John Zmirak is a Senior Editor of The Stream, and author of the new Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1986, then his M.F.A. in screenwriting and fiction and his Ph.D. in English in 1996 from Louisiana State University. His focus was the English Renaissance, and the novels of Walker Percy. He taught composition at LSU and screenwriting at Tulane University, and has written screenplays for and with director Ronald Maxwell (Gods & Generals and Gettysburg). He was elected alternate delegate to the 1996 Republican Convention, representing Pat Buchanan.

He has been Press Secretary to pro-life Louisiana Governor Mike Foster, and a reporter and editor at Success magazine and Investor’s Business Daily, among other publications. His essays, poems, and other works have appeared in First Things, The Weekly Standard, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today, FrontPage Magazine, The American Conservative, The South Carolina Review, Modern Age, The Intercollegiate Review, Commonweal, and The National Catholic Register, among other venues. He has contributed to American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia and The Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought. From 2000-2004 he served as Senior Editor of Faith & Family magazine and a reporter at The National Catholic Register. During 2012 he was editor of Crisis.

Upon learning about Nic’s vision for DeliverFund, Jeremy’s quick and only response was: “Where do I sign? Let’s do this.”

Jeremy spent 10 years in the US Special Operations, where he went on to become and deploy as a Navy SEAL Sniper. After his time in the military, Jeremy returned to the Middle East as an operative for a National Level Intelligence agency for an additional five years. More than 17 deployments later, Jeremy returned home to work on a successful political campaign for a US Congressman, further committing himself to the American values that he upholds. When Nic met Jeremy overseas, it became clear that the two shared a deep sense of mission and mutual sense of duty.

With a wide range of training in Special Operations, experience in the Intelligence community and time spent in the political arena, Jeremy often tells folks that every job he has held has only been to prepare him for the work that he is currently doing for DeliverFund.

As an Operative who served as a Country Chief for a Special Unit within the CIA, Nic witnessed not only the epidemic of child trafficking within illicit markets, but also the unrealized opportunity to apply his understanding and training to influence this global crisis. As Nic began to work with experts to better understand the problem in the United States, he found it impossible to turn a blind eye. As a result, DeliverFund was officially established as a 501c3 in October 2014 and our counter human trafficking organization, focused on ending sex slavery in the United States got to work.

Nic spent 11 years in US Special Operations as an Air Force Pararescueman prior to being recruited to the Central Intelligence Agency. Due to his highly specialized training and experience in both special and intelligence operations, Nic has a firm understanding about these illicit, illegal markets and has the highest levels of training to effectively combat them.

Keisha Russell is Associate Counsel with First Liberty Institute, concentrating on religious liberty matters and First Amendment rights.

Russell attended Emory University School of Law, where she was heavily involved in Emory’s prestigious Center for the Study of Law and Religion. She served on the Emory Journal of Law & Religion and two moot court teams. She was a law clerk for the Center’s Restoring Religious Freedom Project where she worked on religious liberty litigation. In her final year of law school, Russell worked as a law clerk for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) on national and international matters affecting Israel.

Russell was also selected for a legal clinic with the Emory Barton Child Law and Policy Center. She trained with a political expert and advocated for children at the Georgia state capitol. Russell was selected by Emory University as a Graduating Woman of Excellence.

Prior to joining First Liberty, Russell earned a Bachelor’s in Communications from University of Central Florida and a Master’s in Teaching from the University of Southern California. She was a 2011 Teach For America corps member and taught elementary special education in Atlanta. Russell is most passionate about protecting religious freedom for children in America’s schools.

By: John Zmirak - stream.org - May 23, 2019 We’re entitled to feel some hope as a wave of pro-life laws is sweeping American states. These laws will likely force the Supreme Court to re-examine the ...

By: John Zmirak - stream.org - September 24, 2019 I think we can all agree it was unfair, what happened to Greta Thunberg. We need to make sure that kind of treatment is never meted out ...

Ketcham High School’s Ongoing Violation of Equal Access Act
In its letter to school officials, First Liberty explains that the Equal Access Act prohibits schools from denying religious clubs’ access to school facilities when access is granted to secular clubs. The letter states, “As the U.S. Supreme Court explained, religious clubs must be afforded the same recognition, access and rights as other noncurricular clubs.”