Non-Fiction

Cortnie Abercrombie

CORTNIE ABERCROMBIE was named one of the “Top 100 Innovators in Data and Analytics” and one of “12 Brilliant Women in AI & Ethics to Watch”. She’s a top advisor to Fortune 500 companies on responsible AI and data innovation practices and sits on boards advising startups, universities, and other non-profits such as World Economic Forum. She founded responsible AI non-profit AI Truth and is a Founding Editorial Board Member for Springer’s AI and Ethics Journal. Prior to that, she led a Shark-Tank style AI solutions incubator at IBM as well as launching the world’s first and largest Chief Data and Analytics Officers communities.

 



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John S. Allen

JOHN S. ALLEN is a neuroanthropologist working at the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center and Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California. He is also affiliated with the Department of Anthropology, Indiana University. Originally trained in biological anthropology, he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from UC Berkeley. He has conducted fieldwork on the psychophysiology and evolution of schizophrenia in Japan, Papua New Guinea, Palau, and New Zealand, where for several years he was a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Auckland.  Since 1998, he has conducted human neuroanatomical research as a member of the cognitive science research group headed by Hanna and Antonio Damasio, first at the University of Iowa and more recently at USC.

In addition toThe Lives of the Brain: Human Evolution and the Organ of Mind (Harvard University Press, 2009), he is the coauthor of two best-selling anthropology textbooks, Biological Anthropology: The Natural History of Humankind (with Craig Stanford and Susan Antón, Pearson) and Medical Anthropology: A Biocultural Perspective (with Andrea Wiley, Oxford University Press). He is also the author of The Omnivorous Mind: Our Evolving Relationship with Food (Harvard University Press, 2012) and Home: How Habitat Made Us Human (Basic 2015).

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Rebecca Haw Allensworth

REBECCA HAW ALLENSWORTH is a professor at Vanderbilt Law School where she studies antitrust for tech platforms and professional licensing, focusing on the problem of self-regulation by state licensing boards. She is the author of Board to Death: Why Professional Licensing Isn’t Keeping You Safe, forthcoming from Harvard University Press. Her article about state medical boards and unethical prescribers, “Licensed to Pill,” appeared in The New York Review of Books in July 2020. Her work has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and she has advised three presidential administrations about professional licensing policy.

Professor Allensworth earned her undergraduate degree from Yale and an M.Phil. from Cambridge University before earning her J.D. at Harvard Law School, where she served as articles editor of the Harvard Law Review. She served as law clerk to Judge Richard A. Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit before coming to Vanderbilt, where she held the Tarkington Chair of Teaching Excellence before her appointment to a David Daniels Allen Chair in Law in 2022. She assumed the role of associate dean for research in January 2023. She is a five-time winner of the Hall Hartman Outstanding Professor Award for excellence in teaching.



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Ken Armstrong

Edgar Award-winning author KEN ARMSTRONG is a staff writer at The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that covers criminal-justice issues nationally. His work there has run in the Washington Post and The Paris Review, among other publications. He previously worked at The Seattle Times, where he won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting and shared in the 2010 Pulitzer for breaking news. At the Chicago Tribune, Armstrong co-wrote an investigation of capital cases that helped prompt the Illinois governor to suspend executions and later empty Death Row.

Armstrong has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and the McGraw Professor of Writing at Princeton. In 2009, Columbia University awarded him the John Chancellor Award for lifetime achievement. He has won the George Polk Award three times and is a six-time winner of the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award. Scoreboard, Baby, his book with co-author Nick Perry, won a 2011 Edgar Award and shows how a community’s blind embrace of a college football team compromised judges, prosecutors, police agencies, a proud university and the media. Armstrong lives in Seattle with his wife and two children. He is currently working on a book about landslides.

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David Avrin

Popular business marketing author DAVID AVRIN is known as The Visibility Coach. An in-demand marketing/branding speaker and business consultant, David has spoken to enthusiastic audiences across North America and around the world including recent presentations in: Singapore, Australia, India, Argentina, Sri Lanka, England, Scotland, Belgium, Monte Carlo, Thailand, The Netherlands and Dubai.

A former CEO group leader, facilitator and executive coach for Vistage International — the worlds largest CEO member organization, David has extensive experience working with company leaders to help them ferret-out and craft meaningful, competitive advantage.  David is also the author of the popular business marketing book: It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You! and The 20 Best and Worst Questions Reporters Ask.  On the creative writing side, he also penned: The Gift In Every Day, Little Lessons on Living a Big Life. and has stories published in three different “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books.

David is the self-described sappy father of three bright, quite inappropriate and overly-confident “kids” in their teens and 20s. When he is not traveling, he is living a busy life navigating football and basketball practices and game for his kids, camping and other activities in the quiet south Denver suburb of Castle Rock, Colorado.  Learn more about David Avrin at www.visibilitycoach.com

a avrin visibility marketing   a avrin why customers leave and how to win them back



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Sara Azari

SARA AZARI is a criminal defense attorney and media contributor, providing legal commentary, hosting and expert analysis on a variety of television programs, talk shows and new broadcasts including CNN, HLN, ABC’s Good Morning America and World News, Crime Watch Daily, The Doctors, CBS, MSNBC, Daily Mail TV, and other talk shows and cable news shows.

A graduate with honors from University of California Los Angeles and Southwestern Law School, Sara leads the Law Office of Sara Azari, a premier boutique law firm based in Los Angeles where she represents individuals and entities accused of criminal misconduct in investigation and cases in state and federal district courts across the nation.   She has earned a reputation as a tough and aggressive attorney, receiving numerous awards and recognitions during the past decade. Sara is multi-lingual, speaking French, Portuguese, Spanish, Farsi and English. Her first book is “Unprecedented: A Simple Guide to the Crimes of the Trump Campaign and Presidency” (Spring 2020).  Photo Credit: John Schell

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Erin Baebler

ERIN BAEBLER has spent the past ten years providing coaching to women in transition through her company, Magnolia Workshop. She had an essay published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: New Moms and was a contributor to Five Must Know Secrets for Today’s College Girl. Erin is a sought-after speaker for Seattle-area moms’ groups. She can be found on the web at http://www.magnoliaworkshop.com, on Facebook at Magnolia Workshop or on Twitter at @magnoliawkshop.

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Dr. Ryan K. Balot

RYAN K. BALOT is Professor of Political Science and Classics at the University of Toronto. The author of Greed and Injustice in Classical Athens (Princeton University Press, 2001), of Greek Political Thought (Blackwell, 2006), and of Courage and Its Critics in Democratic Athens (Oxford University Press, 2014), and editor of A Companion to Greek and Roman Political Thought (Blackwell, 2009), Balot specializes in American, early modern, and classical political thought. He received his doctorate in Classics at Princeton University and his B.A. degrees in Classics from The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

Before moving to Political Science at Toronto, Balot taught for nearly a decade in the Classics departments at Union College and Washington University in St. Louis, as both a Greek historian and a classical philologist. Balot’s research has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Teagle Foundation of New York. His essays and reviews have appeared in Political Theory, Ancient Philosophy, Social Research, Review of Politics, Arion, American Journal of Philology, Classical Quarterly, The Journal of Hellenic Studies, and Rhetorica. His current projects include work on Machiavelli’s republicanism and Hegel’s conception of freedom.

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Dr. Matt Barney

MATT BARNEY, Ph.D. is the Founder and CEO of LeaderAmp, a firm with a patent-pending on a new system to accelerate leader development, using the latest science and mobile technology.   He has over 20 years of experience in senior and strategic global roles in large technology (Infosys, AT&T/Lucent, Motorola), healthcare (Sutter Health, Merck) and startup organizations (Virtual MindWorks, Anvea).   Dr. Barney’s fourth book he wrote as an expatriate in India, Leading Value Creation: Organizational Science, Bioinspiration and the Cue See Model (Palgrave Macmillan 2013).

Dr. Barney has published and presented on leadership, human capital, assessment and Six Sigma throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas, and has authored five patents.  He holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Tulsa.  He is a Motorola Master Black Belt, Certified Risk Manager, and a Cialdini Method Certified Trainer.  In 2007, he was named “Future Leader” by Human Capital Magazine.

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Melba Pattillo Beals

MELBA PATTILLO BEALS is one of the Little Rock Nine. At 15, Melba Pattillo and 8 other black students faced the wrath of segragionists and the Govenor of Arkansas to become the first black students to enter Central High School. The civil rights battle which erupted rocked this country, put the world on edge and set Melba’s life forever on a different course. She faced angry, rampant killer mobs and renegade police who forced then-President Eisenhower to send combat-ready soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division to protect the lives of the nine students. In 1998, for their courage and self-sacrifice, the Congress of the United States awarded the Little Rock Nine America’s top civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal. Other recipients of this rarely given honor – just over 300 in the history of the nation – include President George Washington, the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, Bob Hope, Walt Disney, President Harry S. Truman, General Colin Powell and Mother Teresa.

Melba worked as a news reporter for San Francisco’s public television station, KQED, and for the NBC affiliate, KRON-TV. She has written numerous articles for periodicals including PeopleEssence, and the San Francisco Examiner. Her bestselling books that chronicle her experiences, Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock Central High School and its sequelWhite is a State of Mind: Freedom is Yours to Choose have provided inspirational reading for millions. Her bestselling primer on public relations Expose Yourself: Using The Power of Public Relations to Promote Your Business and Yourself is an acknowledged industry reference. Photo: Brandon Davis.

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Dr. Eli Berman

ELI BERMAN is an associate professor of economics at UC San Diego and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research interests include economic development and conflict, the economics of religion, labor economics, technological change, economic demography, and applied econometrics. Recent grants from the National Science Foundation (2002 and 2005) have enabled him to look closely at relationships between religion and fertility from an economic standpoint.

His publications include “Religion, Terrorism, and Public Goods: Testing the Club Model” (with David Laitin) in the Journal of Public Economics (2008), and “The Economics of Religion,” in the New Palgrave Encyclopedia of Economics (with Laurence Iannaccone). Berman received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. He is also the author of Radical, Religious and Violent: The New Economics of Terrorism from the MIT Press.

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Tory Bilski

TORY BILSKI is a travel writer based in Connecticut. Her most recent pieces have appeared in Atlas Obscura, Hartford Courant, Roads & Kingdoms, and Iceland Review. In 2013, she created an award-winning blog, Icelandica, featuring tales of adventure (and misadventure) with a group of fellow women travelers in Iceland. She has had short stories published in The Kenyon Review, 13th Moon, Black Warrior Review, which was nominated for a Pushcart. She has a B.A. from Oswego State, and a M.A.L.S. from Wesleyan University, and attended Sarah Lawrence’s MFA program. She works at Yale University and lives near New Haven, Connecticut.

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Jude Blanchette

JUDE BLANCHETTE is the assistant director of the 21st Century China Program at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. Prior to arriving in San Diego, he lived in China for more than six years, where he worked for KPMG and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. He holds a BA in economics from the Loyola University Maryland and a Masters in Contemporary Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford. His translations have appeared in the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications.

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Hugh Blane

HUGH BLANE is the go to expert when it comes to converting human potential into accelerated business performance – that’s why his clients call him The Talent Alchemist.

His consulting firm, Claris Consulting, is retained by clients such as Sony Pictures, Costco, Nordstrom and Starbucks to challenge assumptions, jettison complacency and catapult growth.

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Dr. Jo Boaler

DR. JO BOALER is a Professor of Mathematics Education at Stanford University. She was also the chair of the Curriculum and Teacher Education area group. Professor Boaler is a former secondary school teacher of mathematics and has taught in diverse, inner London comprehensive schools, across the 11-18 age range. Her PhD won the national award for educational research in the UK, and she is the author of numerous articles and seven books. Professor Boaler specializes in the impact of different mathematics teaching approaches upon student understanding, achievement and equity. Her book: Experiencing School Mathematics won the ‘Outstanding Book of the Year’ award for education in Britain. She is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain), a former president of the International Organisation for Women and Mathematics Education (IOWME) and a recipient of an ‘Early Career Award’ from the National Science Foundation in the US.

Her book What’s Math Got to Do With It? (Viking/Penguin 2008) aims to increase public understanding of the importance of mathematics, and the nature of teaching and learning. She is currently working with members of the British Government and with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust to bring effective research based approaches into schools. Please visit her website at http://ed.stanford.edu/faculty/joboaler.

a boaler     a boaler mathematical mindset   a boaler mindset mathematics grade 5   a boaler limitless mind



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Chaka Booker

CHAKA BOOKER is a managing director for The Broad Center, a national organization founded by billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad. Focused on leadership development, the center annually partners with 40+ organizations and trains 80+ leaders. As a senior leader with the organization, Chaka has more than a decade of experience recruiting, assessing and developing leaders. He is a Pahara-Aspen Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Chaka has written for the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Success magazine and is a Forbes monthly contributor on leadership and entrepreneurship. He earned bachelor’s degrees in economics and psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. As an introvert, Chaka is either helping leaders navigate their toughest challenges or he’s figuring out how to leave a room without anyone noticing. Connect with him on Twitter @chakabooker or LinkedIn.

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Aileen Bordman

AILEEN BORDMAN is a filmmaker and founder of Monet’s Palate, Inc., a company dedicated to sharing the world of Claude Monet. She has been immersed in the world of Claude Monet since 1980 and has more than 30 years of firsthand experience at Monet’s home and gardens. Her knowledge and passion with respect to Claude Monet’s lifestyle, cuisine, gardens and art prompted the creation of the Monet’s Palate concept. Bordman independently wrote and produced the film Monet’s Palate. The film has been screened from Cannes to New York, and was featured during the six-month “Monet’s Garden” exhibit at the New York Botanical Gardens in New York City. Her cookbook Monet’s Palate Cookbook: The Artist and His Kitchen Garden at Giverny releases from Gibbs Smith in May 2015.

Bordman - Monets Palate      Aileen Bordman book cover



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Dr. Walter M. Bortz

DR. WALTER M. BORTZ II is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and a graduate of Williams College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Recognized as one of America’s most distinguished scientific experts on aging and longevity, Dr. Walter Bortz’s research has focused on the importance of physical exercise in the promotion of robust aging. Dr. Bortz has published over 130 medical articles and authored numerous books, including 100 Healthy YearsWe Live Too Short and Die Too LongDare to Be 100, and Living Longer for Dummies, and Diabetes Danger. Dr. Bortz is past co-chairman of the American Medical Association’s Task Force on Aging, former President of The American Geriatric Society and is currently Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board for the Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation, as well as a Senior Advisor to Healthy Silicon Valley, a community collaborative effort which addresses the soaring incidence of obesity and diabetes.

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Brad Botkin

BRAD BOTKIN is a staff editor at CBSSports.com and a senior writer at Rylin Media, a sports publishing company that has sold more than 500,000 commemorative, first-to-market championship books. Brad is also a consultant and contributing writer for the United States Olympic Committee, and in addition to ghostwriting the life story of three-time lottery winner Audrey Garlick, he recently authored his debut novel. Since graduating from Sonoma State University in 2003, Brad has worked at both newspapers and magazines as a sports writer/editor while also freelancing for various websites and publications, including ESPN the Magazine. In 2008. he was selected as a finalist in California’s CNPA Better Newspaper Writers contest.

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Dr. Berit Brogaard

BERIT BROGAARD, D.M.Sci., Ph.D., is a Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Brogaard Lab for Multisensory Research at the University of Miami. Her educational background includes a medical degree in neuroscience and a doctorate in philosophy. Her areas of research include perception, synesthesia, blindsight, consciousness, neuro-psychiatry and emotions. Brit has written over 100 peer-reviewed articles amd some four hundred popular articles on neuroscience and health issues.

She is the co-author of The Superhuman Mind (Hudson Street Press/Penguin) and author of Transient Truths (Oxford), On Romantic Love (Oxford) and Seeing and Saying (Oxford). Her work has been featured in various public media, including Nightline, ABC News, the Huffington Post, Fox News, MSNBC, Daily Mail, Modesto Bee, and Mumbai Mirror. She is also an editor of the international peer-reviewed philosophy journal Erkenntnis and was the first female President of the Central States Philosophical Association.  Photo by August Jennewein.

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Charles Buckley

Deputy Attorney General CHARLES BUCKLEY spent 25 years as one of New Jersey’s top trial prosecutors, acting as a modern-day legal Paladin—”have briefcase, will travel”—and crisscrossing New Jersey to try the most difficult cases. Buckley put away the boss of the Philadelphia/Atlantic City crime family, as well as the capo in charge of the Hudson County waterfront. In New Jersey’s first televised trial, he convicted a judge who accepted bribes to fix sentences. Other public officials felt Buckley’s brand of justice: an official taking bribes to facilitate bridge and road construction; a mayor and planning board members taking bribes from developers; and a Hudson County police chief, Passaic County detective, and two City of Paterson cops—all convicted for misconduct involving organized crime. Buckley was the prosecutor who finally convicted Robert Reldan after two previous murder trials had ended in failure.

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Keele Burgin

KEELE BURGIN is an entrepreneur, activist, mother of three, author, and filmmaker. Her story of survival and self-discovery has inspired a life dedicated to impacting tens of thousands of women across the globe. She has served in leadership roles on the boards of multiple nonprofit organizations that empower women.

Keele made her mark in the business world by cofounding two companies, taking her first one public. Her second, a venture out of her hometown of Boulder, Colorado, is designed to help women rearchitect their lives by relinquishing the patterns of behavior that hold them back.

Her memoir WHOLLY UNRAVELED will debut from Little A / Amazon in April 2019.

For more information, visit www.keeleburgin.com.

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Mark Changizi

MARK CHANGIZI is a scientist with expertise in theoretical neurobiology, vision, cognitive science, and language. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes.com and Wired.com. In 2002, he won a prestigious Sloan-Swartz Fellowship at Caltech, and since 2007 he has been an assistant professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

His research aims to grasp the ultimate foundations underlying why we think, feel and see as we do. Focusing on “why” questions, he has made important discoveries on why we see in color, why we see illusions, why we have forward-facing eyes, why letters are shaped as they are, why the brain is organized as it is, why animals have as many limbs and fingers as they do, and why the dictionary is organized as it is. He has more than thirty scientific journal articles, some of which have been covered in news venues such as the New York TimesWall Street JournalNewsweekUSA Today, Time Magazine, Reuters, ABC News, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Scientific American, Wired, Discover Magazine and Live Science. He has written three books, HARNESSED: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man (Benbella 2011), THE VISION REVOLUTION (Benbella, 2009) and THE BRAIN FROM 25,000 FEET (Kluwer, 2003). Photo: Mark McCarty, Rensselaer.

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Nancy Clark

NANCY CLARK is the author of Positive Journal, a 365-day journal with daily prompts, based on positive psychology, organized to create long-term happiness and fulfillment.

As Director of Forbes WomensMedia, and CEO of Positivity Daily Nancy had been working to help women succeed for more than 15 years.  Wanting to reach women in many different sectors, she has accepted invitations to speak at major corporations, universities, and even at the Pentagon. Her uniqueness is that she combines positive psychology and the personal skills people need to succeed in whatever they choose.

Her mission is to give women the tools they need to lead happy, productive, successful, and fulfilling lives. The success of this mission was honored by Forbes as a new thought leader with her own online channel, Forbes WomensMedia—the first channel focused on women.

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Suzan Colon

SUZAN COLON is the author of the inspirational memoir CHERRIES IN WINTER (Random House) and a former senior editor of O, the Oprah Magazine. Suzan has also written BEACH GLASS, a novel (Bell Bridge Books) and three young adult novels based on the TV series Smallville (Little, Brown), among other titles. Suzan’s writing has been featured in O, the Oprah Magazine; Good Housekeeping; Marie Claire; Jane; Harper’s Bazaar; Seventeen; Details; Rolling Stone; and other publications. Her essays have been included in three Oprah Magazine “best of” hardcover collections. Suzan has made appearances on The Today Show, The Early Show, CNN, and NPR, among others.

Suzan is also a certified Yoga teacher and teacher trainer. She is the creator of Take A Yoga Break, an iTunes app of Yoga-based moves to counteract the harmful effects of long periods of sitting. Visit her at suzancolon.net.

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Carol Soret Cope

CAROL SORET COPE is an attorney and the author of three books: Murder on the High Seas: The True Story of the Joe Cool’s Tragic Final Voyage (Berkley); In the Fast Lane: A True Story of Murder in Miami (Simon & Schuster) and Stranger Danger: How to Keep Your Child Safe (Andrews McMeel).

