Meet Our Columnists: Be Inkandescent Magazine
Welcome to our COLUMNIST page, where we highlight the work and writing of each of our clients who are experts in a variety of industries ranging from careers to health care, insurance, leadership, management, and more. Every month, these columnists offer practical tips, insights, and solutions that every entrepreneur can incorporate into his or her business.
We invite you to send our columnists an email with questions, ideas, and suggestions. The email addresses are listed at the bottom of each bio.
If you’d like to become a Be Inkandescent Columnist, send an email to publisher and editor / publisher Hope Katz Gibbs at hope@inkandescentpr.com. Here’s to your success!
FOOD + WINE
Chef Edgar Alvarez grew up in Guatemala, and today takes the recipes his mother, aunts, and grandmother used to new heights at his Latin American restaurant, Avenida.
Edgar shares: “The thing that is etched in my memory is the scene of my grandmother, aunts, and mother preparing a meal at my grandmother’s ranch outside the city. It was an all-day affair, for we were a giant family and when breakfast ended, all the women in the family would go off to the market to buy the freshest produce, meat, and fish for lunch and dinner. They did not have much to spend, but la comida was always full of love and flavor.”
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COLUMN = FOOD
Award-winning chefs Kim and Edgar Alvarez bring their good taste for the finest in gourmet eating to the FOOD + WINE column of Be Inkandescent Magazine. Trained at the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Kim Katz Alvarez has worked in some of the finest restaurants in San Francisco and Philadelphia. In fact, she met Chef Edgar Alvarez when they were cooking at The Striped Bass, a four-star restaurant in downtown Philly, perhaps best known as the scene of the anniversary dinner in the Bruce Willis thriller, The Sixth Sense.
Today Kim and Edgar own the hot Latin American restaurant Avenida in Mt. Airy, PA. Since opening in December 2009, they have received rave reviews from locals and critics. Stop by for dinner tonight—or keep checking back to their FOOD + WINE column for recipes.
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COLUMN = HUMAN RESOURCES
Sharon Armstrong has more than 20 years of experience as the owner of Sharon Armstrong and Associates. She is a human resources consultant, trainer, and career counselor who consults with many large corporations and small businesses. She has facilitated training, completed HR projects, and provided career transition services for a wide variety of clients in the profit and nonprofit sectors. She is also the co-author of the The Essential HR Handbook.
Sharon received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Maine and her master’s Degree in Counseling from The George Washington University. She is a certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR).
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PHOTOGRAPHY
In the 20 years that Washington, DC photographer Steve Barrett has been taking pictures, the likes of Michael Jordan, Margaret Thatcher, Hosni Mubarak, Spike Lee and Boris Yeltsin have found their way to the end of his lens. He has photographed George Clooney, James Earl Jones and Bill and Hillary Clinton and Sen. John McCain.
His photos have been featured in Vanity Fair, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, USA Today and Washingtonian, among others business and general interest publications. Alumni magazines have always been some of his favorite clients and he has taken cover and inside feature shots for Harvard Auburn Stanfrond, the Career College Association and Vanderbilt.
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COLUMN = EXECUTIVE COACHING
The founder of The Berdéo Group, Laura Berger, has 15 years’ experience as a consultant advising leadership in the areas of global operations management and strategy, project and change management, solution development, and implementation. She is a confidant of CEOs and senior executives who consistently realize their potential as leaders to see their companies flourish.
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COLUMN = CONSTRUCTION
Jennifer Bognet is the vice president of Bognet Construction, and is responsible for many strategic and operational aspects of the company, including client relations, business development, marketing and communications, human resources, and community outreach. She works closely with the executive team to ensure the effective execution of corporate strategy and goals.
In this role, she defines and deploys evaluation and measurement tools and processes, and uses her expertise to enhance Bognet’s project-delivery system, with a focus on continual improvement.
