DREAMLEAPERS® with Harriette Cole

Rev. Dr. Gary M. Speers is a veteran educator, administrator, and pastor whose five-decade career reflects an unwavering commitment to faith, leadership, and public service. A Birmingham native and graduate of Woodlawn High School, he has served in pivotal roles throughout Alabama’s school systems, local government, juvenile justice, and ministry, and currently serves as pastor of Aspel Community Church and as a member of the Scottsboro Board of Education.

He was married to the late Kimball McQueen Speers—author of A Binding Love (2010), a historical romance—until her passing on December 17, 2023. Together, they raised three daughters and are blessed with eight grandchildren.

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Dr. Gary M. Speers is an educator, community leader, and author whose life and work are deeply rooted in faith and service. He was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and graduated from Woodlawn High School—the inspiration for the Woodlawn story referenced in his book title. He continued his education on an athletic scholarship at Alabama A&M University, where he played football and earned his bachelor’s degree.

Over the years, Speers has held a wide range of roles in education, including serving as the fifth and final principal of Brownwood Elementary School, assistant principal at other local schools, and positions in dropout prevention and attendance coordination within the Scottsboro City Schools system. He is also a board member of the Scottsboro Board of Education.

In addition to his work in education, Dr. Speers has been active in public service and community leadership. He served as a city councilman in Scottsboro, founded New Harvest Ministries, and pastored Saint Elizabeth Missionary Baptist Church for more than a decade. He remains involved with local organizations such as the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center and the Boys and Girls Club of America.

His academic credentials are extensive. Along with his bachelor’s degree, he holds a Bachelor of Theology, a master’s degree in school counseling, an Educational Specialist (EdS) degree, and a Doctor of Education (EdD) with a focus on educational administration.

Life After Woodlawn reflects Speers’s personal journey of faith, resilience, and purpose, showing how his beliefs have shaped his life experiences and service to others.

www.lifeafterwoodlawn.com

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Esther Gokhale (pronounced GO-clay) is internationally recognized as “The Posture Guru of Silicon Valley,” a title given by The New York Times. Trained in science at Harvard and Princeton, Esther has taught the Gokhale Method® at leading institutions including Google, Facebook, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, UCSF, and TEDx (Stanford). The Gokhale Method is currently the subject of a Stanford clinical trial focused on back pain treatment.

Esther’s lifelong dedication to healing began in childhood while growing up in India, where she assisted her mother, a nurse, in caring for abandoned infants awaiting adoption. This early exposure to integrative care led her to study biochemistry at Harvard and Princeton, followed by acupuncture training at the San Francisco School of Oriental Medicine.

After suffering debilitating back pain during her first pregnancy and undergoing unsuccessful back surgery, Esther committed herself to understanding the root causes of chronic pain. Her studies at the Aplomb® Institute in Paris and years of research in Brazil, India, Portugal, and other regions—where back pain is far less common—led to the development of the Gokhale Method®, a systematic approach to restoring the body’s natural alignment and movement patterns.

Esther is the author of the best-selling book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, which has sold over 300,000 copies and been translated into ten languages. She also hosted the nationally televised program Back Pain: The Primal Posture™ Solution. Today, the Gokhale Method is taught worldwide by certified teachers personally trained by Esther.

The Gokhale Method focuses on restoring a natural “primal posture,” often described as a J-spine, through small, practical adjustments to everyday movements, including:

Sitting & Standing: Stretchsitting™ and Stacksitting™ techniques to elongate the spine

Bending: Hip-hinging to protect spinal discs

Walking: Glidewalking™ to reduce joint stress

Lying Down: Supportive sleep positions that maintain spinal alignment

Interested in learning more? Attend a free online Gokhale Method workshop to explore practical tools for pain-free movement.

👉 Free Workshop Link: https://gokhalemethod.com/map/free_workshops?online=1

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Coreen Simpson is widely known for her signature jewelry line, The

Black Cameo, created in 1990. Motivated by the absence of cameos representing or celebrating Black women’s beauty, Coreen repurposed a traditional concept to develop imagery that could serve as a renowned symbol of Black femininity, style, and agency.

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Ashunta Sheriff-Kendricks is a renowned celebrity makeup artist celebrated for her signature “Flawless Face” technique. With over two decades in the beauty industry, she has crafted iconic looks for stars such as Taraji P. Henson, Alicia Keys, Janelle Monáe, LaLa Anthony, and more.

Her artistry has appeared on red carpets, television and film sets, global beauty campaigns, and magazine covers worldwide. Ashunta is also an entrepreneur, educator, and founder of Ashunta Sheriff Beauty, where she shares her expertise through innovative products designed for diverse skin tones and everyday women seeking confidence through makeup.

Her inspiring journey blends creativity, discipline, and a deep commitment to empowering others through beauty.

