Reach Out Tour '08

Alexandra Rampy, M.A., is a social marketing believer, blogger, reseacher, practitioner and enthusiast.  A blogger since 2003, Ms. Rampy currently spreads the movement of social marketing through her professional blog, SocialButterfly, where she partakes in the Carnival for Non-Profit Consultants, the Carnival for Change, The Non-Profit Blog Exchange, is listed as one of the top nonprofit and social media blogs by Alltop.com and is syndicated at BrazenCareerist.com. Ms. Rampy works at IQ Solutions, a social marketing and health communications firm outside Washington D.C., where she combines her specialties in social marketing with social media marketing for government agencies, non-profits and foundations. 

Angela Conyers-Benton publishes BlackWeb20.com, a blog that analyzes emerging web trends as it relates to African-Americans and African-American culture. He rexperience spans a variety of industries including consultative relationships with companies such as UPS, Bizjournals.com, Realestate.com, and Lendingtree.com. Angela is presently leading design at RushmoreDrive.com, an IAC Company.

Carol Jenkins is President of The Women's Media Center and a Founding Member of its Board of Directors. An Emmy award-winning former news anchor and correspondent who covered presidential politics as well as international issues, Ms. Jenkins leads the Women’s Media Center’s online publication and its advocacy initiatives.

She is a national spokeswoman for women and the media, arguing the case for inclusion of women throughout the media: in ownership positions, at the highest levels of management and creativity, as well as the telling of women's stories in television and film, radio, print, and online.

Ms. Jenkins enjoyed a 30-year, award-winning tenure with several New York City news departments, including 23 years at WNBC-TV, where she co-anchored the pivotal 6 p.m. newscast. She was most identified with her reporting of national political stories, including from the floor of Democratic and Republican national conventions that yielded Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. From South Africa she reported on the release of Nelson Mandela after 27 years in prison, and anchored and co-produced an Emmy-nominated prime time special on apartheid. She hosted her own daily talk show, Carol Jenkins Live, on WNYW-TV.

Carol Jenkins is the author, with her daughter Elizabeth Gardner Hines, of Black Titan, A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire. The life story of Ms Jenkins' uncle, it was selected by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association as one of the best non-fiction books of 2004. She is an executive producer of the PBS documentary, What I Want My Words To Do To You, which won the Freedom of Expression Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2003.

Christine Koh is a music and brain scientist turned writer, editor, and designer. She spent a decade in academia, during which she won prestigious fellowships from the NIH and made it to the hallowed halls of Harvard/MIT. She was about to become a professor when she decided to hang up her academic spurs in favor of more flexible and creative ventures.

In July 2006 Christine founded Boston Mamas, a stylish resource portal for families in Boston and beyond. Her writing is noted for being informative, cheeky, and polished, and the blog enjoys a devoted national following. She also is a self-taught graphic artist and avid crafter and founded Posh Peacock in 2007, where she offers personalized paper goods and custom print and web design services. Christine also is the managing editor of the academic journal Music Perception, and pens columns on child care and parenting issues for Care.com and the forthcoming Shoestring Magazine.
 
Christine lives in the Boston area with her fabulous husband and 4-year-old daughter.

A blogger for over two years and veteran of three BlogHer conferences, Cynthia was an early Internet citizen, arriving just as Mozilla was released.  Beyond blogging, she has an extensive background online, in television and in print.  In four years with iVillage she designed and then supervised an education subsite called Education Central and worked extensively on Internet safety issues, later serving as iVillage's Washington editor. Earlier, she was Children's Book Editor of Amazon.com and an early site reviewer for EXCITE.  

She's also worked as a broadcast journalist at, among other places, the TODAY SHOW, where she spent nine years.  Author of It's a Free Country, a Young Person's Guide to Politics and Elections, she's now a partner in a Web and blogger consulting firm, Cobblestone Associates, LLP.  Cynthia is married and has two grown sons who were her secret weapon when she was learning how to use a computer ("you see mom, folders are like file drawers....") and now work in the computer game business.  She and her husband live in Washington, DC.  She blogs at Don't Gel Too Soon and, lately, is fighting a Twitter addiction.

I am the founder and publisher of Mombian: Sustenance for Lesbian Moms, which offers a mix of parenting, politics, diversions and resources for lesbian moms and other LGBT parents.