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COLUMN = FUTURISTS
Chris Carbone has worked in trend and foresight consulting for over a decade, serving clients from Fortune 500 corporation and foreign and US government agencies. During this time he has researched and authored dozens of reports and scenarios on wide-ranging topics…from the future of leisure and play, to the future of urban mobility, to emerging consumer lifestyles in China.
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COLUMN = INSURANCE
Jack Cohen graduated from the University of Maryland in 1991 with a degree in consumer economics. Soon after, he founded Nu Image construction, which quickly grew into a 50-employee firm that generated $3 million in annual sales.
Jack joined Golden & Cohen in 1997 as its chief operating officer, and has instituted new technologies and efficiencies that have helped the company increase revenue by more than 20 percent a year. Jack is married and has three children.
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COLUMN = INSURANCE
Since co-founding the Gaithersburg, MD, health-care benefits firm Golden & Cohen in 1992, Stephanie Cohen has helped it grow into one of the largest among female-owned companies in the Washington metropolitan region.
With more than two decades of experience in small-group health insurance, disability programs, and life insurance, she was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, serves on the prestigious United HealthCare, Coventry, Aetna and Kaiser Broker Council, and is a member of the Women’s President Organization, the District of Columbia Insurance Commissioner Advisory Council, and The Greater Washington Health Underwriters.
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COLUMN = MEDICINE
An emergency physician at INOVA Fair Oaks Hospital who is certified in both pediatric and adult emergency care, Dr. John Jones opened Simplicity Urgent Care in 2010 with his business partner and fellow emergency room doctor, John Maguire, MD.
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COLUMN = HOME HEALTH
A board-certified geriatric nurse practitioner with more than a decade of experience working with adult and geriatric patients, Gibson Erhunmwunse is the CEO and clinical director of Pavilion Medical Home Care & Staffing.
Mr. Gibson, as he is known to clients and staff members, has spent the last decade working in acute and long-term care and home-care settings. He has worked in cardiology, pulmonary medicine, and geriatric medicine, and has managed a wide variety of simple to complex medical cases. As founder and CEO of Pavilion Medical Home Care & Staffing, LLC, his vision is to establish a comprehensive and sustainable home-care agency that provides an array of services to the elderly throughout Northern Virginia.
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COLUMN = GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
Pam has more than three decades of in-depth experience in policy and politics, with expertise in congressional budget/appropriations and federal grant programs. Her select policy experience includes housing and community development, housing finance, transit/transportation, taxes, and trade.
With a focus on bridging the knowledge gap between elected officials and their constituents, Pam has achieved success in her own government relations business for 16 years and for elected officials in the US Senate, US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs (1989-95), and the NYS Senate Federal Affairs Office (1986-1989). For more information visit www.pamrayllc.com.
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COLUMN = CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Business strategist Lisa Earle McLeod is an expert in sales force and leadership development. An author, consultant, syndicated columnist, media commentator, and keynote speaker, she is recognized as a thought-leader whose latest book, “The Triangle of Truth,” was named a Washington Post Top 5 Business Book for Leaders.
A bottom-line oriented business advisor whose firm, McLeod & More, Inc. was featured in Fortune Magazine, she is also a problem-solving expert whose conflict resolution handbook was delivered to every member of the House and Senate. And she’s a leadership contributor for Forbes.com and the author of more than 500 articles.
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COLUMN = PUBLIC SPEAKING
Professional speaker and coach Dawnna St. Louis began her career in 1990 as a technologist. Hungry to learn, she dove into mastering computer hardware, enterprise networks, and software programming languages such as C++, Java, and C#. Her knack for converting techno-babble into concepts that business leaders could understand caught the attention of executives, who soon asked her to help solve their communications issues. Her ability to speak confidently in public landed Dawnna her first professional speaking engagement, at 25, before a Congressional Committee for the US District Courts in the Southern District of Florida.