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Claire Cousineau

CLAIRE COUSINEAU is a writer and researcher at the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions (SCCEI). She graduated from Middlebury College with a B.A. in Chinese and minors in religion and psychology. After studying and working in Beijing and Kunming, her role at SCCEI centers around fostering a more nuanced understanding of China and its role on the global stage. She is a co-author of Exam Empire (Harvard University Press).



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Melissa Daimler

MELISSA DAIMLER is the founding principal of Daimler Partners, working as an advisor, facilitator, and executive coach. Her primary focus is helping leaders design and operationalize culture. Prior to starting Daimler Partners, Melissa was an executive who experienced multiple leadership viewpoints throughout her career. She led HR for a fast-growing venture-funded startup. She also created and built Learning & Organizational Development functions for Adobe, Twitter, and WeWork.

She is a speaker, panelist, and contributor to broad industry publishers including Harvard Business Review (HBR) and Forbes. One of the first coaches certified by the International Coach Federation (“ICF”), Melissa graduated from the Pepperdine University Graziadio Business School with an M.S. in Organizational Development.



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Hillary Davis

HILLARY DAVIS Food journalist, cooking instructor, and writer and creator of the popular food blog, Marché Dimanche, Hillary Davis is a long time food columnist and restaurant critic for New Hampshire Magazine and her work has been featured in Connecticut Home Living, Hartford Magazine, Tastes of New England, ParisLuxe.com, eGuideTravel.com, and other regional, national, and international publications. She has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including Bloomberg Business News, B Sky B Television News in London, CNBC, BBC radio, WMUR-TV, WBK-Radio, and other local stations in the U.S. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book, A Million A Minute, and has been a food and travel lecturer on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity cruise lines. As a food authority, she is a frequent judge of cooking competitions and a speaker at food and blogging events.

Hillary lived in the village of Bar-sur-Loup, near Nice, for over 11 years and presently lives in New Hampshire where she cooks, develops and tests recipes, and writes. She earned a degree in Economics from Columbia University and a graduate degree in International Relations from Cambridge University. Photo by Steven Rothfeld. www.Hillary-Davis.com @marchedimanche

Davis - Cuisine     Davis - French Comfort Food  French Oven Cover-2



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Chris Deaver and Ian Clawson

CHRIS DEAVER is a culture shaper. He’s influenced Fortune 500s from the inside, including the first trillion-dollar company, Apple. Chris is co-Founder of BraveCore, a leadership consultancy shaping the future by helping leaders be more creative and creatives be better leaders. He’s a regular contributor to Fast Company, featured in The Wall Street Journal, EntrepreneurThe Financial Times, Business Insider, The Economic Times, Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post, Fortune, The Washington Post, USA Today, Yahoo, Thrive Global, Influencive, Engadget, and CNET.  He’s partnered with Vurvey on research of 30,000 creators, exploring how to better co-create experiences with customers and employees (including Nike, etc.). He’s developed landmark studies of the most innovative teams, partnering with Stanford and Harvard professors.

IAN CLAWSON is co-Founder of BraveCore, co-host of the Lead with a Question podcast, and is a regular contributor to Fast Company. He’s had work featured in The Wall Street JournalInfluenciveEngadgetDisrupt Magazine, and CNET. Ian has led large teams and cultures through transformation with a background in Healthcare leadership. As an Administrator, he oversaw a multi-million-dollar skilled nursing facility operation in Silicon Valley that helps the sick and elderly recover from challenges. Ian continues to advise startup founders and professionals contributing to 10x growth through leadership development and coaching. He has a past life in the field of marketing with the skillset of a copywriter and storyteller having a passion for connecting products to consumers. He earned a degree at BYU-Hawaii in International Cultural Studies where he developed a high interest in World Philosophy and Communication Theory.

 

 



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Louis A. Del Monte

LOUIS A. DEL MONTE  is an award-winning physicist, bestselling author, featured speaker and the chief executive officer of Del Monte and Associates, Inc. During his over 30-year career as physicist/business executive at IBM (1968-1971) and later at Honeywell (1972-2001), he led the development of microelectronics and sensors, developed patents fundamental to the fabrication of integrated circuits, and achieved Honeywell’s highest awards in both scientific and human resource management.

Del Monte’s media exposure includes both television and radio interviews, over 25,000 Twitter followers, over 250,000 Facebook post reads per year, almost 12,000 Google Plus followers accounting for over 2,100,000 post reads and over 40,000 visitors per year to his Science Q&A Blog. Major magazines like the Business Insider, The Huffington Post and The Atlantic have featured his articles or quoted his views on technology.

a del monte nanoweapons   a del monte genius weapons   a del monte war at the speed of light



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Jamie Della

JAMIE DELLA is an ordained Priestess, Hearth Witch, creativity mentor and author of nine books, including The Book of Spells: The Magick of Witchcraft and The Wicca Cookbook. Jamie is the editor and writer of Every Last Drop Series: Exposes on L.A. Eastern Sierra Water Wars. She writes the “Herbal Journeys” column for Witches & Pagan Magazine, and her blog the “Making the Magick.”

Jamie produces YouTube videos and teaches an online course and gives workshops at herbal, Magickal and women’s gatherings throughout the West and online, including the Northern California Women’s Herbal Symposium, Magick and Science of the Goddess Summit, and Red Earth Herbal Gathering. When not writing, Jamie can be found at her potter’s wheel, hiking the Eastern Sierra Mountains or road tripping to satisfy her wanderlust. 

 



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Kevin Deutsch

KEVIN DEUTSCH is an award-winning criminal justice writer for Newsday. He previously worked on staff at the New York Daily News, The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post and The Riverdale Press. He specializes in coverage of street gangs, drug trafficking and national security. He has received numerous prizes for his writing from the Society of Professional Journalists and the New York Press Club. He is the author of The Triangle: A Year Inside New York’s Deadliest Gang War (Lyons Press 2014). Kevin was born in Brooklyn, NY and splits his time between Long Island and Manhattan. Photo credit: Laura Russo.

a deutsch the triangle   a deutsch pill city



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Anthony “Tony” Destefano

Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist ANTHONY “TONY” DESTEFANO is a staff reporter covering New York City legal affairs and criminal justice for Newsday newspaper. He was part of a team of New York Newsdayreporters who won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for spot news while covering the crash of a subway train at Union Square. Prior to joining Newsday, Tony was a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal and Fairchild News Service. Tony has covered a wide range of legal related subjects, specializing in organized crime, white collar crime and immigration. As reporter at Newsday, and for a time as an assistant editor, he covered the trials of subway gunman Bernhard Goetz, mob bosses John Gotti and Joseph Massino, as well as the arrest and conviction of Bernard Madoff in history’s largest Ponzi scheme. In addition, Tony spent years researching and writing about human smuggling. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Ithaca College (Ithaca, N.Y.), a Master of Arts from Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI) and a Juris Doctor from New York Law School (New York, N.Y.) He is an attorney and member of the New York State Bar.

Tony is the author of Gloria Estefan: The Pop Superstar From Tragedy to Triumph (Dutton, 1997), Latino Folk Medicine: Healing Herbal Remedies From Ancient Traditions (Ballantine, 2001), and The Last Godfather: Joseph Massino And The Fall of The Bonanno Crime Family (Citadel Press, 2006), King of The Godfathers (Citadel Press, 2008) and The War On Human Trafficking: U.S. Policy Assessed (Rutgers University Press, 2008). Tony can be reached at his website, (www.tonydestefano.com).

a destefano_mob killer  a destefano- VinnyGorgeous  a destefano gangland   a destefano- the big heist  a destefano top hoodlum  a destefano gotti's boys   



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Emily Dilling

EMILY DILLING is the author of My Paris Market Cookbook: A Culinary Tour of French Flavors and Seasonal Recipes (September 2015) and the founder of the blog parispaysanne.com, which documents her quest to explore Paris markets and French terroir. Emily’s writing has appeared in Beer Advocate, The Portland Mercury, HiP Paris, and Paste Magazine.

My Paris Market Cookbook



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David Disalvo

DAVID DISALVO is a science writer and public education specialist who writes about the intersection of science, technology and culture. His work has appeared in Scientific American Mind, Psychology Today, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Mental Floss, Salon, Esquire and other publications, and he is the writer behind the widely read science and technology blogs, Neuropsyched, Neuronarrative and The Daily Brain. He is frequently interviewed about science and technology topics, including appearances on NBC Nightly News and CNN Headline News. David has also served as a consulting research analyst and communications specialist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and several public and private organizations in the U.S. and abroad. His first non-fiction book, What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite, has been translated into 10 languages and is available worldwide. He is also the author of The Brain in Your Kitchen and Brain Changer.

a disalvo- what  makes your brain happy     a disalvo- brain in your kitchen     a disalvo- brain changer final



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Dr. Matt Dixon

MATT DIXON is Executive Director of the Financial Services and Customer Contact Practices of CEB in Arlington, VA.  In this capacity, he has management responsibility for the membership programs serving front office and back office financial services leaders and their teams, as well as the programs serving customer contact executives across industry.   A seasoned research leader, Matt has overseen dozens of original quantitative and qualitative research studies on topics ranging from customer service strategy to sales effectiveness and has presented findings to hundreds of senior executives and management teams around the world, including those of many Fortune 500 companies.

In addition to his management responsibilities, Matt is a noted business writer.  His first book, The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation(Penguin 2011), was a Wall Street Journal bestseller and won acclaim as “the most important advance in selling for many years” (SPIN Selling author Neil Rackham) and “the beginning of a wave that will take over a lot of selling organizations in the next decade.” (Business Insider).   He’s been published multiple times in the Harvard Business Review­­ with articles such as “Dismantling the Sales Machine,” “The End of Solution Sales” (July-August 2012) and “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers” (July-August 2010) and he is a frequent contributor on sales and customer service topics on a number of blogs, including that of the Harvard Business Review.  His most recent book is on customer service, The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty (Penguin 2013).

Matt holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh as well as a B.A. in International Studies from Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he graduated summa cum laude.  Matt currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland with his wife and four children.

a dixon- Challenger Sale     a dixon- effortless experience    a dixon challenger customer  



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Gary Dudney

GARY DUDNEY has been publishing articles on running, trail running, and ultrarunning for the past 20 years. His work has appeared in all the major running magazines, such as Runner’s World, Running Times, Trailrunner, and Marathon & Beyond. For Ultrarunning magazine, considered the “voice of the sport” of ultra long distance running, he’s served as a regular columnist since 2008, and he has additionally supplied the magazine with dozens of uniquely quirky race reports.  Ideas for The Tao of Running: Your Journey to Mindful and Passionate Running were shaped by the 40 one hundred mile races he’s participated in and the almost two hundred other long distance races he’s completed. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Kansas in English Literature and his fiction credentials include stories in Boy’s Life magazine and in numerous literary magazines and one published novel, Cries-at-Moon of the Kitchi-Kit.

a dudney the tao of running   a dudney the mindful runner



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Peter Economy

PETER ECONOMY is a bestselling business author, developmental editor, publishing consultant, and ghostwriter with more than 50 books to his credit. His books include the bestselling Managing For Dummies (sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide, in more than 20 different languages), The SAIC Solution: How We Built an $8 Billion Employee-Owned Technology CompanyGiving Back: Connecting You, Business, and Community, and many others.

For more than a decade, he has specialized in collaborating with thought leaders in a variety of different industries and organizations – from Fortune 100 businesses to universities to non-profits with national reach. As the Associate Editor for the Apex award-winning magazine Leader to Leader, Peter has worked closely with some of the nation’s top business thinkers, including Jim Collins, Frances Hesselbein, Peter Senge, Kellie McElhaney, Philippe Kahn, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Peter Georgescu, Wiliam Taylor and many others. Peter is also a member of the National Advisory Council of the Creativity Connection of the Arts and Business Council of Americans for the Arts, and serves on the board of SPORTS for Exceptional Athletes.

a economy wait I'm the boss  



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Russ Edelman

Our surveys indicate that the short term effects of being “too nice” in business include a reduction in profits by 8% with even more substantial long term results. RUSS EDELMAN, founder of Nice Guy Strategies, LLC (NGS), has long considered this an important topic. His experience as a business executive and serial entrepreneur, coupled with his own Nice Guy propensity, spurred his interest into how nice guys fare in the business world. Further research led him to formulate a practical framework of knowledge on the subject to help nice guys and their managers. In Nice Guys Can Get The Corner Office (Portfolio/Penguin), Russ shares 8 key strategies to help overly nice guys become “Effectively Nice.”

Nice Guy Strategies, LLC is Russ’s third business venture. In addition to serving as CEO of Corridor Consulting, Inc, Russ regularly speaks and writes on key business and technology trends for the finance and IT industries he serves. As a highly regarded analyst, he pushes the envelope in understanding, analyzing, and explaining key industry trends to global constituencies.

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Leah Odze Epstein

LEAH ODZE EPSTEIN is the co-editor of the anthology Drinking Diaries (Seal Press). She writes fiction and poetry and is currently working on a young adult novel. Her poems can be found on the website Literary Mama. In her past life, she reviewed books for BookPage and Publisher’s Weekly, among other publications. An excerpt from her adult novel-in-progress, Glen Echo, was a finalist in Glimmer Train’s Family Matters competition.

a epstein- drinking diaries



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Mario Erasmo

MARIO ERASMO (PhD Yale 95) is Professor of Classics at the University of Georgia. His teaching and research focus are on Death, Classical Reception, and Spectacle Entertainment as Metatheatre. He merges these seemingly disparate themes in his forthcoming book, The Spectacular Dead (Bloomsbury, 2025) that explores the staging and viewing of Roman corpses from Classical antiquity to contemporary funerary practices and museum displays. 

Other publications include: A Cultural History of Death: Antiquity (ed.); Death: Antiquity and its Legacy; Reading Death in Ancient Rome; Roman Tragedy: Theatre to Theatricality and a recent article that focuses on semiotics and the portraiture of space, “The Theatre of Pompey: Staging the Self Through Roman Architecture” for the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome.  His walking guides, Strolling Through Rome and Strolling Through Florence allow contemporary visitors to experience the historical reception of Classical Antiquity.  



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Phyllis L. Fagell

PHYLLIS L. FAGELL is a licensed clinical professional counselor, certified professional school counselor and journalist. She is the counselor at Sheridan School in Washington, D.C. and a therapist at the Chrysalis Group, where she works  with teens and families.

Phyllis is the author of MIDDLE SCHOOL MATTERS (DaCapo 2019) and writes regular columns for the Washington Post on counseling, parenting and education. She also writes a weekly advice column for educators, and she blogs for organizations including the Association of Middle Level Educators and Character.Org. She regularly presents at schools and conferences on a range of topics, including parenting middle schoolers and navigating middle school social drama.

Phyllis attended Dartmouth College (BA), the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (MSJ) and Johns Hopkins University (MS in counseling).   She lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and three children, ages 16, 14 and 9.  Photo Credit: Geoff Chesman.

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Dr. Paula S. Fass

PAULA S. FASS is Professor of the Graduate School  and Margaret Byrne Professor of History Emerita at the University of California at Berkeley.  Trained as a social and cultural historian of the United States at Columbia University, she has over the last decade been active in developing the field of children’s history and worked to make this an interdisciplinary field with a global perspective. The author or editor of nine books, including Kidnapped:  Child Abduction in AmericaChildren of a New World:  Society, Culture, and Globalization; Outside In: Minorities and the Transformation of American Education; The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s,   Childhood in America (with Mary Ann Mason), The Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society (three volumes).  Reinventing Childhood After World War II   (with Michael Grossberg, and most recently The Routledge History of Childhood in the Western World.  She has also written a family memoir,Inheriting the Holocaust:  A Second Generation Memoir.

Among various honors and recognitions, Fass is a member of the American Philosophical Society, and has an honorary Doctor of Philosophy Degree from Linkoping University in Sweden.  She was the President of the Society of the History of Children and Youth, which she helped to found, from 2007-2009.  She has held fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Spencer Foundation, and was twice a resident fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford.  She also toured Italy as a Department of State lecturer, and was the   Kerstin Hesselgren Professor in Sweden.

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Andrew Feldman

Andrew Feldman attended Tulane University in New Orleans. Spending one year abroad at the University of Sussex, England, he graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in Philosophy. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps, and after attending Officer Candidates School and The Basic School in Quantico Virginia, he served in Okinawa, Japan and in Quantico, Virginia.

While in the Marine Corps, Feldman completed a Master’s Degree in Writing and Literature at Norwich University. Following his military service, he left the United States to study French in France, and continued his studies there until he had completed a second Master’s degree in Linguistics, ESL, and Translation and then a doctorate degree in Comparative Literature at the University of Paris IV, La Sorbonne. His doctoral dissertation examined the art of storytelling in the works of Albert Camus and Ernest Hemingway. He has taught in universities, high schools, and cultural centers in the United States, France, Morocco, Costa Rica, Salvador da Bahia, Florianopolis, and Barcelona. He speaks fluent French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. He spent the last two years conducting research on Hemingway in residence, at the Hemingway Museum and Library, located in a suburbs of Havana, Cuba. (He was the first North American to be granted permission to research in residence in at the Museum.) After two years in Cuba, he returned to the United States where he and his wife and child reside in New Orleans where he continues to pursue his research. As a professor, he has taught at the University of Maryland, American Public University, and Tulane University. Ernesto: Hemingway’s Life in Cuba will be published by Melville Books in 2017.

Andrew Feldman book cover



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Amy Ferris

AMY FERRIS is an author, screenwriter, editor and playwright. She is a co-editor of The Shame Prom (Seal Press 2012) and has contributed (as an author) to the anthologies: He Said What? (Seal Press, 2011), The Drinking Diaries (Seal Press, 2012) and The Buddha Next Door (Middleway Press, 2009.) Her memoir, Marrying George Clooney (Seal Press) will make it’s Off-Broadway debut Fall 2012 (Produced by CAP21 Theater Company). She has written for both film, and television, and was nominated for best screenplay (BET) for Funny Valentines (Julie Dash, Director). She serves on the Board at The Women’s Media Center (Founded by Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem, and Robin Morgan), the Board of Directors at Peters Valley Art, Education and Craft Center and Pages & Places Literary Festival. She is on the Faculty of The San Miguel del Allende International Writers Conference and served on a judging panel (Creative Non-Fiction) for the 2010 PEN/USA Literary Awards. MORE magazine named her blog http://www.marryinggeorgeclooney.com one of the ten best for women over 40. Amy lives happily in Pennsylvania with her husband, Ken.

a ferris    a ferris shades of blue



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Debbie Felton

DEBBIE FELTON is Professor of Classics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her specialty is folklore in classical literature, and she regularly teaches courses on Greek mythology as well as on magic and witchcraft in the ancient world. She has been the editor of the journal Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural since 2015 and an associate review editor for the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts since 2012.

Her first book, Haunted Greece and Rome: Ghost Stories from Classical Antiquity (University of Texas Press, 1999), illuminates the oral and written transmission of the ghost story as a literary form. Her second book, the edited volume Landscapes of Dread in Classical Antiquity, examines fear-related emotions across various genres of Graeco-Roman literature. She is also editor of and contributor to A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in Antiquity (Bloomsbury, 2021). Her latest book, Monsters and Monarchs: Serial Killers in Classical Myth and History (University of Texas Press, 2021), adds evidence from ancient Greece and Rome to the ongoing debate about the nature of serial killing. Professor Felton enjoys bringing research on classical antiquity into the public sphere, and has given dozens of interviews about her work that have appeared in various media (newspapers, radio, tv, blogs, podcasts) in the U.S. and Europe, including Peopling the Past, Coast to Coast AM, The Monster Professor, Weird Tales, CBS Mornings, California Haunts Radio, and Classical Wisdom.

a felton landscapes of dread   



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Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson

CHRISTOPHER J. FERGUSON, PhD. is a psychology professor at Stetson University where he does research on topics related to violent behavior and media influences.  He has published numerous scientific articles on these topics and been interviewed by numerous TV stations, radio programs and newspapers, particularly related to high profile violent crimes.  He was part of Vice President Joe Biden’s meetings on video games following the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, and his work was cited in the 2011 Supreme Court Case Brown v EMA which concluded that violent video games did not pose a public health threat worthy of reducing First Amendment protections for video games.

