Contributors

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  Shayla Perez

  Speaker and Content Creator
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Team Members



Shayla Perez

Speaker and Content Creator

Shayla Perez is a Christian speaker, content creator, and advocate for reaching the next generation with truth and grace. After experiencing a season of skepticism and involvement in online atheist communities as a teenager, she rediscovered Christianity through apologetics, philosophy, and a personal encounter with Christ. Today, Shayla speaks at youth camps, churches, and women's events while creating content on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and livestream platforms, engaging young people with thoughtful answers to questions about faith and culture. She is passionate about helping Gen Z and Gen Alpha encounter Jesus and sees the digital world as a modern mission field.

 

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  Barry Wilmore

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Team Members

Barry Wilmore
Barry Wilmore, NASA Astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore served 25 years at NASA, is a decorated U.S. Navy captain who has flown numerous tactical aircraft operationally while deploying aboard four aircraft carriers during peacetime and combat operations. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, he went on to serve as a test pilot before NASA selected him to become an astronaut in 2000. The Tennessee native earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Tennessee Technological University and a master’s degree in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee.
 
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  Aimee Riegert

  CSLI Fellow
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Team Members

Aimee Riegert
CSLI Fellow
Aimee Riegert, CSLI Fellow, earned bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and foreign language studies from Southern Methodist University. In addition to supporting various national security efforts in Northern Virginia, she has worked as an itinerant high school math teacher and drama coach, and has served in women’s ministries, praise teams, on the adult support team for Young Life and as a “mentor mom” for MOPS International ministries, as well as English instructor in several ESL programs in Japan. She is a graduate of the C.S. Lewis Institute Year One Fellows Program.
 
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  David B. Calhoun

  Professor
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Team Members

David B. Calhoun
Professor
David B. Calhoun, (1937-2021) was Professor Emeritus of Church History at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.  A minister of the Presbyterian Church in America, he has taught at Covenant College, Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University), and Jamaica Bible College (where he was also principal).  Calhoun has served with Ministries in Action in the West Indies and in Europe and as dean of the Iona Centres for Theological Study.  He was a board member (and for some years president) of Presbyterian Mission International, a mission board that assists nationals who are Covenant Seminary graduates to return to their homelands for ministry.
 
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  Charles Murray

  Scientist & Author
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Team Members

Charles Murray
Scientist & Author
Charles Murray is a social scientist, author, and public intellectual known for his work on culture, social policy, and human flourishing. A longtime scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, he has written widely discussed books including Coming Apart, The Bell Curve, and Losing Ground. His recent book, Taking Religion Seriously, reflects on his intellectual journey from secular indifference toward a growing openness to belief in God and the significance of religion in human life.
 
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  Bill Smith

  CSLI City Director, Atlanta
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Team Members

Bill Smith
CSLI City Director, Atlanta
Bill Smith is the Director of C.S. Lewis Institute Atlanta. His desire is for others to grasp God’s perspective and experience God’s presence throughout all of life. Bill teaches and facilitates discussions in a variety of contexts including schools, churches, businesses, conference/retreat centers, coffeehouses, bookstores, and homes. His interest in the life and writings of C.S. Lewis has resulted in a book titled Conversations on the Question of God with C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud. Bill holds a B.S. in Biblical Studies from Toccoa Falls College and a M.Div. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
 
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  Ellie Long

  Missionary
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Team Members

Ellie Long
Missionary
Ellie Long is a young missionary from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Born in 2001, she grew up in a post-Christian culture and did not have experiences with Christians in her everyday life. She rejected theism entirely, and became very drawn to philosophy, literature, and art as a way to explain, and relate to, the dark and hopeless world around her. She unexpectedly encountered God halfway through her time at the University of Alabama, and after a period of hesitancy and questioning, believed and began working in a local church and pursuing the mission field after her graduation in 2024. She recently spent time in Southeast Asia, working with an unreached people group in a Muslim culture, and is now considering where she is going to bring the gospel to next.
 
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  William L. Kynes

  Pastor, Senior Fellow for Pastoral Theology, CSLI
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Team Members

William L. Kynes
Pastor, Senior Fellow for Pastoral Theology, CSLI
William L. "Bill" Kynes is the Senior Fellow for Pastoral Theology at the C.S. Lewis Institute, and retired Senior Pastor of Cornerstone, an Evangelical Free Church, in Annandale, VA, where he served from 1986 - 2022. He majored in Philosophy at the University of Florida, where he also played quarterback and was later inducted into the university’s Athletic Hall of Fame. He attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, receiving an MA in theology. He received an MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, before returning to England for a PhD in New Testament from Cambridge University.
   
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  Rich Robison

  Entrepreneur
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Team Members

Rich Robison
Entrepreneur
Rich Robison blends engineering leadership, entrepreneurship, and faith. For the past two decades, he’s been navigating the software industry through tech companies big and small. A serial cofounder, Rich has helped launch multiple companies with successful exits. He sees his work as a mission field in itself. Based in Northern Colorado, Rich has been married for 22 years, and he’s the proud dad of two daughters, Abby and Chloe, and the owner of three dogs, Porter, Stout, and Hefeweizen. 2026 year marks his 30th spiritual birthday!
 
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  C.S. Lewis Institute

  Author
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Team Members

C.S. Lewis Institute
Author
C.S. Lewis Institute, in the legacy of C.S. Lewis, works to develop wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ who will articulate, defend, share, and live their faith in personal and public life. Founded in 1976 by Dr. James Houston and James R. Hiskey, the Institute provides leading teachers who address important issues of the day from the perspective of Biblical orthodoxy, while also providing discipleship for individuals in small groups.
 
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  Cameron McAllister

  Director of Apologetics, CSLI
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Team Members

Cameron McAllister
Director of Apologetics, CSLICameron McAllister is Director of Apologetics for the C.S. Lewis Institute. He cofounded Thinking Out Loud, where he’s a speaker, writer and one half of the Thinking Out Loud podcast, a weekly podcast about current events and Christian hope. He and his father co-authored Faith That Lasts: A Father and Son on Cultivating Lifelong Belief. A staff writer with Christ & Pop Culture, Cameron’s writing has appeared in Christianity Today, Relevant Magazine, Think Christian, and Fathom Magazine. He holds a master’s degree in apologetics from Houston Baptist University. Cameron and his wife Heather live in the Atlanta area with their two children. Support the ministry of Cameron with CSLI.