Previous Speakers
Every year we hold a conference and invite experts to share tools to help guide you through the "curve balls" of life.
Ann Ferguson is a Master Mentor
Her passion is to teach spiritual principles and tools that heal emotional wounds. This helps people discover how to step into the belief that moves mountains and creates miracles. She loves to celebrate each step with those she mentors as they experience a divine partnership with Jesus Christ.
Ann is the owner of Joy Power, LLC. And has written 3 mentor-led courses you can experience at JoyfulHeartMentoring.com.
Ann Ferguson
Owner of Joy Power, LLC
Grayson Butler
Healing & Recovery
Grayson Butler has taught Seminary around the Salt Lake Valley.
He taught Institute classes at Westminister College and The University of Utah.
He has also served as a Young Single Adult Bishop.
Grayson specializes in a class called Healing and Recovery which has brought many to the realization of the great love God has for them.
Kristen Reber is the podcast host of Early Homecoming: Insights from Missionaries Who Returned Early and the author of Early Homecoming: A Resource for Early-Returned Missionaries, Their Church Leaders, and Family. She devotes much of her time to helping those who return home early to find peace, clarity, and renewed purpose in their personal lives and the church.
She graduated from Brigham Young University in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in Editing, and another minor in Psychology. Kristen worked as the operations manager of Latter-day Saint Publishing and Media Association (LDSPMA) for several years before becoming their associate director of education for a year. She left to focus on her growing family. She and her husband, James, have three children. She is also a devoted Latter-day Saint, wife, mother, and friend. You can often find Kristen reading, writing, playing her harp, or traveling with her family.
Mark Middlebrook
Marketing/Community Affairs Director - MTECH
Kristin Reber
Early Homecoming
Mark Middlebrook grew up in Spanish Fork, Utah. He later attended BYU and
graduated with a business degree. Shortly after, he started working for Associated
Grocers and have spent over 15 yrs. in the retail business as management.
He later moved back to Utah working as the Marketing Director for a non-profit
organization, Children’s Miracle Network overseeing retail development.
In 2001 Mark took a job with Salt Lake Community College as the Assistant
Director of Development raising funds for the college. He then was hired on at
MTECH (formerly known as MATC) as the marketing/community affairs director
for almost 16 yrs. Mark oversees all community affairs, private scholarships,
enrollment, events, and high school relations.
Mark loves technical education and the opportunities it gives people. He loves
fishing, hiking, cooking, and the great outdoors. He is currently living in
Springville, Utah and has 5 children. He is now a proud grandpa with two
grandchildren. He and his wife, Lynda have been married for over 32 yrs.
Trevor is the founder of Rise Undaunted Inc. an international company that combined coaching, self help, and Christianity to create a movement of men that makes it cool to emulate Jesus Christ. These men are empowered by embracing healthy masculinity and becoming the best authentic version of themselves. Trevor and Kaylee, his wife of 24 years, have 3 children ages 15-23. Trevor’s passions are being outdoors, playing pickleball, singing, and changing the world. He is Canadian, but enjoys living in southern Utah where he can play pickleball year-round.
Trevor Heninger
Founder of Rise Undaunted
Harmony Packer
Healthier You Counseling
Harmony Packer is a mental health therapist and licensed clinical social worker at Healthier You Counseling in American Fork, Utah. Her favorite thing is to see the relief in clients’ eyes when they overcome their challenges and feel peace. She works within the framework of their goals and values to help them grow and heal.
One of Harmony’s passions is helping young adults who plan to serve or have served as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a young missionary in Japan she struggled with clinical depression. Now as a therapist and a mother of four (including two returned missionaries), she wants nothing more than to help her children and their peers navigate the unique mental and emotional demands that come with missionary service. She offers Emotional Mission Preparation workshops, individual therapy for young adults who are preparing to serve, and individual therapy for returned missionaries who have come home with anxiety, depression, trauma, or other mental health issues.
Cortland Watson is a licensed and practicing school psychologist who specializes in working with children grieving the loss of a family member and those impacted by suicide. He is a certified life coach and the founder of Ever Onward Coaching LLC, where he started helping LDS families with return missionaries, but recently decided to focus on coaching individuals and families through pornography addiction recovery.
Cortland is a published researcher, with his work focusing on the topic of suicide; “Very Young Child Survivors' Perceptions of Their Father's Suicide: Exploring Bibliotherapy as Postvention Support” was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in October 2021. Cortland was invited to host a workshop at the National Association of School Psychologists Conference in Baltimore in 2021 for school psychologists around the United States. Cortland recently appeared on the podcast "Early Homecoming: Insights from Missionaries Who Returned Early" where he addressed the work that he has done with helping return missionaries transition into post-mission life. In 2023 Cortland was asked to present at BYU's Life After Loss Conference as the conference's expert on the topic of suicide.
Cortland served his mission in Veracruz, Mexico, where he became a non-native Spanish speaker. He met his wife Simone at a baptism in the YSA ward, just two days after she returned home from her mission in Minnesota. Though their stories of how it actually happened differ, Cortland claims that Simone fell for him when she saw him dressed in white. Cortland and Simone both graduated from BYU-Idaho. Cortland pursued his graduate degree in school psychology at BYU. While at BYU he worked for the Counseling and Psychological Services Department as a biofeedback technician, helping students develop effective stress management skills. He and his wife now live in their home state, state 48 (Arizona), with their four kids.
