Megan Phelps-Roper

Megan Phelps-Roper was raised in the Westboro Baptist Church, the Topeka, Kansas church known internationally for its daily public protests. As a child, teenager and early 20-something, she participated in the picketing almost daily and spearheaded the use of social media in the church. Dialogue with "enemies" online proved instrumental in her deradicalization, and she left the church and her entire way of life in November 2012. Since then she has become an advocate for people and ideas she was taught to despise -- especially the value of empathy in dialogue with people across ideological lines.​ As an educator on extremism, bullying and sociopolitical disunity, she speaks about the importance of empathy and openness in difficult conversations and across ideological lines. In her book, Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church, she reveals how she left her family and her church and shares her transformation from viewing the world through a hateful, intolerant lens to how empathy can overcome hate, and how acceptance can bridge ideology. Reese Witherspoon has recently signed on to co-produce an upcoming feature film, "This Above All", based on Megan's life.