Michael Maycroft

Deputy Chief Michael Maycroft is a 29-year veteran of law enforcement. He is currently the Deputy Police Chief for the Grand Rapids Police Department. In addition, he oversees the Crime Prevention Unit at GRPD. He is the lead instructor for the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES) section regarding “Explosive Devices” for the Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Valley State University, and Ferris State University Police Academies. He has conducted numerous trainings throughout West Michigan for police, fire, and civilians in regard to explosive threats and bomb response guidelines and procedures. He holds a master’s degree from Ferris State University, and an undergraduate degree from Lake Superior State University. He is also a graduate of the 272nd session of the FBI National Academy.

Rita Gail O'Brien

Rita O'Brien is a survivor and educator in the field of sex trafficking. Rita has a passion for Justice to educate the very communities that she was trafficked from. Professionally, she has done Security, Police Work, Photography, and Journalism she was a House Director at Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority at the University of Michigan. Rita teaches the Human trafficking class to KVCC police academy recruits and then started an advocacy program to assist recruits giving them resources to be extra prepared to assist community members when they join their departments. Rita got her Undergraduate Degree at Eastern Michigan University and then went on to get her Masters in Social work from Western Michigan University with a Trauma focus. Rita is a Board member of Pearls of Great Price Coalition out of Plymouth MI and is also on the board for Kalamazoo Area Anti Human Trafficking Coalition. Rita continues to speak out to educate others on how to watch for Human Trafficking in their communities. Rita is the rank of Major in the volunteer organization Civil Air Patrol (United States Air Force Auxiliary) where she instructs cadets on Character Development Instruction. Rita enjoys helping serve meals at her church at the midweek service. When Rita gets a free moment you will find her anywhere on Lake Michigan, she likes to be at Silver Lake Sand Dunes on a 4- wheeler tearing up the sand with her sons.

Michael Glennon

Michael Glennon, Special Agent and Private Sector Coordinator of the FBI. Responsible for the FBI Detroit Division’s engagement program with the private sector across all programs. Oversight of the Michigan InfraGard chapter and Michigan DSAC program. 

Debbie Alija

In 1994, Debbie Aliya founded Aliya Analytical, a Grand Rapids, MI, engineering consulting company, where she specializes in helping people figure out why their products failed. Debbie has a BS in Metallurgy and Materials Science from Carnegie-Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) and an MS in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL). In 2001 she became a Certified Interfaith Educator (Lakeshore Interfaith Institute, Ganges, MI). In 2012 and 2013 she participated in National Novel Writing Month, which resulted in a science fiction / fantasy novel which is an exploration of what society might look like if we humans learned to think more clearly. The book is The Convolution of Knomo Choicius, by Shona Moonbeam. For twenty-five years, she has been working on how to customize training material for cultivating clarity and creativity for regular people, including those who work in manufacturing, as opposed to English and psychology students, and marketing specialists, who are the normal targets of the literature on these topics. Over the course of her professional career, she has served on the boards of multiple non-profits, primarily engineering societies, but also was part of the Interfaith Dialogue Association for a few years. In all of those groups, her primary interest is programming for conferences and educational events. In October of 2019, she became a Fellow of ASM International, The Materials Information Society, in part because of her outreach to the India Chapters, and also for her work on Thinking Skill Optimization, Cultivating Clarity, or Empowerment Thinking, or whatever else we decide to call it.

Mary Nalbach

Mary Nalbach is the President of Cultivating Clarity, Inc. located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Although born in Port Huron, Michigan, Mary was raised in Germany where she received her primary and secondary education. Returning to the United States after 19 years, she had tremendous opportunities to work in challenging and diverse entrepreneurial and career endeavors. Mary’s post-secondary education, early childhood development, was formative in her desire to understand how people think, what aspects of an individual’s life, culture, society and education, or lack thereof, play in other’s ability to obtain the skills necessary to think for themselves and communicate effectively and with confidence. Her interest in individual development, including methodology for enhancing thinking skills, builds upon her background in helping clients navigate the German pension system to operating an electrical contracting business, working in a Prosecutor’s office as the Administrative Assistant, as well as Food Service Director and Food Service Supervisor 9 for the Michigan Department of Corrections and for the private corrections system as the Compliance Coordinator. After volunteering as the Operations Manager for a non-profit organization for five years, she realized that it is difficult to understand what forms the basis of someone else’s way of thinking or reality. It became clear that everyone develops skills, whether rational or not, to cope with their circumstances. Throughout the range of experiences, individual backgrounds and circumstances, understanding how we think can improve our prospects of life. Her concept of life, to become the best that you can be, comes from a life-long passion for learning and helping others. Her friend and business partner, Debbie Aliya, started developing “Thinking Skill Optimization (TSO)” many years ago. After applying these techniques in her own life, Mary is confident that practicing Thinking Skill Optimization can help every individual to move forward in their path of life.

Scott Ehlfeldt

Scott Ehlfeldt has over 20 years working as an assistant prosecutor. He began working in 2001 at the Wayne County Prosecutors Office, handling all types of cases from drug offenses to homicides. After completing courtroom and other special assignments, he began serving in the in the Elder Abuse Unit, which focused on the prosecution of cases involving the Financial Exploitation, Physical Abuse, or Murder of Vulnerable Adults. Scott remained in that unit until 2013, when he accepted a position with the Livingston County Prosecutor’s Office. He continued to handle cases involving vulnerable adult victims, in addition to managing a full caseload. He also served as a member of the Livingston County Elder Abuse Coalition through Livingston County Catholic Charities. Scott has served as the Elder Justice Director for P.A.A.M. since February of 2021. He is a 1998 graduate of Western Michigan University with a BA in Political Science. He obtained his Juris Doctorate from the Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University in 2001.