Dawnna’s desire to share her personal knowledge and expertise with other entrepreneurs and business leaders led her to branch out on her own and form the highly successful Miami-based speaking and coaching firm, www.dawnna.com. Her clients include professional athletes and public figures, as well as C-level executives. “My goal is to coach executives to create memorable and powerful messages, and public figures to answer those embarrassing impromptu questions fearlessly and flawlessly,” she says. “The results never cease to amaze my clients, who report that after my program they have higher sales, improved public profiles, and the confidence to deliver a well-developed, powerful message.”
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COLUMN = NETWORKING
Donna Fisher is an entrepreneur at heart. She loves creating and growing fun and profitable businesses. For 20 years, she has had her own business as a speaker/trainer for corporate meetings, conferences and conventions. She earned her Certified Speaking Professional designation CSP in 1998 and has continued to present programs on “People, Power and Possibilities.”
Along with her speaking business, she is the co-owner and President of HiHat, Inc., a manufacturing and retail business for drums and percussion instruments. http://www.percussiononline.com
In 2009, the Percussion Center was ranked as one of the “Top 50 Fastest Growing Woman-Owned Businesses in Houston” based on a growth of 156% from 2002 to 2009 and 20.8% from 2007 to 2008. This led to the creation of her training program, “Drumming Up Business.”
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PUBLISHER, BE INKANDESCENT MAGAZINE
PRESIDENT, THE INKANDESCENT GROUP, LLC
Prior to founding Inkandescent Public Relations in 2008, Northern Virginia freelance writer Hope Katz Gibbs worked as a newspaper and magazine reporter since graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. After studying for her master’s degree in Educational Leadership at The George Washington University, she launched her freelance writing business in 1993.
Hope’s articles have appeared in The Washington Post, USA Today, The Miami Herald, The Costco Connection, The National Press Club’s Wire, and dozens of association, business, education, and general interest magazines. Read her published articles here.
In 2010, Hope launched Be Inkandescent magazine, and also began work on her first book, 100 Truly Amazing Women Who Are Changing the World—and how you can, too..
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ILLUSTRATION + DESIGN
Michael Gibbs is the designer of Be Inkandescent Magazine and our website, Inkandesent Public Relations.
An award-winning designer and illustrator, he has been freelancing for some of the nation’s most well-known publications and companies since attending Pratt Institute as a photography and illustration major in the mid-70s.
His award-winning artwork has appeared in Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Worth Magazine, Consumer Reports, Harvard Business Review, and publications for United Airlines, Verizon, IBM, Sears, American Airlines, CitiGroup and Oracle.
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COLUMN = INSURANCE
Scott Golden, CFO of the health benefits firm Golden & Cohen is recognized as an industry leader in the small to mid-size insurance market, and ranks among the area’s top producers according to the Washington Business Journal’s Annual List.
He received a BS in Marketing from the University of Maryland in 1985, an MBA from George Washington University in 1990, and later a JD and LLM in taxation from the University of Baltimore. His advanced academic and legal degrees enable him to evaluate local and national mandates in conjunction with helping his clients prepare and implement the proper strategy.
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COLUMN = GENERATIONS
About the Authors
Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais are co-authors of Millennial Momentum: How a New Generation Is Remaking America, published by Rutgers University Press. It explores how the Millennial Generation will change the way America lives and learns, works and plays, votes and governs itself. Their previous book, Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, & the Future of American Politics, (Rutgers University Press, 2008), was named a New York Times favorite book. They are also fellows with NDN, a think tank in Washington, DC, and the New Policy Institute.
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COLUMN = MUSIC
Adrianne Hamilton has spent decades working in marketing and sales positions, working as the director of market research, designing logical databases, heading up meeting facilitations, and raising funds for charitable organizations. Adrianne received a Bachelor of Science degree in Italian from Georgetown University in 1990, then went on to get a Master of Arts degree in Italian Literature from New York University. She is fluent in Spanish and Italian. A rock star at heart, Adrianne is the lead singer of the rock band, Longtooth, and the acoustic Americana band, The Parklawn Ramblers.
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COLUMN = FINANCE
Nancy Hartsock is a financial advisor and financial planning specialist with The Hasenberg Group at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Washington, DC. She specializes in wealth management, financial planning, and multi-generational family work.