I also write a regular Mombian column for Bay Windows, Between the Lines, Philadelphia Gay News, and Windy City Times newspapers, a regular column on parenting and politics for Logo's 365gay.com news site, and maintain a blog on Offsprung, an online parenting humor magazine. I've also had pieces appear in the Huffington Post, After Ellen, After Elton, and the Bilerico Project. My partner Helen and I also produce the "She Got Me Pregnant" video blog for After Ellen.

I live with my partner of more than a dozen years, and am currently staying at home with our five-year-old son. I have over a decade of experience in the online industry, at both the startup and corporate levels. Most recently, I was vice president at Merrill Lynch, developing marketing and business strategies for several key online initiatives. I was also the first leader of the firm's global LGBT employee network, a position I held until I left the firm three years later.

Danielle Henderson is a 31-year old college sophomore and freelance writer. She's been a blogger for close to 6 years at Knotty Yarn, and still has no idea how or if that is applicable to common conversation. Her first book was published in 2004, and she was recently featured in Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems and Abandoned Rock Operas.

In the 20 minutes of free time she finds daily, she loves to take pictures and watch British comedy shows. Danielle really enjoys meeting new people, and hopes that her time at the Reach Out Tour will be the perfect ocassion to do just that.

She is the author of the widely praised The Corporate Blogging Book published in the U.S. by Penguin Portfolio, and also in Italian, Mandarin Chinese and a UK edition. She writes BlogWriteForCEOs, a leading blog on social media marketing.

Debbie has parsed the implications of Web 2.0 for thousands of executives and entrepreneurs at conferences and events in the U.S., the UK, Europe and China. She has been quoted on the topic of corporate and CEO blogging in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Business Week, The New York Times, CNN.com, The Guardian and numerous other publications. She has been interviewed on NPR’s MarketPlace.

Elisa Camahort is a co-founder and COO of BlogHer, managing its events, marketing and corporate operations. A marketing executive with 18 years of experience in Silicon Valley, Elisa left her life in high tech product management to go online and join the social media world, and to help companies go there too.

She co-founded BlogHer as a labor of love in 2005 with Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone, and in three short years BlogHer has grown to be the number-one guide to and source for blogs by women. BlogHer serves its mission of creating opportunities for education, exposure, community and economic empowerment with its web community, sold-out conferences and advertising network that now features over 2,000 network members.

Elisa Camahort was at the vanguard of professional and business blogging and currently writes nine blogs. She blogs at various times about marketing, health issues, green and eco-conscious living, being a vegan, and reality TV talent shows like American Idol and Project Runway! She’s a frequent public speaker in the areas of business blogging and online community, and has been published frequently, including her monthly column for the Silicon Valley Metro, Silicon Veggie.

Erin Kotecki Vest spent ten years as a broadcast journalist in Los Angeles, Orlando and Detroit winning six Golden Mic Awards with LA news institution KFWB. She now serves as Political Director and Election 08’ Producer for BlogHer.com as well as contributing regularly to the Huffington Post, MOMocrats.com, and her own site Queen of Spain Blog.You can find her on Twitter @queenofspain and make sure to ask her about her interview with Barack Obama.

Joanne Bamberger is better known around the blogopshere as PunditMom, the blog she writes about the intersection of motherhood and politics. A writer and attorney for over 20 years, Joanne also writes about politics at MOMocrats and is a Contributing Editor for Politics & News at BlogHer. You can also find Joanne's writing at The Huffington Post, MomsRising and DC Metro Moms.

A former op-ed writer for The Washington Examiner, Joanne is a freelance writer who has contributed to numerous publications and outlets, including The Washington Post, MSN, and Marketplace Radio. As a political and media analyst, Joanne has appeared this election season on CNN, Fox News, XM Radio POTUS '08, ABC.com, BBC Radio, and more.  Joanne also spent a decade as a TV and radio journalist and, unfortunately, still remembers the day when stories were shot on film.

Jocelyn Harmon, Director of Business Development, Triplex

Email Jocelyn

Jocelyn joined Triplex in 2008 to help launch Triplex Interactive.  She has eight years of experience in development, marketing and communications for nonprofits, with special expertise in corporate and foundation relations and "navigating the online space."

Prior to joining Triplex, Jocelyn was Director of Sales and Marketing at NPower Greater DC Region, an affiliate of NPower Network - a federation of nonprofits which provides technology consulting and IT support to hundreds of nonprofits annually.

