Speakers
Keynotes
Paul J. Kim
Paul J. Kim is an international Catholic speaker, musician, & comedian. His presentations have impacted people of all ages in all 50 states & 16 countries over the past decade,leading his audiences to life-changing encounters with Christ. He’s the author of “A Catholic Guide to Adulting”, the founder of the Triumph Men’s Conference, he’s released two music albums, & his videos have accumulated tens of millions of views.
His background includes work as a marriage & family therapist, & religious formation with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. He resides near Austin, TX with his beautiful wife & six children.
Fr. Patrick Schultz
Father William J. Slattery, PhD, was born in southern Ireland and was ordained by Saint Pope John Paul II to the priesthood in St Peter’s Basilica in 1991 after 12 years of training in Ireland, Spain, and Italy.
By PhD training, he is an epistemologist who specialized in alethic logic.
His native language is Gaelic and he is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Italian, and has also studied three other languages.
He has published books in English and in French and has been interviewed on EWTN TV in the USA and in France by CNNews, KTO, and TVLibertés.
He has worked on three continents and since 2025 is Professor at the Faculty of Catholic Studies at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is also chaplain at Damascus.
His main philosophical work is The Logic of Truth.His history book is Heroism and Genius (Ignatius Press, 2017) which was published in French as How Catholics built a civilization(Paris:Editions Mame, 2020). His book, Enchanted by Eternity: Recapturing the Wonder of the Catholic Worldview with a foreword by the movie star, Mark Wahlberg, has just been placed on Amazon. It will be followed by seven other books in the coming three years starting with Men Wildly Alive and Mystic Mass for Moderns.
breakout speakers
Brad Pierron (EMCEE)
Brad Pierron is an Ohio State University alum and missionary program director at Damascus Catholic Mission Campus. As a missionary, he is passionate about spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to young adults today, and as a southern Ohio guy, he loves sports, sweet tea, pizza and ice cream.
Reverend Father PJ Brandimarti, KHS
I am a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I grew up with my parents, Paul and Joan, and my sister Elena. My brother, Gian Paul, passed away before I was born. I worked in retail and retail management for Circuit City in Pittsburgh. I moved to Columbus in 2008 to accept a position working for Sony Electronics. I then took a job in 2010 with Motorola Mobility as the market development manager for Central Ohio. After coming back to the practice of the faith, I discerned a call to the priesthood and entered seminary at the Pontifical College Josephinum in 2012. I graduated with my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from there, and was ordained a priest by Bishop Robert Brennan on May 25, 2019. I served as Parochial Vicar of St. Paul the Apostle in Westerville and St. Luke and St. Vincent de Paul churches in Knox County. I was named a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher in 2022, and I received my Master of Business Administration from Bowling Green State University in 2023.
I am deeply honored also to serve as the only Catholic chaplain in the Ohio Army National Guard. I was commissioned a first lieutenant and completed chaplain’s basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina this year. I continue to serve our soldiers one weekend a month and two weeks a year as a chaplain.
In my spare time, I love watching sports. I am a devoted Pittsburgh Steelers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets fan. I love pretty much all music, but Gregorian Chant and early 2000s pop punk are my favorite genres. I am a horrible golfer, and I love watching movies, especially Star Trek and Star Wars.
Emily Knuth
Originally from Rockford, IL, Emily Knuth moved to Ohio in 2017 after she felt a call from the Lord to serve as a missionary with Damascus. Her conversational and interactive style of speaking creates a family living room feel, regardless of audience size. Emily is passionate about women’s ministry, volunteering in the county jail, and good buffalo chicken dip.
John Mullen
John Mullen was born in Lancaster (CA) and was raised in a strong evangelical Christian household. Homeschooled for most of his life, he developed both an inquisitive mind and a deep foundation in faith, influenced by his engineer father and accountant mother. A lifelong seeker of truth, John has always pursued the deepest meaning he could discover, spending much of his 20s in a protracted intellectual and spiritual search.
He studied mechanical engineering at LeTourneau University (2010-2014) before earning his master’s at Ohio University (2014-2017). His career took him to San Diego (2017-2020) and then Columbus, where a providential encounter with a neighbor led him to Cornerstone. This journey culminated in his conversion to Catholicism in 2023, a moment he sees as the fulfillment of years of searching. Grateful for his evangelical upbringing, he now desires to bring the gifts of that background into his Catholic identity as he works to relationally re-evangelize parishes.
In May 2024, John left his engineering career to fully commit to ministry, joining Saint Paul’s Outreach (SPO) in June. Now leading the Arena, he is passionate about helping young men discover their callings and step into their roles as fully mature sons of God. He sees his work in the Arena as the culmination of three decades of preparation, and he is honored to be in the game.