In addition to his research, Ferguson has published a novel, Suicide Kings, which explores a young woman’s quest to discover her mother’s killer in Renaissance Florence.  He has also published a number of short stories, typically in genres related to science fiction, fantasy and horror.  He lives in the Orlando, FL area with his wife and son.  www.Christopherjferguson.com ; Twitter: CJFerguson1111

a markey- moral combat   a ferguson how madness shaped history 



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David Fishof

DAVID FISHOF has brought the world some of the most successful and exciting live shows in music and has worked with top rockers including Bill Wyman, Bret Michaels, Brian Wilson, Bruce Kulick, Cheap Trick, Dr. John, George Thorogood, Joe Satriani, Meatloaf, Mickey Hart, The Monkees, Nick Mason, Nils Lofgren, Randy Bachman, Ringo Starr, Roger Daltrey, Roger Hodgson, Slash, Steve Vai, Steven Tyler, Todd Rundgren, Vince Neil and so many more. He has also produced a variety of successful concert tours including Dirty Dancing: The Concert Tour, Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Tour, The Happy Together Tours, Classic Superfest, American Gladiators Live Tour, Mortal Kombat Live Tour and the British Rock Symphony with feature vocalists Peter Frampton, Roger Daltrey, Alice Cooper and Jon Anderson. He is also the producer of Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy Camp, which was featured on the VH-1 hit tv series produced by Mark Burnett.

David is the author of Putting It On The Line (William Morrow), the bestselling book on sports and entertainment and co-author of Rock Your Dreams: Turning Your Idea into Reality … Satisfaction … and Cold, Hard Cash. In the sports world, David has represented legends such as NFL greats Phil Simms, Mark Bavaro, Vince Ferragamo, Jack Reynolds, and baseball stars Lou Piniella, Dave Magadan and Randy Myers.

a fishof- rock your business



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Ted Fleming

TED FLEMING is Head of Talent Development for CVS Health, responsible for talent development and succession for all colleagues and providing business consulting solutions across the company. He was the founder of Aetna University an award-winning corporate university. An experienced corporate leader, Ted has more than 30 years of experience across the healthcare, financial services and education industries as a strategic planner, consultant, business owner and general manager.

Ted holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Dartmouth College and a Master’s in Business Administration from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Ted is an avid tennis and squash player who lives in Connecticut with his wife, Kathy.

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Dr. Bonny Forrest

A leader in the field of child development, DR. BONNY FORREST has been an advocate for children and families for over twenty years. As a practicing attorney and a child psychologist, with specialized training in pediatric neuropsychology, she has been a researcher and clinician in academic and medical centers such as the Yale Child Study Center and the National Institute of Mental Health. She has directed clinics serving low-income populations and has conducted a private practice focusing on the assessment of cognitive and other developmental issues in children. She teaches, consults with organizations, serves as an expert witness, and holds positions on a number of advisory boards, including GreatSchools.org. Dr. Forrest is also the creator of Project SKIP: Screening Kids for Intervention and Prevention, which is screening children for social-emotional, cognitive, and developmental issues (http://www.projectskip.com). She appears frequently on FOX, NBC and provides content for numerous other media outlets including Clear Channel Communications and CNN and her own blog at http://www.askdrforrest.com

An engaging speaker, Dr. Forrest presents throughout the United States and internationally. She received her J.D. from Indiana University, and her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Dr. Forrest is the author of Is That Normal? A Guide to Understanding Your Child’s Behavior.

 a forrest will my kid grow



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John Foxjohn

JOHN FOXJOHN epitomizes the phrase “been there—done that.” Born and raised in the rural East Texas town of Nacogdoches, he quit high school and joined the Army at seventeen. Viet Nam veteran, army Airborne Ranger, policeman and homicide detective, retired teacher and coach, and now, a multi-published author.

John has won numerous writing awards and accolades including being named 2008 writer of the year in the Preditors and Editors national poll. He’s a member of Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, Elements of Romance, Lethal Ladies, Sisters-in-Crime, and League of Texas Writers. He is a full time writer and speaker and lives in Lufkin, Texas.

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Phil Fraas

PHIL FRAAS is a longtime constructor of crossword puzzles. He started in the early 1980s when he had several of his first efforts published in The New York Times. He is the author of Brain Health Puzzles for Adults, as well as The Ultimate Brain Health Puzzle Book for Adults: Crosswords, Sudoku, Cryptograms, Word Searches, and More! which has become a best-selling puzzle book. He also oversees and constructs puzzles for a free crossword, sudoku, and word search website—YourPuzzleSource.Com.

 



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Kathleen Frazier

KATHLEEN FRAZIER is an author, actress and coach. She is a Norman Mailer Fellow and a member of The Actors Studio in both the Playwrights & Directors Unit and the Acting Unit. Kathleen’s first foray into writing grew from sense memory exercises at the Studio where she explored her chronic and often dangerous sleepwalking. Episodes began during adolescence when her brother first attempted suicide (a sort of nighttime mirroring of his waking pain) and haunted her for twenty years. The exhausting illness affected all of her relationships and every area of her life. Her personal essay on the subject appeared in Psychology Today. She is the author of SLEEPWALKER: The Mysterious Makings and Recovery of a Somnambulist (Skyhorse Fall 2015). Kathleen lives and sleeps well with her husband and daughter in New York City. Learn more about her at www.kathleenfrazier.com.

a frazier Sleepwalker



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Zack Friedman

ZACK FRIEDMAN is the founder and chief executive officer of Make Lemonade, a leading personal finance company that empowers you to live a better financial life. He is an in-demand speaker and has inspired millions through the power of his advice, including more than 12 million who have read his Forbes column. Previously, he was chief financial officer of an international energy company, a hedge fund investor, and worked at Blackstone, Morgan Stanley, and the White House. Zack holds degrees from Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins. He lives in New York with his wife and children.

a friedman the lemonade life



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Dr. Paul Froese

PAUL FROESE is an Associate Professor at Baylor University and a Fellow of the Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) who specializes in the sociology of religion. He has a MA in philosophy and completed his PhD in sociology at the University of Washington.

His first book, The Plot to Kill God: Findings from the Soviet Experiment in Secularization (University of California Press), tells the story of how atheism, when taken to its extreme, can become as dogmatic and oppressive as any religious faith. He is also a co-Principle Investigator on the Baylor Religion Surveys Project, and he is the co-author of Who Is Your God? How Our Diverse Views of God Are Shaping America, which investigates American images of God. Dr. Froese and his work have been featured on NPR, CNN, NBC, Time, Newsweek, and USA Today.

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Raul Gallegos

RAUL GALLEGOS is a journalist, columnist and a politics and energy business analyst in Latin America. He is the author of Oil Basket Case: The World’s Craziest Oil Rich Economy (Potomac Books 2016) that tells the story of Venezuela’s oil drunk economy. Raul worked as the Latin America financial columnist for Reuters Breakingviews, the analysis and commentary unit of Reuters, and as a writer for Bloomberg View, the editorial division of Bloomberg.

For five years, Raul served as the oil correspondent for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal in Venezuela and as an OPEC team correspondent in Vienna. He has covered U.S. financial markets, emerging capital markets and led a team of journalists covering Wall Street for Institutional Investor in New York. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, Slate, and in newspapers across Latin America, Europe and Asia. He has been a frequent guest commentator on CNN en Español.  Raul obtained a BA in economics from the University of California at Berkeley and he has a master’s degree from Columbia’s School of International Affairs. He was a 2010 Knight-Bagehot Fellow at the Columbia Business School. Raul grew up in El Salvador and is currently based in Bogota, Colombia.

a gallegos- crude nation



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Lara Galloway

LARA GALLOWAY, The Mom Biz Coach, is a speaker, business coach and mentor to mom entrepreneurs and small business owners at MomBiz. Her passion is helping entrepreneurs create and run businesses that honor their priorities and values. She is frequently interviewed for her expertise on work/life balance, starting and running a successful small business, marketing your business on Social Media, and creatively managing your time by media like Forbes, Crain’s Business, ABC, The Chicago Tribune, and More Magazine.

When she’s not working, she’s wrangling her three kids with her husband, drinking good wine or microbrewed beer, and baking something with lots of calories since food is her love language. She loves living in Michigan, especially when it’s 80 degrees and sunny.

a baebler- moms mean business



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Maria Gamb

MARIA GAMB is Founder and CEO of NMS Communications, a training company that focuses on creating powerful leadership and happy, healthy, resilient organizations that thrive. Direct and to the point, with a healthy dose of humor, Maria is a sought-after speaker, consultant, trainer and retreat leader on the topics of women in leadership, gender and team communication dynamics, and values-based leadership. Her work is based in soft skills blended with proven scientific studies creating a template for personal and professional resilience. Maria brings a fresh, practical take to building success.

Maria is a contributor to Forbes and has been featured in Inc. Magazine, Time Magazine, and Wall Street Radio Network. She is a member of the Women’s MBA International (WMBAI) association and the United Nations Association of New York (UNA – NY). She is the author of “Values-Based Leadership for Dummies” ™ published by John Wiley & Sons (2018), released in the United States, Canada, and the UK.  Her latest work on Resilience is inspired by her own life and others, overcoming paralyzing fear and tidal waves of challenges, supported by the latest scientific research.

a gamb resiliency journal  a gamb gratitude journal



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Michael Gardiner

MICHAEL GARDINER is the regular weekly food writer for San Diego CityBeat, an alternative weekly with a weekly circulation of 50,000 (for which he won a 2018 San Diego Press Club award) and a contributor to the food section of the San Diego Union-Tribune, San Diego’s newspaper of record with a daily print circulation of over 120,000. Gardiner is also a freelance writer with publications in Edible San Diego, Thrillist, and Fox News Latino, amongst others. He is also the primary writer for the San Diego Food & Travel Blog and one of the two co-hosts of the Art of Spooning Podcast – focusing on issues in food and the restaurant industry in San Diego and nationally – on the Specialty Produce Network.

Gardiner, like many others in the food world, learned to cook at his mother’s apron. While Gardiner is Jewish he did not grow up in a Kosher environment. When his sister, Jacqueline, married an observant Conservative Jew – they kept a Kosher home – the rules at family gatherings changed: the food had to be Kosher. Determined that – the laws of Kashrut notwithstanding – the food at family celebrations would not be boring, Gardiner set about learning the Jewish dietary laws and what is possible within the parameters of those laws. Contemporary Kosher is the result of that process.



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Dr. Edith B. Gelles

EDITH B. GELLES is the author of Abigail and John: Portrait of a Marriage (Morrow). She is a historian of women with a focus on colonial America and is a senior scholar at Stanford’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research (formerly the Center for Research on Women), her haven since 1983. Her first biography, The World of Abigail Adams received the American Historical Association’s Herbert Feis Award in 1994. She has edited the letters of Abigail Levy Franks (1696-1756), the earliest corpus of letters that survive by any woman in Europe’s western colonies. Her articles have appeared in numerous journals, including William and Mary Quarterly, New England Quarterly, American Quarterly and Psychohistory Review. She lives in Palo Alto, California with her husband and has two grown sons and a poodle.

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Caren Osten Gerszberg

CAREN OSTEN GERSZBERG is a co-editor of the anthology Drinking Diaries (Seal Press). She is also a writer, editor and co-founder of the Drinking Diaries blog. She writes a column, Mom U., for The New York Times blog, “The Choice,” and her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Travel & Leisure, National Geographic Traveler, and other national magazines and websites. Caren has also taught at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She lives with her husband and children in Westchester Country, New York.

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Susan Gins

Voted best nutritionist in Seattle by Citysearch, SUSAN GINS is passionate about helping people from all walks of life make food choices that enrich their lives. A Certified Nutritionist in private practice since 1997, Susan earned her Master’s of Science degree in Nutrition from Bastyr University in Kenmore, Washington, where she was a faculty member for seven years. In addition to her thriving private practice in Seattle, Susan is a dynamic, in-demand lecturer who provides lively on-site presentations on topics ranging from disease prevention to eating healthy at work to the latest trends in nutritional medicine.

With her friend and colleague Dr. Lisa Price, ND, Susan is co-author of COOKING THROUGH CANCER TREATMENT TO RECOVERY: Simple, Nourishing, and Flavorful Recipes to Prevent and Decrease Side Effects at Every Stage of Cancer Therapy.  The book is the outpouring of Susan’s dedication to supporting people to be their healthiest when undergoing the demanding challenges of cancer treatment. Featuring 100 hypoallergenic, easy-to-prepare, and tasty recipes, COOKING THROUGH CANCER TREATMENT TO RECOVERY is an indispensable guide for cancer patients and especially their loved ones who wish to nourish them.

a gins cooking through cancer



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Deborah M. Gordon

DEBORAH M. GORDON received her PhD from Duke University, then did postdoctoral research in the Harvard Society of Fellows, at Oxford University, and the Centre for Population Biology at the University of London, and joined the faculty at Stanford in 1991. She is the author of three books, Ants at Work (Norton 2000); Ant Encounters: Interaction Networks and Colony Behavior (Primers in Complex Systems, Princeton University Press, 2010), and The Ecology of Collective Behavior (f2023, Princeton University Press). Her awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, and the Quest award of the Animal Behavior Society. Her lab studies collective behavior in ants and the role of chemical signaling and olfaction in the regulation of tasks in response to changing environmental conditions and cues, including the role of dopamine signaling. More broadly, she is interested in bridging insights from different disciplines that study dynamic systems and feedback control circuits, ranging across mathematical modeling, ecology, evolutionary biology, cell biology, and neuroscience.  http://www.stanford.edu/~dmgordon/



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Dr. Patricia Grabarek and Dr. Katina Sawyer

DR. PATRICIA GRABAREK is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist with expertise in workplace wellness, culture, employee engagement, leadership, and people analytics. Grabarek has spent her career as a practitioner, mostly working in consulting but, recently, moved internally, leading a people analytics research team at Intuitive. Throughout her career, Grabarek has worked with over sixty different client organizations from various industries, implementing solutions and research to improve wellness, diversity, retention, performance, and engagement. Recently, she was featured on Culture Amp’s list of Top 25 Emerging Culture Creators for 2024. In addition, Grabarek has been featured in various media outlets, including The L.A. Times, CBS News, and CBC Radio. Grabarek is a co-founder of Workr Beeing, a workplace wellness organization providing engaging solutions and accessible content to create positive work environments.

 

Dr. KATINA SAWYER  is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. Sawyer’s research focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizations, positive organizational scholarship, and employee well-being. Over the years, Sawyer has published numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and Harvard Business Review articles. She has been cited in many public outlets including The Atlantic, Forbes, and The Conversation. She has been awarded research grants from the National Science Foundation, as well as various early-career research awards. She also has extensive experience consulting and speaking at various organizations across industries. Sawyer is the other co-founder of Workr Beeing, providing science-backed workplace wellness solutions to organizations.

 

 

 

 



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Dr. Peter Gray

PETER GRAY is a research professor of psychology at Boston College. He has conducted and published research in comparative, evolutionary, developmental, and educational psychology; published articles on innovative teaching methods and alternative approaches to education; and is author of Freedom to Learn (Basic) and Psychology (Worth Publishers), a leading introductory college textbook now in its 6th edition. He also authors a blog–entitled Freedom to Learn: The Roles of Play and Curiosity as Foundations for Learning–for Psychology Today magazine. He did his undergraduate study at Columbia University and earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences at Rockefeller University. His current writing focuses on the biological foundations for education and on the life-long value of play. His own play includes not only his research and writing, but also long distance bicycling, kayaking, and back-woods skiing.

a Gray-Free to Learnb



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Eli Greenbaum

ELI GREENBAUM, Ph.D. is an associate professor of evolutionary genetics and Director of the University of Texas at El Paso Biodiversity Collections.  Every year since 2007, he has led expeditions to Democratic Republic of the Congo, the poorest and least-developed country in the world, to document its poorly known biodiversity.  With his all-Congolese research team, he has explored thousands of miles of remote jungles, mountains, savannas and rivers, and discovered scores of new species of amphibians and reptiles, several of which have been named in one of his 100 peer-reviewed, scientific publications.  His work has bolstered efforts by American wildlife organizations and the Congolese government to establish new national parks in an effort to protect more of Congo’s unique and threatened biodiversity.  His research has been published in top scientific journals, including PLoS ONE, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Biology Letters, BMC Evolutionary Biology, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, and Journal of Biogeography.  His discoveries have been featured in NBC News, National Geographic Daily News, Africa Geographic Magazine, and The Huffington Post.  A 2016 documentary about his work, Emerald Abyss: 9 Years of Research in the Congo, is available on Youtube.

a greenbaum emerald labyrinth



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Margaret Greenberg

MARGARET GREENBERG is the President of The Greenberg Group, a consulting firm, founded in 1997, dedicated to coaching executives and their teams using a strengths-based approach. Some of her clients include Aetna , ING, The MITRE Corporation, Unum Group, and Zurich Financial Services. Greenberg is recognized by the International Coaching Federation as a Professional Certified Coach. She is also a certified Social and Emotional Intelligence Coach. Greenberg designs and facilitates workshops and conferences for business audiences and is an expert on leading large-scale change and creating strengths-based organizations.

Greenberg earned her bachelor’s degree (Sociology) at the University of Hartford and her Master of Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her thesis study, “Optimistic Managers and Their Impact on Team Productivity and Employee Engagement”, published in 2007, has been downloaded nearly 5,000 times to date. Highlights from her research were also published in the widely known Gallup Management Journal. She is a regular contributor to Positive Psychology News Daily. Greenberg lives in Connecticut with her husband and two dogs. They have two grown daughters.

a greenberg-profit from the positive  a greenberg the business of race



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Gina Greenlee

The author of 18 books and counting, GINA GREENLEE’s burgeoning multi-genre publishing catalogue is a map of a deeply curious and imaginative mind. Storytelling is her primary language, her conduit for interpreting the world, and how she assimilates life experience. Experimenting with ideas (her favorite toys), making discoveries then grappling with their clear expression on the page to share with others is the primary reason she gets up in the morning.

Gina has written for The New York Times Magazine, Essence Magazine, and for seven years was an Opinion Columnist for The Hartford Courant, Connecticut’s largest newspaper. Alongside developing her writing career, Gina spent 20-plus years in Fortune 5, 50 and 100 companies in the roles of Strategic Planning, Organizational Development and Project Management. A Manhattan native, she holds a BA in English from Hunter College and an MS in Education from Queens College.

a greenberg the business of race

 



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Mark Greenside

MARK GREENSIDE has been a civil rights activist, Vietnam War protestor, anti-draft counselor, Vista volunteer, union leader and college professor. His stories have appeared in the Sun, the Literary Review, Cimarron Review, the Nebraska Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, the New Laurel Review, Crosscurrents, Five Fingers Review, and the Long Story as well as other journals and magazines, and he is the author of a short story collection I Saw a Man Hit His Wife. Greenside’s memoir about life in France, I’ll Never Be French, remains one of the bestselling books about Brittany since its release in 2009. Greenside resides in Alameda, California and Brittany, France.

Mark Greenside Book Cover



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Stella Grizont

A world-renowned positive psychology expert, executive coach, and speaker, STELLA GRIZONT helps people work happier and live better.  Stella supports high performers in experiencing deeper career fulfillment while aiding organizations in elevating the engagement, well-being, and productivity of their employees.  

Stella delivers keynotes, workshops, and trainings for dozens of organizations annually including Google, Johnson & Johnson, Dow Jones, VMWare, The Wall Street Journal, Cigna, and Genentech.  In the last 17 years, Stella has also coached over 1,600 leaders in 30 countries.   . 

Stella’s unique approach to being happier and more engaged on the job has been featured in the media including:  MSNBC, The Today Show, Entrepreneur, Vanity Fair, Fox News, and ABC. Stella was one of the first 150 people in the world to earn a Master’s in Applied Positive Psychology (aka the science of happiness) from the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a Bachelor’s in Economics from Barnard College, Columbia University.



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Sophie Guibaud

SOPHIE GUIBAUD is the co-founder and Chief Commercial and Growth Officer of Fiat Republic, a compliance-first banking and payments API for crypto platforms. She has been a trailblazer of embedded finance, having spent the last 10 years designing and executing the go-to-market of BAAS and embed- ded finance propositions. Prior to that, she was part of the founding team of HelloFresh in the UK, and worked in investment banking and as a tech investor.

Sophie sits on the Fintech Advisory Board of PayU, the fintech arm of public company media giant and Tencent’s largest shareholder, Naspers, and is an Associate Mentor of the University of Oxford’s Said Business School Creative Destruction Lab Fintech incubator.