From 2004 to 2006, she was Director of Development and Communications for the National Council of Nonprofit Associations (NCNA)/The Nonprofit Congress - a network of associations serving over 22,000 nonprofits in 45 states and the District of Columbia. At NCNA, she helped launch the first Nonprofit Congress - a grassroots movement to create an advocacy platform for charitable organizations.

Jocelyn speaks regularly on online marketing tools and strategies for success and is the author of the blog,

Karen Batchelor is a 57 year old lawyer and former corporate exec from Michigan who climbed down the ladder of success in midlife to get in sync again with her life purpose and values.  On what she calls her "midlife trip", Karen found the road leading to a fulfilling next chapter of life as a certified professional coach.  She dedicates her coaching practice to supporting women as they deal with the career and personal challenges of midlife. 

Karen is a "newbie" in the world of blogging.  Little more than a year ago, she staked out a little corner of the blogosphere and rolled out the welcome mat to Midlife's A Trip.  Most days you can find her there writing with candor and humor about all things midlife and then some.  She is contributing editor on midlife issues at BlogHer and also writes at Midlifebloggers.  When Karen pries her fingers from the keyboard, she loves to garden, knit and hang out with her 4-year-old niece.

Kristen King, M.P.S., is a communications consultant who has been writing and editing for business and publication for more than five years. She launched her first business, Kristen King Freelancing, in 2004 and re-launched it in June of this year as Inkthinker Communications, LLC, which provides a full range of writing, editing, and consulting services. Her website www.kristenkingfreelancing.com was a finalist in the 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest. Kristen currently writes four blogs, two of her own (www.inkthinkerblog.com, named one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers in 2006, and www.meowbarkblog.com) and two for global information network b5media (www.bizchicksrule.com and www.livelywomen.com).

Kristen has spoken on marketing, networking, blogging, and online promotions to American Independent Writers (AIW; formerly Washington Independent Writers), the National Writers Union (NWU), the Society for Technical Communications (STC), 40plus, and The George Washington University (GWU), among others.

She was profiled in the fifth edition of Lucy V. Parker’s How to Start a Home-Based Writing Business (Globe Pequot Press, 2008), and is scheduled to appear in the revised edition of The Well-Fed Writer, by Peter Bowerman. Recently, Kristen was elected to a two-year term as an AIW Board Member for 2008-2010, and she is also a member of the Editorial Board for the journal Science Editor.

Kristen has a BA in English from Mary Washington College and an MPS in publishing.

Laura “@Pistachio” Fitton is one of the first prominent “microbloggers,” with roughly 6,500 readers on Twitter. An early beta tester of Seesmic and Qik, she connects people to new ideas and innovations using all the tools of microsharing.

Her innovative use of social media has also gotten the attention of the top minds in technology, as profiled by Naked Conversations author Shel Israel for his Global Survey. Laura has also been quoted in The New York Times Magazine, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, The LA Times, Newsweek.com, Inc.com, CIO Magazine, CNET, ZDNet and many other magazines, publications, web shows and blogs. She speaks at technology conferences, private industry and guest lectures at Bentley College.

Laura is a magna cum laude graduate of Cornell University’s eclectic College Scholar program. In “past lives” she studied science writing with Carl Sagan, rock climbed, sailed on a schooner, raised a niece, ran a hobby farm, traveled and lived abroad.

Today she lives in Boston with two toddler daughters and a giant Leonberger. She practices Ashtanga yoga and plays ice hockey in her “spare” time, and is a stroke survivor dedicated to raising awareness.

Laurie White is a writer, photographer, and perpetual eldest child from the small but mighty state of Maryland (plus five important formative years in Southwest Ohio.) A lifelong writer, blogging saved her life in the spring of 2005, when she stumbled across a link to TypePad in a post-breakup haze and LaurieWrites just...happened (not a name she'd pick now, but at that time it seemed to get the point across.) 

Laurie still lives in D.C.'s Maryland suburbs, where she bosses around/loves dearly a menagerie of family and friends of all ages and is addicted to her Nikon D80 and Canon PowerShot630, Flickr, hazelnut coffee, music, Bravo, New York City, all manner of magazines, the Internet, good food, the idea of the ocean, travel to anywhere under the sun and little dogs. Her next projects include the very-much-in-development food and culture site ringtumdiddy.com and an anthology of essays on the impact of Lloyd Dobler on way too many GenX women. 

