Terumi Echols
USA
Terumi Echols is President and Publisher of InterVarsity Press (IVP) in suburban Chicago, USA. Her leadership at IVP has been characterized by a strong vision for sustained growth and a deep passion for the organization’s mission to create and publish resources that deepen lives in Christ to engage the university, the church, and the world through its publishing efforts. She also serves on the executive committee of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association and the board of the National Association of Evangelicals. Terumi has been married to Darrell for 35 years. They have two adult children, two grandchildren, and two dogs.
Join us at LittWorld 2024. You will learn from more than 40 Christian publishing professionals from all the world regions serving as speakers and workshop leaders, and be able to interact with them during meals and break times. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to gain fresh vision and skills for your writing and publishing ministry.
Here are some of the resource leaders you will meet in Puebla:
Mark Carpenter
BRAZIL
Mark Carpenter is Chairman and CEO of Mundo Cristão, a Christian book publishing house in Brazil specializing in Bible translation, development of local authors, and distribution through both Christian and general markets. Formerly an editor at Tyndale House (USA), Mark was the founding president of the Brazilian Association of Christian Publishers. He has served on MAI’s international board, including six years as board chair, and is a member of the editorial board of the Publishing Research Quarterly in New York. As a writer, editor and publisher, Mark has led numerous international training sessions on leadership, writing and the editorial process.
Sandra el Hajj Baz
LEBANON
Sandra is Publishing and Communications Manager of Dar Manhal al Hayat publishing house, a ministry of LSESD (now called Thimar), based in Beirut, Lebanon. She has a Ph.D. in Translation Studies, Language & Communication Sciences from the Lebanese University and 17 years of experience in translation and content writing.
Sandra created her music blog and online presence two years ago, “A Life of Praise,” where she shares her music videos and some personal spiritual reflections. She is passionate about internal eco-tourism, traveling, singing/leading worship, reading, and writing. Sandra is married with two children, Joud and Nour.
Cris Garrido
USA
Cris is Vice President and Publisher with HarperCollins Christian Publishing, where he oversees the largest Christian publishing operation in the Spanish language. He has been in Christian publishing for the past 10 years, serving in different capacities—though always focused on and prioritizing publishing indigenous voices from the Spanish-speaking world for a global audience. Prior to publishing, Cris worked in the non-profit sector leading international community development programs for various Christian organizations. He holds post-graduate qualifications in business, Christian education and publishing. Cris is married to Georgina and lives in the US with their children, Colette and Nicolás.
Bernice Lee
SINGAPORE
Bernice is managing director and co-founder of Graceworks Publishing, a ministry which seeks to bring to life books that promote spiritual friendship and connect the Word of God with issues of daily life. Upon graduation from the University of Singapore, Bernice worked as a political researcher with the Ministry of Defence before launching into the publishing industry. She has been a writer, editor, editorial manager and publishing director. The years 1991–2005 were spent managing the publishing program for Armour, a local Christian publishing company which she co-founded. Utterly committed to the ministry of spiritual friendship as modeled by the early church, Bernice indulges in the joys of providing hospitality (and meals) in the hope of entertaining angels unawares.
Sam Richardson
UK
Sam is CEO of SPCK, the UK’s largest Christian publisher with over 300 years of history—SPCK sent the first printing presses to India and the first printed books to Australia, opened the first British schools for poor children and published the first Braille books. Sam has also worked as Editorial Director at HarperCollins, overseeing religious and business books, and Publisher at Hodder & Stoughton, overseeing trade non-fiction publishing. He is a trustee of MAI-Europe, a keen marathon runner and a father of three boys.
Shantal Artieda Odicio
PERU
Shantal develops lesson material, programs, and visual content for children with BCM Peru, a ministry dedicated to reaching children for Christ and to helping churches recognize children as a strategic mission field. She has also helped her ministry create a YouTube channel offering Bible teaching for children. Together with her husband, Ricardo, Shantal has served more than 20 years with BCM Peru. She studied Communication Sciences at the University of Lima (Peru), and has a deep sense of calling to the teaching of children.
Scott Mathews
USA
Scott is Chief Executive Officer of Tyndale House Publishers. A graduate of Wheaton College, Scott worked for Calamos Investments prior to his tenure at Tyndale. He joined Tyndale in 2017, serving in the role of Vice President of finance. He was then promoted into the role of Chief Financial Officer before becoming CEO in April 2021. Scott and his wife, Leslie, have four children and a very active life, enjoying family vacations, their kids’ sporting events and their dog, Tessa. Outside of work, Scott enjoys hiking and spending time with his family.