She has delivered speaking engagements on some of the world’s largest fintech stages. For her work within the fintech industry, she has received multiple industry recognition awards, such as Standout 35 2018 and 2019 by Innovate Finance, 35 Women under 35 from Management Today/The Telegraph and has been named as one of the European Digital Financial Services “Power 50” by the Digital Banking Club. 



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Carolyn Gusoff

New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Gusoff is an Emmy Award winning broadcast journalist and author. She is currently seen on-air on WCBS-TV in New York.   Her reporting over the  last three decades includes some of the biggest stories of our time: the terror attacks of 9-11, the NYC transit strike, the NYC blackout and the massacre on the Long Island Railroad.  As a reporter for WCBS, Fox5 New York, WNBC  and News 12 , Carolyn has covered some of the most high profile news stories in New York City and its suburbs , including the kidnapping  of Katie Beers. Her collaboration with Katie Beers on Buried Memories has earned her the distinction as a New York Times bestselling author. The book has also been #1 in Amazon e-book sales for True Crime and Motivational Memoir.

She has written for the New York Times, Newsday, and is a frequent  opinion page contributor and Internet blogger. Carolyn  has survived cancer and working motherhood (so far) and speaks publicly with passion and humor about both challenges.

Carolyn has a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Government from Cornell University.  She lives with her husband and their two children  on Long Island.

a beers buried memories



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Dr. Rebecca Hains

REBECCA HAINS is an associate professor at Salem State University in Salem, Mass., where she teaches advertising and media studies. Her musings on children’s popular culture regularly appear at rebeccahains.wordpress.com and on the Christian Science Monitor’s popular Modern Parenthood blog. Rebecca has published her research about girls and media in various academic journals and anthologies, including Popular Communication and The International Journal of Girlhood Studies.

Rebecca has spoken about her research at more than 30 national and international conferences and events, including the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media in Los Angeles and the Prix Jeunesse International, a festival in Germany that promotes excellence in children’s television worldwide. She holds a Ph.D. in mass media and communication from Temple University in Philadelphia, as well as a B.A. from Emmanuel College and an M.S. from Boston University. She lives north of Boston with her husband and two children.  To learn more about Rebecca Hains and her work, please visit RebeccaHains.com.

a hains princess problem



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Deborah Halverson

DEBORAH HALVERSON is the award-winning author of Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies, the teen novels Honk If You Hate Me and Big Mouth, three books in a forthcoming series for struggling readers, and a forthcoming picture book about Santa. Deborah was an editor at Harcourt Children’s Books for ten years—until she climbed over the desk and tried out the author chair on the other side. Now she writes books for teens and for adults full-time. Armed with a Masters in American Literature and a fascination with pop culture, she sculpts stories from extreme places and events—tattoo parlors, fast food joints, and, most extreme of all, high schools. She is also the founder of the popular writers’ advice website www.DearEditor.com, a frequent speaker at writers conferences, and a writing teacher for groups and institutions including UCSD’s Extension Program. Deborah freelance edits fiction and non-fiction for both published authors and writers seeking their first book deals. She lives in San Diego, California, with her husband and triplet sons. For more about Deborah, check out her website www.DeborahHalverson.com or visit www.DearEditor.com. (photo: Theresa Stanton at Design Focus Studio)

a halverson writing new adult



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Dr. William Hansen

WILLIAM HANSEN grew up in California and studied classics and folklore at the University of California, Berkeley, working under mythologist Joseph Fontenrose and folklorist Alan Dundes.  After earning a doctorate in classics he taught at Indiana University, Bloomington, with appointments in the Department of Classical Studies and in the Folklore Institute (later the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology).  At Indiana he co-founded the Program in Mythology Studies, which he co-directed until his retirement.

His publications focus on ancient and medieval oral narrative (epic, myth, legend, folktale) and on ancient popular literature.  His books include Classical Mythology:  A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans (Oxford 2005), Ariadne’s Thread:  A Guide to International Tales Found in Classical Literature (Cornell 2002), Anthology of Ancient Greek Popular Literature (Indiana 1998), Phlegon of Tralles’ Book of Marvels (University of Exeter 1996), and Saxo Grammaticus and the Life of Hamlet (University of Nebraska 1983).  He is currently professor emeritus of classical studies and folklore at Indiana University, Bloomington.

a hansen- book of greek & rowman



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Dr. Paria Hassouri

PARIA HASSOURI is a pediatrician, mother of three, trans rights activist, and runner. She graduated form the University of Pittsburgh School of medicine in 1999 and completed her residency training at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 2002. Since 2006, she has been residing and practicing in Los Angeles.

Paria was a regular contributor for Women’s Running Magazine, publishing more than forty essays online and a few in print on how running transformed her life, before moving on to write personal essays on topics such as parenting a transitioning teenager, the interplay of pediatrics and motherhood, and the immigrant experience. Paria’s personal essay “I Battled My Body For 30 Years, Having A Transgender Daughter Changed Everything” was published in The Huffington Post and has been translated into multiple languages. Her essays have also been published in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Kevin MD, and Grown and Flown. She has also presented twice on stage at Expressing Motherhood in Los Angeles and been a guest on multiple podcasts.  She can be found on Twitter @pariahassouri and on Instagram @laparia, or through her website, http://www.pariahassouri.com.

a hassouri found in transition



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Isabelle C. Hau

ISABELLE C. HAU has devoted her professional life to understanding, researching, innovating, and building a bright future of learning where all children thrive.

She is the inaugural executive director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, a Stanford-wide initiative to connect researchers across disciplines, and bridge research, practice, and policy, to bring quality, scalable and equitable learning experiences for all learners and throughout the lifespan. Prior, she was a founding partner at Imaginable Futures, a venture of the Omidyar Group, the philanthropic investment firm of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. Her work has directly impacted millions of learners and families.

Isabelle has held numerous governance roles, and currently serves as director on the boards of EDC, Sonen, and ThinkEqual. Isabelle is also a contributor to Forbes and EdSurge, and writes a popular weekly newsletter Small Talks. Isabelle was awarded the 2021 Global MindED Inclusive Leader Award in Early Childhood Education. She was honored as 100 Inspiring Women at Harvard Business School. She co-starred with Grover of Sesame Street on early childhood innovation.



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Kristin Helms

KRISTIN HELMS is the author of From Boardroom to Baby: A Roadmap for Career Women Transitioning to Stay-at-Home Moms (Career Press, 2018) where she discusses how to leave behind the corporate world and launch a successful business from home.

She also founded, grew, and recently sold Tribe Magazine, the popular online publication for moms, along with the spin-off networking group, Mom Tribe. She continues to serve as a powerhouse of inspiration to entrepreneurs and creatives. Kristin’s soulful prose and inspiring thoughts have been published in PopSugar, Literary Mama, San Diego Home & Garden Magazine, Motherly, The Huffington Post and are forthcoming in The New York Times. Her musings have been described as, “encouraging”, “refreshing” and “magic with words.”

a helms from boardroom to baby   a helms grace + oak



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David Helvarg

DAVID HELVARG is President of the Blue Frontier Campaign (www.bluefront.org) and the author of four books, Blue Frontier, The War Against the Greens, 50 Ways to Save the Ocean and Rescue Warriors. He’s editor of the Ocean and Coastal Conservation Guide, organizer of several ‘Blue Vision’ Summits for ocean activists, and winner of Coastal Living Magazine’s 2005 Leadership Award and the 2007 Herman Melville literary Award. Helvarg worked as a war correspondent in Northern Ireland and Central America, covered a range of issues from military science to the AIDS epidemic, and reported from every continent including Antarctica. An award-winning journalist, he produced more than 40 broadcast documentaries for PBS, The Discovery Channel, and others. His print work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, LA Times, Smithsonian, Popular Science, Sierra, and The Nation. He’s done radio work for Marketplace, AP radio, and Pacifica. He’s led workshops for journalists in Poland, Turkey, Tunisia, Slovakia and Washington DC. He is a licensed Private Investigator, body-surfer and scuba diver.

 Helvarg - Blue Frontier     Helvarg - War Against     Helvarg - Rescue Warriors     Helvarg - Saved by the Sea     Helvarg - Golden Shore



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Catey Hill

CATEY HILL is a journalist whose work has appeared in/on The Wall Street Journal, SmartMoney, Worth, Seventeen, the New York Daily News, MarketWatch.com, Forbes.com, MSN.com, Yahoo.com, PBS’s NextAvenue.org, DailyWorth.com, LearnVest.com, and dozens of other publications and websites. She is also the host of the Money, Markets & More podcast, a production of The Wall Street Journal. Catey has appeared as a personal finance and consumer expert on dozens of television programs, including “The Today Show,” “FOX & Friends,” “The Huckabee Show” on FOX and “CBS This Morning;” in a number of magazines, including Marie Claire, Allure, People, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan and Woman’s Day; and on more than 100 radio programs.

a hill the 30 minute money plan for moms



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Steven Hoffman

STEVEN HOFFMAN, or Captain Hoff as he’s called in Silicon Valley, is the Chairman & CEO of Founders Space (FoundersSpace.com), one of the world’s leading incubators and accelerators. He’s also an angel investor, limited partner at August Capital, serial entrepreneur, and author of several award-winning books. These includeMake Elephants Fly (MakeElephantsFly.com) published by Hachette, Surviving a Startup (SurvivingAStartup.com) published by HarperCollins, and The Five Forces (FiveForcesBook.com) published by BenBella.

Steven Hoffman was the founder and chairman of the Producers Guild Silicon Valley Chapter, served on the Board of Governors of the New Media Council, and was founding member of the Academy of Television’s Interactive Media Group. In Silicon Valley, Hoffman founded several startups in the areas of games and entertainment and worked as mobile studio head for Infospace, which published the hit mobile games Tetris, Wheel of Fortune, Tomb Raider, Thief, Hitman, Skee-Ball, and X-Files.

Hoffman has a bachelor of science from the University of California in computer engineering and a master in fine art from the University of Southern California in cinema television. He currently resides in San Francisco but spends most of his time in the air, visiting startups, investors, and innovators all over the world.

a hoffman surviving a startup   a hoffman the five forces



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Dave Hollis

DAVE HOLLIS, New York Times bestselling author of Get Out of Your Own Way, works to inspire others to take control of their lives and create a future of fulfillment and purpose. As a former president of distribution for the Walt Disney Studios, Dave has seen both the negative consequences of limiting beliefs and the positive power of imagination, dreams, and believing in oneself. Dave is a member of the Motion Picture Academy and has been an advisor or board member of technology incubator Fandango Labs; philanthropy start-up Givsum; film charity Will Rogers Pioneers Foundation; Pepperdine’s Institute for Entertainment, Media, and Culture; and foster-care champion National Angels. A father of four and former foster parent to four more, Dave lives with his family in Austin, Texas, where he drives a 1969 Ford Bronco named Incredible Hulk and has a mini schnauzer named Jeffrey.

Hollis - Get Out of Your Own Way   



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Allen M. Hornblum

ALLEN M. HORNBLUM is a non-fiction author who tackles long-neglected and controversial subjects. His books have garnered considerable media attention and have been featured on Good Morning America, the CBS Evening News, CNN, the BBC, and scores of newspapers including the front page of the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. His book, Acres of Skin, is the definitive work on the history of American prison inmates as test subjects for human experimentation.

He is the author of The Invisible Harry Gold: The Man Who Gave the Soviets The Atom Bomb (Yale University Press) and co-author of Against Their Will (Palgrave).

a hornblum- against their willb     a hornblum- harry gold   a hornblum american colossus



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Dr. Jonas Horwitz

DR. JONAS HORWITZ received a Masters degree and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University where he conducted extensive research on adults who wrestle with chronic depressive disorders. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, The North Carolina Psychological Association and The American Academy of Psychotherapists. In addition, he serves on the Carolina Chapter of the MS Healthcare Advisory Committee.  For the past 12 years, he has been in private practice in Durham, North Carolina. In his practice, Dr. Horwitz works with individuals and couples. He also has the pleasure of leading interpersonal process groups for men. www.Jonashorwitz.com

Dr. Horwitz is the author of Stop Feeling So Damn Depressed: A Guide for Men (New Harbinger Publications, 2018).  In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Horwitz offers training workshops for therapists: The Art of Running Very, Very Slowly: Connecting deeper within ourselves and with each other by sharing our suffering.  When not in the office, Jonas enjoys long distance running as well as backpacking deep in the Appalachian mountains along with his wife, Amy, and grown son, Daniel, who are always kind and wait for him to catch up.

a horwitz how to stop feeling so damned depressed



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Melissa Houston

MELISSA HOUSTON is a Business Coach who helps business owners optimize the profitability in their business. She is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), a columnist at ForbesWomen and the host of The Business Society podcast. As a Financial Strategist for CEOs, Melissa helps successful busines owners increase their profit margins, so they keep more money in their pocket and increase their net worth.

Melissa has over 20 years of business experience with large and small corporations, government, public accounting, and not-for-profit industries while specializing in Internal Controls, corporate accounting, budgets and forecasts, financial reporting, corporate and personal tax, audit and SRED. Melissa enjoys helping business owners build their businesses by increasing their financial management skills.

Melissa’s passion is helping business owners go from 6-figure to 7-figure businesses and achieving their personal financial dreams. Photo: Lindsey Gibeau Photography



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Karen Hugg

KAREN HUGG is a writer with a passion for plants. She’s a certified ornamental horticulturalist and Master Pruner. She owned a small garden design and maintenance company for almost 20 years and has taught horticulture at the community college level. Now she writes about plants with articles in Garden Center Magazine, Garden Rant, Northwest Garden News, and other publications.

Karen is also a fiction author. Her literary thriller The Forgetting Flower (Woodhall Press) was published to positive critical reviews and its follow up, Harvesting the Sky, was a semi-finalist in the Del Sol First Novel Prize Contest. Her novel, The Dark Petals of Provence, won Third Prize in the 2020 Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest. Her short novel, Song of the Tree Hollow, continues to garner strong reviews. Karen also holds an MA in English from the University of Illinois and an MFA in Writing from Goddard College. You can hear her on Urban Farm U, Back to My Garden, New Books Network, Writing and Reading Fiction, Must-Read Fiction, The Hero Within, and other podcasts. She’s appeared on the TV show New Day Northwest and has published articles in in The Big Thrill, Crime Reads, Thrive Global, and other publications.

Karen lives in the Seattle area with her husband, three kids, and dog Olive. You can learn more about her at www.karenhugg.com.

 



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Karina Inkster

KARINA INKSTER is a fitness, nutrition, and healthy living coach with a Master’s degree in Gerontology. Specializing in health and aging, Karina works with her clients to create long-term health and fitness results that will increase the quality of the rest of their lives. Karina offers individual and small group fitness training, nutrition counselling, health and wellness seminars, as well as online coaching and consulting.

Born and raised in Vancouver, BC, Karina has been weight training, swimming, running, cycling, and power yoga-ing her way to fitness since 2003. Karina has been vegetarian since 1999 and vegan since 2003. When she’s not training her clients, writing, or working out, you’ll find Karina playing accordion, piano, or Australian didgeridoo; creating miniature paper filigree sculptures; or sneaking spinach into her husband’s smoothies.

a inkster vegan vitality



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Peter Isler

PETER ISLER has been involved in every America’s Cup since winning it as navigator aboard Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripesin Australia in 1987. He sailed in his fifth Cup campaign serving as navigator for the BMW Oracle Racing Team in 2007. His four previous campaigns were all in the afterguard aboard Stars & Stripes (1987, 1988, 2000 & 2003), winning the Cup twice (1987 & 1988). Peter took a break from sailing and served as analyst for ESPN’s Emmy Award-winning coverage of the America’s Cup in 1992 & 1995. In Auckland, 2002-2003, Peter did both—sailing with Stars & Stripes and then, once the team was eliminated—he served as analyst for Outdoor Life Network’s coverage of the racing. In 2007, Peter joined the VERSUS network’s America’s Cup team covering the America’s Cup.

Isler is the author of Peter Isler’s Little Blue Book of Sailing Secrets, Tactics, Tips, and Observations (Wiley), co-authored the best-selling book Sailing for Dummies (Wiley) and wrote a business book At the Helm: Business Lessons for Navigating Rough Waters (Doubleday) with Peter Economy. He is president of Isler Sailing International, Inc. a sports marketing and television production company. Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget.

a isler- blue book



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Genie James

GENIE JAMES, M.M.Sc., is the co-founder and Executive Director of The Natural Hormone Institute of America. For more than two decades, she has been nationally recognized as a powerful change-agent in the areas of personalized health and integrative medicine. Today Genie’s primary focus is writing and speaking on the topic of natural approaches to increasing sexual vitality at any age. Genie is the author of The Fountain of Truth, and co-author with Dr. Randolph of In the Mood Again (Simon and Schuster), From Hormone Hell to Hormone Well, and From Belly Fat to Belly Flat.

a james- in the mood again     a james,g - hormone hell     a james,g - fountain



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Ilana Jacqueline

ILANA JACQUELINE is the author of the award-winning blog, Let’s Feel Better. She started the blog at age 22 to share her humbling, hilarious, and heartfelt experiences coping with chronic illness. From full contact fights with skull-cramping migraines to making peace with being a human pincushion, she writes boldly and unabashedly about breaking down, getting back up, and pulling off the bandage that is “coming out” about the shame and frustration of living with chronic illness.

When not sneaking in naps, Jacqueline spends her days as the managing editor of The RARE Daily for the international rare and genetic disease non-profit, Global Genes. She has also written for pop culture magazines and websites including Cosmopolitan Online, and xoJane and is a columnist for the patient-centered immunodeficiency magazine, IG Living. She lives with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, a form of Dysautonomia, and Primary Immune Deficiency Disease. As a health advocate and regularly interviewed expert on chronic illness, she looks to help patients advocate for themselves at their most vulnerable moments. Jacqueline lives with her biochemist fiancé and literally the cutest apricot poodle you’ve ever seen in Boca Raton, FL.

a jacqueline surviving and thriving 



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Ruixue Jia

RUIXUE JIA is an Associate Professor of Economics at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), where she co-directs UCSD’s China Data Lab. She is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Her research interests lie at the intersection of economics, history, and politics, with a particular focus on the politics and economics of China’s education system.

Born in 1984 during China’s one-child policy era, Ruixue was given up for adoption after birth and raised by a family in a rural village. Before moving to Beijing for her undergraduate studies, she had never left her county. While her trajectory was largely shaped by China’s education system, she considers her experience an outlier – most of the girls with whom she grew up remain in her village today, while most of the boys become migrant workers, an observation that has motivated her to understand the complexity of the system. Ruixue received her Ph.D. in economics from Stockholm University in 2013 and has since taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science and UCSD. She has published numerous articles in leading economics journals, including the American Economic Review: Insights, Econometrica, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. She also serves on the editorial boards of several journals. As co-director of UCSD’s China Data Lab, she is working to lead China studies into a new era where contextual knowledge about China is tested and corroborated by social scientific methods and data. She is a co-author of Exam Empire (Harvard University Press).



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Jude Joffe-Block

JUDE JOFFE-BLOCK joined The Associated Press as a reporter and editor in 2020. Before that, she reported on immigration for more than a decade for outlets that include NPR, the Guardian, The World and Arizona Center for Investigative ReportingShe was a visiting journalist at the Russell Sage Foundation and a fellow with New America, the Center for the Future of Arizona, and the Logan Nonfiction Program while coauthoring this book. She began her journalism career in Mexico.



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Jean-Christian Jury

Jean-Christian Jury was born in Toulouse, France and trained there as a chef. His most recent restaurant, La Mano Verde in Berlin (2008-2015) has been hailed as one of the world’s foremost vegan restaurants. He is the author of the Phaidon cookbook, Vegan: The Cookbook. 

Jean-Christian Jury book cover



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Timothy Kane

TIM KANE is an economist, entrepreneur, and veteran air force officer.  He is currently a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Kane has served twice as a senior economist at the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress.

Kane has published scholarly research on diverse topics, including job creation by start-ups, economic growth, US politics, foreign affairs, and national security.

He is the author of Bleeding Talent (Palgrave MacMillan), about leadership in the US military.  Kane’s most recent book is Balance: The Economics of Great Powers from Ancient Rome to Modern America (Simon and Schuster), coauthored with Glenn Hubbard.

a kane  



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Jim Kape

JIM KAPE’S love of wood and natural materials began at a very young age when he followed his father to work sites in remote rural Wyoming. As his father wired houses, at the age of 5, Jim was using a woodburning toy to make pictures in scrap 2 by 4’s laying around the job site. It was later in life when the load of work and personal life became so heavy that an outlet was necessary. He turned back to wood and the basics of leatherworking. The creative spark that was hidden for so long exploded into sudden brilliance.

