Fr. Chris Salamy
Founder of the Way of the Warrior Saint

With more than 25 years of teaching and pastoral ministry experience, Fr. Chris Salamy continually nurtures the calling in his gut to be better today than he was yesterday. The story of Jesus’ willingness to face the Cross has been the reference for his personal journey in life. To be great requires that we face our monsters—not to run from them—and that through sacrifice and hard work we can overcome and conquer them. In 2013, he founded the Warrior Saints Movement to help others find and unleash their greatness in the world, by living a crucifixional life. By emulating Jesus’ voluntary self-sacrifice, we put to death our own monsters and have the opportunity to live an exceptional life.

Fr. Chris has been the pastor of St. George Orthodox Church in Phoenix, AZ for 20 years and leads a thriving and passionate community of Warrior Saints who strive to make a powerful impact on the world. Their greatness is what inspires his relentless drive to improve.

He has spoken at countless colleges, seminars, conferences, retreats, hospitals, churches and leadership initiatives. A lover of education and healthy living, his doctoral project focused on physical, mental and spiritual health as a catalyst for success in life. Fr. Chris married his beautiful bride Allyson in 1998 and has two awesome daughters, Sophia and Amelia.

Greg Abdalah

Greg Abdalah, a native of the Pittsburgh area, began college studying Music Education, gathering theoretical knowledge and practical experience in early childhood development. Throughout that time, Greg worked at a summer camping program gaining practical experience in youth work. This lead to full-time work organizing and implementing youth programs for eleven churches in the Pittsburgh area following graduation from Duquesne University.

Greg furthered his practical experience in youth ministry during his graduate work, regularly being invited to speak at various camps and youth retreats across the US and Canada, ultimately earning a Master of Divinity with a thesis focused on engaging the church’s youth through music. Following graduation, he served as the Pastoral Assistant and Youth Director at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral in Worcester, MA until 2014 when he became the Youth Pastor at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Phoenix, AZ where he still serves. In 2018 he earned his Doctor of Ministry focused on liturgical education. Greg was married to his beautiful bride Diana in April of 2018.

To date, Greg has written nearly 20 academic articles on topics ranging from youth work to music to leadership skills. He has spoken at over 30 retreats, seminars, conferences, churches, camps and leadership initiatives.

Valerie Haddad

Valerie Haddad was born and raised in Glendale, California. Upon graduating high school, Valerie pursued and obtained her professional pilot’s licenses and certifications and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Aviation from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2003.

Valerie joined Vanguard as a Client Services Representative in 2004. While at Vanguard, Valerie held several leadership positions where she had the opportunity to lead large operations departments through strategic projects and business planning cycles. In 2013, Valerie obtained her MBA from the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Valerie is married to Michael and they have two children, Georgina and Gabriel.

Valerie mentors and coaches young professionals looking to grow and advance in their career, has served on several panel sessions regarding varying leadership topics as well as overseeing the Sunday School and Stewardship programs at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, the birthplace of the Warrior Saints Movement. Her passion is coaching and developing leaders, strategic planning, program design and implementation, building business relationships, teamwork and collaboration, talent acquisition and process engineering and improvement, innovative and conceptual thinking, and problem solving.

Michael Haddad

Michael Haddad was born in Tucson, Arizona where he spent the first 16 years of his life. In 1998, Michael and his family relocated to Phoenix, AZ where he currently resides. Michael attended Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. During his final year of studies at Arizona State University, Michael obtained an internship opportunity with a marketing technology company where he learned about web development as well as direct mail and email marketing. After spending over 9 years with this same company in which Michael held various developer and leadership positions, he joined a private equity firm where he holds the position of Vice President of Technology managing software development across the various portfolio companies belonging to the firm.

Michael has taken the knowledge earned throughout his professional career and applied it to website and marketing development for St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Phoenix, AZ as well as the Warrior Saints Movement. Michael is married to Valerie and they are raising two Warrior Saints, Georgina and Gabriel.