Speakers 

 

Keynote presenters

 

Gian Gamboa

Gian Gamboa is a Catholic speaker and musician who helps young Catholics develop a personal relationship with Jesus so they can experience the fullness of the Catholic faith. When he was 15 years old, Gian was asked to give a talk and provide worship music at a retreat. After doing this, Gian found his life’s passion and purpose: to help young people follow Jesus in everyday life. Gian has given more than 1,000 talks in over 300 venues across the country. He wants all young Catholics to encounter Jesus so they can live life to the fullest! Gian loves to eat giant burgers, play basketball, and watch 90’s movies. He lives in Austin with his wife and two kids.

 

Katie Prejean mcgrady

Katie Prejean McGrady

Katie Prejean McGrady is a wife, mom, award-winning author, international speaker, podcaster, and daily radio show host.

After working in youth ministry and high school education for several years, Katie began speaking full time in 2017, averaging over 100,000 miles a year traveling to speak at events for young people, parishes, parent groups, fundraisers, retreats, religious education conferences and more.

Katie is the author of four books with Ave Maria Press. She began working with Ave Maria Press in 2019 to help create digital and audio content for Ave Explores, a multi-media project digging into various Catholic topics relevant to people who want to learn more and live their faith in a real, practical way. She hosts the Ave Explores podcast, a long-form interview style podcast that covers relevant topics for each season. Katie also hosts Like a Mother, a podcast about the joys, struggles, and ins and outs of motherhood. Like a Mother is an OSV podcast production. Katie and her husband, Tommy, are the hosts of Family Mass Prep on Hallow, a weekly podcast for families to get ready to hear and pray with the Sunday Mass readings.

Katie regularly writes for Blessed is She, Our Sunday Visitor, Aleteia and the Grotto Network. She appears as a Catholic commentator on CNN, and is a consultant for the USCCB working group on youth and young adult ministry. Katie is an op-ed columnist with La Croix International, a French Catholic newspaper distributed daily in print and online.

In March 2021, Katie began hosting The Katie McGrady Show, a daily radio program on The Catholic Channel on Sirius XM 129 that talks about pop culture, current events, Catholic news, how to live a life of abundant joy, and introduces listeners to a variety of engaging, dynamic, and profoundly inspiring guests.

Katie makes her home in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with her husband, Tommy, and daughters, Rose and Clare.

Chika Anyanwu

Chika Anyanwu is a Catholic evangelist, former Confirmation coordinator/youth and young adult minister, and the author of "My Encounter: How I Met Jesus in Prayer." Her love of God and neighbor enthuses her to share the Gospel through testimony, Scripture, and honest conversations about the difficult realities of faith and life. She has had the opportunity to evangelize at NCYC, the Given Institute, Steubenville, FOCUS, and Life Teen conferences, and The Catholic Feminist France pilgrimage. She’s also a contributor to Blessed Is She as well as “Connected” and “Venture: The Bible Timeline” by Ascension Press and YDisciple's "The Invitation." Chika is a part of a beautiful Nigerian family, loves her coffee black, and desires sainthood for herself and you, although bad drivers challenge her sanctity! 

Deacon Bob Rice

Bob Rice loves being Catholic. He is a husband, father of seven, permanent deacon for the diocese of Steubenville, and professor of Catechetics at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He earned a doctorate in Theology from Liverpool Hope University where he researched Catholic youth and evangelization. Deacon Bob is a highly sought after presenter at parish missions, youth conferences, men’s conferences, young-adult gatherings, and catechetical workshops. He has authored many books and articles, including the Discipleship Quad Guidebooks, and a novel about St. Peter titled, Between the Savior and the Sea. He is the co-host of a popular weekly podcast called They That Hope with Father Dave Pivonka, TOR. Bob has recorded numerous CDs (his music can be found on Apple Music, Spotify, and others) and leads worship for over ten thousand people every year, mostly through the Steubenville Adult Conferences. You can find out more about him at deaconbobrice.com.