Jim’s outlet of design and art settled into woodworking and chess set design. His Notre Dame chess set has won awards both in Utah and Arizona, and will soon be published in the Scrollsaw and Woodcrafts Magazine. Jim’s other unique chess set designs will be published by Fox Chapel Publishing in his first book. Jim lives in Arizona, with his wife, young son, mother in law, two bulldogs, and several pure-bred cats. You can see what is going on with Jim and his wood addiction at (www.sawdustdreams.blogspot.com).

a kape_chestsets



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Jeanne Kelley

JEANNE KELLEY is a cookbook author, food journalist and food stylist based in Los Angeles, California.  Jeanne is an edible garden expert who specializes in seasonal and sustainable cooking.

Jeanne’s cookbooks include: Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Garden, Salad for Dinner (Rizzoli), Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes (Running Press), and Williams-Sonoma Holiday Baking. Jeanne co-authored Punch Bowls and Pitcher Drinks (Clarckson Potter) with Sarah Tenaglia, and contributed recipes and food styling to The Ranch at Live Oak Cookbook (Rizzoli).Jeanne’s forthcoming book Portable Feast will be published by Rizzoli for Spring 2016

A former Contributing Editor to Bon Appetit, Jeanne is a frequent contributor to Fine Cooking and Cooking Light



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Dr. Carol Kershaw and Dr. Bill Wade

CAROL KERSHAW, Ed.D. is a clinical psychologist in Texas and an international trainer in clinical hypnosis and brain-based psychological transformation.  She is board certified in neurofeedback and holds Fellow status.  Dr. Kershaw is the author of The Couple’s Hypnotic Dance, and co-author of Brain Change Therapy:  Clinical Interventions for Self Transformation published by W.W. Norton, as well as many professional articles.  She actively pursues the most cutting edge neuroscience research in brain change strategies.  She and Dr. Wade are married and have three grown children and seven grandchildren.

BILL WADE, Ph.D. is licensed in Texas as both a professional counselor and marriage and family therapist, and maintained a therapy practice for over thirty years.  He has presented workshops throughout the U.S. and abroad in clinical hypnosis, brain-based transformation, and meditation.  Dr. Wade is co-author of Brain Change Therapy:  Clinical Interventions for Self Transformation published by W.W. Norton and a number of professional articles.  Bill enjoys exploring the edge of human potential.  He and Dr. Kershaw are married and have three grown children and seven grandchildren.

a kershaw- the worry free mind



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Dr. Michael Kopiec

MICHAEL KOPIEC is a board certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist and fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology who, during three decades of private practice, delivered over 5,000 babies. When injuries sustained in an accident with a drunk driver left him unable to return to the profession he loved, Michael eventually turned to writing. As the first-born child of Auschwitz survivors, his father had years earlier, passed into his keeping the remarkable and inspirational story of his, and his mother’s survival. The Unwilling Survivor is the first part of that story.

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Dr. Alex Korb

ALEX KORB, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at UCLA.  He earned a BS in neuroscience from Brown University in 2002, and his Ph.D. at UCLA in 2010. His research focuses primarily on neuroimaging of mood and anxiety disorders. But he is also currently working on the development of a new brain stimulation device.

For the past few years, Alex has also written a popular neuroscience blog on PsychologyToday.com called PreFrontal Nudity. Outside of the lab he coaches the UCLA women’s ultimate frisbee team, where he uses his knowledge of brain and behavior to unlock their peak performance.

a korb the upward spiral   a korb upward spiral workbook



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Brian Krebs

New York Times bestselling author BRIAN KREBS is the author of krebsonsecurity.com, a daily blog dedicated to in-depth Internet security news and cybercrime investigation. From 1995 to 2009, Krebs was a reporter for The Washington Post, where he covered security and privacy issues for the newspaper and the Web site. Krebsonsecurity.com has won numerous honors, including the “Blog That Best Represents the Security Industry” award three years in a row at the RSA Security Conference. A frequent speaker on cybercrime topics, Mr. Krebs holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from George Mason University, and lives with his wife in Northern Virginia.

a krebs spam nation



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Michael Levin

New York Times bestselling author and 7-time national bestseller MICHAEL LEVIN has written, co-written or ghostwritten close to 60 books. Three of Michael’s five published novels have been optioned, and one novel became an ABC Sunday night Disney movie of the week.

Michael is one of the most accomplished ghostwriters in the nation, having written for private clients focusing on biography, business, sports, and social issues. His client list includes a member of the Forbes 400, four individuals with net worths of over half a billion dollars, and business leaders across the country. Michael has published with Simon & Schuster (three novels and two works of nonfiction), Random House (twice), St. Martin’s Press, Beacon Press, Penguin (five books), Putnam/Berkley (two novels), Wiley, and many other houses. He has also contributed to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Jerusalem PostWriters DigestCBS News, and many other outlets.

a summerall_giants     a fishof- rock your business     a neesley     a myers 



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Hongbin Li

HONGBIN LI is the James Liang Chair, the faculty co-director of the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions (SCCEI), and Senior Fellow of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). He received his Ph.D. in economics from Stanford in 2001. Before joining Stanford’s faculty, he held the C.V. Starr Chair Professor of Economics at Tsinghua University in Beijing (2007-2016), where he became involved with China’s attempts to reform the college entrance exam, and was a professor of economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2001-2007). Currently, he serves as the co-editor of the Journal of Comparative Economics, a leading economics journal.

Hongbin was born in the midst of China’s Cultural Revolution. Once Deng Xiaoping reinstituted the education system and began reforming China’s economy, Hongbin attended school in his hometown of Jilin, China and unexpectedly went on to receive his undergraduate degree in Beijing. His two children have attended both public and private schools in Beijing, Hong Kong, and California. Realizing that education was one of the most important and hot-button issues among his Chinese friends, colleagues, and students today, Hongbin began expanding his work from China’s development and transition to China’s education system. He is one of the most cited economists in the world studying China and is a co-author of Exam Empire (Harvard University Press).



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Jamie Little

ESPN, NASCAR, and IndyCar Series pit reporter JAMIE LITTLE is an experienced action sports and motorsports reporter, serving as a pit reporter for ABC’s coverage of the IndyCar Series as well as ABC and ESPN’s coverage of the NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup series. Little joined ESPN’s NASCAR team in 2007 and has covered the IndyCar series since 2004. Additionally, she continues to serve as a reporter on ESPN’s Winter X Games. Little’s duties also include reporting for NASCAR Now, ESPN’s daily news and information program.

In 2004, Little became the first female reporter on pit road for the Indianapolis 500, the oldest and most famous race in the world. She was an event announcer for four years, beginning out of college in 2000 and found her way onto ESPN as a reporter for those series in 2004. She began working on the Summer and Winter X Games in 2002. She is also the co-author of Essential Car Care for Girls (Seal 2012). Photo: Ross Hubbard.

a mccormick- car care



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Dr. Arthur Lupia

ARTHUR LUPIA is the Hal R. Varian Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and research professor at its Institute for Social Research. He examines how information and institutions affect policy and politics, with a focus on how people make decisions when they lack information.  He draws from multiple scientific and philosophical disciplines and uses multiple research methods. His topics of expertise include information processing, persuasion, strategic communication, and civic competence.

He has held a range of scientific leadership positions. He is Chair of the National Research Council’s Roundtable on the Application of Social and Behavioral Science Research, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education of the National Academy of Science, and as an Executive Board member of Climate Central. In the past, he has served as Principal Investigator of the American National Election Studies, Chair of the Social, Economic, and Political Sciences section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was co-founder of TESS (Time-Sharing Experiments in the Social Sciences), which has helped hundreds of scientists from many disciplines run innovative experiments on opinion formation and change using nationally representative subject pools. He has led numerous task forces on scientific communication and research transparency and is regularly asked to advise scientific organizations and research groups on how to effectively communicate science to broad and diverse audiences.

He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow at the Center for Social and Behavioral Sciences, a recipient of the American Association for Public Opinion Research’s Innovator’s Award, the American Political Science Association’s Ithiel de Sola Pool Award, and the National Academy of Science’s Award for Initiatives in Research. Dr. Lupia received a B.A. in economics from the University of Rochester and his Ph.D. in social science from the California Institute of Technology.  [www.arthurlupia.com; @ArthurLupia]

a lupia uninformed



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Brook Manville

BROOK MANVILLE is an independent consultant and author, and Principal of Brook Manville LLC. A former partner of McKinsey & Co, Manville has advised business, governmental and non-profit enterprises on issues of strategy, organization, and leadership development, including Fortune 500 companies, global non-profits, major foundations, and small start-ups. He previously held senior management positions at the United Way of America, Saba Software, and CBS Inc. In the first part of his career, Manville was an assistant professor of classics and history at Northwestern University.

Manville has published widely on business topics (Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloane Management Review, Fast Company, Leader to Leader, Open Source.com and multiple sector-specific journals) and contributes regularly to Forbes.com on topics of leadership and democracy. He is the author of The Origins of Athenian Citizenship (Princeton University Press: 1990); and co-author of three other books, all published by Harvard Business Press: A Company of Citizens (2003, w. Josh Ober); Judgment Calls. Twelve Stories of Big Decisions and the Teams That Got Them Right (2012, w. Thomas Davenport); The Harvard Business Review Leader’s Handbook (2019, w. Ron Ashkenas).

Manville was educated at Yale (BA & PhD, history) and Oxford (MA, ancient history, First Class). Married with three children, he resides in Bethesda, MD.



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Sarah Marshall

Sarah Marshall is the Owner of Marshall’s Haute Sauce in Portland, Oregon. Her small batch sauce company grew from her love of gardening and background in home preserving. She is passionate about farmers, artisan producers, and canning seasonal ingredients. She teaches canning classes and passes on the knowledge and inspiration of preserving to others. Preservation Pantry will be published by Regan Arts in 2017.

Sarah Marshall book cover



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Areva Martin

AREVA MARTIN is a new recurring Co-Host for TV’s Emmy award-winning daytime syndicated talk show The Doctors and is known to audiences across the country from her regular appearances on Dr. Phil, AC360, ABC World News Tonight, Good Morning America, Good Morning Britain and various other daytime talk shows and cable news shows including CNN, FOX, MSNBC, HLN, ABC, CBS and others. She is a TV host, author and go-to on-camera expert and commentator.  Her books include Journey to the Top, a popular career guide for professional women, The Everyday Advocate: Standing Up for Your Child with Autism and Other Special Needs (Penguin 2010), and MAKE IT RAIN! How Media Interviews Can Revolutionize Your Business & Brand (Center Street 2017).

A graduate with honors from Harvard Law School and the University of Chicago, she is the founding and managing partner at Martin & Martin, LLP, one of LA’s premiere female and African American law firms.  Throughout her career, Areva has been a strong advocate in promoting diversity, inclusion and equity. She has been recognized for her distinctive work on behalf of women and children with many national and state awards including the Los Angeles County Woman of the Year Award, L’Oreal Paris Women of Worth, KCET Local Hero Award, Ford Foundation Unsung Hero, Farmers Insurance Living Legends Award and the California Legislative Black Caucus Civil Rights Leadership Award to name a few.

a martin make it rain



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Deborah Mathis

DEBORAH MATHIS was a working journalist for three decades, having served as White House Correspondent for Gannett News Service, a nationally syndicated columnist and a regular contributor to various political talk shows. She held a Shorenstein Fellowship at Harvard University and was an assistant professor of journalism at Northwestern University.

She is the author of four books: Yet A Stranger: Why Black Americans Still Don’t Feel at Home (Warner Books 2002); What God Can Do (Atria/Simon and Schuster 2004); Sole Sisters: The Joys and Pains of Single Black Women (Agate Books, 2007); and Play, Win, Die: The True Story of the Murder of Lottery Winner Abraham Shakespeare (Berkley 2015). Mathis divides her time between Washington, D.C. and Orlando, Florida.

a mathis unlucky number

 



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Senia Maymin

SENIA MAYMIN is completing her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of www.PositivePsychologyNews.com, a daily news site of research on happiness with over 1,000 articles and over 90 authors. Senia Maymin has coached entrepreneurs and CEOs, especially in high-tech and finance, and she oversees a coaches’ network: www.PositivePsychologyNews.com/coaching. She has worked in finance (Morgan Stanley and a hedge fund) and in high-tech (co-founding three start-ups).

Senia Maymin taught at the master’s level at the University of Pennsylvania, the Chicago Graduate School of Business, and NYU. She completed her bachelor’s degree (mathematics and economics) at Harvard University, her M.B.A. at Stanford University, and her Master of Applied Positive Psychology degree at the University of Pennsylvania. She lives with her family in California.

a greenberg-profit from the positive



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Danielle Mccormick

DANIELLE MCCORMICK is the co-author of Essential Car Care for Girls (Seal 2012). She hails from Ireland where she is known for being the bestselling author of this book. She is also the female car representative on Discovery Turbo blog and works with electric car companies to promote more sustainable driving.

Danielle now resides in Silicon Valley where she is the CEO of a start-up company which is helping self-employed service providers get online and giving them the tools to market themselves easily on the internet. In her spare time, she is an avid skier and is the worst crew member of a very good yacht racing team.

a mccormick- car care



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Kerry McDonald

KERRY MCDONALD has been deeply involved in education policy and practice for two decades. She has a B.A. in Economics from Bowdoin College and an M.Ed. from Harvard University, where she studied education administration, planning, and social policy. She is a writer for various national media outlets, including Natural Mother Magazine, the Foundation for Economic Education, and Intellectual Takeout. Kerry is a founding member of Alternatives To School.com, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Self-Directed Education. Her education policy writing has appeared in Forbes, NPR, and Education Next among others.

Kerry lives and learns together with her husband and four unschooled children in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She blogs at Whole Family Learning. Follow her on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram.

a mcdonald unschooled



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Lauren McDuffie

LAUREN McDUFFIE is a freelance writer, food stylist, photographer, and the creator of the Saveur award-winng blog Harvest & Honey. She lives in Indianapolis with her family. Smoke Roots Mountain Harvest is her first cookbook, published by Chronicle.

Lauren McDuffie Book Cover



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M. Margaret McKeown

M. MARGARET MCKEOWN has served for over 20 years as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the largest and one of the most influential federal courts of appeal in the United States. She is also an adjunct law professor at Northwestern University School of Law and the University of San Diego School of Law and a frequent public speaker. A Wyoming native, she served in Congress as an aide to U.S. Senator Clifford P. Hansen from Wyoming. As a White House Fellow, she served as Special Assistant at the White House and as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Interior. Before joining the bench, she was a partner in the Seattle and Washington, DC offices of the Perkins Coie law firm. She has long been involved in judicial ethics, serving for ten years and as chair of the ethics committee for federal judges and as a drafter of ethics codes for judges around the world. She lectures internationally on judicial independence, ethics, women’s rights, and constitutional law. She chairs the Georgetown Law School Board of Visitors and the ABA Rule of Law Initiative and is on the board of the International Association for Women Judges. She also chairs the Murie Ranch advisory committee of the Teton Science School in Jackson, Wyoming. She is an avid hiker and kayaker and was a member of the first American mountain climbing expedition to Mt. Shishapangma in Tibet.



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Jamie Metzl

JAMIE METZL is a Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council, novelist, blogger, syndicated columnist, media commentator, and expert in international affairs and biotechnology policy. He previously served as Executive Vice President of the Asia Society, Deputy Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senior Coordinator for International Public Information at the U.S. State Department, Director for Multilateral Affairs on the National Security Council, and as a Human Rights Officer for the United Nations in Cambodia.

Jamie appears frequently on national and international media and his syndicated columns and other writing on genetics, virtual reality, international affairs, and other topics is featured regularly in publications around the world. He is the author of a history of the Cambodian genocide and the novels The Depths of the Sea and the genetics thriller Genesis Code. His most recent novel Eternal Sonata is about a global struggle to control the technology of extreme human life extension.

Jamie holds a Ph.D. in Asian history from Oxford, a JD from Harvard Law School, and is a magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University.  He has completed twelve Ironman triathlons, thirtymarathons, and ten ultramarathons.

a metzl- eternal sonata     a metzl hacking darwin 



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John R. Miles

JOHN R. MILES is one of the foremost authorities on the power of intentional behavior change and personal mastery, with a global reputation as a leader, speaker, educator, and advocate. Miles is the founder and CEO of Passion Struck and hosts one of the top health podcasts, Passion Struck with John R. Miles. He is on a mission to help people live intentional lives that exalts their victories and lets them know they matter in the world.

For over two decades, he has helped many of the most well-known organizations on the planet, ranging from Dell, Lowe’s, Kroger, Target, Delhaize, Lend Lease, Safeway, ID.me, Proctor and Gamble, Nestle, Booz Allen, NASA, and the Department of Defense to excel in their work, thrive in times of change, and attain elite performance.

Miles’s enthusiasm lies in mentoring and coaching individuals to achieve excellence in all aspects of their lives. He has established close personal connections with other business titans such as Marc Benioff, Michael Dell, Jim McKelvey, and numerous others, sharing the stage with them to inspire and motivate people. He reaches tens of millions of people every year through his social media posts, podcast, and YouTube channels, enabling them to boost their personal responsibility, productivity, creativity, and mastery.



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Dr. Michael Miller

DR. MICHAEL MILLER is a Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and graduate of Rutgers College. He trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati and in Cardiovascular Disease at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Miller has published more than 250 scientific articles and book chapters and is the co-author of The Practice of Coronary Disease Prevention (1996) and The AMA Guide to Preventing and Treating Heart Disease (2008). Dr. Miller is Past President of the American Society of Preventive Cardiology and served as consultant for the Heart Health Stamp released by the U.S. Postal Service in 2012. He has been recognized by Baltimore Magazine (Top 15 Cardiologists), USA Today (Most Influential Physicians), Washington Post (Super Doctors) and US News & World Report (America’s Top Doctors).

a miller- heal your heart



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Dr. Laurie Mintz

Dr. Laurie Mintz is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Florida and a licensed psychologist with over 25 years of experience counseling women, men, and couples. Dr. Mintz is a highly regarded scholar who is committed to translating scientific findings in psychology for the benefit of the public. She has published over 50 articles in academic journals and seven chapters in academic books. Dr. Mintz has received numerous professional and teaching awards, and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Fellow status requires that a person’s work has had a national impact on the field of psychology. Dr. Mintz writes a popular blog for Psychology Today, appears regularly in the media, and gives workshops to professionals and lay audiences. Dr. Mintz’s first book, A Tired Woman’s Guide to Passionate Sex, boasts several research studies showing that women who read it increase their level of sexual desire. Her upcoming book, Cliterac,y published by Harper One, combines sharp cultural analysis with highly prescriptive self-help to shift our collective perspective on sex and make pleasure an equal opportunity.



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Heather Monahan

HEATHER MONAHAN is a former C-suite executive in media, keynote speaker, TedX speaker and founder of Boss In Heels.  Having successfully climbed the corporate ladder for nearly 20 years, Heather Monahan is one of the few women to break the glass ceiling and claim her spot in the C-suite.   As a Chief Revenue Officer in Media, Heather Monahan is a Glass Ceiling Award winner, named one of the most Influential Women in Radio in 2017 and Thrive Global named her a Limit Breaking Female Founder in 2018.

Heather’s new show, Creating Confidence , debuted on the Top 200 shows on Apple podcast. Her guests include Sara Blakely, Gary Vaynerchuck, Ryan Serhant, Kaitlyn Bristowe among many other noteworthy celebrities and entrepreneurs.  Heather has been featured in USA Today, CNN, Forbes, Fast Company and The Steve Harvey Show, most recently adding Guest Professor at Harvard to her list of accomplishments. Heather and her son Dylan reside in Miami.



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George Morgan

GEORGE D. MORGAN has a BA in English/Creative Writing from Cal State University Channel Islands an MFA in Writing for the Performing Arts through the University of California, Riverside. George is the Playwright in Residence at Caltech in Pasadena and has written and co-written more than a dozen stage plays and musicals. In 2001, his play SECOND TO DIE was adapted into a film starring Paul Winfield and Erika Eleniak.

