Jen DeWeerdt serves with her husband, Jeremy, as the Senior Leaders of City First Church, a growing, multi-generational, multi-cultural church with multiple locations. Jen is a pastor, communicator, author, and founder of the Original Women’s Conference, and holds a Master of Arts degree in Ministerial Leadership from Southeastern University. Jen is passionate about encouraging and empowering others to step into their God-given callings, regardless of their profession. Through her Original Conferences, thousands of women have discovered their destiny and purpose.
Jen and Jeremy have been married since 1995 and have three sons: Caden, Connor, and Paxton. When she is not cheering on her boys, you will find her enthusiastically rooting for her Chicago sports teams (White Sox not included).
Jen DeWeerdt
Lysa TerKeurst
Lysa TerKeurst is President and Chief Visionary Officer of Proverbs 31 Ministries. She is also a six times New York Times’ bestselling author of Good Boundaries and Goodbyes, Forgiving What You Can’t Forget, It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way, Uninvited, and more. Her devotional Embraced won the ECPA book of the year for 2019. Lysa was also recently awarded the Champions of Faith Author Award and has appeared on the Today Show many times as one of the leading voices in the Christian community.
Each year, Lysa is a featured keynote presenter at events all across North America and online, including the Global Leadership Network. She also tours state-to-state regularly with Transparent Productions. She has a passion for equipping women to share their stories for God’s glory through Proverbs 31 Ministries’ annual She Speaks Conference and her writer training program called COMPEL: Words That Move People. Connect with Lysa on social media @lysaterkeurst or at lysaterkeurst.com.
Jada Edwards is an experienced author, speaker, Bible teacher, and mentor. She has committed her life to equipping women of all ages, regardless of marital status, with practical, biblical truth to help them live more genuine lives.
Jada currently serves as the Women’s Pastor and Creative Services Director for One Community Church, where she seeks to serve the evolving communities of Collin County through creative expression and cultural relevance.
She has served in various directional capacities within the youth and singles ministries at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, a church with over 1,000 youth and 3,000 singles.
Jada holds a Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in Organizational strategy and has experience improving organizations through process improvement and technological initiatives.
Jada and her husband, Conway, have a son named Joah and a daughter named Chloe.
Jada Edwards
Manouchka Charles
Manouchka Charles (ma-noo-shka) is a pastor at VOUS Church in Miami, where their mission is to bring those who are far from God close to Him and where she has the privilege of connecting people to church and helping them discover their purpose. Manouchka says she has many great passions in life—Jesus, food, music, writing, and people—and that she loves to share her passions and help you discover yours.
In 2018, after a car accident almost took her life, she spent close to a year at home learning to rest and recover, and now embraces this new title of survivor. She says from all she has learned, she is passionate about helping others find the necessary “selah” moments in life.
Her friends call her “Manou” for short, and though she lives in Florida, she says she’s a Brooklyn girl through and through! Manouchka says, “I love to cook, and I love to test things out in the kitchen. One of my favorite things to do is host dinner parties. Good people + good food—name a better duo. Probably the most use my hospitality degree gets.”