2024 NDFALA Legislative Academy
On October 11th and 12th, NDFALA will launch its first Legislative Academy! The mission of our Legislative Academy is to help you, our state legislators, integrate your faith and best practices into your political work. You will gain knowledge, practical skills, and learnings from former legislators and other experts to tackle today’s tough issues in an uncompromising yet winsome way. Further, we endeavor to provide a vibrant community of Christian policymakers here in ND who encourage, inspire, and lift each other up in prayer. Our goal is that you become the most well-informed and effective Christian leaders in ND!
The Legislative Academy is a one-and-a-half-day event that starts with insights into the founding of our nation. We are blessed to have an incredible keynote speaker, Dr. Mark David Hall from Regent University, who will present: Did America Have a Christian Founding?: Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth.
After this foundational start, experienced legislators who share your biblical worldview will provide insights and knowledge you can use. This includes institutional expertise beyond what you’ve already acquired, best practices, and skills to identify where things can go wrong. Some of the key topical areas will include life, family, education, energy, agriculture, and much more!
Because Legislative Academy is purely educational and because generous donors have agreed to underwrite the event’s expenses, there is no cost to you! We will provide all materials and meals during class-time hours. You would only need to pay for transportation and lodging for the event.
Media Training: We will also offer general media training to all participants from the national organization, Family Policy Alliance. In addition, we will be offering one-on-one media training with Autumn Leva of FPA, available to the first 10 legislators who sign up for Legislative Academy, so secure your spot today and take advantage of this great opportunity!
Friday Dinner: We are hosting a dinner at the Northern Lights Atrium of the North Dakota Heritage Center on Friday, the 11th at 6:00 pm. We invite you to bring along a plus one for dinner. Dr. Mark David Hall will be presenting a talk entitled: Why Tolerate Religion? The Rise and Fall of Religious Liberty in America. Dr. Hall will also be available for book signing and discussion after his presentation.
About Our Keynote Speaker: Dr. Mark David Hall
Mark David Hall is a professor at the Robertson School of Government at Regent University. He is an internationally recognized scholar of early America and an expert on the importance of Christianity in the flourishing of America’s experiment in ordered liberty. He is also widely regarded as a leading student of religious liberty and church-state relations in America. Hall serves as an expert witness for the U.S. Department of Justice, the State of Arkansas, Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Institute for Justice. Prior to Regent, he was the Herbert Hoover Distinguished Professor of Politics at George Fox University.
Dr. Hall earned a B.A. in Political Science from Wheaton College (IL) and a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia. Hall’s primary research and writing interests include American political theory, the relationship between religion and politics, and religious liberty/church-state relations.
Dr. Hall has written, edited, or co-edited over a dozen books, including:
Who’s Afraid of Christian Nationalism: Why Christian Nationalism is Not an Existential Threat to America or the Church (Fidelis Books, 2024)
Great Christian Jurists in American History (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
Faith and the Founders of the American Republic (Oxford University Press, 2014)
Roger Sherman and the Creation of the American Republic (Oxford University Press, 2013)
Dr. Hall has also penned more than 150 book chapters, journal articles, reviews, and other pieces.
About Autumn Leva
Autumn Leva is the Senior Vice President of Strategy at Family Policy Alliance and an attorney who has spent her career advocating for families at both the state and national levels of government, both from 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, and state and federal election compliance. Autumn is also a media veteran with decades of experience working with television, radio, and written communications. She designed the highly successful media training program for Family Policy Alliance Foundation’s Statesmen Academy, the premier national Academy for state legislators, which now has over 240 graduates serving in 41 state legislatures.
Autumn has led teams that collaborate with state and national allies to advance or defeat legislation that directly impacts families; 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 and her team wrote the original “Help Not Harm” legislation, the first legislation of its kind prohibiting minor gender transitions, and then trained legislators and coalitions on how to run and message the bill, which is now in place in 23 states.
Autumn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education and a J.D. from Regent University School of Law, and she is licensed to practice law in Virginia.
Registration: We are currently able to offer our Legislative Academy to sitting legislators. There are only 30 spots available for the event, and they will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, so don’t delay – get your application in now before it fills up.
To apply for the 2024 Legislative Academy, click here. After you fill out the application, please scan and send it to mark@ndfamilyalliance.org with your plus one for Friday's dinner included in the email.
(Note: Election candidates who are not already in office are also welcome to apply to attend, to the extent space is available. They will be required to first be endorsed by North Dakota Family Alliance Legislative Action and to also cover their own cost of attendance. Contact us at 701-355-6425 for more information.)