Real Talk With Ru

Nina Little is the Lead Pastor of Cross Point Church in the Quad Cities. She is a wife and mother of four adults and glamma to Little Lylah. Nina began her ministry career in 2004 and has served as a worship leader, office administrator, discipleship pastor and now lead pastor. As a certified fitness instructor, Nina has helped hundreds of people throughout the Quad Cites attain their health and fitness goals. As a vocalist and performer, she has entertained thousands throughout our region. Nina volunteers and helps many organizations in the community in youth and adult mentoring, domestic violence support, and youth outreach. Her heart is drawn to Rosebud Reservation in Missions South Dakota where she has the opportunity to do life with her Native American Lakota sisters and brothers.

Zachary Ritter received his Ph.D. in higher education from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), focusing on Asian international students' cross-racial interactions. He is currently Interim Associate Dean is Students at CalIfornia State University, Dominguez Hills and helps run the Office of Community Standards restorative justice department and Basic Needs housing and food insecurity program. He also teaches social justice history at UCLA and Dominguez Hills. He is a diversity and inclusion consultant for Organic Communications. He recently co-edited a book called Marginality in the Urban Center: The Costs and Challenges of Continued Whiteness in the Americas and Beyond and a new co-edited book called "A Peculiar Institution: Whiteness, Power, and Resistance to Change is forthcoming.

Jasmine Babers is the Founder of Love Girls Magazine.  Created in 2015.  She is a self-declared storyteller, and has done content curation, design, and creative development for the past 9 years leading her to platform like the Harry Connick Jr. show in 2018, Seventeen.com and the Huffington Post.  Currently, Jasmine is a Lead Storyteller & YIF-Fellow- in Residence at Peace First. Jasmine has a deep regard for humanity. She believes in culture, innovation and kindness. 

Mikhayla Hughes Shaw is an aspiring journalist, violinist, Miss Iowa 2018, and the founder of the suicide and mental health awareness organization How About H.O.P.E. Inc. Currently Mikhayla is a 2020 Reporting Fellow for Pheonix, AZ News21.

Jasmine and Mikhayla are the hosts of Love Girls:  The Podcast.  Available on all platforms.

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/718424876/love-girls-the-podcast

A writer, speaker, and emotional health rebel. Courtney Misener advocates for emotional wellness and truth telling and tackles unhealthy emotional behaviors.

Courtney works with non-profits, start-ups, and companies both small and large, to provide tools that promote emotional health, respectful communication, awareness around depression and empathy, self-affirmations and self-care, and how to establish healthy boundaries (with others and ourselves). She also serves as the Director of Programs and Engagement at House of Hope, a non-profit based in Cedar Rapids, IA.

An Iowa transplant, originally from Tennessee, she is a rockstar/pastor's wife and the head negotiator and biggest fan for her three spunky boys.

A writer, speaker, and emotional health rebel. Courtney Misener advocates for emotional wellness and truth telling and tackles unhealthy emotional behaviors.

Courtney works with non-profits, start-ups, and companies both small and large, to provide tools that promote emotional health, respectful communication, awareness around depression and empathy, self-affirmations and self-care, and how to establish healthy boundaries (with others and ourselves). She also serves as the Director of Programs and Engagement at House of Hope, a non-profit based in Cedar Rapids, IA.

An Iowa transplant, originally from Tennessee, she is a rockstar/pastor's wife and the head negotiator and biggest fan for her three spunky boys.

Jen Hatmaker is the author of 12 books, including the New York Times bestselling "Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of This Wild and Glorious Life," "For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards," and "7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess."

Jen is also the creator and happy host of the award-winning For the Love! Podcast with Jen Hatmaker, delighted curator of the Jen Hatmaker Book Club and sought-after speaker who tours the country every year speaking to women. She and her husband, Brandon, founded the Legacy Collective and also starred in the popular series "My Big Family Renovation" and "Your Big Family Renovation" on HGTV.

Jen is a mom to five and a zealous resident of Austin, Texas, where she and her family are helping keep Austin weird.

