Emily L Butler

Emily L. Butler is a New York City Creativity Coach and Holistic Health Educator who empowers and inspires others to heal their bodies and reignite their passionate motivation. Known for her compassion, humor and down-to-earth practicality, Emily teaches with the enthusiastic conviction that only comes from real, lived experiences in self-healing. Healing herself from debilitating illness and pain marked a turning point in Emily’s life years ago that spurred her on to teaching others about their in-born power to transform their health. She delights in spreading this message of empowerment and hope through writing, speaking, workshops and personal coaching in NY, NY. To learn more, go to www.ascendanceholistichealing.com

Lily Casura

Lily Casura graduated from Harvard with honors in English and biology. Lily, however, combined her biology and English interests in some creative and unusual ways. She is a former Sysop for CompuServe’s natural medicine forum, a graduate of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine’s practitioner training and advanced training in the “Healing the Troops” track, and a graduate of the National Center for PTSD’s clinical training program. Her focus is combat veterans with PTSD and/or MST and integrative medicine.
As a writer, Lily is the author of “Gentle Medicine: Treating Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Successfully with Natural Medicine” and has written about complementary and alternative medicine (“CAM”) for 15 years for magazines and websites like MotherNature.com. She has also curated the Ovation television series on “Art and War.”

Lily Casura is currently the founder and host of the flagship site, Healing Combat Trauma, therapeutic resources for veterans with combat-based post-traumatic stress disorder.

Valerie C Clark

Valerie C. Clark studies how brightly colored amphibians obtain and use chemicals to defend themselves against would-be predators. She travels all over the world and camps for months at a time to study these critters. Val has appeared in National Geographic Magazine, Wild Chronicles, NG TV Dangerous Encounters, NG Weekend, several NG News pieces, and contributes posts to National Geographic Blog WILD. Her research and forest expeditions to study toxins in frog secretions has been covered in New York Times, on NPR shows, and much more, as seen at her Frog Chemistry website.

Thomas Norman DeWolf

Thomas Norman DeWolf is the author of Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S.History (Beacon Press). In 2001, Tom traveled with nine distant relatives on a life-altering journey through New England, Ghana, and Cuba to film the Emmy-nominated documentary film, Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, in which he is featured. An Official Selection for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Traces of the Trace premiered on national television on the acclaimed PBS series P.O.V. Sign up for Tom’s newsletter, schedule him to speak to your group, follow his writing and lectures at his website.

Michael Faraday

Organic farmer/prospector; conservator of Sticks & Stones Museum; overseer of Kids Orchard & Lapidary; National Wildlife Foundation Wildlife Habitat; WWOOFusa.org affiliation…and then I drum and play the flute…
Join Michael on Facebook at Kids Orchard and Lapidary.

Anthony P Johnson

Mr. Anthony P. Johnson, Ph.D. candidate, is the Founder & CEO of Dream Field Academy, a 501 (C) (3) mentoring and non-traditional sports (Fencing, golf, rugby) program. Mr. Johnson is also the Founder of the “Summit” Coalition, (2007) which is guided by the principle to build creative and trusting relationships with residents, community based and faith based organizations, school officials, public servants and families to provide quality programs to impoverished communities. Follow Mr. Johnson’s blog by clicking here.

Gale Madyun

Painter, poet, and writer Gale Madyun received her Master of Public Administration from City University, Renton, Washington, a B.A. in Geology from University of Montana, Missoula, and a B.A. in Social Work from California State University at Los Angeles. She has been a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Commission on Sex Equity, the KCET ( Channel 28) Community Advisor Board in Los Angeles, CA, and was a member of the 1998 Interim Board of Directors for Black Expressions. She has received scholarships from the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont and Point Way Inn for Artists on Martha’s Vineyard. Her articles have appeared in Essence Magazine, The LA Times, and numerous anthologies. She currently lives, paints and writes in Los Angeles, California, and is working on her first novel. You can browser her art gallery and her written work at her website.

