ACP Membership Meeting

Ashley McKinless and Zac Davis, co-hosts of the Jesuitical podcast will talk about what they are seeing and hearing about the intersection between the world, faith, and culture.

Ashley McKinless joined America magazine in 2013 and today serves as an executive editor. She co-hosts “Jesuitical,” a podcast for young and young-at-heart Catholics, for which she has interviewed cardinals, bishops, politicians, authors and actors, as well as Catholics living out their faith in extraordinary but little-noticed ways. She also leads America’s assignments desk, directing the magazine’s digital coverage of the most important events in the church and the world. Ashley has earned several awards from the Catholic Media Association, including Best Reporting of Social Justice Issues and Best Podcast. She has been interviewed on topics related to the Catholic Church by CNN and NPR, among other outlets. A native of Arlington, Virginia, Ashley graduated from the University of Virginia with degrees in religious studies and economics.

Zac Davis is an associate editor and the senior director for digital strategy for America. 

Thursday's Workshops

Round A

A1: Build Your Book’s Audience and Message

Many books struggle not because they lack value, but because they lack clear audience definition and consistent messaging. In this workshop, participants will build three essential assets: an Ideal Reader Avatar, a Messaging Pack, and a repeatable workflow for promotion and outreach. This is a practical working session for publishers who want better language, better positioning, and better alignment between mission and market. Participants will leave with “BookLab” tools they can apply immediately to current and future titles.

Speaker: Grant Overstake, Grain Valley Press

Grant Overstake is an author, publisher, and consultant helping mission-driven publishers build smarter, more human-centered workflows in the age of AI. A former journalist and independent publisher, he focuses on practical systems that expand capacity, sharpen messaging, and protect editorial integrity. He is the creator of the Audie Award–winning The Real Education of TJ Crowley and the novel Maggie Vaults Over the Moon. His workshops help publishers see how emerging tools can strengthen research, communication, and outreach without diminishing the role of human discernment or authorship.

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A2: What Is the Responsibility of Catholic Publishers in Today’s Social Environment? A Discussion of Rerum Novarum 1891-2026.

 Why would Catholic publishers want to discuss an encyclical written 135 years ago? Don’t we have enough on our plate already? The answer may well lie with the election of the first American pope and his choice of papal name: Pope Leo XIV. This discussion will focus on three questions:

• Why is Rerum Novarum relevant to what is going on in the world right now?
• What are the main arguments that Pope Leo XIII made, which were revisited by subsequent popes 40, 60, 80, and 100 years after its publication and will likely be addressed again by Pope Leo XIV?
• What might Catholic publishers do to help?

Speaker: Greg Pierce, ACTA Publications

Greg Pierce has been the publisher of ACTA Publications for 40 years and has been very involved with the ACP during that time. He has also been a Catholic lay leader with the National Center for the Laity and a community organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation. He is the author of Spirituality@Work, The World As It Should Be, and Reveille for a New Generation. He recently published an edition of Rerum Novarum (Of New Things) by Pope Leo XIII in inclusive American English that makes this seminal document accessible and understandable to American-English readers while still maintaining the insights, lyricism, and flavor of the original. Free copies of this new edition will be given to each participant in this workshop.

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A3: Empower Creativity with Automations: Designing Better Books Faster 

The workshop equips publishing teams to unlock greater creativity in their designers by incorporating automations in the design process. Eliminate tedious admin updates, redundant communication, repetitive tasks, and other busy work, empowering your creative team to refocus valuable time on creative work. Participants will gain actionable strategies to evaluate their workflows, identify tasks for automation, and build automations using native tools and 3rd party automation platforms.

Speaker: Emma Elzinga, InkSplatt Designs

Emma Elzinga is the founder of Inksplatter Design, a book design creative studio providing strategic design solutions for publishing houses. An experienced designer with a creative approach, Emma is drawn to the intersection of visual art and storytelling and specializes in designs that uniquely highlight the written word. Learn more about Inksplatter Design at www.inksplatterdesign.com, or view her personal portfolio at www.emmaelzinga.com.

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A4: Executive Session: Religious Obsolescence

What does the obsolescence of traditional religion, and the re-enchantment of American culture which has emerged in its wake, mean for the future of Catholic publishing? In this workshop, Bridget Ritz will engage members in conversation about questions regarding implications for Catholic publishing raised by Christian Smith’s thesis in Why Religion Went Obsolete. Members are encouraged to bring their own questions and strategic thoughts for discussion. 

Speaker: Bridget Ritz (see above)

Round B

B1: You’re Not Standing Out and It’s Costing You

Most Catholic organizations are doing genuinely great work — and almost nobody knows it. Not because the mission isn't compelling, but because the story isn't landing. Your audience isn't indifferent to what you do; they just don't understand it yet. Branding isn't your logo or your color palette — it's what your audience actually believes about you. And whether you've shaped that belief intentionally or not, they believe something. In this session, Dominick Albano, Creative Director at 5 Stones — the leading Catholic marketing agency for non-profits in the U.S. — walks you through the brand messaging process he's used with organizations like Franciscan University of Steubenville, NET Ministries, and the Catherine of Siena Institute. You'll leave knowing exactly how to articulate who you are, what you offer, and why it matters — so your audience finally gets it.