Rev. Jared Cooke

Father. Jared Cooke was born in Denver, Colorado, but moved to North Austin at the age of 11, spending his most formative years thereafter growing up here in Central Texas. He is a proud third-generation Texas A&M Aggie and is now the pastor and director of Catholic Campus Ministry at Our Lady of Wisdom University Parish at Texas State University in San Marcos, after serving for a year at The University of Texas Catholic Center as Associate Director of Campus Ministry. Father Jared has a great passion for preaching, teaching, and evangelization and loves finding new and exciting ways to make faith convincing and relevant for people in our fast-paced and increasingly secular society. As a result, Father Jared has had the opportunity to work extensively, especially with youth, young adults, and men’s ministries throughout the country. Over the last five years, he has also traveled around the world speaking and preaching at numerous retreats, conferences, camps, missions, and workshops, in addition to serving as parochial vicar at St. Joseph Parish in Bryan and St. Thomas More Parish in Austin. He also served as the chaplain of the "Mercy of God Healing and Prayer Center," a ministry for healing and deliverance in the Diocese of Austin, for two years and continues to be active in the same work throughout all his ministry fronts. Father Jared also continues to be very active with Catholic evangelization ministry across several social media platforms. He loves soccer, music, film, hole-in-the-wall food joints fine dining cuisine, and everything in between, the great outdoors, traveling to new places around the world (his bucket list will forever be a mile long), and is a self-described “coffee snob!” When he finds downtime, you will likely find him spending time with friends or relaxing out in the Texas country at his family’s Vineyard and Winery in Weimar, Texas. 

Bishop Joe Vásquez

Bishop Joe S. Vásquez was installed as the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Austin on March 8, 2010. On January 23, 2002, Bishop Vásquez was ordained and installed as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

Bishop Vásquez was born July 9, 1957, in Stamford, Texas, to Juan and Elvira Vásquez (deceased). He is the eldest of six children with three brothers: Robert Vásquez, Samuel Vásquez (deceased) and James Vásquez; and two sisters: Cynthia Martínez and Consuelo Garza.

He attended Stamford and Abilene public schools and then studied theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston from 1976 to 1980. He attended the Gregorian University, North American College, in Rome from 1980 to 1985. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of San Angelo on June 30, 1984, by Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza.

In the Diocese of San Angelo he served as associate pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Odessa from 1985 to 1987; as pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Fort Stockton from 1987 to 1997; and as pastor of St. Joseph Parish in San Angelo from 1997 to 2002.

Bishop Vásquez was the Vicar General/Chancellor for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston overseeing the administrative operations of the largest diocese in Texas and the 11th largest diocese in the U.S. He also served as Episcopal Vicar for Hispanics and as the Liaison for Youth during his years in Galveston-Houston.

Bishop Vásquez has recently served on the following committees of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB): Chair, Committee on Migration; Administrative Committee; and Committee for Religious Liberty; and as a consultant to the Committee on International Justice and Peace, the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and the Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC). Currently, he serves as a consultant to the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism and as Lead Bishop for Region X for the V National Encounter for Hispanic/Latino Ministry (V Encuentro).

Father Joseph Daheim

Fr. Joseph Daheim was ordained a Roman Catholic priest for the Diocese of Austin by Bishop Joe Vasquez at St. William Catholic Church in Round Rock, TX on June 3, 2017. His first priestly assignment was as a parochial vicar at St. Helen Catholic Church in Georgetown, TX. In October of 2019 he was appointed as the priest moderator for the diocesan Courage ministry. This apostolate works with men and women with same-sex attractions in living chaste lives in fellowship, truth and love. As a priest, Fr. Joseph enjoys “sharing the beauty of God’s fatherhood, especially during the sacrament of reconciliation and the offering of the holy Mass.” Fr. Joseph tries to live by the counsel of St. John Paul II: “Be not afraid,” follow God with a generous heart, trusting that he loves us and has our true good in mind.