Susan Pitman

Courageous Community Change for a Drug-Free Population

e: [email protected], skype: spitmanfl

Susan is the Executive Director of Drug Free Duval, a community which is dedicated to freedom from substance abuse for all Duval residents. They are looking toward population-level change through engaging environmental strategies.

The community coalition (formerly operating as Safe & Healthy Duval Coalition) was formed in 2008 by a group of residents and professionals in Duval County who shared a concern about patterns of alcohol and substance abuse among the youth in our communities.

The current staff has more than 35 years of combined experience working with critical issues and finding positive solution to challenges in Duval County schools, homes and communities. Awards it has received include:

•Strategic Prevention Framework, State Incentive Grant Recipient

•Partnership for Success, Grant Recipient

•Florida Top Success Story

Elaine Pereira I Will Never Forget: Losing My Mother to Alzheimer’s

e: [email protected], w: www.Iwillneverforgetbook.com, T: @ElaineColette, FB:facebook.com/ElainePereira.IWillNeverForget/

Within the span of only a few years, author Elaine C. Pereira was forced to cope with the deaths of her sister-in-law, brother, father and the rapid decline of her mom. But the most difficult challenge of these life-changing events was the time spent as a caregiver when her mother struggled with and eventually surrendered to Alzheimer’s.

The experiences, both tragic and funny, and lessons learned during this journey of compassion led Pereira in her early retirement years to write a book on the experience, I Will Never Forget. Others stepping up to the same challenge will benefit from the insights she gained.

Pereira is committed to advancing Alzheimer’s awareness and dispelling the myths about dementia through community presentations, speaking engagements and book sales. She donates from each book sold to help support Alzheimer’s research.

Alyssa Dver Courageous, Kickass Confidence

e:[email protected]: alyssa.dver w:AmericanConfidenceInstitute.com, FB and T: @ConfidenceInst

Chief Confidence Officer, CEO & Co-founder of the American Confidence Institute, Alyssa Dver is the expert on the brain science and social secrets of confidence. In individual and group programs, Alyssa shares confidence-building tips, tools and techniques at MIT, Wharton, Harvard, IBM, Spotify, Wayfair, Pepsi, US Air Force, State Street, Liberty Mutual, Staples, Royal Bank of Canada plus many other companies, conferences, associations, and non-profits.

“Kickass Confidence: Own Your Brain. Up Your Game.” is Alyssa’s 6th book. With a popular blog and web show, Alyssa is also a finalist judge for the Stevie’s Best Employer & Women in Business Awards.

Gina Gardiner Thriving Not Surviving – How to Step Into Your power and Live Life with Courage

e: [email protected], FB: facebook.com/genuinelyyouprograms, T: @Genuinely_you, skype: gina.gardiner2, w: www.genuinely-you.com

Gina Gardiner is a No.1 International Bestselling Author, Motivational Speaker, Empowerment and Relationship Coach and Transformational Leadership Trainer with well over 30 years of experience helping people experience happiness, success and fulfilment. She’s the founder of the Thrive Together Tribe membership and personal and spiritual development program.

Gina has learned to walk twice as an adult. For over 20 years, she ran her award-winning school, for the most part from a wheelchair. The gift of this experience was the development of a unique approach to life and the development of leadership.

In 2004 Gina left Headship (Principle) and has since worked with countless individuals, couples, teams and organizations helping them to step into their potential, to learn the lessons from the past and to recognize that it is their choice to step into their power and live a fearless life. Gina is passionate about supporting people to live a truly happy, successful and fulfilling life.

Candice Creasman The Courageous Work of Healing from the Past

FB: @drcandicecreasman, e: [email protected],

,skype: Candice Mowrey,

Dr. Candice Creasman is a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor and author of Soul Wounds: A Guide to Healing, Empowerment, and Wholehearted Living. She has over 15 years of experience treating individuals with mood disorders, chronic pain, addiction, and survivors of domestic and sexual violence. She is also a meditation teacher and mentors new therapists as they work toward licensure.

Debbie DiPietro Courageously Go! Into the New: A Challenge for the New Year

E: [email protected], w: CourageouslyGo.com, FB and T: @CourageouslyGo

Debbie DiPietro is the author of Short Morning Prayers A Collection of Heartfelt Prayers to Start Your Day (available on Amazon), an award winning blogger, public speaker, and host of this program, Courageously Go! She invites you to join her on a brand new 21 day challenge for the New Year: Courageously Go! Into the New where we are going to encourage each other to get out of our comfort zones, flex our “courage muscles”, and have fun! You can find out more about the program on her website www.CourageouslyGo.com

Brooke Joyner All Things Chocolate! (Did we get your attention)?

FB: @PeterBrookeBeach,

Brooke Joyner is owner/operator of Peterbrooke Chocolatier in Atlantic Beach, Florida. Peterbrooke was founded by Brooke’s mother, Phyllis Geiger in 1983 and named her new chocolate store after her two children: Brooke and her brother Peter. Brooke keeps busy running the only remaining independently owned Peterbrooke location. Her brother Peter Behringer owns Sweet Pete’s Candy Store in Jacksonville, Florida.

Dr. Debra Arko Novotny Getting to the Root Cause of Disease

e: [email protected], skype: debra.arko,

w: denververacupuncturehealth.com

Dr. Debra believes each person is unique. It’s important to focus on what works for you rather than using a cookie-cutter approach to your health and wellness. Our life also affects our health in turn, life can create an sickness.

Body Mind Medicine is more than take a pill or go on a diet –it is the bringing together the whole person including your beliefs and values. We call these things our Spiritual Self or Spirituality.

Her practice offers Naturopathic and Chinese Medicine, including Ayurvedic painless acupuncture-available à la carte or in combination w/ each other or other services like Nutrition.

She helps clients with weight loss, increasing energy, sleep better, and live longer without diseases or drugs. Let’s face it feeling tired, full of stress, or being over-weight can literally steal your life and drain your wallet.

Her style is client-centered care. You are more than your health, you are breathing, thinking life. Many times life gets messed up and in our way of health and creates stress, mental confusion, lack of focus.

Virginia Sole-Smith Author of The Eating Instinct

w: Virginia SoleSmith.com

Virginia Sole-Smith is the author of The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America. As a journalist, she has reported from kitchen tables and grocery stores, graduated from beauty school, and gone swimming in a mermaid’s tail. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Elle and many other publications. She’s also a contributing editor with Parents Magazine and co-host of the Comfort Food Podcast. The Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project have supported several of her projects. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband, two daughters, and three cats.

Patricia Larkin Healing Happens in Relationship

W: infiniteselfhelp.com, e: [email protected], skype: paddalee

Patricia Larkin is an expert in attachment, trauma and neuroscience with the mission to educate the world about this science through the power of her own transformational story. As a freshman at the University of Georgia in 2003, Patricia was hit with full-blown PTSD as the traumatic effects of living with over a decade of childhood abuse came all at once. It took several years to find help, and she went back to school to earn a Master's in Counseling to learn how to heal others. The degree was helpful, but it was in the experiential learning during her Ashtanga yoga teacher training where she gained her deepest understanding of how to heal trauma. Today she works with clients as a life coach and offers workshops and groups both in person and online. Her work can be found at www.infiniteselfhelp.com