Exmormon Foundation 2012 Conference

Wade grew up in the church in Utah, and his family came from multi-generational pioneer stock. Although church was devastatingly boring, he remained faithful and served a mission so as not to be labeled unworthy. After receiving his endowments in a temple session that was both horrifying and disappointing to him, he was deployed to Germany as part of gods army. Wade developed a
serious illness while on his mission, and eventually had to come home early because of it. He was left witha lingering guilt that he hadnt had sufficient faith to be healed.. Although honorably discharged from service, Wade found it difficult to be considered equal amongst his brethren who had served full missions.

However, this didnt deter Wade from trying his best to endure to the end. And endure he did, while he spent another year trying to find out what was causing his debilitating physical symptoms. He ended up with an active case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from all hed gone through, starting with the MTC experience on through to coming home. Wade will tell you how the rest of the story played out after he spent some serious time on the internet!

Tom Donofrio was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pa. He served a 2 year mission in Tempe, Arizona where he returned to live. Tom was a Church employee for 10 years as an HVAC tech. Tom terminated his employment and later resigned his membership in the Church in 2002. He has an AAS in technology, holds national certifications in commercial and industrial refrigeration, and is employed as an ammonia refrigeration technician. Tom has been a valuable member of the Foundation Board for several years.

Grant is the author of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins (Signature Books, 2002) and The Incomparable Jesus (Kofford Books, 2005). He has also penned articles for the Salt Lake Tribune, Sunstone Magazine, The John Whitmer Journal and the Midwestern Journal of Theology. His list of positions and teaching environments is extremely varied, and very interesting. During all the years he was working, Grant continued his research about the church, and eventually retired early from CES because he could no longer reconcile what his research showed with what he was asked to teach. He and his wife Connie live in Sandy, Utah. They like to travel and enjoy raising homing pigeon and parakeets. Grants homepage is: http://www.mormonthink.com/grantpalmer.htm. His email is: granthpalmer@gmail.com He has a two page outline of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins and welcomes requests for a copy if you will email him.

Lori has a masters degree in Sociology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where she is continuing her doctoral work on New Atheism and communities of non-believers. Her research interests span across several sub-fields of sociology including culture, religion, social movements, and mental health. She gave a presentation to the St. George Post-Mormon Group and comes highly
recommended. Lori will concentrate on the fall-out from leaving controlling religions and the tools we can use to get through the maze.

Sue grew up in Portland, Oregon in a very devout, deeply involved Mormon family. Gr.Gr. Granddaughter of both Brigham Young and Erastus Snow, she was steeped in the special heritage her family shared which only added to the pressure she felt to be a perfect Mormon girl and woman. Sue graduated from BYU with a degree in Psychology, but instead of building a counseling career,
she married in the temple and became the mother of 7 children. She served in every leadership and teaching position available to women, but the cognitive dissonance hanging over her head was like a permanent appendage. After a 34-yr. marriage, Sue divorced. A year and half later, she made the difficult decision to leave the church cold turkey. One Sunday she was teaching R.S., and by the time she left the building that day, she knew she was walking out permanently. Shortly after that, a new friend introduced her to Exmormon.org, which was the only game in town at that point. It was like throwing a life ring to a drowning person! Sue is president of The Exmormon Foundation, and Chair of this years Conference.