Leadership
President & CEO
Craig DeRoche
Craig DeRoche is a man whose life and family have been completely transformed by Jesus Christ. Craig has been married to Stacey DeRoche since 1998. They live in Michigan with their three daughters and their dog Remington. Craig was one of the youngest persons ever elected as Speaker of the House in Michigan, and former president of Justice Fellowship, founded by Chuck Colson.
Craig has nearly 30 years of experience advancing the dignity and worth of all human life, religious freedom, and family values in public policy. For almost a decade, Craig focused on advancing the value of life through second chances and redemption for those in America’s justice system. Craig speaks to this personally in his published memoir, Highly Functional, detailing his fall into and triumph over addiction through surrender to Jesus Christ. Craig served as a member of the congressionally created Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Prison Reform that he and the members presented to President Obama, and he was invited to stand next to President Donald J. Trump in the Oval Office as he signed the First Step Act into law. Indeed, Craig has had the privilege of working personally with the last three presidents of the United States.
Craig is a frequent speaker and author and is regarded as a leading voice in American faith-based public policy. He has been published in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fox News, Christianity Today, and dozens of other leading news agencies. He is also the author of the Christian small group study guide and book Outrageous Justice. In 2016, Craig was featured in the Academy Award-nominated documentary 13th.
Craig has a Bachelor of Science degree in business from Central Michigan University. He is a graduate and emeritus advisory board member of the Michigan Political Leadership Program at Michigan State University.
Vice President of Strategy
Autumn Leva
Autumn Leva is an attorney who has spent the last decade advocating for families at both the state and national levels of government—and from both within and outside government. She has a breadth of political experience from statewide issue campaigns, federal candidate campaigns, voter engagement and get-out-the-vote efforts, independent expenditures in state and federal races, and state and federal election compliance.
In her role, Autumn leads the teams that collaborate with state and national allies to advance or defeat legislation that directly impacts families; develop comprehensive policy, elections, communications, and grassroots mobilization strategy; micro-target key voters to impact critical elections; equip the grassroots to engage on policy and political issues that matter to families; and train and support elected leaders who advocate for families in the mission field of public office.
Autumn came to Family Policy Alliance from the state family policy organization Minnesota Family Council, where she served as MFC’s Director of Policy and Communications. She was the spokesperson for a statewide ballot measure in Minnesota, and she has developed policy from within government as a Legislative and Executive Assistant to a U.S. Congressman from Colorado.
Autumn has also served as a summer associate in the Heritage Foundation’s legal center, studied international human rights law in Strasbourg, France, and led a research team in developing a 50-state textbook on civil procedure. Autumn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education and a J.D. from Regent University School of Law. She is licensed to practice law in Virginia.
Autumn and her husband, also an attorney, live in Colorado with their full-of-personality toddler, and golden retriever.
Board Members
Gen. Patrick Caruana
Patrick Caruana has been chairman of our board of directors since 2013. Prior to that, he was chairman of the Focus on the Family board of directors. He served 36 years as a member of the U.S. Air Force, retiring as Lieutenant General.
During his Air Force career, Gen. Caruana served in the full range of leadership and staff positions in both operation and acquisition.
As an air-campaign planner and commander during the first Gulf War, he directed the combat operations of 12 aircraft wings in 6 nations and the Indian Ocean. He had oversight of several large development and procurement programs while supporting the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition at the Pentagon. He completed his military service in a capacity that gave him responsibility for all of the space and missile operations of the U.S. Air Force Space Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Following his Air Force career he was vice president for Northrop Grumman Space Technology.
Gen. Caruana is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Michael Geer
Michael Geer is founder and president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute (PFI), one of the leading state family policy councils in the country. He directed the organization from start-up to an annual budget (with associated organizations) of more than $1.6 million, with a staff of 9 and a statewide constituency of more than 40,000 families. He is a frequent guest on debates and television and radio talk programs and has been quoted or published hundreds of times in newspapers and other media outlets.