Bela Gandhi is a dating/relationship expert, founder of Smart Dating Academy and a weekly media correspondent. She is the dating expert on the Steve Harvey Show, Kelly Clarkson Show, and appears on the TODAY Show, ABC, NBC, Fox, CNN, WGN, WSJ Marketplace, BBC, Essence, MORE, Glamour, JET, Redbook, Men's Health and more. Smart Dating Academy is one of the nation's top date coaching firms - and helps busy, successful professionals to jump start their dating lives successfully. Their coaching program helps stop old dating patterns, and use technology the "RIGHT" way. Helping you become positive and enthusiastic about dating / relationships again! Their clients receive personalized dating plans, and essential training in how to meet high caliber singles, personal style, conversation, and online success. Specialties Include: Coaching, Image Consulting, Interpersonal Skills Training, Interview Coaching 

Amber Romaniuk is an Emotional Eating, Digestive and Hormone Expert who helps professional women achieve optimal health through mindful eating, self-care and overcoming self-sabotage with food.

Her podcast "The No Sugarcoating Podcast" has over a half a million downloads and she has appeared on local TV 50 times in the last three years alone.

Amber overcame her own emotional eating after gaining and losing more than 1,000 pounds, spending over $50,000 on binge foods and spending 5 years balancing her hormones and digestion.

Now she helps others achieve Body Freedom™ so they have the confidence and health to create amazing lives.

Lisa Woodruff is a productivity specialist, home organization expert and Founder and CEO of Organize 365. Lisa provides physical and motivational resources teaching busy women to take back control of their lives with functional systems that work. 

She's the host of the top-rated Organize 365 Podcast, which was featured as the Woman's Day podcast of the month, where she shares strategies for reducing overwhelm, clearing mental clutter and living a productive and organized life. 

Lisa has authored several Amazon bestselling books and is a sought-after trainer and speaker, often quoted as saying "Done  is better than perfect" and "Progress over perfection". Her sensible and doable organizing tasks appeal to multiple generations and her candor and relatable style make you feel as though she is right there beside you, helping you get organized as you laugh and cry together.

As a recognized thought-leader Lisa's work has been featured in many national publications such as, Fast Company, US News and World Report, Women's World, Ladies Home Journal, Getting Organized and Woman's Day magazines.

She's been interviewed on over thirty podcasts, more than fifty local TV segments, countless online summits and is a regular HuffPost and ADDitude magazine contributor.

Lisa is also a generational expert and specializes in unpacking common everyday scenarios with grace, reshaping your understanding of the role we play in the home today. Believing that organization is not a skill you're born with, but rather is developed over time and which changes with each season of life, she made it her mission to redefine what it means to be a woman in the home.

Composer, educator, sound healer and multi-instrumentalist, Natalie Brown, has traveled the world performing, recording and teaching music. She was trained classically, starting violin at age 4 and has taught high school orchestra for 14 years. She is the founder and operator of Sounds Heal Studio, providing one-on-one and group sound healing sessions and workshops as well as practitioner training through the International Sound Healing Academy. Most recently she completed Nada Yoga (Yoga of Sound) teacher training in Rishikesh, India. Natalie's goal is to share the benefits of sound healing and help others use sound for self-care, personal growth and to heal.

https://www.soundshealstudio.com/about.html

Brandy Donaldson was born and raised in rural northeast Arkansas. During her formative years, she developed a love for literature and writing. Brandy was around 11 years old when she decided she wanted to be a newspaper woman. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Arkansas State University and a master's degree in communications management from Webster University.

After starting her journalism career in southern Missouri, Brandy moved to western Illinois (the Quad-Cities) in 2007. Brandy was an award-winning newspaper reporter for seven years. In 2012, her career transitioned into corporate communications management.

Brandy began her journey into social advocacy and activism shortly after moving to Illinois. Her volunteerism has included Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Mississippi Valley, the Rock Island County NAACP, The African American Leadership Society (Quad Cities), Dress for Success, Young Professionals of the Quad Cities, the Q2030 Regional Action Plan, The QC Empowerment Network, The Chemo Care Package Project, which she created, the Palomares Social Justice Center and African American Lesbian Professionals Having a Say (ALPHAS), which she co-founded. Brandy also serves on the Illinois Council on Women and Girls and the Equality Illinois Advisory Council.

Brandy's professional awards include a first-place award in the category of "Best News Story Series" from the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association for a series she wrote on the refugee immigrant population in Rock Island, Illinois. In the same award series, she also won third-place in the "General Feature Story" category for a feature on the start of civil union licenses being offered in Illinois. She also received a "Best In-Depth News Story" third-place award from the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association for her political news report regarding Illinois' gerrymandered 17th Congressional District entitled "Mapmaking headache." She was the lead reporter on an investigative report entitled "Jobs Down, Payroll Up" that received a first-place award in investigative reporting from Suburban Newspapers of America.