Christine Ranck, PhD

Christine Ranck, PhD, is co-author of the revolutionary consciousness-expanding book/soundtrack combo, Ignite the Genius Within, designed to change your brain, enhance your creativity, and re-discover yourself in ways you never imagined. Dr. Ranck is a trauma therapist and psychoanalyst in New York City. As a speaker and seminar leader, she holds workshops on freeing creativity all over the country. Christine is also a professional singer, and her vocal trio, The Janes, currently tours and performs nationally. Go to her website, www.christineranck.com and download the free Get Ignited! soundtrack.

Kevin Robison

Kevin Robison is a musician and writer living in Atlanta, GA. After receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from the University of North Alabama, and a Master of Arts degree in choral conducting from the University of Nevada, Kevin served as Resident Director of Music for the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, and on the faculties of Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal-Poly Pomona, and Cal-State Fullerton. For three years he served as assistant conductor of Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, and artistic director of the South Coast Chorale in Long Beach. In 2007, he became the first full-time director of the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus – a position that challenges and inspires him to write about the connection between music, self-empowerment, and social change.

As a composer and arranger, Kevin has received commissions from some of the leading choruses in the nation, including the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, Seattle Men’s Chorus, Turtle Creek Chorale, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, and the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus. Kevin’s arrangements have been sung on stage by Malcolm Gets, Jenifer Lewis, Lily Tomlin, Joanna Gleason, Susan Egan, and many others. He has also collaborated on productions with Del Shores (of Sordid Lives fame), Kate Clinton, and Miss Coco Peru. Much of his music for male voices has been performed and/or recorded by Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, including his tribute to the music of Kander and Ebb, which received an OutMusic Award nomination for best new CD in 2005.

With roots in Virginia and Alabama, Kevin is thrilled to be back in the South (this time on his own terms) and working with the beautiful men of the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus. Read Kevin’s chorus blog or visit Kevin’s personal website.

Lauren Rosenfeld

Lauren Rosenfeld and her husband James McMahon first met while mingling at the birthday party of a mutual friend in January 1993. At the time, they were both were grad-school students in Boston (James was studying Atmospheric Chemistry at MIT in Cambridge, Mass., while Lauren was studying Jewish Mysticism in nearby Brookline). Despite their broadly diverse backgrounds, each of them instinctively knew that they had found a kindred spirit in the other. They are co-authors of Your To Be List, a book that reflects their deep belief that every moment in life is meaningful, and that everything we do in life presents us with a grand opportunity to practice at being the person we deeply aspire to be.

T. Parker Vollmer

Writing this is close to impossible. When they asked for it, I drew a blank. But I know I am anything but blank. I have experienced a great deal of life, but almost none that we, as humans in the now, typically experience. I do not hold a university degree. Yet, I know I still know a great deal. I have a lifetime of books that have afforded me my own version of educated. I did not have a typical childhood, in any sense of the word. Yet, I have been much mothered and fathered. I never married. And I have been loved well. I do not have children. Yet, I raised one for a decade. We all have our stories. I have come to know we are all so very unique and arrive where we are in a wake of, I think, callings, fate, luck and loss. I don’t promise to be the authority on anything. There is still so much to know and I am curious. I will not always be inspirational. I will not always be melancholy. I will however, promise to be real with you. I promise you my personal truth.

Elizabeth Wescott

My Reiki training began in 1997 and I completed the Reiki Master training in 2008, just before I came to learn Qigong healing. I know life as fully trustworthy; it has been coming through very difficult experiences that has made this clear to me. I draw from the study of Buddhism, Christianity and Quantum Physics. These teachings support my ongoing growth as a ‘spiritual being having a human experience’. ‘A forward direction can be found even when there is no physical evidence to suggest that.’ These are words I live by. I love being a part of people’s journey of renewal. This work requires that I see the good in people and that I walk side by side with others on their journey. Actually, it’s what we all do. We just don’t always know it. Visit Ms. Wescott’s webpage by clicking here.