Toward a Free and Virtuous Society: Rethinking Poverty

Michael Matheson Miller
Research Fellow, Producer of Poverty, Inc., Acton Institute

Michael Matheson Miller is Research Fellow at the Acton Institute and the Director and Producer of the award winning documentary, Poverty, Inc. With some ten years of international experience, Miller has lived and traveled in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Michael lectures internationally on such themes as political and social philosophy, economic development, ethics and entrepreneurship. He is a frequent guest on radio and has been published in the Washington Times, The Detroit News, The LA Daily News, The New York Post, Catholic World Report, and Real Clear Politics.
He is the Director and Host of the PovertyCure DVD Series and has appeared in various video curricula including Doing the Right Thing, a six part series on ethics, Effective Stewardship, and the Birth of Freedom.
Previously he was the Director of Media and the Director of Programs and International at the Acton Institute, and was the founding director of PovertyCure, which promotes entrepreneurial solutions to poverty in the developing world.
Before coming to Acton he taught philosophy and political science at Ave Maria College in Nicaragua and was the chair of the philosophy and theology department.
Miller studied English and philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and has graduate degrees from Nagoya University’s Graduate School of International Development (Japan), Franciscan University, and an M.B.A. in International Management from Thunderbird Graduate School of Global Business. He serves on the President’s Advisory Council of Aquinas College in Nashville, as on the boards of Sacred Heart Classical Academy, the Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project, and the Michigan Ballet Academy

Anthony Bradley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Theology, The King's College in New York City & Research Fellow, Acton Institute

Dr. Anthony Bradley, associate professor of theology at The King's College in New York City and a research fellow at the Acton Institute. Dr. Bradley holds Bachelor of Science in biological sciences from Clemson University, a Master of Divinity from Covenant Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Westminster Theological Seminary. As a research fellow, Dr. Bradley lectures at colleges, universities, business organizations, conferences, and churches throughout the U.S. and abroad. His writings on religious and cultural issues have been published in a variety of journals, including: the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Detroit News, and World Magazine. Dr. Bradley is called upon by members of the broadcast media for comment on current issues and has appeared on NPR, CNN/Headline News, Fox News and Court TV Radio, among others. He studies and writes on issues of race in America, hip hop, youth culture, issues among African Americans, the American family, welfare, education, and modern international forms of social injustice, slavery, and oppression. His dissertation explores the intersection of black liberation theology and economics. From 2005-2009, Dr. Bradley was Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO where he also directed the Francis A. Schaeffer Institute. Dr. Bradley is the author of Black and Tired: Essays on Race, Politics, Culture, and International Development and Liberating Black Theology: The Bible and the Black Experience in America.

Byron McMillan
Director of Consulting, Jobs for Life

Byron McMillan grew up in Raleigh, NC and graduating from East Carolina University. He then served as an Armor (tanks) Officer in the United States Army where he was awarded the Bronze Star for leadership in combat during Operation Desert Storm. Since then, he has engaged in numerous entrepreneurial endeavors and served churches, nonprofits, and corporations in the Triangle area. Byron and his wife, Lisa, currently live in Virginia Beach, VA where they have weathered the storms of life through the raising of 5 kids in a blended home. His passion is to see broken and under resourced communities restored, where people flourish.

S. Michael Craven
President,
BridgeBuilders

S. Michael Craven is the president of BridgeBuilders in Dallas, Texas. BridgeBuilders is an innovative urban missionary organization that works to alleviate poverty by both confronting the spiritual needs of the poor and resolving the material realities that prevent them from flourishing. Prior to his role at BridgeBuilders, Michael founded the Center for Christ & Culture in 2001 where he worked as a practical theologian, author, and speaker. Michael also served as a contributor to the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview and is the author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (NavPress, 2009). Prior to beginning his career in vocational ministry, Michael was the President & CEO of the U.S. subsidiary of a German-based manufacturing company in Dallas.

Rev. John A. Nunes, Ph.D.
President, Concordia College-New York

Rev. Dr. John A. Nunes currently serves as the ninth president of Concordia College-New York. He served for two years as the Emil and Elfriede Jochum Chair at Valparaiso University before assuming the Concordia presidency on July 1, 2016.

Nunes, an ordained LCMS minister, was President and Chief Executive Officer of Lutheran World Relief (LWR), Baltimore, from 2007 to 2013. LWR is an international, non-profit organization working to end poverty and injustice worldwide.

Prior to joining LWR, Nunes taught theology at Concordia University Chicago in River Forest, Ill., and served as a management consultant, urban parish pastor and community organizer in Dallas and Detroit.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Concordia College (now Concordia University), Ann Arbor, Mich.; a Master of Divinity degree from Concordia Seminary, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada; and both Master of Theology and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He also has received honorary doctorates from Concordia University, Ann Arbor, and Carthage College, Kenosha, Wis.

Nunes is the author of Voices from the City: Issues and Images of Urban Preaching and, with his wife, Monique, the children's book Little Things Make Big Differences: A Story about Malaria.