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Lisa Price’s journey begins like that of many entrepreneurs—with curiosity and determination mixed with moments of panic and a resounding belief that products that were made with love and delivered on their promise would find their following. It was a company born of Price’s love for fragrance and a passion for scent alchemy that formed the foundation of her high-performing products.

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Andrea Pitter is the founder of Pantora, a luxury bridal brand celebrated for its thoughtful craftsmanship, innovative textiles, and inclusive design philosophy.

Created as a love letter to Black women, Pantora’s mission has always been to center and celebrate them—while welcoming and catering to women of all backgrounds. Black women are the reason Pantora began and remain at the heart of everything the brand creates.

From dressing celebrated public figures to everyday women on their most meaningful days, Pantora designs with the same dedication to beauty, fit, and individuality. Known for its signature “Forgotten Skin Tone” illusion mesh and extensive size range, the brand offers a distinctive aesthetic that is both modern and timeless.

Pantora’s collections are carried by select retailers nationwide, with flagship salons in New York City and Maryland. The brand has been featured in Vogue, Essence, The Knot, Ebony, Munaluchi Bride, and many more leading publications, and introduced its designs to an even wider audience when Andrea won Amazon Prime’s Making the Cut.

With a commitment to representation, artistry, and a deeply personal approach to luxury, Andrea continues to design for a world where every woman feels seen, celebrated, and exquisitely dressed.

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Jonathan Mathias Lassiter, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist in New York City specializing in culturally informed mental health care for Black, POC, and LGBTQ+ individuals and couples.

With a passion to use his Ph.D. for the culture, he serves as a therapist, scientist, educator, author, mental health columnist, on-air mental health expert, and international public speaker.

Dr. Lassiter has appeared in outlets such as Forbes, NBC, PBS, SiriusXM, and iHeart Radio. He is the author of How I Know White People Are Crazy and Other Stories: Notes From a Frustrated Black Psychologist, published by Legacy Lit Books. In the book, he tells his story of becoming part of the less than 1% of Black male psychologists and explains how whiteness limits how we understand and practice mental health.

Dr. Lassiter is also the co-editor of the award-winning text Black LGBT Health in the United States: The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation, published by Lexington Books.

Follow Dr. Lassiter on all social media platforms: @lassiterhealth

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She has ridden a camel in the Sahara Desert, been on a bird safari in Zimbabwe, survived driving into an electric pole while fighting off a kidnapping attempt in Haiti, seriously considered moving to the Andean mountains after her visit to the Inca Citadel Machu Picchu, and once ran a film foundation to bring cinema to underprivileged school children with Raoul Peck, the famed director of the popular film I Am Not Your Negro on James Baldwin. She is a Commander in the Niger National Order of Merit and a Magaram and Tambara, honorific titles, for she is the recipient of numerous recognitions for her advocacy work in child and women’s rights in Africa.

Monique Clesca has led two incredibly fulfilling lives. First, as an activist, she worked in the field of international development, advocating for children’s and women’s rights, and participated in high-level policy around issues linked to Haiti and Africa. Since her retirement from full-time work at the United Nations in 2016, she has worked as an international consultant. Also a leading voice as a feminist, pro-democracy, and pro-social justice activist in Haiti, she has been a speaker at the Yale Law School Human Rights Clinic, the Parliament of Canada, and a guest on Democracy Now, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, NBC News, and Black News. She has been a long-time volunteer of a women-led organization that provides holistic support to girls and women who have suffered domestic and sexual violence. The President of Niger awarded her the country’s highest honor, Commander in the Niger Order of Merit, in 2016 for having spearheaded a countrywide movement for the elimination of child marriage. She has also been rewarded with several Royal Honorific Titles from the most powerful Traditional Chiefs in Niger.

Her second life is writing. She is the author of two self-published books in French: her novel La Confession, a portrait of a woman asserting herself after love, grief, and loss in a patriarchal society; and Mosaiques, a collection of essays about women affected by human rights issues. She has just finished writing her memoir Silence and Resistance: Memoir of a Girlhood in Haiti, and an excerpt of it was featured as a Story of the Week by Narrative Magazine and another by the literary magazine Black Renaissance Noire, and still another in La Prensa. Her nonfiction, which has been dominated by Haiti, displacement, family bonds, gender, and identity issues, has appeared in The New York Times, Narrative Magazine, The Miami Herald, Foreign Affairs, Americas Quarterly, Foreign Policy, Just Security, Le Nouvelliste, and NYU’s Black Renaissance Noire Magazine, among others.

Monique honed her memoir-writing craft at the Skidmore Writer’s Workshop with Phillip Lopate; at Tom Yenks’ Narrative Magazine Advanced Writing Workshop; with Dinty W. Moore and Allison K. Williams; at the Iowa Writers Festival; and at the Atelier Gallimard in France. Monique earned her master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Illinois and her B.A. in Philosophy from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She is the mother of two adult children—a daughter who lives in the United States and a son who lives in France—and the grandmother of two boys and a girl. A national of Haiti, she lives in Haiti and Miami.

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