The 5th Wilberforce International Institute Global Summit

August 23-26, 2023
The Church on the Ridge, Snoqualmie, WA

The 2023 Wilberforce International Institute Global Summit will be held in Snoqualmie, Washington (Just outside of Seattle – upper left on the US map). This 5th Global Summit is promising to be the biggest and best ever. We have secured Dr. Seng Tan to be our keynote speaker along with Drs. Simon Mould and Christian Overman. We are working on filling out the program with several other notable names and important breakout sessions dealing with Christian Worldview, Economics/business, Networking, Family/raising kids, and much, much more. We are inviting Christian internationals in the Seattle area to join us. We are also inviting you, our supporters, to come and see what God is doing through Wilberforce.

We have confirmed Dr. Seng Tan (Singapore), president of International Students Incorporated (ISI) to be our keynote speaker at the main banquet. Dr. Christian Overman of Biblical Worldview will speak on education. Everybody’s favorite, Dr. Bob Osburn, will also be speaking along with Wilberforce President Dr. Kevin Cooney. We will be adding other speakers as we confirm them.

Hotel & travel information

Airports: If you are coming to join us there are two airports that serve Seattle: Sea-Tac (SEA) and smaller Paine Field (PAE).

Hotel: Wilberforce has arranged a group rate at the new Snoqualmie Inn by Hotel America within walking distance of the Summit. (Use group rate code: WII23). Click here for instructions on how to book your room using the group discount code. The block of rooms will be held until 30 days before the Summit (July 22nd). There are more hotels in Issaquah, Washington which is about 15 minutes’ drive away from Snoqualmie.

If you cannot attend the summit but would like to support it or sponsor a summit attendee, you can do so here.

The Summit Purpose

To bring our Fellows and Mentees together so that we can institutionalize their extensive training on combatting corruption, presenting the Christian worldview, and teaching sustained economic development with Wilberforce. It also creates meaningful connection among the attendees that inspires, educates, and sustains the attendees outside of our direct engagement by knowing that they have partners working globally.

Global Summit Speakers

Dr. Seng Tan

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Dr. Simon Mould

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Dr. Christian Overman

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Dr. Bob Osburn

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Dr. Kevin Cooney

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Ki Eng Go

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Dr. Seng Tan

President, International Students Incorporated (ISI)

Seng Tan is the president and CEO of International Students Inc. (ISI), a ministry that shares Christ’s love with international students and visiting scholars in colleges and universities across the United States and beyond. He is concurrently a research advisor for the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and a senior associate at the Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, both located at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, where Seng was a tenured full professor of international relations until mid-2021. He is the author cum editor of 19 books; his latest sole-authored work is Awaiting the Impossible: A Dialogue with Derrida, Deconstruction, and the Endless Wait for Messiah (2022). Seng has a PhD in political science from Arizona State University and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Biola’s Talbot School of Theology. He and his wife Trina and their daughter Elisabeth live in Colorado Springs.

Dr. Simon Mould

Executive Director, BridgePoint Business Leadership Forum

Simon Mould is the founding Executive Director of BridgePoint Business Leadership Forum through which he curates biblically based material focused on business leadership and economic principles for emerging Christian business leaders. Additionally, he is also a professor in the College of Business at Northwest University where he teaches and develops curriculum for undergrad and MBA programs.

Previously, Simon has served for over 25 years leading Christian educational institutions and creating curricula in economics and current world affairs. Simon has an MA in Public Policy and a doctorate in curriculum development in international affairs from Regent University.

Raised in the UK, Simon studied economics and international affairs during the 1980s, witnessing Britain’s transformation from a largely socialist nanny-state to becoming a leading global economy. He moved to the U.S. in the early 90s and completed his graduate and doctoral work in international affairs and curriculum design.

Simon and his wife Sarah have three adult children and live in the great Seattle area.

Dr. Christian Overman

Founder, Worldview Matters

For fourteen years, Christian Overman served as the principal of a Christian school in Seattle, Washington. In the year 2000, he founded an educational consulting service called Worldview Matters. He taught Christian educators throughout the United States, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia how to design lesson plans in which all subjects are seen in the larger context of a biblical worldview.

Dr. Overman holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Seattle Pacific University, with an emphasis on Philosophy of Christian Education, and a Doctor of Ministry degree, with an emphasis on Theology of Work, from Bakke Graduate University.

Books written by Christian Overman include: Assumptions That Affect Our Lives, Eliminating the Sacred/Secular Divide, and The Lost Purpose for Learning.

Christian and his wife, Kathy, have been married since 1970. They have four adult children, and twelve grandchildren. They reside near Seattle, Washington, USA.

Dr. Bob Osburn

Senior Fellow, Wilberforce International Institute

Bob Osburn has a PhD in international education from the University of Minnesota (2005), where he also was an adjunct lecturer for seven years in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development. In 1978 he earned his ThM in Christian education at Dallas Theological Seminary, after earning a BA from the University of Michigan (1973). He has spent over 35 years serving in international student and academic ministry at the University of Minnesota, and successfully launched the 1998 World View for World Healing Conference that challenged international students to engage the deepest needs of their societies on the basis of a Christian worldview. He has been married to Susan for over 45 years, father of four sons, and grandfather to 11.

Dr. Kevin Cooney

President & Executive Director, Wilberforce International Institute

Dr. Kevin Cooney is president and Executive Director of Wilberforce International Institute.
Kevin has his PhD in international relations from Arizona State University, an MA from Lancaster University, and a BA from Oral Roberts University. He is a Visiting Professor at Ritsumeikan Asian Pacific University (APU) in Japan, as well as teaching occasional graduate courses at Regent University in Virginia. He has published widely, including the 2007 book Japanese Foreign Policy Since 1945, and for the past ten years has led the Liberty Tree Seminars series, funded by the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation. He has long been involved with international students both as a student himself and as a professor. The current student population at APU is over 50% internationals. Dr. Cooney has been married to Atsuko for 28 years, and together they have two children. The Cooneys reside in Snoqualmie, Washington, outside of Seattle.

Ki Eng Go

Eng was a semiconductor Engineer for 20 years, before transitioning to marketing and business development in the semiconductor test equipment industry. In 1989 along with some Indonesian friends, he started the campus ministry FICA, Fellowship of Indonesian Christians in America. FICA helped prepare and facilitate Indonesians while they are studying on US campuses with vision of going back and advancing God’s Kingdom in Indonesia. Eng currently serves as a board member of Jubilee Campaign, a human rights NGO based in Washington DC. He has been very active in promoting religious freedom advocacy in Indonesia for many years. Since 2011 Eng has been developing models and solutions to help people from under-developed regions in Indonesia, namely Papua. The work in Papua involves many different aspects of life, such as education, health, economic development, leadership, and management, etc. Eng is married to Lina, and blessed with 4 grown up daughters; North Texas has been their home base.

We Never Walk Alone