Max Lucado
Abilene Christian University
Max Lucado is a preacher with a storyteller’s gift—a pastor’s heart and a poet’s pen.
His sermons begin at home with the congregation at Oak Hills Church, which he has led for more than two decades. Some of his sermons and stories are fashioned into books around the world in more than 41 languages via more than 100 million individual products. Most of these products are books (82 million), many on the national bestseller list. He has been dubbed “America’s Pastor” by Reader’s Digest, and named one of the most influential leaders in social media by The New York Times.
He earned a master’s degree in Biblical Studies from Abilene Christian University. While at a small church near Miami, Fla., he discovered a powerful synergy between his passion for people, pastoral ministry, and writing. It was also in Florida that he met Denalyn, now his wife of more than 30 years.
Max and Denalyn moved to the mission field in Rio de Janeiro to help plant new churches. While in Brazil, he continued to write, eventually gathering the newsletters into a manuscript.
His first book, On the Anvil, was published in 1985 and his 30th trade book, You’ll Get Through This was released in 2013.
Max and family moved back to Texas in 1988, and he has been a minister at Oak Hills Church ever since.
Steve Blow
Tyler Junior College
University of North Texas
Steve Blow has written a popular column on the Metro page of The Dallas Morning News for more than 25 years. He previously worked as a reporter at the newspaper, as well as at The Fort Worth Press and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Blow is a native of Tyler, Texas, where he took his first journalism class at Tyler Junior College under renowned journalism professor Blanche Prejean. “I knew I had found a home,” he has said of that first class. He completed his journalism studies at the University of North Texas, where he served as editor of The North Texas Daily. Under his leadership, the student newspaper won the Pacesetter Award. He was named the Outstanding Journalism Graduate at both TJC and UNT. His columns have been honored with most of the state’s journalism awards. Both the readers and editors of The Dallas Observer have named his column the best in Dallas. His columns have been collected in a book, Blow by Blow. His wife, Lori, is a public school teacher. He is the father of two grown children and four grandchildren. His hobby is studying Spanish, though his wife calls it an obsession.
Ann Arnold
University of Texas – Austin
Ann Arnold began her journalism career by starting her junior high school newspaper and continued by writing for her high school newspaper and working evenings for her community newspaper, covering school board meetings and the city council.
She went to Texas A&M-College Station in 1963, then transferred to the University of Texas at Austin in 1965 where she worked in the Capitol bureau of the Dallas Times-Herald. She worked on the Daily Texan and graduated with a BA in journalism in 1968, then joined UPI’s Capitol bureau.
She won a 1966 Headliners award for a series on LSD use. She joined the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1980 and became the first female press secretary to a Texas governor in 1982 for Gov. Mark White.
In 1987, she became the executive director of the Texas Association of Broadcasters and during her tenure became a defender of Texas’ Open Government laws, help lay the groundwork for the media industry’s efforts to pass a Free Flow of Information Act in Texas.
She received the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas’ James Madison Award in 2001 and Texas broadcasters presented her with the association’s first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.
She died in 2012.