NCS Bergen County

Ryan Huber serves as special advisor to the New Canaan Society on Thought Leadership and leads the NCS Speakers Bureau. Ryan has been teaching, speaking, writing, and helping people grow for over 20 years in church, school, college, seminary, and corporate settings. He is an affiliate assistant professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary. Ryan’s first book, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s E...

Dr. William Henry, a devoted husband to Keisha and a proud father to Daniel. A distinguished graduate of New York Theological Seminary where he earned his Doctor of Ministry as a member of the Dr. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. cohort, 2022 and Ramapo College of New Jersey, where he obtained a Master of Social Work Degree in 2017. For over sixteen years, Dr. Henry has faithfully served returning citizens...

Author, speaker, father, entrepreneur, and community leader — Issa Musharbash is a recognized leader and founder of Provident Legacy and it’s family of companies that operate a real estate brokerage, licensing school, and development company. He is also the visionary leader behind prolific media company Unshakable Productions — an award recipient of the Spirit of New Jersey Award from the Golden D...

Sal Poliandro is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, mentor, and creative professional whose life and career have been defined by reinvention, resilience, and faith. Sal’s entrepreneurial journey began in high school as a ticket speculator, where he discovered an early passion for business, relationships, and opportunity. Over the last three decades, Sal has built a diverse career spanning more than 2...

Walter Bond’s story begins on the basketball court, where he achieved his dream of playing in the NBA. But when his career was cut short, Walter faced a crossroads that would define the rest of his life. Instead of giving up, he chose to reinvent himself, using what he learned on the court to build a new path as a speaker, author, and accountability expert. This Thursday, Walter’s story of resilie...

Rollie Espinosa brings a diverse and accomplished background spanning advertising, media, the arts, and community service. He currently serves as an Account Representative for Endeavor Business Media, with prior experience at Crain Communications and John Wiley & Sons, where he developed a strong foundation in advertising and client strategy. A graduate of School of Visual Arts, Rollie also pursue...

Jordan Whitmer is the founder and CEO of the How to Life Movement, a global Gen Z-led Christian evangelism and missions organization. At just 16 years old, Jordan launched the first youth-led outreach event in his Arkansas hometown—an initiative that has since grown into a movement spanning 29 U.S. states and 11 countries across four continents. Now 27, Jordan continues to mobilize and equip young...

Ryan Baitzel is a husband, father of 5, follower of Christ, and lead pastor at Emergence Church. Emergence Church was planted as an independent church in December 2011 and in that time has grown to 3 campuses, with 2000 plus weekly attenders across Northern NJ.

Erik is currently in his first year as the 7/8th grade History teacher and Head girl’s basketball coach at Eastern Christian. He previously taught and coached for 27 years in the Bergenfield School district. He has been involved in numerous sports ministries such as Inspire Sports Camp, FCA and Pass the Rock, a non-profit he started 12 years ago. Erik and his wife Susan attend and serve at Bethany...

Jerry Palmieri has 35 years of experience as a Strength & Conditioning Coach, including 21 years in the NFL.  He began his career at the University of North Carolina, and then spent time at Oklahoma State, Kansas State, and Boston College.  In 1995, he became the first Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars.  After 8 seasons, he served 1 year as an assistant for the New Orleans...

Pastor Pat & his wife, Alyssa, met as teenagers and came to faith in Christ in their early 20s. They have been married for 9 years and have two children, Gemma Grace and Jude Patrick. They began attending Bethany Church in 2012 and in 2014 Patrick sensed a calling was on his life from the Lord for pastoral ministry. He came on staff part-time in 2014 at Bethany Church while pursuing his pastoral c...

Raymond H. Harris established one of the country’s largest corporate architectural firms. The firm was ranked as the number two American retail design firm for three years by McGraw Hill Architectural Record Magazine. While leading his firm, he helped establish numerous other businesses, ministry efforts and projects. Using his business acumen, he capitalized educational, medical, manufacturing, a...

Jeff Harmon is a leadership coach, speaker, and the founder of My Impossible, a nonprofit born out of his decision to climb Mount Kilimanjaro after being diagnosed with a progressive neurological disease that eventually put him in a wheelchair. In 2025, with the help of an extraordinary team, Jeff reached the summit of Africa’s highest peak. But the mountain wasn’t the real story. Along the way, J...

