Music may have saved his life.  After surviving cancer at age 16, music became his helpmate in processing the ‘big questions’ that came to him at an early age.  At 18, he took his newly found passion for life and music to traveling the country in a van with a group of wacky Catholic ‘hippies’ giving spiritual retreats to young people.

College found him criss-crossing through Europe with his guitar.  It was through hanging with monks deep in desert monasteries and, later, living in the Vatican as a seminarian in his 20’s on the way to becoming a priest, that he discovered his true calling was that of a songwriter.  He left the seminary and landed in his native Southern California, beginning his quest to re-invent himself as an artist.  Years later, he is now a seasoned performer and award-winning songwriter.  What would a person with such a story have to say about life? Plenty, especially when magnified through the prism of a song.

Meet Michael Tiernan.  Through the experiences of what could be ten lifetimes, Michael is an artist who has plunged into and explored the deep spaces of personal and worldly conflict, the beauty of love and nature, as well as the meaning of suffering and the pervasive unhappiness that threatens our human experience on all sides.  In his music, he resurfaces from these depths with a positive yet real outlook for all of us, while taking us on a sonic joy ride through the many genres he straddles in his music.

Michael is set to release his 8th album, “For Others” in the summer of 2024, and performs regularly in the Southern California region and beyond, as well as engaging corporate audiences with creativity and songwriting workshops.  His music has been featured on several TV shows over the years and he was won several songwriting awards, in addition to being named a two-time Los Angeles Music Awards winner, and most recently, the 2023 San Diego Music Awards winner for Best Acoustic Song.  Michael is the proud dad of 2 teenagers and resides in Vista, CA, with his wife, Tracy.

Award-winning journalist Jill Lawrence is an opinion writer and the author of "The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock." A former columnist, commentary editor and editorial board member at USA Today, her previous positions also include national political correspondent for USA Today, managing editor for politics at National Journal and national political writer at The Associated Press. Her writing on politics, policy and culture has also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Bulwark, NBC News Think, The Daily Beast, Politico Magazine, The Week, Al Jazeera America Opinion, The Atlantic, AOL's Politics Daily, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Lawrence is a contributor to The Surge: 2014's Big GOP Win and What It Means for the Next Presidential Race and co-author of Governors and the Presidency: How They Campaign, How They Govern, for the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, and Phoning It In and Failing to Show: The Story of the 2014 House Primaries, for the Brookings Institution.

Among Lawrence's national awards and honors are the 2021 National Society of Newspaper Columnists award for online columns, the National Press Club's 2016 Lee Walczak Award for Political Analysis, a 2010 Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists for her Politics Daily columns, and a 1995 National Headliner Award for her AP columns. Columbia Journalism Review named her one of the top 10 campaign reporters in the country in 2004. Washingtonian magazine included her on its list of 50 "best and most influential journalists" in 2005.

A highlight of her tenure at USA Today was "One Nation, Divided," a series which she proposed after the stalemated 2000 election and which ran in 2002. The stories were based on research and reporting throughout 2001, both before and after the 9/11 attacks, in the archetypal blue and red towns of Montclair, N.J., and Franklin, Tenn. In 2003, the IRE Journal published an article Lawrence wrote about how and why the towns were chosen and the tools she used to find the information she needed.

A thoughtful analyst as well as a social-media aficionado, Lawrence has discussed political and policy developments on MSNBC, C-SPAN, Sirius-XM, public radio and many other media outlets. She was an adjunct professorial lecturer at American University in 2014, teaching on the relationship between politics and the media.

Scott L. Steward, a Master Certified Teacher of Entrepreneurship, is an accomplished and award-winning educator with 18 accolades under his belt. As a former Chicago Public School teacher, his entrepreneurial expertise is frequently sought after by various publications for advice on new ventures and guidance for up-and-coming entrepreneurs. He has authored a successful business plan featured in Make $1,000 in 35 days, contributed to the textbook Entrepreneurship: Owning Your FUTURE 11th Edition (Pearson, Prentice Hall), and penned 31 Ways to Improve Your Life: a Book of Stewisms's.

Often referred to as the "force" behind a student's limitless future, Scott is dedicated to empowering his students to become CEOs of their own businesses and lives, creating wealth on their own terms. As a business owner, educator, entrepreneurial expert, and father of five, Scott has firsthand experience with the joys and challenges of entrepreneurship.

From a young age, Scott understood the importance of financial independence. With his mother's encouragement, he started his first business, Scott's Enterprises, at just 12 years old, providing car washing and lawn care services in his neighborhood. During high school, he and his cousin found success promoting parties and album release dates for national artists, experiences that laid the groundwork for his entrepreneurial journey.

Scott's extensive background includes serving as the Interim Director of the Small Business Development Center at Chicago State University, CEO of Break Bread Marketing & Media—a boutique multimedia production company and marketing consulting firm, Master Certified Teacher of Entrepreneurship by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), and Professor of Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship at Chicago State University.

For over 15 years, Scott has leveraged his corporate marketing and business experience to inspire students to pursue their dreams. His passion and determination have allowed him to forge meaningful connections with his students, many of whom have become successful young entrepreneurs under his guidance.

Adam Apollo has offered insights on global transitions, physics, technology, human spirituality, and the future as a "Next Generation Leadership" ambassador at the White House, in multiple NEXUS and other summits at the United Nations, and at conferences and festivals around the world. He served as Chief of Business Development for the 2020 Fund, and organized two Prayer Runs for World Peace with indigenous elders and youth from all over North America. He is a cofounder of the UNIFY movement which reaches 100M people each month, and two education and technology-based companies: Access Granted and Superluminal Systems. He is an active faculty member, author, and the lead systems architect for several international online academies, including the Resonance Academy for Unified Physics and the Guardian Alliance Academy for self-mastery, with over 150,000 active students of all ages from around the world across these schools. He’s been featured on GAIA TV shows, Coast to Coast AM on multiple occasions, feature films and more. Over the past few years Adam Apollo supported development of a new quantum computer resistant encryption system with Crown Sterling and advised on many cryptocurrency initiatives. He is now building a decentralized social operating system that has a revolutionary 3D starship dashboard and regenerative impact engine for gamification of planetary transformation: CoreNexus™. Adam Apollo is dedicated to achieving a sustainable and thriving interplanetary culture. 

Dr. Kathleen Corley is an award-winning educator, an authority on school culture, and the charismatic principal at Red Cedar Elementary School in Bluffton, S.C. Renowned for her unique communication and leadership skills, Corley has a bachelor’s in music education from the University of Illinois, a master’s in music administration from Chicago Musical College, Roosevelt University, and a doctorate in Educational Administration from the University of Illinois.

Chicago-born, Dr. Corley began her career in education as an elementary music teacher and transitioned to education administration to make a wider impact upon student achievement and school culture. She entered the administrative ranks as an assistant principal in Palatine, Illinois, then became an elementary school principal in Lynchburg, Virginia, Salem, Massachusetts, and Bluffton, South Carolina. She was the founding principal at three of those schools and has been an educator for over forty years (and still counting). Corley has been an assistant professor at Salem State University and continues to mentor principals.

A lifelong Cubs fan, Corley lives in Bluffton, South Carolina, with her husband, Wayne, and dogs Wrigley and Fenway. The Magical Place We Call School represents her debut as an author.