Aimee Lopez | Science & Technology Sphere
As a Civil engineer & international project manager, and the founder of the non-profit, Heart-to-Heart Teens, Aimee Lopez has worked in Construction and Development over 20 years. A civil engineer graduate with an emphasis in Construction Management from the University of South California. Also certified from USC's Real Estate Planning and Development. Lopez's background includes program and construction management for data centers, school campuses, biotech, hospitals, and TI on Global and local projects.
Aimee Lopez leads with integrity, clarity and transparency. Recognized in her community and by clients for her leadership, mentoring and client support. Currently managing programs for Global Data Centers globally in MEP upgrades and construction. Aimee is also very active in her community by providing mentoring programs to at-risk teens and families. She founded a local non-profit serving families in leadership development, mentoring and life-skills. Recipient of the NFL 49ers Community Award for making a difference in her community.
Aimee's passion is to not only build buildings but also build lives!
Celia Esparza
Family Sphere | Building Strong Relationships/Families Workshop
name is Celia Esparza and I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in Christian Counseling from Louisiana Baptist University. I am a pastor’s wife with three beautiful children of my own ranging from 14-23 year old and serve alongside my husband Jose Esparza leading the music, children and women’s ministries of our congregation. In 2022, I opened a Christian Counseling practice. I offer Christian counseling in Spanish primarily with the occasional English-speaking session. I host a weekly radio program in Spanish on faith and family. Throughout the year, I have host conferences locally, statewide, national, and international on mental health from a Christian perspective.
My husband and I currently serve the Hispanic ministry at Beaumont’s First Baptist Church were Jose has been the pastor for 15 years. It is my heart’s cry to reach people with the gospel of Christ and train families to serve the Lord first in their family life. I want to give people the tools needed to navigate emotions, cultivate relationships, and handle life’s most difficult moments while realizing their FAITH is the core of their lives.
My husband and I currently serve the Hispanic ministry at Beaumont’s First Baptist Church were Jose has been the pastor for 15 years. It is my heart’s cry to reach people with the gospel of Christ and train families to serve the Lord first in their family life. I want to give people the tools needed to navigate emotions, cultivate relationships, and handle life’s most difficult moments while realizing their FAITH is the core of their lives.
Clement Mutambo | Government Sphere
Clement possesses international relations, peace and security, peace-building, and mediation skills. Currently working as a Private Sectors and Foundations partnerships liaison for World Bank Group's External Corporate Relations (ECR) division managing five external entities as a relationship manager, Clement also spearheads the Insights and Opportunities (I & O) briefing, a quarterly program that enhances the World Bank's engagements with its external partners on matters of mutual benefits.
He worked as a Peace and Security officer for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in the United Nations, where he assisted the Peace and Security liaison team that enhances IOM engagements with various United Nations entities.
Clement interned with multiple think tanks, NGOs, and private entities, including International Law Institute, as a research and marketing assistant and refugee advocacy with Lutheran Immigration Services. He interfaced with congressional lawmakers on refugee matters seeking resettlement in the United States on Capitol Hill. Worked as an International Program intern for Creative Learning, and researched on programs to counter violent extremism against women in Pakistan's youth leadership. He also worked for International Justice Mission (IJM) as a Criminal Intelligence analyst, focusing on human and labor trafficking in the Southeast Asian fishing industry, as well as a legislative intern for the office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY.
He currently serves as President of the Associations of Zambian living in Maryland, Washington DC, and Virginia, a non for profit organization that comprises over 400 Zambians residing in the three states, and also liaises with the Zambian Embassy team on behalf of the community.
Damon Moon | Business Sphere
Damon spent the first decade of his career in management consulting helping tech clients find new business opportunities and improve their bottom line. Recently, he worked at Samsung, where he created an internal open innovation program called SamsungOpen. Currently, he is a lecturer at the Lucas College of Business in SJSU, teaching Global Dimensions of Business. Outside being a lecturer, he also runs a startup that helps college students make meaningful relationships with their classmates on their digital-first college experience. Damon holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Seoul National University, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from UCLA Anderson. He lives with his wife, Joy, and his two kids, Jiho (12) and Teo (10), in the Bay Area. In his free time, he enjoys mountain biking and podcasting.