In 2007 his screenplay SHORT LINE won First Place in the International Family Film Festival screenwriting contest and has been optioned several times. In 2008, his play ROCKET GIRL, the true story of America’s first female rocket scientist, premiered at Caltech. He followed up two years later with PASADENA BABALON, the story of Jack Parsons, founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In 2013, his book adaptation of Rocket Girl: The Story of America’s First Female Rocket Scientist was published by Prometheus Books. His play THE WIGGLE ROOM recently premiered in New York. He is currently working on a musical play about Jimi Hendrix. His book, To the Moon and Back: How America Achieved History’s Greatest Adventure will be published in the Fall, 2020.

George is a member of the Writers Guild of America and the Dramatists Guild. George and his wife Lisa live in McKinney, Texas, and Santa Paula, California. They are the proud parents of a whole bunch of children.



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Jen Munson

JEN MUNSON is a postdoctoral fellow in learning sciences at Northwestern University, a professional developer, and former classroom teacher. She received her PhD from Stanford University. Her research focuses on how coaching can support teachers in growing their mathematics instructional practices, particularly in the elementary grades, and how teacher-student interactions influence equitable math learning. She is the co-author, with Jo Boaler and Cathy Williams, of the Mindset Mathematics series. As a professional developer and coach, her work focuses on growing teachers’ and leaders’ capacity to craft rich, responsive, and equitable mathematics classrooms. Before leaving the classroom to coach, she taught elementary and middle school in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and the Seattle area.

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Dr. Howard Murad

HOWARD MURAD, M.D. world-renowned skin care expert and leading authority on aging, is a board-certified dermatologist, trained pharmacist, and Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine (Dermatology) at the Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. Dr. Murad has personally treated over 50,000 patients in his LA based medical center. In 1989 he founded Murad, Inc. (www.murad.com) as a way to further share his groundbreaking skincare formulas, which were among the first to achieve significant measurable anti-aging results without surgery. Dr. Murad continues his innovative research and holds 18 patents for advances in the science of skin health. He has authored numerous articles with nationally recognized publications, such as Cosmetic Dermatology, and three books including The Murad Method, Wrinkle-Free Forever, and The Cellulite Solution. Dr. Murad’s products are also a constant feature in national and international publications and have won numerous awards.

His latest book The Water Secret: The Cellular Breakthrough to Look and Feel 10 Years Younger, uncovers the mystery of how to take control of the aging process. Based on three-decades of research, Dr. Murad conclusively demonstrates that the fundamental marker of youthful good health and true age is the ability of the cell membrane to effectively hold and utilize water. This compelling account of his discoveries sets forth an easy to adopt battle plan for optimizing cellular strength, youthfulness and health through an integrated approach he calls Inclusive Health.

a murad- the water secret



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Dr. Elizabeth U. Murphy

DR. ELIZABETH U. MURPHY is a small-animal veterinarian and former Physician Assistant who has practiced for the past 17 years at the innovative and progressive Broad Ripple Animal Clinic and Wellness Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. Aided by her experience in human medicine, she uses many of the strategies commonly used in human medicine, gerontology and occupational therapy to help her veterinary patients age slowly and age well. Dr. Murphy is a regular contributor to the National Public Radio show,  “Sound Medicine” (soundmedicine.org), a weekly radio magazine about human medicine and health. As the show’s “healthy pet expert”, she points out the many surprising parallels between human and veterinary medicine.  Her goal in providing veterinary education in this forum – a thoughtful show focused on human medical issues – is to encourage listeners to take the health of their pets as seriously as they take their own health. She continues this education on her blog (ageproofyourdog.wordpress.com), where Dr. Murphy presents the newest information on canine aging research and provides reliable information that readers use to make sound health decisions for their dogs.

a murphy- how to age proof your dog



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Terry Mutchler

TERRY MUTCHLER is an attorney and former award-winning journalist who was appointed as Pennsylvania’s first Executive Director of the Office of Open Records, ensuring government transparency. A writer for The Associated Press, she covered politics in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Alaska and Illinois, where she was the first woman appointed AP Statehouse Correspondent. She won several Keystone Awards, Pennsylvania’s top honor for reporting and was the AP’s state nominee for Young Writer of the Year.

Mutchler clerked for the Supreme Court of Illinois and for the Executive Office of the President during the Clinton Administration. She was a Chicago trial lawyer at a major national law firm before returning to public service as a speechwriter and senior advisor for the Illinois Attorney General. Gov. Ed Rendell appointed Mutchler to her current six-year post. Mutchler received her B.A. from Pennsylvania State University and her J.D. from John Marshall School of Law in Chicago . She was a Bohnett Fellow for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Mutchler is the author of Under this Beautiful Dome (Seal 2014).

a mutchler- under this beautiful dome



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Richard Muti

RICHARD MUTI has more than 70 publishing credits—mostly Op-Ed pieces on history, law, politics and government—in The New York Times, The Record of Bergen County, New Jersey Lawyer, and other publications. He spent 19 years as a successful trial prosecutor and also taught writing, American government and politics, criminal justice, and history at three NJ universities. The Charmer is Muti’s third book. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Harvard Business School, and Rutgers Law School, as well as a former Navy pilot and former mayor of Ramsey, New Jersey, his hometown.

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Chris Myers

CHRIS MYERS is FOX Sports’ only three-sport star- Myers is the host of NASCAR on FOX’s live, on-site prerace program, and he contributes to the network’s NFL and MLB coverage, serving as reporter and play-by-play announcer during regular and postseason contests. In addition, Myers files reports for FOXSports.com from all of FOX Sports’ major events.

In 2011, Myers served as sideline reporter during the NFL playoffs culminating with Super Bowl XLV from Cowboys stadium in Arlington. During FOX Sports’ Championship Season beginning with the 2007 World Series and ending with the 2008 MLB All-Star game from Yankee Stadium, Myers was on the field to capture every championship moment. Those moments include interviewing Red Sox players following Boston’s World Series triumph and interviewing LSU Tigers after they captured the BCS crown in 2008. Myers had the unenviable task of interviewing Patriots head coach Bill Belichick following New England’s loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII and was trackside for the 50th running of the Daytona 500 in 2008. In 2010, Myers was tapped to host Showtime’s INSIDE NASCAR series. One of the busiest broadcasters in sports, Myers hosted his own three hour interview show on FOX Sports radio in over 250 affiliates and on Sirius/XM radio entitled CMI: Chris Myers Interview. CMI had the last interview with legendary coach John Wooden and stars from the sports and entertainment world such as Bill Murray and Adam Sandler.

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David Neiwert

DAVID NEIWERT is a freelance journalist and author based in Seattle. A veteran reporter and editor, he began working for MSNBC.com in 1996 as a writer-producer and remained there until 2000. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, MSNBC.com, Salon.com, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report, Seattle magazine, and numerous regional publications. His reportage on domestic terrorism for MSNBC won a National Press Club Award for distinguished online journalism. He is also the author and editor of the award-winning weblog Orcinus http://dneiwert.blogspot.com.

Neiwert is the author of And Hell Followed With Her (Nation 2013), co-author of Over the Cliff: How Obama’s Election Drove the American Right Insane (Polipoint 2010), and author of The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right (Polipoint 2009), Strawberry Days: The Rise and Fall of the Bellevue Japanese-American Community (Palgrave 2005), Death on the Fourth of July: The Story of a Killing, a Trial, and Hate Crime in America (Palgrave 2004) and In God’s Country: The Patriot Movement and the Pacific Northwest (Washington State University Press 1999).

 a neiwert_overthecliff   a neiwert eliminationist   a neiwert- hell followed with her     a neiwert orcas   a neiwert alt america  a neiwert red pill, blue pill 



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Brian Nelson

BRIAN NELSON has over eighteen years of experience in Latin America and has lived in Costa Rica, Argentina, Mexico, and Venezuela. His work on the region has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Christian Science Monitor, The Southern Humanities Review and was the subject of a PEW Case Study for Georgetown University. In 2002, after receiving his MFA from the University of Arizona, Mr. Nelson was awarded a Fulbright grant to writeThe Silence and the Scorpion. Over a seventeen-month period and building on his many connections in Venezuela (some dating back to 1988 when he attended high school there), Mr. Nelson was given open access to many high-level officials in the Chávez regime and the opposition. In addition to his MFA, Mr. Nelson holds degrees in International Studies and Economics. He lives in Baltimore and teaches for Johns Hopkins University.

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Dr. Josiah Ober

JOSIAH OBER is the Constantine Mitsotakis Professor in the School of Humanities and Science at Stanford University, where he does research and teaches courses on historical institutionalism and political theory. At Stanford he is a Professor of Political Science, of Classics, and (by courtesy) Philosophy. He also served a term as Chairman of the Political Science Department. Much of his writing has focused on democratic theory and the contemporary relevance of the political thought and practice of the ancient Greek world. He is the author of Demopolis: Democracy before Liberalism (2017),The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece (2015) and other books, mostly published by Princeton University Press, including Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens (1989), Political Dissent in Democratic Athens (2008), and Democracy and Knowledge (2008). He has also published about 100 articles and chapters, including recent articles in American Political Science ReviewPhilosophical StudiesPolisPublic ChoiceCritical Review, and Transactions of the American Philological Association. Before moving to Stanford in 2006, he was Professor Classics at Princeton University where he also served as Chairman of the Department of Classics. Before that he was a Professor of History at Montana State University. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Michigan and a BA from the University of Minnesota.

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Dan O’Brien

DAN O’BRIEN won the 1996 Olympic Gold Medal to become the first American winner in the sport since 1976. As an Olympic Gold Medalist in the decathlon, Dan O’Brien is officially considered the “World’s Greatest Athlete,” and his name is synonymous with athletic achievement and success both on and off the field. He set a new World Record at the Deca Star Invitational in Talence, France – defeating the 1992 Olympic Gold Medalist Robert Zmelik and went on to win the 1993 and 1995 World Championships, the 1994 Goodwill Games, and three US Championships – all leading to the 1996 Olympic Gold Medal in Atlanta.

Today, Dan is the on-field emcee for every major USA Track & Field event, and he’s also heavily involved as both a host and celebrity athlete for USATF’s Win With Integrity, a community outreach and mentoring program designed to help kids make good life decisions, set positive goals and adhere to a drug-free lifestyle. Dan also works very closely with the United States Olympic Committee as part of its Olympic Ambassador Program, mentoring current athletes in the areas of media training, preparation and peak performance. Dan can also be seen on teamusa.org, where he hosts a Web series called “Can Dan Do It?” Dan has become a highly sought motivational speaker, bringing his inspirational story to the employees and leaders of some of the biggest companies in the world, and over the years he has worked as both a color commentator and guest analyst for networks such as ESPN, CBS and NBC. He was also part of NBC’s 2012 Olympic coverage from London.

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Dr. Terri L. Orbuch

DR. TERRI L. ORBUCH (Ph.D.) is a professor of sociology at Oakland University and a research professor at the University of Michigan, Survey Research Center. She is the project director of a long-term study on marriage and divorce (1986 – present), funded by the National Institutes of Health. She has published several articles on marriage and divorce, dating and sexuality, parent-child relationships, accounts and story-telling, and the effects of divorce on children. She is the author of 5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great (Delacorte Press) and Finding Love Again (Sourcebooks). Dr. Orbuch also is known as “The Love Doctor®” on radio, TV and in magazines/newspapers across the country. She is the host of “The Love Doctor” talk radio program on the VoiceAmerica network and her relationship segments are aired weekly on Fox-TV Detroit. (www.drterrithelovedoctor.com).

a orbuch     a orbuch love again



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Dr. David Palma

DR. DAVID PALMA is a radiation oncologist and cancer researcher at the London Health Sciences Center in Canada. He trained at Harvard University (Master’s Degree in Epidemiology), the VU University in Amsterdam (PhD), Western University, (MD) and Queen’s University (Bachelor’s of Science). He completed his Radiation Oncology residency in Vancouver, Canada and is a board-certified Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada

His research work has been featured in prominent print media, including the Wall Street Journal, The National Post, The Vancouver Sun, and The Globe and Mail. He has also received national Canadian media coverage in TV (CTV news, Global news) and on radio (CBC radio).  He has published more than 100 scientific articles, he lectures internationally to academic and lay audiences, and he has received numerous awards for academics and teaching. His clinical practice focuses on the treatment cancer using precision radiation. He lives in London, Canada, with his wife Dr. Cheryl Smits, a family doctor, and their 3 children. He is an avid marathon runner and is an Ironman triathlete.  Dr. Palma’s website is http://www.qualitycancertreatment.com.  Photo Credit: S. Martin CP Images

a palma- taking charge of cancer



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Nick Perry

Edgar Award winning author NICK PERRY is a native of New Zealand, where he grew up in a family steeped in newspaper tradition. His late grandfather was a renowned cricket writer who covered the sport for some 60 years.

Perry began his career at The New Zealand Herald in 1998 before moving to Seattle. He has worked at The Seattle Times since 2002 and has covered the higher-education beat for the past three years. Recently, he has written about the runaway debt burden shouldered by today’s students, fraternity deaths, and the university provost who was stripped of his title after getting into a shoving match with another administrator. Perry and his wife have two children, aged 5 and 2.

Perry has won a George Polk Award as well as two national honors from the Education Writers Association. He is the co-author, with Ken Armstrong, of the Edgar Award winning book Scoreboard, Baby.

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Jon Picoult

JON PICOULT is Founder & Principal of Watermark Consulting and a noted authority on customer and employee experience.  Put simply, Jon helps companies impress their customers and inspire their employees, creating “raving fans” that drive business growth.

A sought-after management advisor and keynote speaker, Jon has worked with the CEOs and executive teams at some of the world’s foremost brands.  His insights have been featured by dozens of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NBC News and Forbes.

Prior to establishing Watermark, Jon held senior executive roles at Fortune 100 companies – leading service, operations, distribution, technology, sales and marketing.  He earned his A.B. in Cognitive Science from Princeton University and his M.B.A. in General Management from Duke University.  Connect with Jon on Twitter and LinkedIn, or subscribe to his eNewsletter.



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Dr. Barry M. Popkin

BARRY M. POPKIN is the director of the University of North Carolina Interdisciplinary Obesity Center and a professor of global nutrition. He has studied economics and nutrition for three decades, and his research has spanned six continents. He has an active U.S. program in understanding dietary behavior with a focus on eating patterns, trends and socio-demographic determinants. This includes involvement in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a study of environmental determinants of physical activity and inactivity patterns and obesity among 20,000 U.S. adolescents examined in 1995, 1996 and 2001. His work also includes detailed longitudinal studies that he directs in China and Russia, and involvement with longitudinal studies in the Philippines, as well as related work in Brazil and several other countries.

Popkin, one the world’s leading experts on the obesity crisis, is the author of The World Is Fat (Avery/Penguin 2008) in which he argues that the fattening of the human race is not simply about gluttony, but it is instead the result of an unprecedented collision of technology, globalization, government policies, and food industry practices with human biology. He shows how the clash between our biology created over tens of thousands of years and modern technology, in particular over the last 20-25 years, has transformed the way we eat, drink and move and the way food is marketed and controlled.

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Dr. Samuel L. Popkin

SAMUEL L. POPKIN is a professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. He has published in unusually diverse areas. His most recent book is The Candidate: What it Takes to Win – And Hold – The White House. He is also the author of The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns; earlier he co-authoredIssues and Strategies: The Computer Simulation of Presidential Campaigns; and he co-edited Chief of Staff: Twenty-Five Years of Managing the Presidency. He is equally well known for his work on peasant society, with particular reference to East and Southeast Asia, including The Rational Peasant: The Political Economy of Rural Society in Vietnam.

Popkin has also been a consulting analyst in presidential campaigns, serving as consultant to the Clinton campaign on polling and strategy, to the CBS News election units from 1983 to 1990 on survey design and analysis, and more recently to the Gore campaign. He has also served as consultant to political parties in Canada and Europe and to the Departments of State and Defense. His current research focuses on presidential campaigns and the relationship of public opinion to foreign policy.

 a popkin_candidate  a popkin crackup



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David S. Pottruck

DAVID S. POTTRUCK is the Chairman of HighTower Advisors and serves on the Board of Directors of Intel Corporation. Mr. Pottruck was formerly a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and Chair of the San Francisco Committee on Jobs. Mr. Pottruck was the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Charles Schwab Corporation until 2004.

Mr. Pottruck has received accolades and recognition from numerous organizations and publications. He has been named one of the “Top 15 CEOs” by Worth; “CEO of the Year” byInformation Week; “Executive of the Year” by the San Francisco Business Times; and “CEO of the Year” by Morningstar. Mr. Pottruck has been a frequent guest on CNBC and has been quoted, interviewed, and profiled by virtually every financial publication of note. He was named by Smart Money as one of the three most influential executives in the world of investing, and Institutional Investor named him the single most influential executive in online finance.

Mr. Pottruck is the co-author with Terry Pearce of CLICKS AND MORTAR: Passion Driven Growth in an Internet Driven World. In 1999, he was appointed by Congress and then-President Clinton to serve as one of 19 commissioners on the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce. Mr. Pottruck has taught change leadership to hundreds of executives from around the world. He is a Senior Fellow and adjunct faculty member at the Wharton School’s Center for Leadership and Change Management. In 2010 and again in 2012, he was Wharton San Francisco’s highest rated faculty member and received the school’s “Outstanding Teaching Award” for his class “Leading Bold Transformational Change.” Mr. Pottruck graduated with a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, and earned his MBA with honors from Wharton in 1972.

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Dr. Lisa Price

DR. LISA PRICE is a licensed Naturopathic Physician in the State of Washington (1999 – current), a National Institute of Health Research Fellow (2005-2010) and an adjunct faculty member at Bastyr University. She teaches biochemistry to Master of Science candidates in Nutrition. Her classes focus on the physiological effects of nutrients as well as the standard biochemistry concepts.

As an NIH research fellow, she investigated the immunological effects of a medicinal mushroom in normal immune systems and also in women with breast cancer.  Her research included both clinical and basic science study. She has published peer-reviewed scientific papers and abstracts, has written many articles on health and nutrition, and has presented her findings at scientific conferences.

She has a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry and microbiology, and completed her Master of  Science studies in biochemistry. Prior to becoming a naturopathic physician she worked professionally as a research scientist. She is also an environmentalist, and environmental justice activist, and is one of the founding members of the Seattle-based non profit organization the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice. She produces a radio show once a month on health issues associated with cancer.  Dr. Price lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest, but originally hales from New York.

a gins cooking through cancer  a price prostate cancer   a price breast cancer



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Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle

Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Zorana studies the creative process from the initial decision to engage with open-ended problems to generating ideas and transforming them into products and performances. Zorana has edited the Cambridge Handbook of Creativity and Emotions and is co-editor of Crisis, Creativity, and Innovation. She collaborated with colleagues from Denmark, Spain, China, France, Germany, Poland, and Croatia and published her research in journals such as Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Personality, Applied Cognitive Psychology, Creativity Research Journal, Journal of Creative Behavior and others. Zorana has previously served as Associate Editor of Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts and International Journal of Creativity and Problem Solving, and is currently Associate Editor at the Creativity Research Journal. Her work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, ArtNet, US News, Education Week, Science Daily, El Pais, and others, and she is a regular contributor to Psychology Today and Creativity Post. Zorana received the Award for Excellence in Research from the Mensa Education and Research Foundation, the Berlyne Award for Outstanding Early Career Achievement from the Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, and has been elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

 



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Dr. C.W. Randolph

C.W. RANDOLPH, M.D., one of the nation’s leading physician-experts in the field of bio-identical hormone replacement (BHRT), has treated thousands of women and men with hormone imbalances for more than a decade. A graduate of Louisiana State University School of Medicine, Dr. Randolph is board certified by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as the American Board of Holistic Medicine. Because he practiced as a compounding pharmacist before returning to medical school, Dr. Randolph also board certified by The International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists. As the co-founder of The Natural Hormone Institute of America, Dr. Randolph continues to be a frequent speaker for medical and women’s health organizations across the country. In addition to In the Mood Again, Dr. Randolph is the coauthor of the best selling books, From Hormone Hell to Hormone Well and From Belly Fat to Belly Flat.

a james- in the mood again     a james,g - hormone hell



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Giovanni Rocco

GIOVANNI ROCCO is the pen name of a remarkable American law enforcement officer who spent most of his twenty-six year career as a member of state and federal task forces targeting organized crime. He was given an opportunity to work in covert operations early in his career, and over time, he undertook a number of undercover roles inside a wide range of criminal enterprises. As effective as he was in those investigations, they pale beside the culminating role of his career—the successful infiltration of one of America’s most violent and long-standing Mafia families. That investigation was a long term, deep cover undercover operation lasting two and-a-half years, his primary assignment being to engage members and associates of Italian Mafia families and gain their trust. His primary target was New Jersey’s DeCavalcante crime family, commonly referred to by FBI investigators as “the real Sopranos.” Rocco became so fully trusted by Charles Stango, one of DeCavalcante’s primary capos, that the latter went “on the record” for him and put him in charge of his own crew. He was permitted to attend meetings with other high-ranking members of the family, as well as with senior members of other New York Mafia families, and to speak on his capo’s behalf. It has been nearly forty years since any undercover operative has reached that level of acceptance in a Mob family (cf. FBI agent Joe Pistone—aka Donnie Brasco).  At the conclusion of this landmark investigation, Giovanni retired from law enforcement and, after a series of nerve-racking missteps, an FBI threat assessment enabled him to finally move his family to a location that, for obvious reasons, must remain undisclosed.

