Becoming Your Best Version

Robin Joy Meyers has used her expertise as a molecular geneticist to become a Joy Architect, ICF Certified Self-Mastery Mindset Coach, TEDx & international speaker and author to empower thousands of  women worldwide to amplify their voices, embrace change and thrive through life’s transitions.  She is the creator of the F.E.A.R. Method and author of Alone, but Not Lonely: Reclaim Your Identity and Be Unapologetically You, which was listed among “The 13 Life Coaching/Self Development Books That Everyone Should Read” by Fupping.  Her upcoming book, The Common Denominator, will be released in early 2022.  Robin Joy's TEDx Talk, “The Science of Loneliness and Isolation” has been viewed by tens of thousands and is featured on TED.com.  Her expertise also has been featured on Hallmark's Home and Family TV show, CUTV News Radio, Thrive Global, Medium and Authority Magazine.  See https://linktr.ee/robinjoymeyers for more information about her amazing work.  Listen in and learn about the science of fear and loneliness, the importance of alone time, how we each have to validate ourselves (no one else can do it) and how the number one lasting relationship we have is with ourselves.

Barbara Guterman is a seasoned entrepreneur, a passionate business executive, and a veteran community organizer with a desire for creating powerful change. She is a devoted wife and mother to three grown sons who share her passion for business and for giving back. As a consummate entrepreneur for over 35 years, Barbara has launched companies and managed businesses in a multitude of industry segments including telecommunications, retail, franchising, manufacturing, fine jewelry and in internet-based start-ups. Her experience ranges from small business to large scale public corporations and covers many areas of expertise including, management, operations, sales, investor relations, public relations, community relations and external affairs. Her ability to see the big picture and to do whatever needs to be done to achieve that goal is what sets Barbara apart from others. At the young age of 23, Barbara saw an untapped market opportunity in the telecommunications industry and co-created one of the nation’s first competitive local phone companies. At the age of 30, Barbara’s company was the first in her industry to go public and was regarded by Wall Street as a ”leading edge” company. Under her team’s leadership, the company raised over $80 million dollars and grew to over 5,000 employees, providing competitive local and long-distance voice and data services to customers nationwide. She was widely recognized for these achievements and was featured in the September 1995 edition of Forbes magazine as a “Woman with a Mission”. Barbara has the distinction of being the first person to don the cover of Readers Digest, where she was highlighted as a distinguished woman entrepreneur. In addition, she was recognized as Ernst and Young’s 1997 Florida Entrepreneur of the Year, for her efforts in building Intermedia Communications. Barbara received her bachelor’s degree in Telecommunication from the University of Florida in 1985 and an MBA from the University of South Florida in 1993, where she was also named USF’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 1993. . Barbara is currently a Mentor and Partner in several start up businesses and runs a Women’s speakers series called Teach Give Inspire Fridays, a platform that allows women the opportunity to empower themselves, their businesses, their families and their communities.  https://www.teachgiveinspirefridays.com/

Debra Soltis is a founding partner of the law firm of Kiyonaga & Soltis, PC in Washington, D.C., where she specializes in employment discrimination, criminal defense and civil rights litigation. Much of her practice focuses on empowering women in the workplace to combat sexual harassment and other forms of gender discrimination.  Debra has been repeatedly recognized by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the best attorneys in Washington, D.C. in employment law and has been repeatedly honored as a SuperLawyer by her peers for her criminal practice. Since 2009, Debra has served as the Executive Director of GirlsUP, Inc, a DC not-for-profit which inspires adolescent girls to figure out who they are before the world tells them who they should be. She is a sought out commentator on issues related to civil rights, criminal justice and the societal challenges faced by adolescent girls and has appeared on CBS Evening News, NPR, ESPN and numerous other media outlets. For over twenty years, Debra was on the adjunct faculty of Georgetown Law School, co-teaching a course of original design on critical film theory with her husband, Paul Kiyonaga.  Debra also serves as an Advisor to the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.  Debra was formerly an associate at Williams & Connolly, LLP, where she worked on a variety of civil and criminal matters for clients including Effi Barry, The Washington Post and Paramount Pictures.  She is a magna cum laude graduate of Georgetown Law School and is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Maryland.  She and her husband have four children, two girls and two boys, ranging from ages 14 to 24.  See http://www.kiyosol.com and https://www.girlsup.org/.

Jennifer Arthurton, who is based in Canada, is the creator and founder of Old Chicks Know Sh*t, a platform and podcast designed to inspire and support midlife women in chasing their dreams and creating their kick ass next chapter.  Jennifer is an empowerment coach, podcast host, writer and speaker, and having made her own midlife course corrections, she is a passionate advocate of the inherent power and wisdom that women possess at a time when they often feel overlooked in society and doubt themselves most.  Jennifer regularly appears as a guest on blogs and podcasts and as a speaker at marketing conferences, women’s conferences and events. Find out more about at www.oldchicksknowshit.com or Old Chicks Know Shit on Instagram and Facebook.

"Yoga is my medicine," says Jennifer Degan.  Jennifer has 30 years of practice as an educator, counselor, yoga teacher and somatic-based coach. Life brings her great joy and great challenge.  Jennifer is a life-long learner, with the equivalent of two master’s degrees. She is a member of Wellspring Institute of Mental Health Advanced Graduate Study of Trauma. Attachment and the Embodied Mind is her most recent pursuit. She began the transformative process of her life when she was very young. Her spiritual life opened with the death of a sister when she was six years old. She had a supportive family and people around her that helped her understand grief, sorrow, hope and connectedness to something greater, a spiritual connection to the God of her understanding. From the age of three on, she has known this deep connection resides in us, and that we have the capacity to use the intimate and profound happenings in our lives for greater good.

