Vicki Bentley
Vicki Bentley is the mother of 8 daughters, foster mom of over 50, and grandma to 14 wonderful grandbabies. Vicki has homeschooled 17 children since 1988, with the strong undergirding of her husband, Jim, and led a local support group of over 250 families for 14 years. She has served on the executive board and convention committee of the Home Educators Association of Virginia and has addressed state and national conventions, university teacher organizations, and many mothers’ groups. She is the author of My Homeschool Planner, Everyday Cooking, The Everyday Family Chore System, Home Education 101: A Mentoring Program for New Homeschoolers, High School 101: Blueprint for Success, and other homeschool and homemaking helps, and coordinates HSLDA’s Early Years program. Vicki has a heart for sharing strong practical wisdom and encouraging words with moms.

Faith Berens
Faith Berens holds a master’s degree in reading from Shenandoah University. She has 13 years of teaching experience in both public and private Christian schools, serving as a classroom teacher, Reading Recovery® teacher, reading specialist, and educational therapist. Her areas of expertise are early childhood literacy, reading assessment, and the identification and remediation of reading difficulties. Faith joined the HSLDA team of special needs consultants in 2008 and homeschools her own children, as well as works as a private educational consultant, evaluator, and tutor. Some of her passions include reading for pleasure, singing, traveling, nature/science, leading Bible studies, and teaching reading to primary age children. Faith lives in Stephens City with her husband, Matthew, daughter Hailey, and son Hayden.

Dianne Craft
Dianne Craft is a former homeschool mom with 25 years of experience teaching children who struggle with learning. She is a former homeschool mom who has a Master’s degree in Elementary and Special Education. She has 25 years experience teaching bright, hardworking children who have to work too hard to learn. She is also a Certified Natural Health Professional specializing in natural treatments for children with attention, learning, behavioral issues and sensory processing dysfunction. Dianne is president of Child Diagnostics, Inc., an educational consulting firm in Littleton, Colorado, and is one of HSLDA’s special needs consultants for the Struggling Learners program.

Mike Donnelly
Mike Donnelly is HSLDA’s staff attorney for member affairs in the states of Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia. As director of international relations, he oversees HSLDA’s support of persecuted homeschoolers in the Federal Republic of Germany and coordinates support to encourage greater freedom for homeschoolers all over the world. Mike has served on a variety of nonprofit boards and is a frequent speaker and writer on the subject of homeschooling. He appears on radio and television and also teaches constitutional law at Patrick Henry College, where he is an adjunct professor of government.

Mike received his Juris Doctorate with honors from the Boston University School of Law, graduating as a Paul J. Liacos Scholar. Before his legal career, Mike served in the United States Army, including combat service as a cavalry officer in the first Persian Gulf War. His previous experience includes founding a top-30 internet marketing and advertising firm as well as a private business consulting and legal practice. Mike and his wife, Patty, homeschool their seven children in West Virginia.

Tracy Klicka
Tracy is the widow of Christopher Klicka, who was Senior Counsel of Home School Legal Defense Association. Married 21 years, they were blessed with seven children, whom they homeschooled since their birth. Through many trials over the years (including the near-death of their twins during her pregnancy, and Chris’ struggles with multiple sclerosis), Tracy has learned firsthand what walking by faith is all about. She has seen over and over again the outpouring of God’s grace in her life, and the precious importance of the Scriptures in sustaining and empowering believers. Her message for moms is one of hope and joy in God, who is able to make all grace abound to us (II Corinthians 9:8). She has written dozens of articles, has been interviewed on both national and international media, and has spoken at numerous state homeschool conventions to encourage women to see God’s faithfulness as they take him at His Word.

J. Michael Smith
Attorney Mike Smith is the President of HSLDA, an organization that he helped found in 1983. Established to protect the right of parents to teach their children at home, HSLDA now represents over 80,000 member families. Mike and his wife Elizabeth began homeschooling their children in 1981. He has been defending families for 28 years. Mike has been speaking to homeschool audiences for 23 years. His columns on home education appear regularly in the Washington Times, and he has been a guest on numerous television and radio programs, including Focus on the Family with Jim Dobson and Hannity and Colmes on Fox News. He believes that there is a revival taking place in America through the homeschool movement and that, through the second and third generation of homeschoolers, there is great potential to return America to its moral and religious foundation.

Betty Statnick received her B.A. in Biblical Education and later earned 80 additional credit hours in elementary and special education (including diagnostic and remedial reading and reading clinic experience) from the University of Virginia and College Misericordia. She was awarded an M.Ed. with an emphasis in learning disabilities from Marymount University in Virginia. Betty has taught for more than 20 years at elementary through adult levels in both public and private school settings. Since 1990, she has been working exclusively with homeschool families as an educational diagnostician, consultant, and tutor. She has been an HSLDA Special Needs Consultant since 1995.