Exmormon Foundation Board Members

Chad Spjut

Foundation President
Chad is the eldest of six children. He was born and raised in the church and served a mission to Germany, temple marriage and actively served in many teaching and leadership callings. He was cofounder of the CALM support group. The father of five children, he finally officially resigned from the church after ten years of "tortured" study of LDS history and doctrines.

Sue Emmett

Foundation Vice President
Sue was a faithful member of the church for 50 years. After receiving her Bachelor’s degree from BYU, she followed the traditional LDS path of marriage in the temple, and stay-at-home mom to seven children. Divorced after 34 years, she left the church the following year and became active in the ex-Mormon community, serving as president of the Foundation for one year, and as chair of the annual Exmormon Foundation conference for the past six years.

Kathleen (Phair) Jones

Secratary
Kathleen (Phair) Jones, grew up as a member of the church. While spending her 20’s in Mesa, AZ among "The Saints", slowly she began to realize that something was deeply wrong with the church. She walked out at the age of 25. It was about 10 yrs. later that she started researching all the history of the church and realized that what she had felt about the church was in deed accurate. She has been involved helping fellow travelers who have just discovered the truth, many who are in great emotional distress, ever since.

Kathleen and her husband have two boys, and live in Oregon. She currently serves as the Secretary for the ExMormon Foundation.

Jean Bodie

Board Member
Jean Bodie was born in Dorset, England in 1944 and joined the LDS Church in 1967. She immigrated to Canada the following year, and now lives in the Edmonton area with her husband Jim. During Jean's years as a faithful member of the church she served mainly with youth in Young Women's, seminary and Sunday school. Other callings include RS presidency and teacher. She also served as a temple ordinance worker and temple cleaning supervisor. Jean and Jim served in the South Africa Cape Town Mission from April 2002 - Sept. 2003. This experience, and in particular some serious injuries sustained in an auto accident their 2nd day "in-country", opened Jean's mind about many issues regarding the church. Jean and Jim returned to Africa under their own auspices in 2005 to help people start small businesses using the micro credit system as taught by BYU. She has 5 children and 12 grandchildren.

Since officially leaving the church in 2007, Jean has been actively involved in the ex-Mormon community, assisting those who struggle with adjusting to life outside the church. Just over a year ago, she also became involved with the Stephen Lewis Foundation's Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign --raising funds to help sub-Saharan grandmothers who are caring for their AIDS-orphaned grandchildren in destitute circumstances. She returned in May 2010 from a visit to Johannesburg Projects and the first ever conference for African grandmothers held on African soil. She served as one of 42 delegates, representing 240 fund-raising grandmother groups across Canada. Her position with her local group is that of advocacy -- amplifying the African women's voices.

Mikayla Pratt

Foundation Treasurer
Mikayla Pratt was a convert to the church with her husband and family in 1978 while stationed with the military in Germany.  She faithfully held every position she was called to; but alas, she was never able to fit in as the perfect "Molly Mormon".  After a last ditch effort participating in the Indian Placement Program, Mikayla and her husband were voluntarily excommunicated in 1985.  It wasn't until many years later, through research, that she learned exactly how false the teachings of the church were then and still are.  She is currently living a blissfully apostate life in San Jose, CA with her husband, Larry.

Nathan Kennard

Membership Secretary
Nathan Kennard fell in love with and married his best friend while in school at Utah State University to become an Engineer. The birth of four sons brought their family to six. Nathan grew up in the LDS church and eagerly served it as a missionary in Texas. Following the missionary service, he occupied many roles, including as a member of a bishopric and for many years, as a missionary on the local level.

In January, 2007, Nathan, along with his wife and children, resigned membership in the LDS church after learning that many of the ideas they had been taught were inaccurate. Nathan currently serves as the Exmormon Foundation Membership Secretary.

Jarom Smith

Jarom was born into a faithful LDS family. He served in the Chile Osorno mission but was excommunicated in 1995 for "conduct unbecoming a church member." He rejoined the church in 1999, but formally resigned his membership in 2005. He lives in Escondido, California with his wife Cindy and three children, and is a "glorified programmer" for a company in the health care industry.

Tom Donofrio

Tom was raised in the Church from a young age by his convert parents in Pittsburgh Pa. He served a mission in Tempe, Az from 79-81. While on his mission he met his wife to be and returned to Arizona to marry her in the Mesa Temple. Tom was a Church employee when he began original research into Book of Mormon origins.

As a result of his studies Tom quit working for the Church and formally resigned his membership in 2002. Tom's parents and siblings in Pennsylvania have also quit their membership.

He is currently a board member of the ExMormon Foundation and is employed in Arizona as an ammonia refrigeration technician.

See Tom's Stories articles on Post Mormon.Org and Mormonstories.com