.C. where she was a correspondent for CBN News, before working as press secretary for the Hopkins for Governor campaign in Kentucky. From there she became press secretary for Family Research Council, heading FRC’s communication shop and hosting FRC’s television show “Straight Talk with FRC.”
Hamrick then established KSH media from which she worked with a Who’s Who of conservative and pro-family organizations, strategizing to create and advance a policy agenda through paid and earned media, with an emphasis on marketing an effective story to news organizations. In 2017, Hamrick joined Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, now taking the role of Chief Media and Policy Strategist.
Hamrick has been featured on major media broadcasts, print, and radio nationwide. From FOX, to NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, et al, with quotes and op-eds in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Washington Times, Breitbart, Rolling Stone, Associated Press, and beyond. Her decades of media experience have resulted in thousands of conversations with reporters considering the most crucial issues of the day.
Kristi Hamrick
Dr. Byron C. Calhoun, MD, FACOG, FACS, FASAM, MBA is a 1979 Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and graduated from the University of Iowa Medical School with an MD in 1983. Dr. Calhoun completed his residency in OB/GYN at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1987 and finished a Fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the Oregon Health Sciences University in 1989. Dr. Calhoun is a diplomat of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology with board certification in general Obstetrics and Gynecology and in the sub-specialty of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. He also is also board certified in Addictions Medicine.
He has authored 80 peer review articles in the obstetric and gynecologic literature, presented over 100 scientific papers, participated in over 40 research projects, and has published numerous articles on medical aspects of obstetrics and gynecology.
Dr. Calhoun serves as Professor and Vice-Chair in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the West Virginia University-Charleston and is directly involved in resident and medical student education. He is licensed in several states and continues to actively practice maternal-fetal medicine, perform diagnostic obstetrical ultrasound, participate in prenatal diagnosis counseling, and provide education to residents and medical students.
Dr. Rigby is currently a Professor of OB/GYN with the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.
She did her undergraduate training at Princeton, and then went on to UVa for medical School and then down to LSU in New Orleans for her OB/GYN Residency and MFM Fellowship training. She has been with VCUHS since 2005 where she is currently Clerkship Director and MIV Director for OB/GYN. She is Medical Director of the Pregnancy Resource Center of Metro Richmond for the past 10 years. She was selected as a Knight of Malta (a Catholic Service Organization) in 2021.
Over the last 7 years she has become increasingly involved with working to combat Human Trafficking, inspired by Fay Chelmow of ImPact Virginia. With the assistance of Fay Chelmow and Cheryl Bodamer RN they have worked to increase the awareness of and reaction to Human Trafficking in the community and health care settings. Together they have worked to create a network for Human Trafficking Education within the health care system and the community at large. With the help of senior medical students they have established a week long symposium on Human Trafficking at VCUHS which has just finished its fifth year.
Dr. Rigby has done multiple lectures (including Grand Rounds within the medical center and at regional medical centers) as well as presentations to multiple student and community groups across Virginia. VCUs work on Human Trafficking has been presented at multiple national and international conferences and has been published in several peer review journals
Facilitator: Audrey Stout, RN, RDMS
Audrey Stout, RN, RDMS, Vice President of Medical Services with NIFLA, has been involved in pregnancy centers since 1987. While serving with pregnancy centers in Georgia and Oregon, her responsibilities included development of curriculum for post-abortive women, peer advocacy, speaking on life issues in schools and churches, board member, Nurse Manager, and facilitating their conversion to medical clinics. Cobb Pregnancy Services in Marietta, Georgia, where Audrey served on the Board of Directors, was among the earliest pregnancy centers to convert to a medical clinic and offer sonograms. She was a sonographer in OB/GYN clinics with experience in high risk sonography.
As an instructor for NIFLA’s Institute in Limited Obstetrical Ultrasound team since 2000, she challenges those who scan to continually pursue excellence in knowledge, skills, and service. Audrey has been involved with the development and updating of NIFLA publications, including the course manual, Policy and Procedure manual, and writes NIFLA’s monthly Clinic Tips.
Audrey has a passion for utilizing ultrasound as a life-affirming tool in pregnancy medical clinics where women are introduced to their unborn babies. While providing critical information for pregnancy decisions, Audrey has traveled to more than 100 pregnancy centers. She has taught, trained, and assessed skills of medical professionals in OB sonography across the US and in Ukraine. In 2011, Audrey co-founded SoundView Imaging Partners, a group of OB/GYN sonographers providing hands on training, skills assessments, and continuing education webinars for pregnancy centers. She worked as a consultant with Focus on the Family’s Option Ultrasound Program, and IMPACT Association, and has presented numerous workshops on OB sonography, medical personnel and medical services at NIFLA, Care Net and Heartbeat’s national conferences.
Audrey has both lobbied and presented professional testimony to legislative committees in both Georgia and Oregon regarding the value of ultrasound for pregnant women and the work of pregnancy centers