Speakers

Every year, we invite speakers to inform and inspire us as we stand up for the lives of unborn children and their families. Below is a short bio for the speakers we have lined up for 2025:

Ryan Bomberger

Ryan has a rather unique perspective of the innate nature of Purpose. His biological mother was raped yet courageously gave him a chance to live and the beautiful gift of adoption. He was adopted at 6 weeks of age and grew up in a loving, multi-“racial” Christian family of 15. With siblings of varying ethnicities, he grew up with a great appreciation for diversity. Ten of the thirteen children were adopted in this remarkable family. His life defies the myth of the “unwanted” child as he was adopted, loved and has flourished.

Today, he is an Emmy® Award-winning Creative Professional who founded The Radiance Foundation (TRF), a life-affirming 501c3, along with his wife, Bethany.

Sister Deirdre “Dede” Byrne

Sister Dede is a member of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a traditional religious order founded in 19th century Italy. She was previously an Army surgeon in Afghanistan, and later addressed the 2020 Republican National Convention, where she encouraged Americans to use the rosary as a “spiritual weapon” to defeat the “Culture of Death.”

Sister Dede, whose brother is the Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts, was born into a devout Catholic family of Georgetown-trained doctors.   After attending Virginia Tech for undergraduate study, Sister Dede graduated from Georgetown University Medical School.  After residencies in family medicine and and in surgery (where she was the Chief Surgical Resident at Georgetown), she provided medical care to Cardinal Hickey of Washington, D.C., and to Mother Teresa of Calcutta during a visit to the nation’s capital.

Following an active duty and reserve career as a medical doctor in the U.S. Army, Sister Dede retired as a colonel and professed her final vows as a member of the Little Workers order in 2011.

Kelly Lester

Kelly’s story is one that covers so many difficult and painful topics in our world today.  Child molestation, raped as a teen, several abortions, drug dealing, eating disorders, homosexuality, pornography, prostitution, and even working in the clinic where she had her first abortion. But beauty triumphs from the ashes, and Kelly is a testament to how God can clean all the dirty parts of a painful life story and make it brand new.

Now a wife and mother of six children, Kelly loves to share her story to give hope to the most desperate situations proving that God can save anybody. Her story has been featured on the 700 Club for CBN. She is a regular contributor to OAN, Newsmax and Fox News.  She currently works in Outreach and Government Engagement for And Then There Were None and Pro-Love Ministries, and is the Director of Outreach for Maps Global.

Rev. Walter Hoye

 

 

 

One of America’s leading African-American pro-life activists, Walter Hoye has been affiliated with the Walk for Life West Coast since the beginning, and combatting the scourge of Abortion in the African-American community for more than 20 years. The Oakland resident (with his wife Lori) is the founder of the Issues4Life Foundation, and has been profiled in “Black and Pro-Life in America: The Incarceration and Exoneration of Walter B. Hoye,II”.