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Dr. Steven Rogelberg

DR. STEVEN G. ROGELBERG holds the title of Chancellor’s Professor at UNC Charlotte for distinguished national, international and interdisciplinary contributions.  He is a Professor of Organizational Science, Management, and Psychology at well as the Director of Organizational Science. He has over 100 publications addressing issues such as team effectiveness, leadership, engagement, health and employee well-being, meetings at work, and organizational research methods. His research was profiled on Public Television, Radio (e.g., NPR, CBC, CBS), Newspapers (e.g., Chicago Tribune; LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, London Guardian) and Magazines (e.g., National Geographic, Scientific American Mind). Other awards and honors include receiving the Psi Chi Professor of the Year Award and the BGSU Master Teacher Award.

He is the Editor of the Journal of Business and Psychology and the Talent Management Essentials book series. Key professional leadership roles have included elected Science and Research Officer (SIOP) and serving as Chair of the SIOP Education and Training committee.  Companies for whom he has provided consulting services include: IBM, Family Dollar, Grace Cocoa, Vulcan Materials, VF Corporation, National Society for Black Engineers, Lonza, TIAA CREF, Procter & Gamble, Brush Wellman, Marathon Ashland Petroleum, Siemens, Gilbarco, Mid-American Information Services, and North Highland.  He has founded and currently directs two large outreach initiatives focusing on nonprofit organization health and effectiveness.  Over 200 nonprofits have been served.  He has been a visiting scholar and guest speaker at universities around the world including: BI Norwegian Business School (Norway), Reykjavik  University (Iceland), Hong Kong Baptist University,  Peking University (China), Hong Kong City University,  The University of Sheffield (England), The University of Zurich (Switzerland), The University of Tel Aviv (Israel), Technion University (Israel), Concordia University (Canada) the University of Mannheim (Germany) and Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium).

a rogelberg the suprising science of meetings



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Adam Russ

ADAM RUSS is the Assistant Editor of The Blue Moon Literary & Art Review (www.bluemoonlitartreview.com) and his short stories have appeared in Paradigm, The Battered Suitcase, and won awards from Writer’s Digest, The Baltimore Review, and New Millennium Writings. He is the author of a narrative non-fiction book Bloodhound in Blue: The True Tales of Police Dog JJ and His Two-Legged Partner. Adam lives in Northern California with his wife and son.

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Dr. Abigail Saguy

ABIGAIL SAGUY is Associate Professor of Sociology at UCLA. She holds PhDs from Princeton University and from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (France). Her research and teaching interests include the sociology of gender, cultural sociology, sociology of law, political sociology, comparative sociology, sociology of the media, and health policy. Her book What is Sexual Harassment? From Capitol Hill to the Sorbonne (2003), studied how and why sexual harassment has been defined very differently in the United States and France and across national institutions, including the law, corporations, and the mass media. Her current book Who Framed Fat? (Oxford) is about the contested meaning of corpulence in the United States and in France, as both a social and health issue.

Professor Saguy has published her work in the American Sociological Review, Law and Society Review, Social Problems, European Journal of Women’s Studies, and the Journal for Health Politics, Policy and Law, among other journals. Her work has received support from the National Science Foundation, the American Sociological Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the French Government, the Council for European Studies, and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and has received an article prize from the Sex and Gender section of the American Sociological Association.

a saguy   a saguy come out, come out



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Ellen Saltonstall

ELLEN SALTONSTALL (E-RYT 500, C-IAYT) is a certified yoga instructor and therapist with extensive training in the Iyengar and Anusara Yoga methods, and academic degrees from Cornell University and New York University.  She is based at her own studio in New York and travels to train other teachers nationally and internationally with a specialty in anatomy and therapeutics.. She has been a practitioner of yoga and meditation for over 40 years.

She developed and teaches Bodymind Ballwork, a method of self-massage using rubber balls. Her other published books include: Yoga for Arthritis, (WW Norton 2008), and Yoga for Osteoporosis, (WW Norton 2010) with Dr. Loren Fishman, and Anatomy & Yoga: A Guide for Teachers and Students, released in December 2016. She has written articles in professional journals and she offers yoga therapy webinars through YogaOnlineU.com. She describes her approach to bodywork and yoga as a combination of science and artistic expression.  Please visit her website at www.ellensaltonstall.com.

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Dr. Michael Scheeringa

MICHAEL SCHEERINGA M.D., professor and Vice Chair at Tulane University, is the author of Treating PTSD in Preschoolers: A Clinical Guide.  During 25 years as a clinician, award-winning research child psychiatrist, and pioneer in the study of trauma-related problems in young children, Dr. Scheeringa has discovered that there are many things about stress and trauma that are misunderstood.

He founded the Child Counseling Associates clinic for children, the Kid Catch Foundation, and directs Tulane’s adult outpatient clinic and a postdoctoral research fellowship.  His writings and training workshops have trained thousands of clinicians around the world on how to understand and treat traumatized children.  He has authored numerous scientific papers and carried out a series of studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in youth, specializing in very young children.

a scheeringa they'll never be the same



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Douglas Schofield

DOUGLAS SCHOFIELD was raised and educated in Canada, where he earned degrees in History and Law. During his legal career, he worked as a trial lawyer in British Columbia, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands, prosecuting and defending hundreds of criminal cases and conducting complex cross-border civil litigation. He spent nine years as Assistant Solicitor General of the Cayman Islands. In between courtroom engagements, Schofield managed to write five novels. In 2018, after the release of his novel, Killing Pace (St. Martin’s Press, 2017), Schofield decided to retire from legal practice and devote himself to writing full time.

Giovanni’s Ring (a working title) is Schofield’s first non-fiction project. He and his co-author, former FBI covert operator Giovanni Rocco, met in 2015, shortly after Rocco emerged from his long-term undercover role within the DeCavalcante crime family (known to the FBI as “the real Sopranos”). They became close friends and Rocco asked Schofield to help him tell his astonishing story.

As Schofield recently stated: “The rest will be history.” Learn more about Douglas Schofield at: http://douglasschofield.com/

a schofield Giovanni's Ring



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Nicholas Schou

NICHOLAS SCHOU is a Los Angeles Times bestselling author. He is an award-winning investigative journalist with OC Weekly who has also written for LA Weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack Cocaine Epidemic Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (Nation Books 2006), and which has been optioned for a feature length film by Universal Studios and the Los Angeles Times bestselling Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, (Thomas Dunne 2009). His latest book is The Weed Runners: Travels with the Outlaw Capitalists and Modern-Day Bootleggers of America’s Medical Marijuana Trade (Chicago Review Press 2013).

His reporting has resulted in the release from prison of wrongly convicted individuals and the federal indictment, conviction and imprisonment of a Huntington Beach mayor. Last year, Harper Collins included one of his feature stories in Best American Crime Reporting 2008; the same story also won the Best Feature Story award from Southern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He teaches literary journalism each summer at the University of California, Irvine and lives with his wife and son in Long Beach, California.

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Krista Schlyer

KRISTA SCHLYER is an award-winning nature writer and photographer focusing on conservation, biodiversity and public lands. Since obtaining a master’s degree in journalism in 1997, she has been contributing stories and photography to magazines, books, and websites, including BBC, Defenders, National Parks, High Country News, Audubon, and The Nature Conservancy, and she is currently a fellow at the International League of Conservation Photographers. Her most recent book, Continental Divide: Wildlife, People and the Border Wall, won the National Outdoor Book Award, the American Library Association’s “Best of the Best” award, and the Southwest Book of the Year. Her memoir, Almost Anywhere, will be published by Skyhorse in the fall of 2015. Please visit her website at http://kristaschlyer.com.

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Lisa Shannon

LISA SHANNON is a writer and women’s security activist. In 2005, she founded Run for Congo Women (RfCW), the first national grassroots campaign in the US to raise awareness for the forgotten humanitarian crisis in DR Congo. RfCW and Shannon’s associated media appearances have raised more than 15 million dollars and directly aided more than 90,000 Congolese women and children. Shannon’s first book A Thousand Sisters details her journeys into war affected eastern Congo and has been translated into five languages. The book won the Independent Publishing Association’s Gold Award for Best Current Events/ Foreign Affairs book of the year. Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker wrote about A Thousand Sisters, “I can’t imagine a more perfect book for arousing the power of American women (or women and men everywhere) to rush to the defense of our Congolese sisters.”

Shannon’s opeds and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including the International Herald Tribune, The Guardian Online, and The New York Times Online. In July 2011, Shannon cofounded Sister Somalia, the first sexual violence crisis center in Mogadishu. She has spearheaded multiple successful media campaigns related to Congo, Somalia and conflict minerals legislation. Shannon is a fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights and a former fellow with the Center for Public Leadership. She holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Georgetown University. Shannon’s next book is Mama Koko and the Hundred Gunmen (Public Affairs Fall 2014).

a shannon     a shannon- mama koko



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Dr. Saloni Sharma

DR. SALONI SHARMA is double board-certified in physical medicine & rehabilitation and pain management. She specializes in the non-operative care of spine, muscle, and joint pain, employing a multi-modal approach. She is director and founder of the Integrative Medicine Center at the Rothman Institute and advocates for comprehensive care, wellness, and improved well-being. She has completed acupuncture training at Harvard University, studied Physician Wellness through Stanford University, and is a fellow of Integrative Medicine in the Andrew Weill program at University of Arizona. At a national level, she serves on the American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation’s Opioid Task Force and as Co-Chair of the Pain & Spine Rehabilitation practice area. She continues to support alternatives to opioids and is a course director for a national physician course on navigating the opioid crisis and managing pain with integrative approaches.

Dr. Sharma is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University and has published numerous research articles, textbook chapters, and continues to teach and lecture to residents and medical students. Her teaching skills were recognized with the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Education at Sidney Kimmel Medical College in 2018. She has been voted a Top Doc by her peers multiple years including 2020. Dr. Sharma served as a Chief Resident at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and as Chief Fellow at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. To learn simple ways to improve well-being and feel better, follow her at https://www.instagram.com/salonisharmamd/ (@salonisharmamd) and on her personal website https://www.salonisharmamd.com/.

 



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Stephen Michael Shearer

Stephen Michael Shearer is an actor, former model, and the author of four highly regarded film biographies: Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life, Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr, Gloria Swanson: The Ultimate Star and recently (2022) Glamour and Style: The Beauty of Hedy Lamarr. His book on Patricia Neal was made into the film “To Olivia” starring Hugh Bonneville as Roald Dahl. His books on Hedy Lamarr were used as the basis for the PBS/American Masters feature documentary “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story,”produced by Susan Sarandon, in which he appears.



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Michael Sheldrick

MICHAEL SHELDRICK is a policy entrepreneur and Co-Founder and Chief Policy, Impact and Government Affairs Officer for Global Citizen. He leads Global Citizen’s campaigns to rally support from governments, businesses and foundations to get the world on track to end extreme poverty. He is a policy entrepreneur and has worked on campaigns globally with artists such as Beyoncé, Coldplay, Idris and Sabrina Elba, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Priyanka Chopra, Rihanna and Usher, as well as and world leaders including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and former Australian Prime Ministers Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.

He has co-produced some of the world’s largest social impact campaigns and events such as the annual Global Citizen Festival in Central Park, New York, the Guinness World Record-winning virtual concert One World: Together At Home, and the centennial celebration of Nelson Mandela (Mandela 100).

As well as reaching millions of people in over 150 countries, these campaigns have helped secure more than US$40 billion towards local and regional organizations providing access to lifesaving medical treatment, sanitation, education, equity and empowerment, and climate residency efforts. Amongst other awards, One World received Guinness World Records for most money raised for charity by a remote music festival.

He has spoken on policy advocacy, sustainable development, corporate responsibility at numerous conferences/summits around the world. He was named as a finalist for 2017 Young Commonwealth Person of the Year and is also a board member for the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, and is on the Leadership Council of aable, a financial technology company which connects compassionate investors to underbanked people across the world. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Nigerian Solidarity Support Fund.



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Dr. Susan Shirk

SUSAN SHIRK is a Los Angeles Times bestselling author. She is also the director of the University of California system-wide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and Ho Miu Lam Professor of China and Pacific Affairs in the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego. During 1997-2000, Dr. Shirk served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, with responsibility for the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia. In this position Dr. Shirk planned and participated in meetings between the Chinese and American presidents and senior officials, and in negotiations on arms control, human rights, and trade, including negotiations on China’s accession to the World Trade Organization.

She founded in 1993 and continues to lead the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD), an unofficial “track-two” forum for discussions of security issues among defense and foreign ministry officials and academics from the United States, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and North Korea. Dr. Shirk’s publications include her books, How China Opened Its Door: The Political Success of the PRC’s Foreign Trade and Investment Reforms; The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China; and Competitive Comrades: Career Incentives and Student Strategies in China. Her book China: Fragile Superpower (Oxford) was a Los Angeles Times bestseller.

Dr. Shirk served as a member of the U.S. Defense Policy Board, the Board of Governors for the East-West Center (Hawaii), the Board of Trustees of the U.S.-Japan Foundation, and the Board of Directors of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and an emeritus member of the Aspen Strategy Group. As Senior Adviser to The Albright Group, Dr. Shirk advises private sector clients on China and East Asia.

a shirk china     a shirk changing 



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Lei Shishak

LEI SHISHAK is the founder of Beach Town Baking (www.beachtownbaking.com) and the author of the cookbook Beach Town Baking. She received her training at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, graduating at the top of her class in 2004. Lei is the owner of Sugar Blossom Bake Shop in San Clemente, California and lives just up the coast in Dana Point. She loves spending time at the beach, creating new recipes in her ocean-view loft, riding her mountain bike and going on long hikes in the nearby mountains. Prior to opening her bake shop, Lei worked as Executive Pastry Chef at notable west coast restaurants including Michael Mina’s Stonehill Tavern and was named Pastry Chef of the Year by Southern California’s noted Riviera magazine.

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Benjamin Shobert

BENJAMIN SHOBERT is the Founder and Managing Director of Rubicon Strategy Group, a consulting firm specialized on helping multinationals understand and design market access strategies for China and across Southeast Asia.  Ben is affiliated with the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), a policy think tank where he advises on healthcare reforms and the biotech industry in China and Southeast Asia. He is a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations and holds various advisory board seats in the foreign policy community.

For six years, he wrote a column for the Asia Times on US-China policy matters. Ben’s work has been featured at CNBC, China Business Review, Fortune Magazine (China), Harvard Asia Quarterly, Yale University’s China Hands, and others. He has appeared on a number of international TV programs including CCTV, CNBC Asia, CNN, and ABC World News. In late 2012, he began writing at Forbes China and in 2013 began writing at Forbes. He is a contributor to the book, The Global Obama.

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Scarlett Sieber

SCARLETT SIEBER is Chief Strategy and Growth Officer at Money20/20, the fintech industry’s largest gathering place. Scarlett is one of the industry’s most sought-after speakers as a thought leader and innovator, with exper- tise in driving organizational change at both startups and enterprises alike across the financial services and fintech ecosystem. Scarlett has been a consultant, banker, strategist, and tech entrepreneur and has held senior executive roles in financial services, including at USAA and BBVA.

Scarlett holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Fordham Univer- sity. She currently serves as a Senior Advisor to NASA and is an Advisory Board Member to Village Capital. Scarlett has been invited to speak at over 100 prestigious financial services and technology conferences around the globe. As a prominent industry influencer, Scarlett is an invited recurring contributor to Forbes, The Financial Brand, and Huffington Post and has been quoted in dozens of other publications, including Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, American Banker, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times.



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Daniel P. Simon

DANIEL P. SIMON is a writer, entrepreneur, and financial communications expert. He has been part of the Fintech Revolution since its inception, advising on some of the biggest brands in the space including Morgan Stanley, Bloomberg, and Goldman Sachs.

Daniel’s focus on finance and its future led him to become CEO and Co-Founder of Vested, an integrated communications firm where he and his team partner with top financial and fintech companies.

Daniel’s natural curiosity about all things related to finance and his unique view point as an insider in the financial industry have perfectly positioned him to be an authority on the beginnings of the Fintech Revolution. He’s been watching the industry since its inception and has chronicled its major events, from the day when Apple launched its App Store, to the Winkelvoss twins becoming key players in the world of Bitcoin, and beyond.

Daniel is a regular columnist for Forbes, Market Media and CoinTelegraph; and has appeared on Cheddar, FinTech TV, Asset TV and BrightTALK’s Focus on Fintech series. He is also the founder of the online digital publication Finsiders, and the podcast Money & Broad.  When he’s not living and breathing financial communications, Daniel is spending time with his wife
Erin and two daughters, Charlotte and Eleanor, at their home in Brooklyn.

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Dr. Jeffrey D. Simon

JEFFREY D. SIMON is an internationally recognized author, lecturer, and consultant on terrorism and political violence. He runs Political Risk Assessment Co., Inc., a security and terrorism research consulting company in Santa Monica, California. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Terrorist Trap: America’s Experience with Terrorism. His writings on terrorism and political risk have appeared in many publications, includingThe Journal of the American Medical AssociationForeign PolicyThe Journal of Terrorism and Political Violence, The Columbia Journal of World Business, and The New York Times.

A former RAND analyst, Dr. Simon has conducted research and analysis on terrorism for more than twenty-five years. He has lectured and given workshops on terrorism to university audiences, law enforcement and military personnel, the emergency services, and the medical community both in the United States and overseas. He has also worked with the U.S. Army on many projects, including the Human, Social, Culture, Behavior (HSCB) Modeling Program and the Soft Target Exploitation Fusion (STEF) Program. Dr. Simon also teaches a course on terrorism each summer at UCLA and is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Terrorism and Political Violence. He earned a B.A. in History from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. in Political Science from Indiana University, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Southern California.

a simon_lone wolfba simon the alphabet bomber   



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Julie Skolnick

JULIE SKONICK, M.A., J.D., Founder of With Understanding Comes Calm, LLC, passionately guides parents of gifted and distractible children, mentors 2e adults, trains educators and advises professionals on how to bring out the best and raise self-confidence in their 2e students and clients.

Julie serves as Secretary to the Maryland Superintendent’s Gifted and Talented Advisory Council, is an advisor for the Masters of Education Program for the Bridges Graduate School of Cognitive Diversity, is the Maryland liaison for Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG), is a Committee member for the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) and serves as an advisor to “The G Word” feature documentary currently in production. Julie produces Let’s Talk 2e! virtual conferences, hosts the Let’s Talk 2e! Parent Empowerment Series,  and publishes “Gifted & Distractible,” a free monthly newsletter. A frequent speaker and prolific writer, Julie is also the mother of three twice exceptional children who keep her on her toes and uproariously laughing.

Follow Julie on social media: Facebook: WithUnderstandingComesCalm, Let’s Talk 2e – Parents, Let’s Talk 2e – Teachers’ Lounge, Instagram: @LetsTalk2e, Twitter: @JulieSkolnick, LinkedIn: Julie Rosenbaum Skolnick, and YouTube: Let’s Talk 2e.

 



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Averell “Ace” Smith

AVERELL “ACE” SMITH is a 30-year veteran of state and national politics and has directed winning campaigns from district attorney to president.  In 2005, Ace directed Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s underdog campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles, marking the first time since the 1930’s that an LA Mayor had been defeated after a single term. In 2006, he ran Jerry Brown’s campaign for California Attorney General and during the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary, served as State Director for Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaigns in California, Texas and North Carolina. In 2010, Ace was instrumental in this historic election of San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris as California Attorney General and US Senator.

