Jessica Wang Dayton
Founder, Inspiration, and CEO

Jessica has a degree in International Business and is a serial entrepreneur and a transnational business executive. She overcame destitute beginnings in rural China and has since owned and managed businesses in China and the US in retail, supply chain management, real estate, and education. She has a dream to help facilitate education in China and s currently the manager and the majority owner of the Asian Market chain of Oriental supermarkets in Utah as well as the Founder and CEO of Prosperity Education Route. Jessica is also a wonderful wife, mother, daughter and inspiration to us all.

David Dayton
Founder, Content Provider, Presenter

David has more than 25 years of experience working in Thailand and Greater China. He started his own companies in Taiwan, China and Thailand as well as worked for consulting firms, gas and telecom companies, media groups, schools, NGO’s and factories. In China, Thailand and the US he has managed QA, logistics, and human resources for both his own companies and for others. He is a founder of Silk Road International, PER, Grasshopper Tours, The China Sourcing Information Center and was the original editor and content provider of the China Sourcing Magazine.

David is also is a sought after speaker and consultant, on topics centering on Thai and Chinese corporate cultures and practices and well as family and educational success. For the last decade he has consulted with banks, airlines, factories, SMEs, MNCs, families and schools, with the goal of helping them work to better their relationships, operations, cross-cultural understandings and futures. He and has been the keynote speaker in events in Chinese and English in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, UAE and the United States and has given hundreds of professional and academic presentations. He has been published in academic and professional journals and been interviewed by CNN, CBS, BBC, 60 Minutes, EuroBiz and others.

In a past life, David was a drummer in a rock band, an on-air personality for two radio stations, a national collegiate speech and debate champion, and a missionary. He currently teaches Business Development in China at Utah Valley University, speaks Thai and Mandarin and has completed two MAs focusing on Thai Urban and Corporate Cultures. He is also a PhD Candidate (ABD) in FIU’s Global Sociocultural Studies program. His work emphasizes Business Anthropology with his dissertation focus on Chinese corporate cultures in Southeast Asia.

David is most proud to be the father of 6 wonderful children and the husband to the beautiful Jessica. He is the fifth of eleven siblings and the son of Dr. Lynn T. Dayton and Senator Margaret Dayton. His hobbies include travel, ethnography, Buddhism, eating, and triathlons.

Terri O’Brien Liechty
Founder, 7 Habits-School Principle, Trainer, and Content Provider

Terri O’Brien Liechty is a 40-year educator, and currently the Principal at Ivy Hall Academy in Provo, Utah.  Her teaching has taken her to all 50 states in America, and also various locations in Europe, where she has taught in public, private and international schools.  She and her childhood sweetheart/husband have raised 7 highly successful and happy children, all of whom have married, and who have provided them with 26 wonderful grandchildren.  Her focus has always been happiness and excellence in the family and in education.  A leader in her many communities, Terri embraces her international friends who often seek her educational counsel.  Principal Liechty has owned several businesses that she and her children have successfully operated. Her favorite time of day?  Reading or teaching music to students or grandchildren!

James Strickler
Content Provider, and Presenter.

Dr. V. James Strickler, JD PhD was born in the small town of Sweet Home, Oregon (population 6,000), where he was raised by his single mother along with two siblings. After serving for two years as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he enrolled at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. He is the first generation in his family to attend college. At BYU, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science & History Teaching. He then attended the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU, where he earned a Juris Doctorate. He next earned a Doctor of Philosophy Degree, in American Politics, from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Dr. Strickler now has over 2O years of experience teaching at colleges and universities, including at Valdosta State University, Utah State University, San Jose State University, Brigham Young University, and Stanford University. He has published numerous scholarly works in such places as the Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics and the Georgia Law Review, and with Cambridge University Press.

At the time that Dr. Strickler entered his graduate studies at Stanford, he also married his wife, Kathleen. While he was in graduate school, she gave birth to the first four of their eight children. Those eight children now range in age from 18 years old to 6 years old. Because Kathleen suffers from several health problems, Dr. Strickler has often been both the income earner for his family and the primary care giver for his children. Nonetheless, his children have excelled in both academics and extracurricular activities. Dr. Strickler’s two oldest children each graduated from high school in just three years at the age of 16 and earned full academic scholarships to Brigham Young University. Both were also named as the “Star Student” of their graduating classes for having achieved the highest scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) of any student in their region of the State of Georgia. Both were also recognized as National Merit Scholars and by the State of Georgia as Georgia Scholars. Dr. Strickler’s third child will graduate from high school at nearly a year younger than the first two, and with even higher tests scores. Dr. Strickler’s younger children are also the top students in their classes. His children play piano and participate in such activities as math competitions, robotics competitions, choir competitions, Scouting, theater arts, and various sports. Dr. Strickler’s three oldest children have all been members of Georgia’s All-State Chorus each year since middle school. The family currently resides in Valdosta, Georgia.

Jonathan Sherman
Marriage and Family Consultant, Content Provider and Presenter.

Jonathan Sherman, LMFT is a Relationship Strategist (Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist) and Speaker specializing in “creating greatness in relationships.” He is the president of Jonathan Sherman, International and MarriageEnvy.com.

His three main areas of focus are self-mastery, couple’s work, and parent training. He is assists people in learning how to improve their marriages, their parenting and themselves through skill development, life coaching, overcoming depression and anxiety, stress and anger management, and addiction recovery. He speaks and teaches extensively on a wide range of relationship topics in both the community and professional sectors.