Keila Ochoa Harris
MEXICO
Keila has published more than 20 books in Spanish, including fiction and devotional books. She currently creates content for the educational market with Sistema Educativo LAM, and loves training teachers and writers.
A life-long reader, Keila also dreams of stimulating children and teens to become avid readers. She lives in the North of Mexico with her husband and two children.
Ardy Roberto
PHILIPPINES
Ardy is a “writer for the Lord” – creating evangelistic content ranging from the best-selling gospel tract Ang Buhay na Hindi Bitin (“Living the Full Life”) to the award-winning novel The Happy Entrepreneur. A retired entrepreneur and author of 11 books, he is also the founder of the mentoring program, Project Author, and a volunteer trainer/speaker for Haggai International and Media Associates International having conducted sessions on writing from places like Maui, Hawaii to Thimphu, Bhutan. Ardy is married to his former Project Author mentee, Miriam Quiambao (former Ms Universe 1st Runner Up, 1999) and together they raise their blended family of three boys, Joshua (16), Elijah (5) and Ezekiel (3), 7 dogs, 6 cats and 2 ducks while overseeing a house church in the island of Boracay in the Philippines.
Beatriz Buono
ARGENTINA
Beatriz is Director of Certeza Argentina, the publishing arm of the Argentine University Bible Association (ABUA), whose vision is to communicate the lordship of Jesus over all of life through biblically-based, interactive and life-transforming books. She is a professional with a background in chemistry, theology, and business, complemented by leadership experience in the publishing and distribution industries. Beatriz is passionate about integrating faith with academic and entrepreneurial ventures. She helps emerging Latin American authors publish their first book and supports them in continuing their journey as writers.
Carlos Astorga
USA
Carlos is Editorial Director of Church Resources at Lifeway Global in the U.S. He was born in Mexico City and grew up in Monterrey. He has degrees in Computer Science and Historical Theology. He has served in pastoral, teaching and information technology roles for more than 30 years. In addition, he serves as a guest teacher for various mission organizations and is on the faculty of Denver Seminary’s IDEAL Institute, a lay-level ministerial program that offers classes in Bible and theology to Hispanics in the metro Denver area. Carlos lives in Mount Juliet, TN, with his wife, Miriam, and their three daughters: Elisa, Carolina and Sofia.
Afrika Mhlophe
SOUTH AFRICA
Afrika is a widely respected author and television personality in South Africa. He speaks and writes on racism, corruption and idolatry from a biblical perspective. He has published four books and speaks on Pressing Matters, a TV program on Faith Broadcast Network.
Afrika serves as a board chairperson of Gateway News, an online Christian news portal, and writes regularly for the publication. His vision is to see more Christians produce inspiring and compelling content that addresses the challenges the church in Africa faces today.
Gretchen Abernathy
USA
Gretchen is Managing Editor of the Journal of Latin American Theology, an English-language publication of the Fraternidad Teológica Latinoamericana (Latin American Theological Fellowship). She spent a year in Buenos Aires under the editorial tutelage of René Padilla at Editorial Kairós, translating materials from Spanish to English, then four years at Grupo Nelson (the Spanish division of Thomas Nelson, now HarperCollins Christian Publishing) in all stages of book production. As a freelancer, Gretchen works extensively with Biblica and their NIV/NVI-related materials. She also helps independent authors develop their materials in Spanish or English—including children’s board books, poetry, theology, self-help, technical guides, study Bibles, web content, and thriller novels.
Balázs Zágoni
ROMANIA
Balázs Zágoni is an award-winning fiction author, former Managing Director of Koinónia publishing house, and Associate Professor in the Hungarian Department of Cinema and Media at Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania.
Dan Balow
USA
Dan is a literary agent with The Steve Laube Agency, which provides guidance to Christian authors and speakers. He started in Christian publishing in 1983 with David C. Cook. During his 14 years with Tyndale House Publishers, Dan worked with hundreds of authors and thousands of books. He has also acquired and published close to 800 audiobooks as publisher with Oasis Audio and christianaudio. In 2022, Dan took on an additional role as director for the Write to Publish Christian writer’s conference, part of the Christian Writers Institute. He has served on the boards of the Evangelical Christian Publisher’s Association and the Global Publishers Alliance, and is currently a member of MAI’s international board. Dan graduated from Wheaton College with a degree in communications and has been married to Carol for over 40 years. They have four children and seven grandchildren.