During her years in the financial services industry, she has helped her clients reach their wealth goals through hard work and a common sense approach to successful investing. Nancy began her career in the financial services industry with AXA Advisors, LLC in 2001 prior to joining Smith Barney in 2005.
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COLUMN = FINANCE
John Hasenberg is a senior vice president for wealth management with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
in Washington, DC. He works with individuals, families, business owners, corporations, and nonprofits. Featured services range from selecting investments to retirement planning to sophisticated estate planning. Prior to joining Smith Barney, he spent six years with A.G. Edwards, where he was a member of the firm’s President’s Council in 2005 and 2006.
John is active in many business and civic organizations. He was a member of the Leadership Greater Washington Class of 2007 and remains active with that organization. John currently serves on the advisory board of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) and the board of directors of the Jubilee Support Alliance. At the Greater Washington Board of Trade, he was named the 2005 Ambassador of the Year for being the top membership recruiter and served as co-chair of the board’s Cultural Promotion Task Force that same year.
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COLUMN = IMMIGRATION LAW
Attorney Cynthia Hemphill is vice president and legal team manager at the DC-based immigration law firm Trow & Rahal, PC. She has practiced immigration and nationality law for more than 14 years. In addition to working to achieve the goals of Trow & Rahal’s corporate clients, she handles immigration matters for athletes, and performing artists and groups, as well as for family-related matters including international adoption cases.
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COLUMN = FUTURISTS
Andy Hines is Lecturer and Executive-in-Residence at the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Futures Studies, bringing together the experience he earned as an organizational, consulting, and academic futurist.
He co-founded and is currently on the Board of the Association of Professional Futurists, and has co-authored three books: “Thinking About the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight (Social Technologies, 2007),” “2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society (Oak Hill, 1997),” and “Managing Your Future as an Association (ASAE, 1994).”
His newest book, “ConsumerShift,” was published in 2011.
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COLUMN = TRANSFORMATIONS
Dr. Celia Im is the founder of the unique personal development program, Lighting the Creative Spark,, which is a transformational tool that uses music to awaken, enlighten, and empower clients so they can release old, negative patterns that are keeping them from being happy, healthy, and effective.
Celia is an international, award-winning musician and has taught on the faculties of Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, and George Mason University. Her degrees include a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Peabody Conservatory, a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory, and a certification in the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music.
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COLUMN = HEALTHY LIVING
Jill Leslie is a certified Ayurvedic practitioner, herbalist, wellness chef, and yoga teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area who, for more than two decades, has been immersed in the study and practice of natural healing.
The entrepreneur, who has owned her own businesses since graduating from the University of Maryland in 1986, founded the award-winning retail shop Milk & Honey in Sebastapol, CA, in 1999. She sold it in 2006 so that she could dive deeper into her study of yoga and Ayurveda.
As she discovered the life-changing wisdom of these ancient practices, she began sharing her knowledge at wellness retreats, yoga studios, and through cooking classes. Her passion for herbal medicine and nutrition, and her love of sweets, inspired her to found Ayurvedic Alchemy, in 2008.
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COLUMN = VIDEOGRAPHY
Andrea Keating founded Crews Control in 1988 as the first film-and-video-crew staffing agency. Since then, the company’s focus has been to match each client with the perfect local crew for each specific shoot.
“Crews Control represents only the best cameramen and freelance video crews,” she says. “We save our clients the risk of hiring the wrong camera crew for your production. That means we can offer our clients the quickest response time when they need to book a crew, and then provide the most dedicated customer service in the business.”
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COLUMN = GIRLS ON THE RUN
With more than 17 years experience in marketing strategy, branding, membership, and customer programs, writer and PR expert Catherine Keightley excels at developing marketing strategies that meet and exceed revenue goals on challenging budgets and timelines.