Liz Mair serves as the Online Communications Director with the Republican National Committee, where she is responsible for leading blogger outreach efforts, contributing to eCampaign and communications strategy, and producing content for the GOP.com blog. Prior to joining the RNC in December 2007, Liz was an independent political consultant, columnist and blogger, writing for publications including the Seattle P-I, the American Spectator and the New York Sun, as well as at her own site, lizmair.com. She has consulted for a variety of candidates for public office and political organizations, both in the US and in the UK, where she lived for ten years. Liz was previously a corporate lawyer in London and holds an MA from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and a Certificate from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. She lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband.

A professional food writer for more than 20 years, Lydia is an award-winning former columnist for Rhode Island Monthly magazine and for Boston's own South End News. She teaches classes in Providence for Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) on topics ranging from tagine cooking to tapas, and offers private cooking classes in her own kitchen.

Author of South End Cooks: Recipes from a Boston Neighborhood, a cookbook that raised funds for three local agencies (community garden, food pantry, and home-delivered meals for seniors), she is a long-time activist in the hunger relief community and former advisory board member of Share Our Strength's Operation Frontline program.

Most recently, she founded Drop In & Decorate Cookies for Donation, a nonprofit organization that supports individuals and groups around the country who bake, decorate and donate cookies to food pantries, shelters, and community programs.

In June 2006 Lydia opened the doors of The Perfect Pantry, where she blogs about the everyday and unusual items in her own pantry, with recipes, food lore, and practical tips for how to use each ingredient.

Mary Ann Akers writes The Sleuth blog on washingtonpost.com. She reports on the behind-the-scenes happenings and gossip in Washington politics. Akers takes readers on a regular joy ride through the back halls of Congress and all the other political hotspots in Washington where trouble, intrigue, backslapping, hope, and romance abound.  Mary Ann’s exclusive interview with comedian Sinbad about his 1996 trip to Bosnia with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton precipitated the unraveling of Clinton’s Bosnia sniper-fire story.

Mary Ann comes to washingtonpost.com from Roll Call, where she wrote the must-read "Heard on the Hill" column -- a newsy, nosy and irreverent look at what happens behind the scenes on Capitol Hill and elsewhere in Washington. Mary Ann has a strong news background in both print and broadcast. She was a reporter for National Public Radio covering everything from politics and Congress to transportation. She covered several commercial plane crash investigations and the government's response to the 9/11 attacks. Before that, she covered Congress for The Washington Times and for National Journal's Congress Daily publication.

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Mary Smaragdis is a Distinguished Marketing Director at Sun Microsystems. At this "Online Community Building for a Cause" panel she'll be sharing details about work Sun did with U2's Bono and the ONE Campaign to enlist support for Bono's fight against AIDS and poverty. She's been involved in numerous other initiatives Sun has led that are helping communities taking on some of the world's hardest problems using technology to amplify reach and elevate engagement,. She'll be sharing the specifics of these initiatives at this panel discussion.

It was love at first blog for Megan, who began blogging back in 1999 and hasn't stopped for a breath since.
 
A hobby at first, blogging has become a big part of Megan's life.  She has taught herself how to create, build and manage blogs on all of the major blog platforms and now designs and provides blog and web consulting for individuals and businesses, through Webundance, her consulting company.
 
In 2006, Megan combined her passion for shopping and blogging with the launch of A Girl Must Shop – a shopping blog that features cool, new items, product reviews, coupons, bargains, and contests. A Girl Must Shop's readership has grown substantially since its launch and continues to grow by leaps and bounds.

In addition, Megan has over 10 years experience in marketing companies, products, and websites in the insurance, media, software and online social networking industries. She continues to provide consulting in these areas.

Melissa has been doing community building through her blog since 2006. Her infertility and pregnancy loss blog, Stirrup Queens and Sperm Palace Jesters, serves as a hub of information and projects for the ALI community. She keeps a categorized blogroll of almost 1500 infertility blogs and writes the daily Lost and Found and Connections Abound, a news source for the infertility blogosphere that shuttles support to where it is needed. She has organized fundraising projects, inclusive community awards, and political activism.

Prior to BlogHer 'o8, she started the first part of what would be a theme for the year: communication across community. IComLeavWe (International Comment Leaving Week) is a monthly project that builds the other side of blogging--commenting--as an answer to the popular NaBloWriMo. After BlogHer 'o8, she joined with a large group of bloggers that is continuously growing to form Bridges, an awareness consortium of bloggers who are writing for a cause. Her infertility book, The Land of If, is forthcoming from Seal Press in Spring 2009.

I am Nika and I am the person behind Nika's Culinaria, Humble Garden, and Peaknix.