PFI is a leader in successful statewide and local efforts on issues such as school choice, defense of marriage, opposition to casino gambling and the sanctity of life.
In 2006, PFI established the Independence Law Center, a pro-bono law firm that litigates and advocates on behalf of the sanctity of life, marriage and family and religious liberty. The Independence Law Center initiated the case Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Sebelius in Federal District Court, which culminated in a victory in a combined case with Hobby Lobby. The Law Center, which is housed with and funded by the PFI, has won several other significant victories, and advises ministries and businesses on religious freedom issues.
Michael is also president of the Pennsylvania Family Council, a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization that lobbies on key pro-family issues at the state level, and encourages effective citizen engagement. He also serves as president of Pennsylvania Family PAC, a state political action committee that has effectively engaged in several dozen state legislative campaigns on behalf of pro-family, pro-life candidates.
Tim Goeglein
Tim Goeglein is Focus on the Family’s Senior Advisor to the President and Vice President for External Relations in Washington.
He previously worked as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush, where he was the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison from 2001 to 2008. Based on that experience, he authored the political memoir “The Man in the Middle: Faith and Politics in the George W. Bush Era.”
Tim served as Press Secretary and Communications Director for U.S. Senator Dan Coats of Indiana. And he was Communications Director for Gary Bauer at the Campaign for Working Families and in Bauer’s presidential bid.
Tim is the secretary of the Coalitions for America Board, a member of the board for the National Civic Art Society, and a member of the board of governors of the Young America’s Foundation which owns and operates the Ronald Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, California. He served as Board Secretary of the American Conservative Union Foundation which hosts CPAC. Also, he is a member of the Council for National Policy, the Philadelphia Society, and the Capitol Hill Club.
He graduated from Indiana University’s Ernie Pyle School of Journalism in 1986. He was the Richard Gray Fellow in his senior year.
Tim serves on the Sanctity of Life Commission for his church body, the 2.5 million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and has served as a deacon in his church for 25 years. He has been married to Jenny for more than 20 years; they have two sons, Tim and Paul.
Jim Goodloe
Jim Goodloe spent over 40 years in senior health care leadership roles. He has retired from the Tennessee Hospital Association (THA) where his duties included executive responsibility for THA Solutions Group, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of THA, and coordinating THA’s activities with regard to physician relations. Prior to joining THA, he served as the chief operating officer at Humana Hospital McFarland, Lebanon, Tennessee; vice president of administration at Baptist Hospital, Nashville,
and in several senior management positions at the Baptist Health System of East Tennessee, Knoxville. Jim is a Life Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, and was a founding board member of the ACHE chapter in middle Tennessee. He has served as the chapter’s president and in 2009 received the ACHE Regent’s Award for Senior Healthcare Executives.
Jim is certified as a professional facilitator by the International Association of Facilitators. His areas of focus include strategy development, goal setting, consensus building and group problem solving. He has particular interest in providing facilitation services to Christian ministries in Tennessee and across the United States.
Jim is a member of Forest Hills Baptist Church where he serves as a deacon and Sunday school teacher. He was chairman of the deacons in 2014. Jim currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Family Policy Alliance and is a founding board member of Pastor to Pastor Training Network.
Jim received a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Samford University and a master’s degree in healthcare administration at the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
Jim currently resides in Franklin, Tennessee, with Debbie, his wife of more than 35 years. They have two children and two grandchildren.
Ladonna Y. Lee
Ladonna Lee is a strategic communications consultant based in Ft. Collins, Colorado. She counsels corporations, associations and coalitions in the areas of strategic planning and communications. She has extensive knowledge and experience in designing and managing public support campaigns for clients facing opposition or complex communications challenges or needing regulatory approval as well as positioning campaigns for corporations and associations. She also provides crisis management counsel.