She is currently the executive director of Girls on the Run of Northern Virginia, a position she began in June 2010 after spending nearly a decade working as an independent marketing consultant. In that capacity, she worked as a pro bono partner with The Women’s Center to clarify its evolving mission and quantify revenue opportunities, as well as developed a year-end board of directors’ presentation.
She also co-wrote the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments brochure to increase the number of foster parents enrolled in the Respite Foster Care program. The brochure was used to develop a radio script that resulted in a nearly 30 percent enrollment increase.
Last spring, Catherine was instrumental in helping to organize and promote an incredibly successful fundraising benefit for Kidsave International, called Kismet for Kidsave, which raised nearly $140,000 for the program that helps connect kids in foster care with loving families.
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COLUMN = SPORTS
Professional soccer player Joanna Lohman has played in the WUSA Festivals in both Minneapolis and Los Angeles in 2004, and was a member of the 2005 Freedom Reserves. She trained with USWNT during the 2004 Olympic Residency Training Camp, was a member of U21 U.S. national team from 2000-2005, captaining the squad from 2003-2004. She helped lead her U21 team to three Nordic Cup championships, earning MVP honors in 2002.
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COLUMN = IMAGE
Jody Maki is an image consultant who, in addition to heading up Inkandescent Public Relations’ social media division, Inkandescent Networking, is the director of Inkandescent Imaging.
She provides makeovers (which include an assessment and redesign of the client’s hair, make-up, and wardrobe), and choreographs photo and video shoots for corporate professionals, sports figures, and entertainers. Maki is also available to coach clients on their public-speaking skills. Maki also conducts speeches and seminars on how to increase success by improving your professional image.
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WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
Max Kukoy has been a Washington DC based freelance web developer/designer since 2000. Max earned his master’s degree in environmental science from the University of Oklahoma in 1993, then started working in public health and environmental policy at Washington DC based non-profits. After a few years of policy work, he started working on his organizations web site, eventually deciding to start working as a freelancer under the name maxwebworks.
Sites range from simple database-driven sites, to ones with e-commerce capability. Max uses widely used and supported open source software applications to build web sites. He believes the site should be easy for the client to use and maintain and emphasizes building accessible web sites.
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For the last 25 years, Robin McDougal has been a marketing executive at Trans World Airlines and the Marriott Corporation, and has conducted space-flight simulations and developed a critical thinking and problem-solving curriculum for the Challenger Center for Space Science Education.
In 2001, she founded e-GLAM Inc., a manufacturer of high-end laptop briefcases and handbags. For more information, visit www.e-glam.com.
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Tricia Mininger, business banker for PNC Bank, manages business and nonprofit banking relationships for clients in the Greater Washington, DC, market. She excels at finding solutions for her clients’ cash-flow needs and is an expert in deposit and lending services.
Tricia also is a certified Women’s Business Advocate for PNC, one of 500 bankers in the company educated to better understand the challenges and opportunities for women in business. Tricia holds bachelor’s degrees in Marketing and Hispanic Languages and Literature from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently pursuing an MBA at George Washington University. She resides in Arlington, Virginia.
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COLUMN = HUMAN RESOURCES
Barbara Mitchell is a human resources and organization development consultant who is an expert in the areas of recruitment and retention. She has experience in both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors and has consulted to a variety of organizations around the world.
She served in senior human resources leadership positions with Marriott International and several technology firms in the Washington, DC, area before co-founding the Millennium Group International, LLC (TMG) in 1998, which she sold in 2008.
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COLUMN = EDUCATION
Educational leader and City of Fairfax resident Ann Monday became superintendent of the City of Fairfax Schools on July 1, 2007. She retired on June 30 as the assistant superintendent of instructional services for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), a district she has worked in since 1973 when she became a teacher at Kilmer Intermediate School in Vienna.
She then served as chairperson of the English department at Chantilly High School from 1976-1980, when she became an administrative aide at Marshall High and subsequently a sub-school principal at Lake Braddock High School.