Sam Nyarko-Mensah
GHANA
Sam is Head of Publications at Step Publishers in Accra, Ghana. He has been a publisher by training and profession for the past 13 years. With a great passion for continuous improvement, he has offered training in digital publishing, publication development, editorial processes, book layout and cover design in Africa and Europe. Sam is an expert in converting content into digitized formats for publishing online. He holds a Master of Business Administration (Strategic Management) and a BA in Publishing Studies (Administration). Sam loves choral music and helps direct and conduct choirs.
Morgan Pōmaika’i Lee
USA
Morgan Pōmaika’i Lee is the managing editor of Christianity Today’s growing global team, leading a team of editors and translators who represent more than a dozen different countries. For more than five years, Morgan served as the host and producer of the award-winning news podcast Quick to Listen. Thanks to her zeal for connecting with people, she speaks comfortable Spanish, conversational French, is currently taking Portuguese and Hawaiian, and can attempt to order food in Chinese. Morgan lives in Honolulu, Hawai’i.
Michael Collie
AUSTRALIA
Michael is National Director of Sparklit Australia, an organization which seeks to nurture emerging indigenous Christian publishers in difficult places. Michael trained as a graphic designer and was a founding director of Wild, Australia’s premier adventure and wilderness magazine whose team has also fought for environmental conservation for the last 40 years. He and his wife, Elspeth, worked for 16 years with Christian book publisher Certeza Argentina. Michael loves books, mountaineering and birdwatching.
Sally Isáis
MEXICO
Sally is Director of MILAMEX, a Mexican evangelical parachurch organization with over 60 years of history. A Wheaton College graduate, she is a writer and editor, and alongside her team seeks to train other Christian writers. Her prayer and purpose can be found in Psalm 102:18: “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord.” Sally leads ASAF, an evangelistic interdenominational choir, and is a worship leader in her local congregation. She has served in transcultural ministries for over four decades.
Joshua Tallent
USA
Joshua is Director of Sales and Education at Firebrand Technologies, where his focus is on helping publishers learn about, and find solutions to, their workflow and metadata problems. With a background in e-book development, metadata and other publishing technologies, Joshua is an acclaimed teacher and guide on the role of data in publishing. He serves as Chair of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) Board of Directors and hosts the BookSmarts Podcast, which features practical discussions and interviews about publishing data and technologies. In his spare time, Joshua enjoys teaching Bible studies, playing complex board games and fiddling with his home automation system.
Kris Argall
AUSTRALIA
Kris is Managing and Commissioning Editor at the Bible Society Australia. With over eighteen years of experience in editing, she works on a wide variety of publications—including Bibles, trade books, children’s books and indigenous language resources for Australia’s First Nations peoples. Kris originally trained as a zoologist and has a PhD in Science from Sydney University. Through a series of events that were a surprise to Kris but not to God, she found herself working as an editor for Acorn Press, an Australian non-profit Christian publishing company that became part of the Bible Society Australia Group in 2017. In her spare time, Kris loves reading fiction, birdwatching, oil painting and catching up with friends over a cuppa.
Edgar Trono
PHILIPPINES
Edgar is CEO of OMF Literature, which publishes and distributes Christ-centered, biblically sound, and culturally relevant resources for the equipping and spiritual growth of Filipinos. He also serves in men’s ministry with Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) and as a board member of several Christian organizations. Prior to his current role with OMF Literature, Edgar was a Director for Global Initiatives at the BSF headquarters in the US, a Trustee of Our Daily Bread in the Philippines, and a banker. He has more than 30 years of banking experience, including senior positions in public sector portfolio management. Edgar is married to Betty, who serves with him in ministry, and they are blessed with two children and two grandchildren.
Grzegorz Przeliorz
POLAND
Grzegorz is CEO of Szaron, one of the largest religious publishing houses in Poland. For almost 15 years, he has been running a nation-wide Christian bookstore according to the vision he received at the beginning of his journey. A few years after opening the bookstore, he opened Szaron. Grzegorz serves in churches by sharing the Word of God. He also helps people who have found themselves in a difficult financial situation and in the field of business. Grzegorz is the author of four books—three for children and one for adults. His dream is for the Word of God to appear in every home in Poland, not only through books but also through the accessories that he produces. He lives with his wife and three children in southern Poland.
