Senator Roy Herron: 

Now the Democratic Floor Leader in the Tennessee Senate, Roy has authored numerous laws enabling health care, attacking crime, helping victims, protecting children, empowering whistleblowers, and defending freedoms, while for 20 years attending every legislative session except the day his youngest son was being born.

The former minister is an attorney and businessman who teaches at Vanderbilt University's Law and Divinity Schools.

Roy is also an author whose first books are How Can a Christian Be in Politics?, Things Held Dear: Soul Stories for My Sons, and Tennessee Political Humor: Some of These Jokes You Voted For. 

After graduating from the University of Tennessee with highest honors, Roy studied New Testament and ethics in Scotland as a Rotary Scholar, then became one of Vanderbilt University's first two joint divinity and law graduates.

As an accomplished public speaker, Roy has educated, entertained, exhorted (and exhausted?) academic, business, church, civic, government, legal, literary, and political audiences from Texas to Michigan, Asia to Europe, and in all 95 Tennessee counties.

Residing in the county where his family settled in 1819, Roy enjoys the outdoors, scouting, cross country running, and basketball with his sons John and Rick (16) and Ben (12) and his bride of 19 years, Nancy. In 2005, Roy completed his first 140.6 mile Ironman Triathlon.  

Reverend Romal Tune:

In his work as a social justice advocate, Reverend Romal J. Tune has worked with pastors across the country to train church members for the ministry of civic participation.  He began his ministry of community activism as a student at Duke University School of Divinity by training churches and the gang task force on how to reclaim youth involved with gangs.  His calling to ministry of social justice activism is diverse and spans various arenas of community organizing. 

In addition to working with at risk youth, Rev. Tune travels the country training churches on subjects such as voter registration; issue education, how to build infrastructure and capacity for long term justice ministries, and building effective coalitions locally and nationally.

After his seven week-old cousin Glenn Molex, III was killed during a drive-by shooting, Rev. Tune wanted to do more to help churches and their surrounding communities build power and change their neighborhoods for the better.  In 2005 he started Clergy Strategic Alliances, LLC and serves as President and CEO.  Rev. Tune has been called on to speak for political institutions, national grassroots organizations, and religious conferences. 

He served in the United States Army from 1989-1992 during the Gulf War, Desert Storm.  Rev. Tune is a graduate of Howard University and Duke University School of Divinity.  He is married to Rev. Leslie Tune and they have two children — Aman Victoria and Jordan Romal.

Jesse Lava, Co-Founder

Now a singer, songwriter, and guitarist in The Lava Brothers, Jesse co-founded FaithfulDemocrats.com in 2006.  Before creating this group, Jesse served as Special Assistant to former Democratic National Committee Chair David Wilhelm — writing speeches and articles and organizing political events. Jesse previously worked as an Account Executive for Wilhelm & Conlon Public Strategies, a public affairs firm that helps nonprofits and businesses with government relations. Jesse was also a campaign staffer on U.S. Senator Tim Johnson’s re-election effort in South Dakota in 2002 and Jody Richards’s bid for Kentucky Governor in 2003.

Jesse grew up in Evanston, Illinois, and graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in Government. He now lives in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago.

Jesse volunteers for the Christian Caucus of Public Action for Change Today (PACT) and is a board member of Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century (DL21C).  He still shows what his nursery school teacher called his “strong sense of justice,” though he would like to think his horizons have broadened since he left the horsy.

David Wilhelm, Co-Founder

Wilhelm is the Founder and President of Woodland Venture Management, which raises and invests funds targeting high-growth businesses in the Midwest and Appalachia.  With $140 million under management, Woodland has become one of the nation's leading sources of venture capital for entrepreneurs in regions of the country that lie between the coasts and are off the beaten path of institutional investors.

A native of Appalachian Ohio whose father came to the United States as a refugee from Germany after World War II, Wilhelm has pursued a career spanning the worlds of politics, business, labor, and public interest groups.  The common thread throughout has been a commitment to the ideal of shared and sustainable economic growth.

In 1992, Wilhelm served as national manager of the Clinton/Gore campaign and was subsequently named Chair of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the youngest person in history to serve in that capacity. He has managed or chaired the campaigns of the late U. S. Senator Paul Simon, U. S. Senator Joseph Biden, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, and Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Wilhelm has also served as Senior Managing Director at Kemper Securities, Executive Director of Citizens for Tax Justice, and Public Policy Director of the AFL-CIO's public employee department.

Wilhelm received his bachelor's from Ohio University and Master in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.  He has also received honorary doctorates from Ohio University and the University of Charleston. He serves on the boards of numerous nonprofits including Protestants for the Common Good, Christian Century magazine, and the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention.

Wilhelm and his wife, Degee, are the proud parents of two boys, Luke and Logan.  The Wilhelms reside in Bexley, Ohio, just outside Columbus.