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COLUMN = LAW
Stefan C. Nicholas is a director and chair of Jackson & Campbell’s Estates and Trusts practice group and a member of the Business Law practice group. He has extensive experience in drafting wills, trusts, and all ancillary documents in connection with estate and gift-tax planning, as well as asset-protection planning, including both on- and off-shore asset-protection trusts and the use of corporate entities. Stefan also has extensive experience with sophisticated wealth-transfer techniques such as grantor retained interest trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, and defective grantor trusts.
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COLUMN = EDUCATION
In 2006, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Superintendent Jack D. Dale named Peter Noonan, Cluster VII assistant superintendent and former principal of Centreville High School, as the new assistant superintendent for instructional services, effective August 1.
Prior to that, Noonan has served as assistant superintendent for Cluster VII schools, including the Centreville, Chantilly, and Fairfax High School pyramids. In this position, he initiated instructional and organizational change using professional learning communities, increased accessibility to educational technology resources for students and staff members, and school leadership development to support diverse learners.
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COLUMN = TRAVEL
Bruce Northam, the writer and host of “American Detour,” has reported (mostly good news) from 125 countries on seven continents. His keynote speech, Street Anthropology, is a hit on campus and at corporate events and Governor’s Tourism Conferences. A National Geographic Society “Destinations Rated” Panelist, his book, “Globetrotter Dogma,” is an award-winning ode to freestyle wandering. Visit www.AmericanDetour.com.
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COLUMN = PARENTING
Based in the Washington, DC, area, Cari Shane Parven, a former television and radio reporter, writes for The Washington Post, Cooking Light, The Washington Examiner, Fromer’s Budget Travel, MYBusiness Magazine, Swimmer, Maryland-Life, Home & Design and more. She is also a contributing essayist in the new anthology, “Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex, and Work in Our 40s.”
Her dream as a child was to be like Jane Goodall sitting in the forest among the chimps, or Margaret Mead observing the natives in Samoa. As a mother of three and wife to one, she can do neither, so instead she blends into the culture around her and writes about what she sees. Her observations can be found in her blogs, “Inside the Beltway and Under the Radar” and “Keepin’ It Real,” where she writes about mental health issues for Gannet’s WUSA-TV. Parven is a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post and the “Friendship Examiner” for examiner.com.
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COLUMN = WINE
John Peters is the director of wine at Culinaria Cooking School, which opened its doors in the fall of 2010.
He has been in the wine business for nearly three decades. With his father and brother, John founded Wide World of Wines in 1982 and ran the retail business through 1989, hand selecting wines from vineyards all over the world. John then went to work for Continental Liquors until 1994, and from 1997 to 2003 he was the Mid-Atlantic marketing manager for DeLoach Vineyards.
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COLUMN = IMMIGRATION
Linda Rahal is the chief operating officer of Trow & Rahal, and has been with the firm since its inception in 1993.
Trow & Rahal represents companies and individuals in navigating the immigration process for visas, green cards, citizenship, and other immigration-related matters. The firm also assists companies in preparing corporate immigration policies, conducting I-9 and compliance audits, and developing immigration related strategies for owners and employees.
Linda received her JD degree, magna cum laude, from the American University, Washington College of Law in 1992; and earned her BA degree, cum laude, in International Relations from Tufts University in 1986. Linda has been a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) for more than 10 years. She is also a member of District of Columbia and Maryland Bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association.
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COLUMN = CAREERS
Prior to co-founding Rhodes & Weinstock in 2009, Paige Rhodes spent more than 15 years in staffing, human resources, and law-firm management.
Throughout her career, she gained an intricate knowledge of the temporary, temp-to-hire, and direct placement services. In addition to her staffing industry experience, Paige also spent several years in human resources, and as an HR Manager at two large law firms in the DC Metropolitan area.
The combination of in-house and outplacement recruiting experience gives her a unique understanding of the hiring needs and concerns of her clients, from large multinational corporations to small start-ups.
