J. Nick Pitts serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for Global Engagement at Dallas Baptist University. Previous to this he held the position of Director for Cultural Engagement at Deni...

Merrill Matthews, Ph.D., is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation, a research-based, public policy “think tank.” He is a health policy expert and weekly contributor at Forbes.co...

Merrill Matthews, Ph.D., is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation, a research-based, public policy “think tank.” He is a health policy expert and weekly contributor at Forbes.com. He also serves as Vice Chairman of the Texas Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Dr. Matthews is a past president of the Health Economics Roundtable for the National Association for Business Economics, the largest trade association of business economists. Dr. Matthews also served for 10 years as the medical ethicist for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s Institutional Review Board for Human Experimentation, and has contributed chapters to several books, including Physician Assisted Suicide: Expanding the Debate and The 21st Century Health Care Leader and, in 2009, Stop Paying the Crooks (on Medicare fraud). He has been published in numerous journals and newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, Barron’s, USA Today, Forbes magazine and the Washington Times. He was an award-winning political analyst for the USA Radio Network. Dr. Matthews received his Ph.D. in Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas

Jimmy Meeks has been a police officer for 33 years and a minister for over 40. He has served as a Hostage Negotiator, School Resource Officer, Detective, and Crime Prevention Officer. In May of 2009 h...

Jimmy Meeks has been a police officer for 33 years and a minister for over 40. He has served as a Hostage Negotiator, School Resource Officer, Detective, and Crime Prevention Officer. In May of 2009 he began to host church safety seminars, and since then he has conducted almost 100 such seminars across the United States. He and his wife were married at the First Baptist Church in Daingerfield, Texas, the sight of the 1980 first church massacre, wherein 15 worshipers were shot - 5 killed. Jimmy served as a production assistant in the award-winning docudrama about the Dangerfield, Texas shooting: Faith Under Fire. In his seminars Jimmy has attempted to make churches aware of the ever growing problem of violence at churches and faith based property. He and his wife of 36 years, Julie, have 5 daughters and one son.