“Evil is Dead,”

Bloomington-Normal is a community built on education, creativity, and conversation, home to two universities, countless storytellers, and people who care deeply about understanding one another. My idea challenges us to see beyond labels of “good” and “bad” and recognize the complexity in every person. In a diverse, evolving community like ours, that kind of empathy isn’t just relevant, it’s essential.

About Adam

Adam is a fundraising professional, community leader, and writer who explores how
storytelling shapes meaning, belonging, and moral imagination. Over the course of his career,
he has helped raise more than $11 million for higher education and nonprofit organizations,
work that has informed his belief that fundraising is not transactional, but narrative at its core, an
exchange of values, purpose, and trust.

His work focuses on the overlap between philanthropy and storytelling, the role of empathetic
persuasion in a polarized world, and the growing crisis of meaning facing young men. Drawing
from fundraising, literature, and civic life, Adam examines how post-oppositional storytelling,
stories that move beyond villains and binaries, can foster purpose, responsibility, and
connection without denying the reality of conflict or evil.

Adam currently serves as Conference Chair for the CASE District V Conference and as
incoming President of the Bloomington-Normal Sunrise Rotary Club. He is also a novelist; his
debut fantasy novel, The Soters, exploring grief, identity, and hidden worlds, will be published in
2026. He lives and works in Central Illinois, where he remains deeply engaged in civic and
creative projects.