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COLUMN = EVENTS
Ranked one of Washington, DC’s, top meeting and event planners for 2009 by the Washington Business Journal, Roxanne Rukowicz Ladd’s Behind the Scenes Events, opened its doors in July of 2008 with a single concept in mind: to offer organizations access to an affordable, full-service meeting-and-event-planning solution.
Having worked in the Washington, DC, meeting and event industry for over a decade, Roxanne started her career at the Greater Washington Board of Trade in 1999. Her experience with this influential regional network of business leaders allowed her hands-on training from the start. What began as a mere temporary work assignment later progressed into a position as general manager as she excelled at each advanced meeting-and-event-planning position she held.
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COLUMN = FASHION
Charlotte Safavi has written for many publications, including The Washington Post, The British Sunday Times Magazine, House Beautiful, Victorian Homes, and Better Homes and Gardens.
Her style blogs also appear on The Huffington Post. Born in London and educated at Oxford University, her heritage is Iranian. She now resides in Northern Virginia with her husband and son. For more information, visit www.charlottesafavi.com
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COLUMN = COOKING SCHOOL
Stephen Sands (pictured first, left, with his team, Chefs Robyn Alexander and Pete Snaith, and wine director John Peters) began his culinary career in 1989 as the lead assistant for Francois Dionot, the director and founder of L’Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, MD. Stephen assisted both L’Academie chefs, and visiting guest chefs, ensuring the execution of classes for the chefs was seamless, and he assisted students in the participation classes with instruction and techniques during classes.
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COLUMN = EDUCATION
Dr. Jane Snider received her BA, MA, and, in 1978, her EdD in special education, from The George Washington University, and she began her career as a special education classroom teacher. Since then, she has become a pioneer in the field of educating children with certain learning disabilities.
After personally observing and working with thousands of children who were not performing in their various school environments, she discovered that many students have differing learning patterns. Frustrated and lacking self-esteem, these children, often labeled as learning disabled, were crying out for help.
They had trouble reading, writing, or breaking big tasks into smaller steps. Yet Dr. Snider knew they could learn with a different learning environment and teaching strategy. In her view, the children were not learning disabled; they merely learned differently.
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COLUMN = LEADERSHIP
Angela Sontheimer is the managing director of Lincoln Leadership Institute at Gettysburg, where she is responsible for overseeing operations, marketing, and curriculum design for the Institute.
She is a graduate of Gettysburg College and holds a master’s in Leadership and Liberal Studies from Duquesne University. Angela has a background in institutional advancement and has worked extensively in operations and events management. She is one of the developers and creators of the Institute’s experiential leadership development program, “A Transformational Journey from Gettysburg.” This three-day experience uses the Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg as a metaphor for addressing modern business challenges.
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COLUMN = HEALTH CARE
Robin Strongin is an accomplished public affairs expert with more than 25 years of experience working in Washington, DC. Her areas of specialization include health care, science, technology, and innovation. Robin has worked with and for federal and state governments, regulatory agencies, Congress, think tanks, nonprofit organizations, corporations, coalitions, and trade associations.
She founded Disruptive Women in Health Care in 2008 to serve as a platform for provocative ideas, thoughts, and solutions in the health sphere. We recognize that to accomplish this, we need to call on experts outside of the health industry.
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COLUMN = SELF-HELP
Rod Stryker is the founder of ParaYoga and the author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom. He also blogs for The Huffington Post.
Rod is widely considered to be one of the preeminent yoga, tantra, and meditation teachers in the United States.
He is renowned for his depth of knowledge, practical wisdom, and unique ability to transmit the deepest aspect of the teachings and practices to modern audiences and students from all walks of life. Rod has taught for more than thirty years, training teachers and leading corporate seminars, yoga retreats, and workshops throughout the world.
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COLUMN = TRAVEL
Robin Soslow Tierney is a full-time freelance writer who covers art and artists, health, cuisine, and the outdoors. When traveling, this avid (some say intrepid) cyclist looks for offbeat, intriguing places, inventive eco-friendly ventures, and hiking, biking, and water trails that provide communion with natural wonders.
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