Joel Mowbray -  Former Guest Speaker at the Leadership Institute

Joel Mowbray, a syndicated columnist (who got his start with Townhall.com), is best-known for his exposés of the State Department which led to the end of Visa Express in Saudi Arabia and the firing of the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, Mary Ryan. More recently, Joel was the first journalist in America to review the visa application forms of the 9/11 terrorists, and he uncovered the fact that all 15 of the applications reviewed should have been denied on their face.

A graduate of the University of Illinois and Georgetown Law School, Joel worked on Capitol Hill for former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), where he established his reputation as a leading advocate for Social Security privatization. Earlier he spent two years working for Pioneer Strategies under now-Fox News reporter Heather Nauert.

After leaving the Hill, Joel founded PriceCompare Technologies, working for two years with the Internet software company.

Joel writes a twice-weekly nationally-syndicated column that is distributed by Knight-Ridder Tribune. His work has also been published in the L.A. Times, National Review, New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, San Diego Union-Tribune, Investors Business Daily, Philadelphia Inquirer, Arizona Republic, Manchester Union Leader, FrontPage magazine, Jewish World Review, and Washington Times.

Joel has appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America," "World News Tonight," and "Politically Incorrect;" CNN's "Moneyline with Lou Dobbs," "Showdown: Iraq," "American Morning with Paula Zahn," and "Talk Back Live;" FOX News Channel's "FOX & Friends," "O'Reilly Factor," "Special Report with Brit Hume," "The Big Story with John Gibson," "Hannity & Colmes," "FOXwire," "Fox News Live," and "Your World with Neil Cavuto;" and more. He has also become a fixture on talk radio as a guest on many nationally syndicated programs, such as "The G. Gordon Liddy show," "The Jim Bohannon Show," "The Laura Ingraham Show," among many more.

Joel grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, where he enjoyed acting and being on his high school speech team. For seven years, he was a DJ on both commercial and noncommercial radio stations. He was also a National Merit Scholar. In addition, Joel spent two summers interning with Americans for Tax Reform and Linda Chavez's Center for Equal Opportunity.

Joel Mowbray