Damon C. Owens is the founder of Joy-Filled Marriage NJ (www.joyfilledmarriagenj.org), a non-profit organization providing training, resources, and support for engaged and married couples. In 2005, he introduced an exciting new marriage preparation program in NJ: God’s Plan for a Joy-Filled Marriage (Ascension Press), developed by Christopher West and based on the Theology of the Body.

Damon and his wife Melanie have been teaching and promoting Natural Family Planning (NFP) from Seton Hall University and throughout New Jersey since 1993. They serve as NFP Program Coordinators for the Archdiocese of Newark (NJ), and are founders of the New Jersey Natural Family Planning Association (www.njnfp.org). Damon keeps a full speaking schedule at national conferences, marriage seminars, high schools, seminaries, and youth groups on the good news of sexuality, chastity, Theology of the Body, Theology of the Family, and NFP.

Damon currently lives in West Orange, NJ with his wife Melanie, and their six young daughters Naomi, Leah, Rachel, Therese, Collette and Veronica.

Damon is also the National Spokesman for L.E.A.R.N. (Life, Education, and Resource Network) – the national network of independent African-American pro-life organizations.

For ten years, he has been calling attention to the disproportionate effect of anti-family and anti-life issues on the black community. He was raised with his two sisters in Chester, NJ where, among his academic and athletic honors, he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University in 1988 and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1990. Following 13 years as an engineering manager with a major technology firm, he founded a technology startup in 2001, and now works full-time for NJNFP and JFMNJ in support of marriage and the family.

Damon has appeared on EWTN Life on the Rock and March for Life 2006, ABC World News Tonight, CBS News 48 Hours, BET Evening News, and National Public Radio. He is also an accomplished gospel singer with such honors as a solo during the 1995 NJ Papal Mass at Giants Stadium and the funeral mass for Bishop Joseph Francis at the Sacred Heart Basilica in Newark.