Ladonna has coordinated campaigns for the U.S. and South Korea in their successful bids for the World Cup; directed a program for development of electoral assistance in emerging democracies for the U.S. Agency for International Development; and participated in international electoral programs.
She has provided strategic counsel to federal and state political campaigns and organizations. Her 35 years of experience in politics have included working for candidates and incumbents from the legislature to the White House.
Ladonna retired from the Washington, D.C., office of Foley & Lardner in September 2015. She served as vice chair of Foley’s Government & Public Policy Practice and was the Women Retention Chair.
Prior to joining Foley, Ladonna was president and co-owner of The Eddie Mahe Company, a communications and public affairs firm specializing in business, association and political communications. She also worked for the Republican National Committee. In her home state of Colorado, she worked in the Governor’s office and the Legislature. She attended the University of Northern Colorado.
Joe Paradiso
Joe Paradiso is a Managing Director with Deloitte Tax LLP’s Business Tax Service Group. He has over 30 years of public accounting experience and has served primarily foreign multinational companies in multiple industries including distribution, media, manufacturing, and shipping and logistics. During his tenure at Deloitte he has held several different positions within his group. Most recently he has functioned in the following roles:
Learning Director, responsible for overseeing internal training programs, Transformation Leader, assisting in the roll out of Deloitte’s next generation technology and Tax Operations Manager, monitoring operational results of his group.
Joe has a BS in accounting and an MBA in taxation from NYU’s Stern School of Business. Joe is a member of the AICPA. He has been married for over 30 years to his wife, Laurie, who is also a CPA. The Paradisos have three children and attend a non-denominational church at which Joe leads worship.
Emeritus Board Members
Tom Minnery
President Emeritus
Tom Minnery is president emeritus of Family Policy Alliance. In 2016, he launched the Statesmen Academy, and continues to serve as an Academy lecturer. He was senior vice president of public policy for Focus on the Family for 26 years. He is a founding board member for Alliance Defending Freedom, a national organization devoted to the legal strategy, training and funding of court cases involving pro-life, religious-freedom and family-values issues.
Prior to coming to Focus on the Family and Family Policy Alliance, Minnery was senior editor at Christianity Today magazine. He also worked as a Capitol Hill correspondent and was a manager in the Washington bureau of Gannett Newspapers.
Minnery has a bachelor of science in journalism from Ohio University and master of arts in religion from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of the book Why You Can’t Stay Silent, published by Tyndale House (2002). He and his wife Deb have three children and six grandchildren.
Dan Mellema
Dan Mellema is the chief financial officer for Focus on the Family. Dan has been with Focus on the Family since 1994 where he began as a junior accountant. He has worked in many different roles all within the finance department. Before coming to Focus, Dan ran his family’s construction business.
Dan holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from John Brown University. He enjoys coaching basketball, hiking and spending time with this family. Dan is very active in his local church and has spent many years working with youth. He and his wife, Sue, have three grown sons and five grandchildren and reside in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Doug Napier
Douglas H. Napier, Esq., formerly served as senior vice president of alliance relations at Alliance Defending Freedom, where he focused on serving, strengthening and expanding strategic alliances throughout the country and world.
Doug joined the organization in 2007 to work with a network of thousands of allied attorneys and eventually became the head of all litigation efforts in the U.S. Subsequently,
he served in the role of executive director of ADF International where he directed legal advocacy work in Europe, Asia and Latin America. He has conducted regional and national training to help equip allied attorneys, pastors, business leaders and other allies across the globe.
He earned his J.D. in 1990 from the University of Iowa College of Law, where he graduated with distinction. He received a B.A. in finance at the University of Iowa in 1985 and graduated with a M.A. in biblical studies from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1988.
He is admitted to the bar before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Arizona Supreme Court, the Iowa Supreme Court and various federal appellate and district courts across the U.S. He is a fellow of the Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers, is a member of the Council for National Policy, and serves on the board of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.
Doug resides in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife Christi and two children.
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