Speaker: Dominick Albano, 5 Stones

Dominick Albano is Creative Director at 5 Stones, the leading Catholic marketing agency for non-profits in the United States, serving organizations from Ignatius Press and Franciscan University of Steubenville to Chris Stefanick's Real Life Catholic and the Augustine Institute. His specialty is brand messaging — helping Catholic organizations tell their story in ways that actually move people. He's written brand messaging for NET Ministries, Vagabond Missions, the Catherine of Siena Institute, and dozens of other Catholic ministries. He grew the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's email list from 700 to 50,000 in three years, authored The Fundamental Theory of Happiness (Ascension Press), and produced Dynamic Catholic's most-viewed Best Lent Ever Gospel Reflection. He's also the lead writer and presenter for Dynamic Catholic's Better Together Marriage Prep program and co-founder of the National Society for Priestly Vocations. If your organization is doing incredible work and you can't figure out why more people don't care — Dominick knows exactly why, and he knows how to fix it.

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B2: AI for Publishers: Build Your Own Custom AI Assistant in Editorial

Walk in with a laptop. Walk out with a custom AI assistant built for your publishing workflows.

This hands-on workshop is designed for publishing professionals with a focus on editorial and title management, who want practical AI, not theory. Participants will learn the fundamentals of custom AI assistants and build one themselves during the session - without coding. The focus is on real publishing use cases, not generic demonstrations. Attendees will leave with a working assistant they can continue refining and using after the event.

The session covers what custom AI assistants are, how they differ from standard prompting, and where tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini fit in a publishing environment. Participants will see a live demonstration, learn the key building blocks of a useful assistant—including instructions, knowledge sources, output formats, and guardrails—and then create and test their own assistant in a guided lab. Example use cases will be provided for editorial and operations.

Speaker: Jannis Baltuttis, knk Software

Jannis Baltuttis is an accomplished technical consultant at knk Software, driven by his passion for new technologies and its potential to empower publishers and media companies. Jannis has worked on projects with various faith-based publishers, including Crossway, Baker, Tyndale, Abeka, InterVarsity Press, Our Daily Bread, and more. With a primary focus on North American and Canadian publishers and experience around the world, Jannis specializes in software for Title Management, Production, ONIX, Rights and Royalties, Digital Subscriptions (Paid Content & Databases), Sales Management, Inventory and Finance / ERP, as well as Microsoft and AI solutions​. As a dedicated systems analyst, he collaborates with publishing and media companies to intimately understand the challenges they are facing, and to seek innovative solutions that help them modernize their processes and offerings. 

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B3: The One-Person Publishing Studio

Small publishers are often expected to operate like full teams with limited time, limited staff, and limited budget. This session offers a credible model for using AI tools as a structured support system across research, editorial, and communications. Grounded in real publishing experience, this workshop shows how one person can build a more capable studio, extend organizational reach, and reduce friction in daily work while preserving voice, standards, and mission.

Speaker: Grant Overstake, Grain Valley Press (see above)

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B4: The Power of Storytelling to Your Organizations Culture, Growth and Innovation

The way you tell the story of your business or organization is all that matters to your customer. Today, customers want to be more engaged with the companies in which they do business and organizations' they support. The story is the reason they buy or donate. It is what they will share with friends and family when asked about where they purchased or what causes to do they support. The trick is that not everyone knows how to tell their story well across all platforms. This is where Jennifer comes in to walk you through finding your story and telling it appropriately and consistently for brand building.

Speaker: Jennifer Fortney

Consistently named one of the Top 25 PR and design agencies in Chicago, one of the Top 10 PR Firms for Startups in the world and one of the Most Influential Startup PR Professionals in the World, Jennifer Fortney is Founder & President of Cascade Communications, a boutique, Integrated Digital Marketing & PR Agency, and author of “Be a Media Magnet: The Bootstrapper’s Guide to PR” (Amazon, 2025). In her 25+ year career in PR and marketing communications, Jennifer has worked with Fortune 1000 companies consulting on, creating, executing and managing campaigns for companies like Jim Beam Brands, Hammacher Schlemmer, Harley Davidson, SC Johnson, Got Milk?, Kraft, Sprint and SMART Technologies along with a variety of small businesses/enterprises and startups across the country and globally. She is responsible for introducing The Appletini and helping to bring the era of mixology into the forefront of food, beverage and culture.

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Friday's AI Panel

Design
Emma Elzinga from Inksplatt Designs

Editorial
Jannis Bultattis

Executive

Jason Malec is helping to shape values-aligned AI, as a fractional executive, focused on AI strategy and adoption, digital product innovation, and organizational clarity. He’s been a founder or executive leader at Gloo, Living on the Edge, American Bible Society, New Denver Church, ExploreGod, and North Point Ministries. He and Meredith married in 1997, and have three grown children. He’s an avid cyclist, swimmer, and yogi, and earned second place in a sixth-grade speling be–—which was definately rigged.

Jason on AI . . .

AI is no longer just a tool for staff teams—it is a leadership issue. In this session, Jason Malec will help publishing executives understand where AI is most useful today, how leaders can model wise adoption, and what questions they should be asking about team use, organizational policy, trust, and long-term strategy. With experience across executive leadership, ministry, media, and AI, Jason offers a practical framework for engaging AI in ways that are productive, responsible, and aligned with mission.

Finance
Jay Leib, University of Notre Dame

Marketing
Miles Foley, 5 Stones Vice President of Agency Services, holds two degrees in theology and has nearly a decade of experience in ministry. For the last decade, he has served 5 Stones clients to achieve their organizational goals through strategic marketing initiatives, technology selection, and resource optimization.