David Fowler, FACT's president, grew up in Chattanooga. He graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a B.S. in accounting, serving as president of the Student Government Association his senior year. He attended the University of Cincinnati College of Law on the Chapin-Thomas Scholarship, receiving his J.D. degree in 1983. In law school, Mr. Fowler directed the Moot Court program and participated on the National Moot Court and Craven Constitutional Law teams. He also clerked for the late Harry Klusmeier in the Ohio Court of Appeals.

Following law school, Mr. Fowler practiced law in Cincinnati and Chattanooga and in 1994 successfully ran for the Tennessee state Senate, where he served for 12 years. For four years he also directed the Center for Law and Government at Bryan College, teaching classes in political philosophy and jurisprudence. After leaving office in 2006, Mr. Fowler worked with leaders from across the state to form the Family Action Council of Tennessee to protect the interests of families with respect to state policy and to educate the public about the importance of a family-friendly culture.

Mr. Fowler has volunteered as a choir director in churches in Chattanooga and Cincinnati, Ohio. He is married with one adult child and now lives in Nashville.

David L. Shelley, Director of Church and Community Relations

David L. Shelley, Ph.D., serves as the Director of Church and Community Relations for the Family Action Council of Tennessee. He has been a pastor and marriage and family counselor for over 20 years and is pastor of Smith Springs Baptist Church in Nashville. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Belmont University (Nashville), as the president of a chapter of the Georgia Right to Life and as the president of a pastor’s conference in Georgia.

Dr. Shelley holds a master's degree in marriage and family counseling from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in theology from Trinity Theological Seminary.

He and his wife, Jeanna (a public school teacher), have three children. The Shelleys reside in Brentwood, Tenn., a suburb of Nashville.