RIFI Contributors
Dr. Michelle Cretella
Michelle A. Cretella, MD is a pediatrician, writer, researcher and speaker. She is a consultant and contributor to the Rhode Island Family Institute and is the advisory board spokesperson for Advocates Protecting Children. She served as the first Executive Director of the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) from 2018 through 2021. Prior to being hired as Executive Director, she was elected to the ACPeds Board of Directors in 2005; was elected to 4 year terms each as Vice President in 2010 and President in 2014. Prior to holding executive offices, she chaired the ACPeds Pediatric Psychosocial Committee, Adolescent Sexuality Committee and Scientific Policy Committee. In these roles she became one of the ACPeds chief researchers, writers and spokespersons on a host of pediatric issues, especially transgender belief in youth. Her article Gender Dysphoria in Children and Suppression of Debate was published in the 2016 summer issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. Following an interview by Tucker Carlson on this topic, she became recognized as a leading physician critic of gender ideology in pediatrics. She has collaborated on legislation in multiple states to protect youth from sterilizing transgender interventions, and has contributed to several amicus briefs for various pro-family and pro-life court cases at the state, federal and international levels. She is regularly consulted by Breitbart News, FRC, One News Now, Relevant Radio, FOX News and many others.
Dr. Cretella is a peer reviewer for three professional journals: the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Issues in Law and Medicine, and the International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research.
Dr. Cretella also serves on the Advisory Board for the Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity. She is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), the Catholic Medical Association (CMA), and the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family.
Dr. Cretella received her medical degree in 1994 from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She completed her internship and residency in pediatrics in 1997 at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, Connecticut. She completed a fellowship in College Health through the University of Virginia in 1999. Dr. Cretella practiced pediatrics with a special interest in behavioral health from 1999-2012. She left clinical pediatric practice in 2012 to devote more time to her family and pro-life child advocacy. Dr. Cretella and her husband are the proud parents of four grown children.
Links to some of Dr. Cretella's online videos:
1) “Understanding Transgender Issues” videos produced in conjunction with Family Watch International (2016 - 2021)
2) Tucker Carlson (FOX News) 7/24/17 - “Pediatricians versus Transgender Politics”
3) The Daily Signal (2017) - “Watch the Uncensored Video on Gender Dysphoria from a Pediatrician"
4) Heritage Foundation Panel (2017) - Pediatrician drops a bomb on idea that transgenderism is real — completely destroys it with truth - TheBlaze
Brenna Kate Simonds
Alive in Christ is a direct successor to a ministry first started by Peter Robicheau in 1984. Peter was a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and later was appointed a deacon of Park Street Church in Boston. Over the next 13 years, Peter and his fellow workers ministered in a self-sacrificing way to more than 100 people seeking transformation in their sexual lives including Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, both men and women. Peter died of a previously undiagnosed epileptic condition in August of 1997. Since that time the leadership of the ministry has included Bill Taylor, Keith Johnston, and Hugh Rutledge. The current director is Brenna Kate Simonds.