Jonathan was previously the Director of Training and Development for PeopleSmarts—a leadership development firm specializing in the field of emotional intelligence. Further, he was the Youth Substance Abuse Coordinator for Valley Mental Health in Summit County, UT and an instructor for the State of Utah’s Shared Parenting Course for Divorcing Parents. His background includes residential addiction treatment, domestic violence perpetrator and victim treatment, at- risk youth services, and home-based family therapy services.

He has written over a hundred articles for his GREAT Relationships newspaper column and blog and has developed numerous products for professionals and lay people alike. He was awarded the Outstanding Education Award by The Utah Behavioral Healthcare Network for “recognition of outstanding efforts in presenting the public with accurate, meaningful and current information about mental illness.” Further, he has been nominated for the WEGO Health Activist Award.

He works closely with civic and community leaders in crafting solutions to strengthen marriages and families in the community through providing consulting on best outreach practices. Further, he founded The Relationship Mastery SeriesTM workshops designed to strengthen families and enrich our community.

He has worked with school districts and educators in creating effective solutions to difficult behavioral and emotional problems with their students. He has developed the Be the Answer: Solutions to BullyingTM prevention and intervention program modeled on evidence- and researched-based solutions. He conducts teacher training and school assemblies on this and other topics such as the popular Parenting with Love & Logic curriculum.

Jonathan did his undergraduate work in Family Sciences at Brigham Young University and his master’s work in Marriage and Family Therapy at Northern Illinois University.

He is married to a lovely and skilled husband trainer who has truly earned her keep. They live in eternal bliss (okay, fairly peaceably) with their four children in the Rocky Mountains of Utah.

Jonathan has been passionately educating individuals, couples, families and groups about building strong families and creating great relationships since 1993.

Bethany Cole Saldaña
Founder, Curriculum Director, Content Provider and Presenter.

Bethany is an experienced youth leader and dedicated to bringing about positive changes in those she teaches. For over seven years Bethany has lead youth to create positive changes in their lives through various methods: classroom instruction, one-on-one goal setting, motivation, and creating tailored plans of action. She specializes in working with girls ages 14-16. She was instrumental in helping students gain admission into top universities such as Cornel University and Brigham Young University.

Not only has she impacted the young women she serves but their parents as well. She served as the Education Manager and Facilitator for a chapter of the world’s largest woman’s organization for five years where she taught topics such as; parent-child bonding, content communication, self-reliance, financial independence, home education, and cultivating love. She cares deeply for the families she works with and will go the distance to help them meet their goals. Bethany has done service in countries Latin American, including The Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Argentina, Peru, and Mexico.

One of Bethany’s strongest qualities is her ability to make others feel loved and accepted. Bethany is a skilled facilitator. In her career as a Customer Service Trainer, she learned the art of engaging her students through various techniques such as, humor, story telling, expressiveness. As a trained Opera Singer and Stage Performer, she learned to gage the interest of her audience and can easily switch up the delivery style to ensure engagement and student retention. Parents and children alike enjoy the meaningful classes taught by Bethany. She has obtained a Bachelor’s of Science in Family Studies from Brigham Young University and a Master’s of Science in Organization Development and Knowledge Management from George Mason University. Bethany resides in Provo, Utah with her husband and three boys. She loves being a mom and is passionate about helping children and parents strengthen their relationships.

Presenters

Krista Kacey
Editor, Content Provider, and Presenter.

Krista is a gifted performer and actress and an award-winning public speaker who has starred in plays in community and university theaters. She is personable teacher, a professional editor with a degree in Communications, Journalism, and a mother of four children. As a lifelong learner, she has a constant thirst for knowledge and is passionate about sharing what she has learned with others. From a young age she began playing school and only dreaming about teaching in a real classroom until she could enjoy teaching everything from elementary to university classes.

After graduation from Brigham Young University, Krista immediately journeyed to Mainland China. There, she worked in a university’s English Department editing all things English and coaching graduate students in academic writing. After residing several more years in Taiwan and Thailand, where she did technical business editing, Krista returned to the States and contracted work editing for websites, master’s theses and graduate school applications. She has also written multiple short stories for children, including a treatment for animation. She treasures quality time with her own family as well as connecting with her beloved global “family.”

Her experiences now include teaching at a university in Chongqing, teaching elementary classes in Taiwan, privately tutoring learning disabled children, preparing students for college exams, teaching in her state's top charter school, and homeschooling her own children for several years. Most recently, Krista has helped found a new charter school based on Montessori and entrepreneurship principles that opened this fall.

Thomas Martin, MBA 

Tom is a successful international businessman, an MBA and has decades of professional experience in sales and presentations around the world. Tom has taught High School Debate and is a highly sought-after judge for High School Debate tournaments. He also taught professional presentation courses for China’s Ocean Shipping Company in Qingdao, China and courses on Negotiation and Advertising at National Chiayi University in Taiwan.

Tom was Captain of the Debate Team and President of the Speech Club and won over 30 trophies in Utah High School Debate including Debate State Champion. He was awarded a scholarship to the number one college Speech and Debate program in the United States where he won over 50 awards in Team Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Extemporaneous Speaking, Informative Speaking, and Impromptu. He was College Nationals gold medal winner in both Team Debate and in Individual Debate, and a bronze medal winner in Extemporaneous Speaking. 

Collette Lister 

Colette Litster is a multiple-award winning speech and debate champion.  She was a scholarship member of the championship college speech and debate team in the United States and a multi-tournament champion in Team Debate, Extemporaneous Speaking, and After Dinner Speaking.

Colette participated on the multi-championship winning team and Lincoln-Douglas Debater in high school and was also a Utah State finalist in Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking. 

For twenty years Colette has been a debate coach at Pineview, Snow Canyon, and Carbon High Schools. During these years she personally helped several students win state championships in debate and speaking events.