Since this experience, she has transformed and grown from other life experiences. She was dropped at age  11 on her back during an Outward Bound program and carried off on a stretcher. That “trust fall gone south” only made her dig deeper into her capacity to push through pain, debilitation and challenge, and find new ways to discover hope.

The experience of being dropped was only the beginning; she has since suffered brain trauma and surgery, multiple losses, and falls that keep her getting back up again, curious and aware that caring for ourselves is an important and necessary job to undertake, as we never know what will throw you back, literally!

She takes her practice of life seriously. Hope, persistence, deep love and connections are a starting place for her yoga and meditation practice. She encourages all her clients to find their authentic voice. It is from this core source that we gain the most inspiration.

Learn more at https://mindbodyawareness.net/ and http://restoringresiliencyclub.com

Molly Watts is the author, mentor and podcast host of Breaking the Bottle Legacy. Breaking the Bottle Legacy is dedicated to helping daily drinkers and adult children of alcoholics change their relationship with alcohol.  After living under the influence of her mother's alcohol abuse for most of her life, and loathing what alcohol had meant to their relationship it felt like bitter irony when Molly had to acknowledge her own dysfunctional drinking. She changed her 30+ year daily drinking habit, and was able to create a peaceful relationship with alcohol--past, present and future. She now helps others who worry about their drinking do the same.  You can pick up a free copy of her e-book "Alcohol Truths: How Much is Safe?" to help you determine your own risk/reward analysis for alcohol. Visit www.mollywatts.com to get yours today.

Julie Reisler, founder and CEO of Empowered Living, is a Master Transformational Coach, Bestselling Author, TEDx Speaker, and Podcast Host of The You-est You®️.  Julie has been featured in Forbes, MindBodyGreen, The Chopra Center, and Thrive Global and is the author of the Get a PhD in YOU book series. She is a multi-time TEDx speaker and teacher on the popular app, Insight Timer, with over 135,000 downloads.  Julie is also the founder of the Life Designer® Coaching Certification Academy and Sacredology® Community. Julie has a master's degree in health and wellness coaching and is on the faculty at Georgetown University in their coaching program.  She loves guiding big-hearted spiritual entrepreneurs to be their ‘You-est You’ in their careers and life. To learn more about Julie, go to juliereisler.com.

Fatima Gul Sindhi-American Human Rights Activist and Executive Director of the Sindhi American Political Action Committee (SAPAC).  She has made it her life’s mission to raise awareness about the pressing human rights issues in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. As the Executive Director of SAPAC, Gul has been instrumental in carrying forth the organization’s mission to improve the socio-economic and political rights of Sindhis via political advocacy and education.  Born and raised in Sindh, Gul spent the first ten years of her career as a teacher and counselor helping orphans at schools throughout Sindh, Pakistan. During her time in the education sector, Gul saw firsthand how the country’s school system was struggling to adequately prepare Sindhi youth for future opportunities. Later on, Gul worked in various fields including event management, where she gained substantial experience working with Sindhi media and witnessed the severe and prevalent censorship of human rights abuses faced by Sindhis in both domestic and international mainstream media. Both of these respective roles furthered Gul’s conviction and awareness about issues impacting the Sindhi people and cemented her resolve to pursue a career as a Sindhi-American human rights activist. Gul’s overarching aim of her work is to educate and foster awareness throughout the U.S. about the critical human rights violations occurring in Sindh, including: violence against women and children, religious persecution and enforced disappearances.  

Gul’s tenure as SAPAC's Executive Director for over a decade has enabled her to pursue this work. At SAPAC, Gul has conducted hundreds of meetings with United States Representatives and Senators about the situation in Sindh, overseen the successful implementation of numerous community outreach events and aided in the research of developments in Sindh that are often not covered by international media and documenting it in SAPAC’s public newsletter, Sindh Guardian. Moreover, in 2017 Gul gave a presentation at the University of Florida’s Human Rights and Genocide Symposium. In October 2019 Gul was invited to speak before members of the United States Congress during a Human Rights hearing. During her statement, Gul highlighted a number of egregious human rights abuses occurring in Pakistan and how it acutely impacts minority communities, including Sindhis, in the country. A few months later in March 2020, Gul addressed members of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, Geneva, during a special session celebrating International Women’s Day. In her ninety second intervention, Gul brought attention to the abduction and forced conversion of Sindhi girls. In April 2021, Gul collaborated with the Sindhi Foundation, to organize and participate in a 350-mile walk from New York to DC to highlight the intersectionality of climate change and human rights abuses occurring in Sindh and the world. The event attracted support from a number of high profile individuals, such as Noam Chomsky. A short film covering the Long Walk is currently in post-production.

Gul looks forward to continuing her work and hopes that her efforts will showcase the strength of the Sindhi people and their rich history as people living together in peace and tolerance.  See https://www.sindhifoundation.org/.

Nancy Davis Kho is a speaker and podcaster whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and NPR affiliate KQED. She is also author of THE THANK-YOU PROJECT: Cultivating Happiness One Letter of Gratitude at a Time (Running Press, 2019). Nancy covers “the years between being hip and breaking one” at MidlifeMixtape.com and on the Midlife Mixtape Podcast, available on all major podcast platforms. The Midlife Mixtape Podcast won a 2020 Iris Award as Podcast of the Year and was included in Wall Street Journal’s list of 8 Podcasts for Anyone Nervously Facing Retirement. Nancy has been both champion and judge in the acclaimed international comedy-lit improv show, Literary Death Match. More at www.DavisKho.com.