I post a variety of content at Nika's Culinaria, from recipes and Colombian Food How-To Guides (pictoral walkthroughs on how to prepare a certain food), to food photography images, to articles I write for other blogs such as The Well Fed Network.

A list of other places you can find my photos and writing:

• Nika Boyce Photography (food photo portfolio site)
• My Flickr food set
• The Spirit World blog (Well Fed Network)
• A Nice Cuppa 
• Kids Cuisine
• Progressive HomeSchool (blogging on homeschooling our three kids)

On a personal note, I am a scientist who is not currently at the bench.   I have had formal training in fine arts, Architecture, and photography.  My scientific training included considerable hands-on experience with wet-lab darkroom work, photomicroscopy (electron, light, and confocal 4D digital capture).  I am taking these various skills with my growing expertise in digital photography and lighting to capture images of still life food.

Rachel Rappaport is a food writer, recipe developer, cooking instructor and commentator on all matters relating to food and cooking.

Her blog Coconut & Lime originally started in 2004 as a place for Rachel to share recipes with her friends. It now features hundreds of original recipes and easy home cooking tips covering a wide range of international cuisines and is recognized as one of the top food blogs in the country.

Rachel has built a dedicated community around her blog using Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, widgets and more.

Rosetta Thurman grew up in the public housing projects of Cleveland, Ohio, and if it weren't for the nonprofits in her community who helped her family in times of need, she doesn't know where she would be today. She is proud to be a young nonprofit leader of color and her mission is to engage her generation in creating the world as it should be. 

Rosetta currently serves as the Director of Development and Special Programs at the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington where she manages fundraising and directs the Future Executive Directors Fellowship. Rosetta is also an Adjunct Professor teaching nonprofit management in the School of Professional Studies at Trinity University. She holds a Master's Degree in Nonprofit Management from Trinity University and a Bachelor’s Degree in English from Virginia Commonwealth University. Rosetta is an active member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and currently serves on three boards:  the DC Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, DC Central Kitchen and the DC Creative Writing Workshop. She is also a prolific blogger at Perspectives From the Pipeline and the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

When Rosetta isn't working, volunteering, or blogging, you can find her eating lots of ice cream, writing poetry, and dancing under the sun.

Sarah Braesch (aka Goon Squad Sarah) is all over the internet. You can find her writing at at Sarah and the Goon Squad, BlogHer.com, Draft Day Suit, MamaPop, DC Metro Moms Blog, Loser Moms and many other blogs depending on the day of the week.

Sarah lives in the DC Metro Area with her husband and four year old twins. She is a freelance writer and she also works for the BlogHer Ad Network.

I am also author of the upcoming cookbook Families Eat Together: Fresh, Healthy Cooking No Matter How Much Time You Have, due out in 2008 from Ladder Press.

A two-time judge of the Food Blog Awards (2006 and 2007), I’m active in the food blogging community and love the connections that I’ve made over food. I write Sarah's Cucina Bella. I also write for SheKnows.com, The Voice of Mom and The Well Fed Network.

As Director of Online Content Development for GateHouse Media New England, Sarah Corbitt is a corporate evangelist, charged with bringing a "newspaper" company into the plural media new age. She's been a reporter, columnist, editor, managing editor, editor in chief and blogger. Her favorite part of her current job is encouraging/inspiring/empowering others to embrace the digital age.

Sarah Dopp has been blogging for ten years. Currently, she maintains Dopp Juice (a personal blog about being a creative professional) and Genderfork (a photo blog that explores androgyny and gender variance). She's also a website developer, technical writer, and project manager in the tech industry, and she keeps her hair remarkably short. Sarah lives in San Francisco.

Recently quitting her full time position as Assistant Professor of Web Technology at the Community College of Baltimore County, Roni has embarked on the wild world of professional blogging. As the women behind Roni's Weigh, GreenLiteBites and BlogToLose Roni combines her passion for web development, design, cooking, health and communication. She couldn't have found a better creative outlet to pursue all of her passions!

Roni has a Masters of Science in Instructional Technology from Bloomsburg University and a Bachelor Science in Business Administration. In addition to blogging, Roni consults at Johns Hopkins University and takes small web projects under her company, SkinnyMinnyMedia.

To learn more about Roni, her projects and her background please visit the following sites...

• skinnyminnymedia.com
• vjnoone.com
• greenlitebites.com 
• ronisweigh.com
• blogtolose.com
• CCBC Faculty Page