Mark Whitacre has been engaged with the faith at work movement the past twenty years. Mark is Vice President of Culture & Care and Executive Director of the t-factor initiative at Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc. and Mark has worked with Coca-Cola Consolidated since 2019. Coca-Cola Consolidated is a faith-based, publicly traded (NASDAQ) company with an official purpose statement “To honor God in all w...

Kaz is a Senior Project Manager at Lord Abbett, an independent, privately held global asset manager. He came to faith in Jesus Christ in 1984 and has been actively involved in ministry ever since, beginning with youth outreach and discipleship during his high school years. His spiritual foundation was shaped through Bible conferences at Greenwood Hills in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania. Kaz currently...

Chris McPadden is a retired Major General in the United States Army, having served for 35 years. He currently serves as CEO and President of Drive Forward, a consultancy focused on strategic planning, organizational development and leadership training. He previously served as a Co-President of the Grace and Mercy Foundation. As a retired Major General in the United States Army, McPadden's' past ro...

Ray left his career as a program manager within the pharmaceutical industry to pursue God’s calling to bring healing and freedom to people experiencing inner turmoil. He and his wife Maureen are Certified Professional Coaches (CPC) and Assembly of God ministers. As the founders of Radiant Leadership Group, they design courses and workshops to lead the anxious and weary into peace and purpose. Ray...

For twenty years, Bill Paige was a policeman and detective in and around New York City. He served fourteen years as the associate chaplain at Children’s Village, where he worked with emotionally disturbed boys in the city. He has also served 10 years in senior leadership of Young Life. He is a certified trainer for “Therapeutic Crisis Intervention” involved in areas of emotional and behavioral iss...

Chaplain (Colonel) Dave Bowlus, born in Toledo, Ohio, was commissioned in the U.S. Army in May 1993 as an Armor Officer from the United States Military Academy. He went on to serve as a Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer, Battalion S-4 and Battalion S-1 in assignments at Fort Carson, CO, Camp Casey, Republic of Korea, and Fort Knox, NY. In 1998, Chaplain Bowlus resigned from active-duty ser...

Ray Milazzo is a long time member of the NCS family going back to the Indian Trails days. In his 45th year as a practicing Chiropractor, Dr. Ray has been able to share his faith in a quiet way with many thousands of patients. He also has been to give many presentations to groups on many matters regarding physical, mental and spiritual health. Dr. Ray will share his life story of how he's been a fo...

Dave Szott spent 35 years in the National Football League, beginning in 1990 with the Kansas City Chiefs and ending with the NY Jets in 2025. A graduate of Penn State, Szott started 171-of-177 games over 14 seasons with Kansas City (1990-2000), Washington (2001) and the Jets (2002-03), earning consensus All-Pro and All-Madden recognition in1997 and received the Ed Block Coverage Award twice, once...

Preston Poore is a dedicated corporate leader with a storied history at The Coca-Cola Company and further expertise honed at The Hershey Company, Ralston Purina, Dale Carnegie Training, and AmSouth Bank. As the founder of Preston Poore & Associates, LLC, and a Certified Maxwell Leadership Team Speaker, Trainer, and Executive Coach, he seamlessly blends leadership excellence with Christian principl...

Major Kornelis “Korky” Vander Ploeg (Retired), enlisted in the New Jersey State Police in December of 1977. During his tenure with the NJSP he was assigned first as a road duty uniformed trooper serving in the rural communities of Sussex County, and then later served in a highway patrol capacity on both the busy interstate highways that connected into and out of New York City as well as toll road...

Prior to launching his “Speaking on Joy and Happiness” venture, Geoff was the co-founder of eMarketer, a New York-based company providing data, analysis and insights on all aspects of digital marketing and ecommerce on a global scale. In serving his various roles at eMarketer for over two decades, Geoff quickly became sought-after as a dynamic motivational speaker within the digital marketing indu...

Chip Skowron’s life has spanned the heights of professional success, the depths of personal failure, and the redemptive power of a transformed heart. A physician-scientist by training, with both an M.D. and Ph. D. from Yale and surgical training at Harvard, Chip went on to a prominent career in finance as a hedge fund manager. It was at the height of his success when, in a moment, the trajectory o...