Ron is blessed beyond measure to be married to Nan. By the grace of God, since 1986 they have partnered together in marriage, parenting, and ministry.
Ron is Founder and President of As For Me And My House Ministries, LLC (the parent ministry of Successful Stepfamilies) which provides marriage and family training and family ministry consultation to church leaders (for more visit www.RonDeal.org). Nan serves as Vice President of Ministry Outreach for Successful Stepfamilies and is a freelance voice talent.
Ron is author of the critically acclaimed Stepfamily Resource Library including the Amazon.com bestselling book The Smart Stepfamily: Seven Steps to a Healthy Family and DVD series, The Smart Stepmom, coauthored with Laura Petherbridge, and The Remarriage Checkup: Tools to Help Your Marriage Last a Lifetime, coauthored with Dr. David Olson. A former Stepfamily Educational Consultant to Focus on the Family, Ron is a member of the Stepfamily Expert Council for the NationalStepfamilyResourceCenter. He is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor with 20 years experience in full-time local church ministry.
Ron served as a member of the Couple Checkup Research Team (headed by Dr. David Olson, Life Innovations) which conducted the two largest studies of marriage ever accomplished. They surveyed over 100,000 marriages and remarriages (over 200,000 people) and examined the qualitative differences between highly satisfied marriages and low-quality marriages. The results of their groundbreaking research for couples are published in the books The Couple Checkup (Olson, Larson, & Olson-Sigg, 2008) and The Remarriage Checkup (Deal & Olson, 2010), and are featured in Ron’s newest seminar for dating, engaged, married, and remarried couples—the Couple Checkup Conference. Ron is a popular conference speaker and has appeared in dozens of national radio and TV broadcasts both in the US and Canada and has been interviewed by Fox News, MSNBC, ABC Nightline, ABC News.com, WGN-TV, and newspapers (like the New York Daily News) throughout the US, Canada, and a variety of countries. Ron welcomes media interviews. He has written feature family and ministry articles addressing a variety of family matters for a number of publications and online magazines inc luding Focus on the Family magazine, ParentLife, The Family Room, and Christianity Today. He also writes a monthly feature article in HomeLife magazine.
On a regular basis Ron trains therapists, marriage educators, and ministry professionals at conferences like Smart Marriages, the American Association of Christian Counselors World Conference, and the Association of Marriage & Family Ministries conferences. He has spoken at the National Stepfamily Conference, and the Utah and Arkansas Governors' conferences on the family. Ron and Nan have three boys. Their middle son Connor died unexpectedly in February, 2009 at the age of 12. In his memory, the Deal's have partnered with Touch a Life Foundation to rescue children throughout the world from slave trafficking. They would be honored if you help them sing Connor's song. Visit Connor's Song to learn more about this ministry and hear/watch Connor sing.
What others are saying about Ron Deal and Successful Stepfamilies:
"Ron is an excellent presenter and his book The Smart Stepfamily is the most helpful book I know on this topic. I highly recommend this ministry."
Dr. Gary Chapman
Bestselling author of The Five Love Languages
"Ron Deal is a true minister to stepfamilies."
Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott
Authors and Conference Speakers
bestselling authors of Saving Your Marriage Before it Starts
"Ron is one of the foremost Christian authorities on stepfamilies."
Dr. Bill Maier
former Vice President, Resident Psychologist
Focus on the Family
"Ron Deal has, by far, the best material available on stepfamilies."
H. Norman Wright Author of more than 70 books on the family
Others who endorse Ron’s materials include:
Dr. Gary Smalley, speaker & bestselling author of numerous books
Dennis Rainey, President of FamilyLife & bestselling author
Scott Stanley, PhD, Author of The Power of Commitment, Research Professor, University of Denver
Francesca Adler-Baeder, PhD, Director, National Stepfamily Resource Center
Jim Burns, PhD, President of HomeWord & author of Creating an Intimate Marriage
Kim Alexis, supermodel, speaker, & author
Dr. Margorie Engel, former President of the Stepfamily Association of America
