Thank you to our 2025 National Celebrate Life Weekend

Rally & Gala Speakers

To view the Conference Speakers, click here.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

Riley Gaines

Athlete and Advocate for Fairness, Free Speech, and Women’s Rights

Riley Gaines is more than an elite athlete—she’s a bold and unapologetic advocate for fairness in women’s sports, a defender of freedom of speech, and a champion of women’s rights. A 12-time All-American swimmer, 2-time Olympic Trial Qualifier, and 5-time SEC Champion, Gaines made waves in the pool long before she made headlines in the fight to protect female athletes.

Her journey took a dramatic turn in 2022 when she refused to stay silent about the growing threats to women’s sports. As a collegiate athlete at the University of Kentucky, Riley witnessed firsthand the consequences of policies that prioritize ideology over fairness. Rather than back down, she spoke up—challenging the status quo and becoming one of the nation’s most sought-after voices on the issue.

Now a leading advocate for women’s rights, Riley leads as Director of the Riley Gaines Center, a national initiative dedicated to educating, training, and equipping girls and women to stand up for their rights. Through workshops, mentorship programs, and advocacy training, the center empowers women to push back against counter-culture narratives that threaten their opportunities, safety, and fairness in sports, freedom of speech and beyond.

Riley is a fearless champion for female athletes, free speech, and women’s rights—but this fight is bigger than sports. It’s about the future. It’s about the next generation of girls who want to shatter glass ceilings in every arena. It’s about reminding the world that safety, fairness, and truth are not negotiable.

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Kristan Hawkins

President of Students for Life of America

Kristan Hawkins is a Christian, wife, mother, grassroots activist, author, speaker, and a human rights advocate. President of Students for Life of America, she was recruited in 2006 to launch Students for Life of America’s full-time operation. Since then, she has built up a small organization made up of a few dozen student groups scattered around the country to a coordinated national team serving more than 1,200 Students for Life chapters in all fifty states. Under her leadership, Students for Life exists to abolish abortion by transforming our culture by recruiting, training, and mobilizing this pro-life generation, who are the direct targets of today’s abortion industry. A frequent speaker and media analyst, Kristan’s expertise includes abortion, feminism, disability advocacy and healthcare, as she navigates the social conditions and public policy that impacts the human rights issue of our day.
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Abby Johnson

Founder and Director of And Then There Were None and ProLove Ministries

Abby Johnson worked for Planned Parenthood for eight years, working her way up through the ranks to become the clinic director in Bryan, Texas. She was Planned Parenthood's Employee of the Year in 2008 but she walked away from her job after witnessing the abortion of a 13-week-old fetus during an ultrasound-guided abortion. She left Planned Parenthood and instantly became a national news headline for her defection, which led to a pro-life speaking career. In 2012, she founded And Then There Were None, the only ministry in the nation that helps abortion workers leave their jobs and find new ones out of the industry. To date, she has helped over 650 abortion workers quit. She also founded ProLove Ministries and LoveLine in the fall of 2019. Her bestselling book, Unplanned, was made into a feature film that debuted in theaters nationwide March 2019 under the same name and she is the host of the podcast Politely Rude. She is also the author of Fierce Mercy, released in March 2022, and co-editor of Life to the Full, released in April 2023. She and her husband, Doug, have eight children.

Lauren Muzyka

Founder, President & CEO of Sidewalk Advocates for Life

Lauren Muzyka is the founder, President & CEO of Sidewalk Advocates for Life, the nation’s largest sidewalk outreach training program. Lauren is a licensed attorney with more than 20 years of experience in sidewalk outreach.

Lauren participated in the very first 40 Days for Life campaign, and she went on to serve as their campaign strategist, advising their 300+ campaigns in North America. Inspired by the transformative power of prayer and peaceful outreach on the sidewalk, Lauren founded Sidewalk Advocates for Life in 2014.

Sidewalk Advocates for Life has grown to more than 235 locations worldwide and, through God’s grace, has witnessed more than 22,000 babies saved, 55 abortion-facility closures, and 88 abortion workers leave the business.

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Brandy Meeks

President & CEO of the Vitae Foundation

Brandy has led in the pro-life movement for well over a decade. Her passion and energy for the mission increased while she served as a pregnancy center director in her early years. Later, she was recruited as the Director of Marketing and Research Application at Vitae Foundation.

In 2018, Former Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life advocate Abby Johnson asked Brandy to join her as the VP of Operations at And Then There Were None to help more abortion workers leave the abortion industry while the movie Unplanned gained popularity. Together, they also launched ProLove Ministries, a pro-life organization that seeks to fill gaps in the movement.

After the Dobbs decision was announced in 2022, Brandy was pursued by Vitae Foundation’s board of directors to lead as the next President. She now leads Vitae Foundation– an organization that facilitates lifesaving research and applies the findings to create messaging strategies to share with others so, together, we can make abortion unthinkable.

Brandy is a founding board member of Abortion Survivors Network with abortion survivor Melissa Ohden, continues to assist as a board member at And Then There Were None, serves with the United Nations through the Organization of American States as a CSO to protect human rights internationally, and is also a Commissioner with the Missouri Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission, the public policy arm of the MBC.

In her spare time, Brandy enjoys strategizing new marketing and pro-life research ideas and helping with the youth ministry at her church.