 The subject of several newspaper profiles, Ace has been called “legendary” by the New York Times and political campaign manager “heavyweight champion of the year” in the San Francisco Chronicle.  Ace was born and raised in San Francisco and today lives in Kentfield, CA with his wife Laura.  He earned his BA in English Literature from UC Berkeley.

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Michael Smith

A former press aide for the New York State Assembly, radio news reporter and public relations professional in his native Buffalo, NY, MICHAEL SMITH parlayed his passion for ideas into copywriting and creative director positions at ad agencies in New York and Southern California in the 1980s and 1990s. Since the, he’s written and produced over 600 TV spots, radio commercials and corporate videos for all kinds of clients, all over the country as executive producer/creative director of Beard Boy Productions, a company he founded in Tustin, CA, in 1994.

Also a spare-time author, Mike’s written feature stories for National Lampoon, National Geographic Kids, Men’s Exercise, Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, San Antonio Express News, St. Petersburg Times and Buffalo News. He’s also helped publish a comic book and a children’s book parody based on a satirical character he created: Pete the PO’d Postal Worker. A vocational high school drop out, Mike can be found listening to Metallica while scraping Beeman’s off the bottom of the corndog counter at Wal-Mart.

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Rick Snyder

RICK SNYDER is the CEO of Three Hats and works as an international business coach, writer, speaker, and consultant. He has launched three businesses and is an expert in mentoring, training, and teaching others how to utilize the process of bringing intuition into an effective business plan and company culture.  His breakthrough strategies have been implemented by executives and businesses in Europe, Canada, Asia and America.  He has lived the past few years in France and brings a global perspective to his teachings.  The coaches of Three Hats are certified coaching representatives of EMyth, the globally known brand that has a worldwide presence and reach in over 145 countries.  For more information, please consult www.three-hats.com.

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Matt Spielman

CEO and Head Coach MATT SPIELMAN draws upon decades of senior-executive operating experience at both large, public, and younger Venture Capital-backed organizations. He partners with high-performing executives and their teams to realize business and personal success.

Matt is an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and he graduated from the Executive Coaching program at Columbia University. Matt was named one of the leading coaches by Institutional Investor and appeared on Good Morning America to discuss his ACHIEVE goal setting model.



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Terry Greene Sterling

TERRY GREENE STERLING is affiliated faculty and writer-in-residence at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. She is the author of Illegal. Her writing has been published in the Washington Post, the Rolling StoneNewsweek, the AtlanticSlate, the Daily Beast, the Village VoiceHigh Country News, the Guardian, the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, and other publications. Greene Sterling is Editor-at-Large for the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.



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Charlotte Stewart

Over the course of 50 years in films and television, CHARLOTTE STEWART has worked with great performers including Jimmy Stewart , Rock Hudson, Elvis Presley, Kevin Bacon, and Rainn Wilson.  Her best-known role is schoolteacher Eva Beadle in the 1970s hit show Little House on the Prairie.  She also starred as Mary X in David Lynch’s cult classic “Eraserhead” and worked with Lynch again in his popular television series “Twin Peaks.”   Her long list of credits includes guest roles in television classics such as Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O,   The Waltons,  Mannix,  My Three Sons, McMillan & Wife, and Bonanza.  Other film credits include roles in Cheyenne Social Club, Tremors, and Slums of Beverly Hills.

Charlotte now calls Napa home and works to raise funds and awareness on behalf of breast cancer charities, locally for the Wellness Center at The Queen of the Valley Hospital.

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Brenda Stockdale

BRENDA STOCKDALE has been the Director of Mind-Body Medicine for Georgia Cancer Treatment Center for over a decade where the latest research in mind-body medicine serves as an adjunct to medical treatment. As the National Program Director for ECaP [founded by Bernie Siegel, M.D.] Brenda designed ECaP’s first hospital-based program and co-created ECaP’s national retreats for person’s with life-challenging illness. She has been featured on Oprah, NPR, other TV talk shows, as well as in a variety of print media. She has also developed a health psychology program for primary care settings specializing in preventive medicine, autoimmunity and stress-related conditions. A leader in her field, Stockdale has taught, presented workshops, and lectured nationally over the last fifteen years for a variety of corporate and special interest groups and her workshops and programs have been implemented in hospital settings, oncology practices and cancer centers. She is a clinician in the field of behavioral medicine, but it is her own experience with life-altering and catastrophic illness that anchors the subject in an intimate way.

Brenda’s Bachelor and Graduate degrees in Behavioral Science and Health Psychology are from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and she completed a clinical training program in Mind/Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of You Can Beat the Odds: Surprising Factors Behind Chronic Illness & Cancer-the Six-Week Breakthrough Program for Optimal Immunity and is the recipient of a Hambidge Fellowship. Please visit her website at www.brendastockdale.com.

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Jill Stoddard

JILL STODDARD is passionate about sharing science-backed ideas from psychology to help people thrive. She is a clinical psychologist and founder/director of The Center for Stress and Anxiety Management. She is an award-winning teacher, TEDx speaker, peer-reviewed ACT trainer, and co-host of the popular Psychologists Off the Clock podcast. Dr. Stoddard is the author of two books: Be Mighty: A Woman’s Guide to Liberation from Anxiety, Worry, and Stress Using Mindfulness and Acceptance and The Big Book of ACT Metaphors: A Practitioner’s Guide to Experiential Exercises and Metaphors in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Her writing has also appeared in Psychology Today, Scary Mommy, Thrive Global, The Good Men Project, and Mindful Return. She regularly appears on podcasts and as an expert source for various media outlets. Dr. Stoddard received her PhD from Boston University in 2007. She lives in Carlsbad, CA with her husband, two kids, and silly French Bulldog.

 



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Dr. Paul G. Stoltz

New York Times bestselling author DR. PAUL G. STOLTZ is the world’s leading expert on measuring and strengthening human resilience. He is the author of three international bestselling books on the subject — printed in 14 languages — and was voted by Executive Excellence as “One of the 100 Most Influential Thinkers of Our Time.” Dr. Stoltz is a guest lecturer for the Harvard Business School Executive Education program.

In 1987, Dr. Stoltz founded PEAK Learning, Inc., a global research and consulting firm, through which he coaches, consults, teaches, and collaborates with top leaders, thinkers, and influencers within a broad range of organizations from start-ups and NGO’s to the Young Presidents’ Organization and the Fortune 100 on six continents. As Director of the Global Resilience Institute, Dr. Stoltz oversees a research agenda in 21 countries dedicated to exploring, expanding, and advancing the applications of AQ to strengthen people and their organizations. His research partners include top thinkers at Yale University, Stanford University, and more than a dozen universities overseas. Dr. Stoltz is a frequently sought after resource for the world’s top media including CNN, CNBC, Business News Network, NBC Nightly News, Public Broadcast Service (PBS), the Today Show, Sky News, the Oprah Winfrey Show and is quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Management Update, Investor’s Business Daily, Asia 21, Inc., Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Singapore Straits Times, The Australian Financial Review, Success Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Boss Magazine, The Drucker Foundation’s prestigious Leader to Leader and other publications.

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Meg Stone

MEG STONE is a fashion + lifestyle photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area where she works with lifestyle brands + fashion influencers to create elevated, scroll-stopping images that inspire the modern woman.   

 Meg has been the in-house photographer at VICI Collection, the fastest growing e-commerce site in women’s fashion, for the past three years.  In addition to this, her freelance clients include the brands MVMT,  John Masters Organics, Birdies, and Margaret Elizabeth as well as influencers such as Stephanie Danielle and Kathleen Barnes.  Her fresh + sophisticated images have been featured in publications such as The Zoe Report, Elle Spain, Southern Living Magazine, and Glitter Guide. 

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B. Alexandra Szerlip

B. ALEXANDRA SZERLIP was a two-time National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellow, as well as a Yaddo and Hatch Fund fellow. She has edited dozens of books, written articles about literacy, Native Americans and 19th c. Oriental carpets (among other subjects), and conducted in-depth interviews with Pultizer poet W.S. Merwin, Chilean novelist Isabel Allende and Academy-Award-winning costume designer “Aggie” Guerard Rodgers.

Her design work includes three solo sculpture shows (mixed-media), an annotated map of Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlos’ adventures in San Francisco (1930 -1940), and two original notecard series (“Cultural Myths” and “Written Kisses”) for Pomegranate Publications (total of 54 images, international distribution).

Like Bel Geddes, her involvement in live theatre began early. Between the ages of twelve and eighteen, she was a member of a professional summer stock theatre company in upstate New York. More recently, she designed and ran lights and sound for three distinct productions in Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival.

a szerlip- the man who designed the future



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Deborah Todd

DEBORAH TODD is an award-winning designer, writer, producer, and director in the interactive arena, with 16 published games and 24 published titles to her credit since 1991. She has worked with some of the industry’s top publishers and Hollywood studios, including Disney Interactive, Disneyland, Fox, DreamWorks, Discovery Channel, MGM/UA, Columbia, Warner Bros., Nickelodeon, The Learning Company, Humongous Entertainment, Broderbund, Mindscape, Houghton-Mifflin, McGraw-Hill, Random House, and Steven Spielberg’s Starbright Foundation. Her projects have garnered such awards as the ABA Book Sellers Choice New Media Award, the ComputEd Best Interactive Story Award, Child Magazine’s Best Software of the Year Award, Parenting Magazine’s Software Magic Award, and U.S. News and World Report’s Top 12 Titles of the Year.

Her most recent book is Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light, with a forward by producer Jon Landau. Ms. Todd’s book on game design was recognized as one of the five most important industry books of 2007 by Game Developer magazine, and was a finalist in the 2007 Frontline Awards. Barnes and Noble proclaimed, “We’ve seen several books that promise to take you inside game design. A few of them have been excellent, but none are better than Deborah Todd’s Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light.”  Ms. Todd lives in Marin County, California.

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Dr. David Tolin

DR. DAVID TOLIN is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. He is also the founder and Director of the Anxiety Disorders Center at The Institute of Living. Dr. Tolin is the recipient of the award for Distinguished Contribution to the Science of Psychology from the Connecticut Psychological Association, and an Early Career Award from the Anxiety Disorders Special Interest Group of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy. Since 2003, he has served as a scientific reviewer for the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Tolin is the author of Face Your Fears: Exposure Therapy for Beating Fears, Phobias, Panic, and Obsessions (Wiley) and has been a recurrent guest on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. He was a featured expert on the A&E series Hoarders, and is the host of the VH-1 television series The OCD Project.

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Dr. Joshua Turknett

JOSHUA TURKNETT, M.D. is a clinical neurologist and researcher, pursuing new treatments for neurological disorders like stroke, Alzheimer’s, neuropathy, Parkinson’s, and migraine. He has a special interest in the role of nutrition and lifestyle on neurological illness, a topic he writes about it at his blog atwww.savethesynapse.com. Dr. Turknett is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Emory University School of Medicine. He is also a multi-instrumentalist and music teacher, and writes the “Your Brain on Banjo” column for the Banjo Newsletter where he discusses how to exploit brain plasticity to enhance musical learning. Dr. Turknett lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife Jenny, a food writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, their two children, and an ever-expanding collection of banjos.

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Kaitlin Ugolik

Over the past decade, journalist KAITLIN UGOLIK has reported and written on everything from civil litigation to sex robots, eventually carving out a beat at the intersection of health, technology, and the brain. Her work has appeared in Columbia Journalism Review, Quartz, VICE, Lifehacker, Narratively and The Establishment, among other places online and in print. She also writes a blog, On Empathy, where she summarizes recent news and research on behavioral science, especially as it relates to empathy and the way people communicate.

She received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Elon University and a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She has spent most of her journalism career in New York but recently moved back home to North Carolina, where she edits a health policy journal and lives in Morrisville with her husband and two cats. Follow her for tweets about health, science, empathy, and baking.

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Dr. Kim Van Dusen

DR. KIM VAN DUSEN, Psy.D., is a mom of two young children, a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a nationally recognized Registered Play Therapist, and University Professor who has taught Master and Doctoral Level students Parent Child Therapy and Play Therapy for almost a decade. Dr. Kim is also the CEO/Owner/Founder of The Parentologist, a family and lifestyle brand, and blog, about everything parenting with a therapeutic twist. She has a social media community of more than 125,000 followers and is also the host of The Parentologist Podcast. Dr. Kim has over 15 years of experience working as a child therapist and also owns a therapeutic private practice specializing with parents and their children in the 2-10 age range. In addition to her Doctor of Psychology, Dr. Kim also has a Bachelor’s in Sociology from UCLA, a Master’s in Broadcast Journalism from Syracuse University, a Master’s in Marital and Family Therapy, and a Doctorate in Psychology from Alliant International University, San Diego. Dr. Kim writes for many publications including Yahoo!, TODAY Parenting, Very Well Family, LA Parent Magazine, The Toy Association, and Learning Resources, and can often be heard on KFI 640 AM and seen on CBS 8, ABC 10, and FOX 5.

An active public speaker for over 25 years, Dr. Kim has spoken at APA Half Yearly ConferenceAlt Summit, So Cal Mom’s Wellness Summit, San Diego Association for Play TherapyMom’s Meet Wow SummitAEYC Early Childhood Education ConferencePinners Conference and ExpoBabies in Bloom’s BabyFest, Magical Media Retreat, and Bibs and Bellies. Dr. Kim has had years of experience in television and radio, and has previously worked as a reporter for E! Entertainment and FOX Sports Radio. She also worked for Entertainment Tonight and Inside Edition in the newsroom. Prior to earning her doctoral degree, she was National Account Manager for Clear Channel Communications in Los Angeles, working in sales, marketing, and advertising, writing proposals and negotiating contracts for large companies like Toyota, FOX TV, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Post-doctorate, she spent five years working for a non-profit agency as a Program Manager implementing a positive behavior support program in over 20 elementary schools in San Diego. Most recently, she has worked for a private clinic as a Behavior Consultant and Clinical Supervisor helping families with children diagnosed on the autism spectrum.  Dr. Kim lives in Southern California with her family



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Gavin Van Horn

GAVIN VAN HORN works at the Center for Humans and Nature. He is the co-editor of City Creatures: Animal Encounters in the Chicago Wilderness (2015) and Wildness: Relations of People and Place (March 2017). He writes for, edits, and curates the City Creatures Blog and his creative nonfiction has appeared in Orion, Red Savina Review, and Zoomorphic, among others. He lives in Chicagoland.

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Dr. Tonia Vojtkofsky

DR. TONIA VOJTKOFSKY specializes in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. She holds a project scientist position at UCI’s IMIND & ADRC and has been invited to speak at the American Society on Aging conference twice on dementia-specific topics.  She has also been an editor of a national academic journal in psychology.

In 2013, Tonia founded Cognitive Care Solutions, which provides cognitive enhancement therapy for persons with MCI and mild dementia, targeting modifiable risk factors to keep brains stronger for longer.  Dr. Vojtkofsky is a member of the American Psychological Association, California Psychological Association, US Against Alzheimer’s, and a founding member of Women Against Alzheimer’s.  She is the author of MINDFIT: A Brain Exercise Workbook for Mild Cognitive Impairment.

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Michael Mehta Webster

MICHAEL MEHTA WEBSTER is an expert in ecology, conservation, philanthropy, and executive leadership, as well as an ardent nature enthusiast.  He is currently a Research Scientist in the Environmental Studies Department at New York University and will be a Visiting Professor of Practice at Cornell University’s Department of Natural Resources & the Environment as of Fall 2021.  Michael is the author of The Rescue Effect, which is an optimistic exploration about how people and nature can save life on earth.

During his professional career – as the Executive Director of the Coral Reef Alliance, a Program Officer at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and an academic scientist – Michael has led efforts to connect cutting-edge science to protecting species and ecosystems in the wild.  Michael earned his Ph.D. at Oregon State University, and his B.S. in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin.  Photo Credit:  Avani Mehta Sood



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Suzi Weiss-Fischmann

SUZI WEISS-FISCHMANN is the cofounder, brand ambassador and creative visionary behind OPI Products, Inc. She is the go-to authority on nail care and color trends in the beauty and fashion industries. She is the author of I’M NOT REALLY A WAITRESS: AND THE OTHER OPI COLORS THAT REVAMPED AN INDUSTRY AND TOOK WOMEN TO THE END OF THE RAINBOW (DaCapo 2018) and a frequent contributor to top magazines and has been featured hundreds of times in articles, blogs, and television shows, including Allure, Brides, CBS 2 Los Angeles, CNBC.com, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Family Circle, Fitness, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, “Keeping Up with the Kardashian”, Ladies’ Home Journal, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Marie Claire, Martha Stewart Living, Modern Bride, More, “Nightline” (ABC), NPR, Prevention, SELF Magazine, Seventeen, Shape, The New York Times, “The Today Show” (NBC), Vogue, Woman’s Day, and more.  She is a sought-after, active public speaker and gives keynote addresses, inspirational speeches, board and trade show presentations, and gala talks in dozens of countries.

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Dr. Kandi Wiens

DR. KANDI J. WIENS is a Senior Fellow at The University of Pennsylvania, a burnout expert, national speaker, and executive coach. She has extensive teaching experience in the PennCLO Executive Doctoral Program and in many Wharton Executive Education programs and writes frequently for Harvard Business Review. In her book, BURNOUT IMMUNITY: How Emotional Intelligence Can Help You Build Resilience and Heal Your Relationship with Work (HarperCollins, 2024), Dr. Wiens shares how her personal struggles with burnout led her on a research quest to unravel the mystery of why some people are immune to burnout, and offers leaders in high-stress roles the latest science-backed strategies to protect themselves against the public health epidemic assailing millions of workers worldwide.

For more information, visit www.kandiwiens.com or connect with Kandi on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.



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Jeff Wolf

JEFF WOLF  is a highly sought after executive coach to senior executives and is recognized as one of the top executive coaches in the country. His strategic focus in solving corporate and human issues has earned him continuing raves from national firms.  Leadership Excellence magazine named him one of America’s Top 100 Thought Leaders for his accomplishments in leadership development, managerial effectiveness, and organizational productivity.  A dynamic speaker and requested business consultant he brings a wealth of practical, real life expertise and presence to his work with a diverse background which includes roles as a CEO and basketball coach.

He is currently president of Wolf Management Consultants, one of the most comprehensive consulting, coaching and training firms in the nation.  The firm specializes in helping people, teams and organizations achieve maximum effectiveness.

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Victoria Zackheim

VICTORIA ZACKHEIM is an author and book editor. She is also the creator, contributing author, and editor of five anthologies–EXIT LAUGHING: How Humor Takes the Sting Out of Death (North Atlantic 2012); HE SAID WHAT: Women Write About Moments When Everything Changed (Seal 2011); THE FACE IN THE MIRROR: Writers Reflect on Their Dreams of Youth and the Reality of Age (Prometheus Books, September 2009); FOR KEEPS: Women Tell the Truth About Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance (Seal Press/Perseus 2008); and THE OTHER WOMAN: Twenty-one Wives, Lovers, and Others Talk Openly About Sex, Deception, Love, and Betrayal (Grand Central 2008), a Canadian national bestseller and the basis of a forthcoming play. She is the author of the novel, The Bone Weaver.

Victoria is also the story developer and screenwriter of the documentary film Tracing Thalidomide: The Story of Frances Kelsey, and screenwriter for More Than A Lord’s Daughter: Ada Byron Lovelace (both films with On the Road Productions). She is an instructor in the UCLA Writers’ Program, where she teaches courses in Personal Essay and Memoir. Victoria writes and records commentaries for The Mimi Geerges Show (Satellite/FM and public radio) and is a frequent keynote speaker for educational and non-profit organizations. Please visit her website at www.victoriazackheim.com. (photo: Vicki Topaz).

a zackheim other     a zackheim for keeps     a zackheim face     a zackheim he said     ExitLaugh-CVR.07.indd     a zackheim faith  a zackheim private investigations



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Judi & Shari Zucker

JUDI and SHARI ZUCKER, also known as The Double Energy Twins, attended the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) where they earned BAs in Ergonomics, the study of human physiology, physical education and nutrition.  They became vegetarians at age eleven and wrote their first book, How to Survive Snack Attacks—Naturally! when they were just sixteen years old. Since then, they have gone on to write six bestselling health books. They lecture on living a healthy life, clean eating, and having more energy through hospitals, schools and Health & Wellness Programs. They are favorite guests on many local and national television shows including The Today Show and Home & Family.  Both Judi and Shari are married, and have five children between them. They reside in Santa Barbara, California.

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