Jeanette Windle
USA
Jeanette is an award-winning novelist, investigative journalist, editor and collaborative writer. She grew up in the Amazon’s guerrilla hot zones, has lived in six countries and traveled in more than 30. Those experiences have birthed 24 fiction and non-fiction titles, including the bestselling Veiled Freedom (2010 ECPA Christian Book Award/Christy Award finalist) and Freedom’s Stand (2012 ECPA Christian Book Award/Carol Award finalist), as well as “as told to” titles such as Forgiven: The Amish Schoolhouse Shooting, a Mother’s Love and a Story of Remarkable Grace (2016 ECPA Christian Book Award/Christian Retailing Best Awards finalist) and All Saints, also a Sony Affirm movie. Jeanette is CEO of J. M. Windle Editorial Services.
Carlos and Cynthia Rodiles
MEXICO
Carlos and Cynthia serve with MILAMEX, running a ministry center that includes a guest house for backpackers and people seeking to know more about Jesus. This center aims to give young adults and ministry leaders space to explore and pursue their calling in God’s mission. Their team coaches and empowers Latin Americans in strategy building, communications and networking to have a greater impact on their communities. Carlos and Cynthia will be the worship leaders for LittWorld 2024.
Daniel Faria
BRAZIL
Daniel is Editorial Manager of Mundo Cristão, a large publishing house in Brazil which seeks to publish books that transform readers. In 2011, he coordinated the production of the Nova Versão Transformadora (NVT), a translation of the Bible in contemporary Portuguese. He has since been involved in editing commentaries, study Bibles, book translations and original titles written by Brazilian authors. “My vision is to help promote a Christian culture both aligned with historical Christianity and attentive to the specific needs of the Brazilian church,” he says. Daniel lives in São Paulo with his wife, Tabatha, and their son, Liev.
Janet Wilson
UK
Janet is founder of Dernier Publishing and Write For A Reason, a training resource for aspiring writers of stories for young people that includes a podcast, courses and membership group. An author as well as a publisher, Janet established Dernier to produce novels for children, teens and young adults written from a Christian perspective. She is the author of The Treasure Hunt, Mystery in the Snow, Suspicious Deliveries, Revenge of the Flying Carpet, and Year 0033 under the name J.M. Evans. Dernier Publishing has a growing list of titles with several authors. Janet also serves as Chair of MAI-Europe and runs a monthly Online Writers Friendship Group. Janet is married to Andrew and lives on the edge of London, where she “goes out and about, plotting new adventures.”
David Galeano
COLOMBIA
David is Marketing Director of Editorial Portavoz. He has 15 years of experience in marketing, 11 of which are in the Christian book industry, including roles with CLC Colombia and Editorial CLC. He holds marketing and management degrees from Universidad Piloto de Colombia, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada de Colombia and Sterling Business College in Perth, Australia. David has been a speaker, panelist and trainer on branding and marketing at international publishing conferences such as the ECPA’s International Christian Publishers Conference and FILBo (International Book Fair of Bogotá), as well as at various events across North America, Latin America and Australia.
Joan Campbell
SOUTH AFRICA
As a pilgrim and storyteller, Joan seeks to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, using writing to process and share her journey. She is a contributing devotional writer for Scripture Union South Africa’s Closer to God and the author of seven books. Chains of Gwyndorr, the first book of her fantasy trilogy, won the 2017 Illumination award for Young Adult Fiction. She has also published three collections of short stories, reflections, prayers and art, one of which has been translated into French. Her most recently completed book is a historical fiction novel set in the time of King David. Joan is an MAI-Africa trustee and lives in Johannesburg with her husband, Roy, and their two daughters. Besides her involvement in the training ministry of MAI, she also builds community, equips and encourages writers online in her communications and social media role.
Wil and Lorraine Triggs
USA
Wil and Lorraine serve in communications at College Church. Wil has worked in marketing and communications with non-profit organizations including the Slavic Gospel Association, Peter Deyneka Russian Ministries (now Mission Eurasia), the World Evangelical Alliance and Media Associates International. He was one of the founding editors of the East-West Church and Ministry Report and has traveled extensively in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Lorraine has worked as a curriculum editor for David C. Cook communications, which was a good fit for her love of teaching and editing. Will continues his involvement in missions through short-term trips and projects, and support for the global persecuted church. He and Lorraine teach kindergarten Bible school. Wil has established an arts ministry at his church and he and Lorraine oversee a monthly magazine that is written entirely by congregants.
