2025 AYME Conference
October 17-19, 2025 in Des Moines, IA
Teaching in the Midst of Hurting Students
Registration
Hotel
Call for Papers
Conference Schedule
This year’s conference will focus on our teaching and training of youth leaders in a culture where teenagers are dealing with anxiety, depression, despair, and numerous other emotional and mental health issues.
Our Featured General Session Speakers…
Mr. Will Hutcherson serves as Founder and Executive Director of Curate Hope, that focuses on suicide prevention, and mental health awareness through public and private school assembly presentations. Will earned a master’s degree in leadership from Southeastern University and has served as a Next Gen and Student Pastor for over fifteen years. Over the past several years he has become increasingly passionate about finding practical ways to bring hope to kids and teens who are facing increasing amounts of anxiety, depression, and despair. This led to him starting Curate Hope, a non-profit that focuses on suicide prevention, mental health awareness, and partnering with schools, churches, and parents to help heal despair in teens.
Will seeks to build a bridge between the local church and the schools and families that are navigating this mental health crisis. Will speaks in public schools across the country, letting students know that there is always hope. He is a co-author of two books: SEEN: Healing Despair and Anxiety in Kids and Teens Through the Power of Connection and Beyond the Spiral: Why You Shouldn’t Believe Everything Anxiety Tells You. Will lives in the Naples, Florida with his wife Arianne and their three kids.
Mrs. Nike Greene is the founder and Executive director of Triple Threat Mentoring PDX in Portland, Oregon. She is widely regarded as the go to expert in Coaching, Mental Health and violence reduction strategies. She earned a master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy at George Fox University and ministers alongside of her husband at Abundant Life PDX. She is also the author of Nike, More Than a Name It’s My Life: From Trauma to Triumph.
Her powerful story of transforming her own life from trauma to triumph, from abuse to healing into leading her own non-profit organization is the inspiration behind her relentless mission to encourage others to change their future. Nike guides organizations and communities through some practical, repeatable and sustainable frameworks that show the role they can play in transforming our tomorrow.
Nike’s endeavors are connected to her passion around collaborative communities, education, engaged families, and celebrating diversity. As a therapist, she believes that healing and unity can build stronger communities. She is known for her many years of experience in violence prevention with schools, community-based organizations, government agencies, and correctional systems.
Dr. Mike Severe serves as professor of Christian ministries at Taylor University in Upland Indiana and Chairs the Master of Arts in Ministry program. He earned his MA in Educational Ministries at Wheaton College and PhD in Education at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Mike has over two decades of experience in youth work with urban and rural at-risk teens.
Mike directs grant initiatives for work with at-risk youth, has published dozens of peer review research articles, and co-authored The Abide Bible, Ministry with Youth in Crisis, and A Manual for Ministry Internships. His next book will be Ministry with Youth on the Margins: Trauma, Disability and Teens and his current research project focuses on multicultural youth ministry. He has fostered nearly 40 children and adopted three. While caring for children with trauma is very challenging, Mike says that bringing such children into his home has been the most rewarding work and ministry of his life.
Mike has been a long-time member and contributor to the Association of Youth Ministry Educators, serving on the AYME Board of Directors from 2012-2016. Mike may also hold the unofficial world record for a slinky run down a Mayan Temple.
