CaregiverDave.com

Cathay Reta has a B.A. in music, a 37-year career in adult literacy spanning local, statewide and national levels, and a lifetime of co-ministry with her late husband David. She was his caregiver in the last four years of his life. Her greatest strength and passion is writing life’s experiences and observations into relatable lessons for her readers. Those observations currently come from the Pacific Northwest where she now lives. This year she published Keep Walking, Your Heart Will Catch Up, the story of her pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain after her husband passed away.

Justin Duncombe is the author of College Bound Strategies. He has been consulting on college planning since 2011 and in the financial industry since 2012. His consulting work focuses on helping families tackle challenges they thought were unmanageable. Justin graduated with a bachelor's degree from Brandeis University in 2011, where he double majored in Business and Economics, as well as completing a minor in Political Theory. Upon graduation, he received the first Award for Academic Excellence in Business in the first graduating class of the undergraduate Business major and qualified for the Economics Honor Society. Justin participated in multiple music and athletic programs in high school and continued baseball into college. He still leads an active lifestyle playing music and exploring new athletic and intellectual challenges.

Dr. V.K. Raju was born in Rajahmundry, AP, India. He is the founding patron member of AAPI. He is a Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at West Virginia University, Adjunct professor of Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University and director of the International Ocular Surface Society. He is also founder and president of The Eye Foundation of America, a non-profit organization dedicated to realizing a world without childhood blindness. The Eye Foundation of America has established two eye institutes in India. Since 1979, EFA has expanded its reach to over 25 countries, screened millions of patients, and provided hundreds of thousands of surgeries.

Dave Combs is a songwriter, entrepreneur, and successful business executive. Over the past four decades he has written over 120 songs and created fifteen albums of soothing, relaxing instrumental piano music, including the popular standard, "Rachel’s Song." His music has been played millions of times on radio, satellite, and all internet streaming media. He is the author of the bestselling book, Touched by the Music. The book is about an inspired (some say anointed) song, the man who wrote it, the successful music business that grew from it, and the millions of people whose lives continue to be touched by Dave’s peaceful music and his uplifting stories.

ELAINE KENNELLY is a mom who lost her 18 year old son, Matthew, to suicide. But she also defines herself as a teacher, businesswomen, and grandmother to three lovely grandchildren…the latest being a granddaughter—just two weeks old. Elaine is described on the cover of her latest book as a “friendly and accessible voice of experience who found how even the wounds of suicide can heal into hope and restoration.”

Darius Ross shares his story of how he wenrt from inner city struggles including poverty, violence, eviction and foreclosure to the corporate suites. He talks about how caring for his mom and dad df=eraled his business and what he did to get back on track and overcome burnout.

Bob has learned to live well with Bipolar (Type I) Disorder and has been teaching caregivers how to support their mentally ill loved one for several years now. His secret? Education is the secret weapon against this illness. He’s found that the more he knew about his illness, the better he got. So, he poured himself into dozens of books and hundreds of research papers to learn everything he could about it. For all that this illness ripped from his grasp – a 24-year marriage, an intact family, a successful career, financial security, and many friends – it has given him a potent way to help others. For this, he is deeply grateful. It is his hope that the pain he’s experienced will become someone else’s gain, and that his hard-fought discoveries can become others through the work that he does together. Bob holds a national certification from the Copeland Center to teach their Wellness Recovery Action Plan Course in the United States. He is a popular speaker through the National Alliance on Mental Illness’s (NAMI) “In Our Own Voice Program” and is a Washington State Certified Trainer for the same. He serves on the Board of Directors for NAMI’s Eastside chapter. Additionally, Bob is certified through Dr. Xavier Amador’s LEAP Institute to teach their programs nationally and is the author of When Screams Become Whispers.

Philip W. Smith was born in Cumberland, Maryland in 1945. He has published several fiction and non-fiction books. As an international finance expert, he has worked with the banking sectors in thirteen countries. More than 13,000 have attended his seminars in the last forty years. Phil has been described as sensitive, kind, intelligent, well educated, quick witted, and well read. He has travelled to 57 countries and lived in more than a dozen countries while trying to understand their cultures. His legacy is helping people, especially small business, who can grow and create employment for others. The companies he has helped now employ more than 3,000 people. With a quick temper for incompetence and ignorant people, he is also self- critical of himself. He is obsessive in his quest to be the best in everything he does!

From Orphan from Section 8 Chester to PA to corporate accountant. Andre Henry, published author and entrepreneur.Founder of DreamAgain Company that utilize the system tools to help rebuild devalued communities. DreamAgainTheLegacy.com

Janet studied philosophy, economics, and writing at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, completing postdoctoral work in gender and religious studies at Brown University. She is a Senior Wicklander Fellow at DePaul University. Jonathan studied perception, music, and psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and received a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California-Berkeley. Currently, he is the William A. Kern Professor in the School of Communication, Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. He writes a lot about branding, identity, photography, visual communication.   Janet and Jonathan are a creative team – writing, teaching, and collecting vinyl records together for over 25 years. They lived for a number of years in Sweden and England, and have lectured together in Thailand, China, and New Zealand among other places. Their enthusiasm for modern design, retro aesthetics, and travel found expression in their book, Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America, which was named a best book of 2017 by the Financial Times and a best music book by Vinyl Factory.