Dora Kung | Ethnomusicology Track
Dr. Dora Hsiang-Ning Kung, a native of Taiwan, serves as an assistant professor at Dallas International University. She prepares cross-cultural workers in the area of ethnodoxology—a movement calling all people groups to worship the God in the Bible using their heart languages and culturally appropriate expressions. Dora was an international student in the US and joined International Friendships Inc. (IFI) in 2017.
Melanie Henderson | Ethnomusicology Track
Melanie Henderson is a World Arts PhD student at Dallas International University. She serves as a Board Member of the Global Ethnodoxology Network, an organization of arts advocates, musicians, and artists from around the world. Melanie spent time living in southeast Asia, working with international and local students, families, and individuals in education, the arts, and worship ministry.
Michael Lukman
Establishing Christian Community Track
Michael Lukman is a native of Indonesia who in the past 25 years has primarily been working in the North American context. After seminary education and years in paid music ministry, God had Michael and his wife Grace (with their 3 children) started all over again from scratch. Through unlearning almost everything they knew, they found a simple obedience to Jesus to be the foundation of everything they needed to know and do. Michael and his family found that the harvest is truly plentiful, and the problem is the lack of workers. In recent years, Michael has been learning from and collaborating with a constantly growing network of individuals and churches that focus on making disciples who make disciples and starting churches that start churches. Having a marketplace job, Michael is passionate about equipping people to be effective disciple makers where they are and seeing healthy, reproducing churches started.
Nate Mirza | Staff Track
Nate Mirza grew up in Iran’s Assyrian Christian community and was educated in India from ages 9-17 before coming to the United States as an international student. In 1955, he entered into a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as a freshman at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, California. He served with The Navigators in India, Lebanon and Iran for 15 years. Since 1977 he has worked among international students in Wisconsin and Colorado and trained people in international student ministry. He is a graduate of the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon, and one of the founders of the Association of Christians Ministering among Internationals (ACMI).
As a result of visiting graduates who went back to their countries, he wrote Home Again: Preparing International Students to Serve Christ in their Home Countries. In 2021 he retired from The Navigators as an organization, but not from his calling as an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is currently making a Podcast of his book Yearning for Peace. Nate and his wife Carol live in Sandpoint, ID. The two families have four daughters, eleven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
One of his favorite passages of scripture is Philippians 1:20-21: 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Some favorite things to do are writing and Proof Reading, visiting international students who have graduated and gone back to their countries, and sky diving.
Patricia Kriska | Christian Entrepreneurship Track
A Lecturer in Entrepreneurship from Southern Methodist University, Cox School of Business for over thirty years, Patricia Kriska has taught various for credit and non-credit Entrepreneurship courses at the Dallas campus and Entrepreneurship seminars in Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Pat also owns the authorship of A Dowry In Lace, importer of European lace products, and works consulting for Dallas area entrepreneurs, specializing in business plan preparation.
Richard Mendola | Staff Track
Seng Tan
Education Sphere | Joining the ISI Family Workshop
Seng Tan is the President and CEO of International Students Inc. (ISI). A citizen of Singapore, Seng came to the U.S. as a student in 1993 and served as ISI Campus Staff in Phoenix, AZ from 1999 to 2000. Seng was a tenured full Professor of International Relations at Nanyang Technological University and Executive Director of two policy institutes in Singapore, spending two decades in the academic and think tank worlds. He is the author of six books and over a hundred journal papers and book chapters. He maintains ties with academia as a Research Advisor and Senior Associate with several different research centers. He currently lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado with his wife Trina and their daughter Elisabeth. Seng has a PhD in political science from Arizona State and, God willing, will finish with a Doctor of Ministry degree from Biola’s Talbot School of Theology by year end 2022.
Simon Bull
Arts & Entertainment Sphere
Artist for boxing legend Muhammad Ali and official artist for the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC. British American artist Simon Bull has delighted audiences worldwide with his talks and art performances from Inaugural Balls, to the Smithsonian Institute.
With tens of thousands of collectors worldwide he is known for his use of brilliant color and ability to connect with and inspire audiences.