Advisory Team
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Laura Amazzone is an author, teacher, jewelry artist, and Yoginī. She completed her master’s degree in philosophy and religion, with an emphasis in women’s spirituality at the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2001. Her book, Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power, will be published through Hamilton Books, an imprint of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, in October 2010. Laura teaches classes and workshops on feminist spirituality and Eastern religious traditions and is adjunct faculty in the Yoga Philosophy Extension program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She has published numerous articles discussing myth, ritual, adornment, and the significance of South Asian Goddesses as divine models of female empowerment. She lives in Venice, California.

Lisa Anderson is Associate Director of Educational Programs and Director of the Women’s Multifaith Program at Auburn Theological Seminary. As an institute for religious leadership, Auburn equips bold and resilient leaders with the tools and resources they need to bridge religious divides, build community, pursue justice, and heal the world. Lisa’s work with the Women’s Multifaith Program focuses on identifying the specific ways in which this broad vision can address the particular leadership needs and challenges women face. A trained theologian, Lisa holds a Masters of Divinity and Masters of Philosophy degree from Union Theological Seminary. Currently, she is a Union Ph.D candidate in systematic theology specializing in Christian doctrines and liberation theologies. Lisa has taught courses in Black, Womanist, LGBT theologies, Christian ethics and liturgy, and designed and led seminars on the connection between faith and social justice. Her dissertation, entitled, On Love, Liberation and Original Sin: A Black Queer Meditation explores how LGBT communities of color can critically interrogate and radically integrate classical conceptions of sin and grace into an emerging perspective informed by the particularity of their encounter with the Divine.

Gabrielle Bernstein Featured in the New York Times Sunday Styles section as "a new role model", speaker, and author Gabrielle Bernstein is making her mark. Expanding the lexicon for the next generation spiritual seekers, Gabrielle is a #1 bestselling author of the book Add More ~ing to Your Life - A hip guide to happiness. Gabrielle recently launched her second book, Spirit Junkie, A Radical Road to Self-Love and Miracles and her new meditation album, MediDATING - Meditations for Fearless Romance. In January of 2013 Gabrielle launches her third book entitled The Lovetarian Way, A Guidebook of Subtle Shifts for Miraculous Change. Gabrielle is also the founder of the social networking site HerFuture.com for women to inspire, empower and connect. Gabrielle has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, ELLE, Oprah Radio, Marie Claire, Health, SELF, Women's Health, CNN, Fox & Friends, the cover of Experience Life Magazine, People, US Weekly, Forbes Top 20 Best Branded Women and many more. She can also be seen riding around the East Village on a unicycle. Gabrielle has been a student and teacher of A Course in Miracles since 2005. www.gabbyb.tv

Ophira Edut is a writer and designer who focuses on women's empowerment through various media and pop culture channels. She and her twin sister write horoscopes for over 40 million people a month, through various columns and their website Astrostyle.com. Ophira is also the author of Body Outlaws: Reinventing the Rules of Beauty & Body Image (Seal Press), and publishes the body image website AdiosBarbie.com. A longtime board member of Feminist.com, Ophira served as creative director for Our Inner Lives. The daughter of a rabbi (mom) and Israeli landscaper (dad) she grew up in Detroit with a heady mix of Torah and topsoil. She lives in New York City.

Carla Goldstein, JD, is director of the Women’s Institute at Omega and director of external affairs of Omega. Carla is an activist, teacher and lawyer with 20 years of experience in public interest advocacy on issues related to women's rights, poverty, public health and social justice. She has contributed to over 100 city, state and federal laws and has appeared on radio and television on a wide range of issues. Before joining Omega, Carla was a vice president at Planned Parenthood of New York City, and prior to that worked for the New York City Council and the New York State Legislature. Carla teaches and lectures on women’s empowerment, social justice and spiritual activism, co-founded NY's first women's law journal, The Buffalo Women's Journal, serves on the Feminist.com advisory board, and writes their column called Spiritual Activism. Carla was raised in a not-very-observant Jewish home filled with love and awe for life, and has culled together beliefs and practices that she feels are anchored in a universal spirituality. Her spiritual practice incorporates a combination of yoga, prayer, mindfulness, meditation, being in nature, and mulling it all with others along the path.

Rachel P. Goldstein A veteran within her field, Rachel P. Goldstein has twenty years of experience in the non-profit, film, music, political, and wellness industries. A connection to event production and passion for social progress led Rachel to found the multi-faceted management firm Agent of Change. With an emphasis on cause-related events and projects, Rachel fuses her creative senses with the client's concrete goals. It is this professional and personal malleability that has fostered boundary-less opportunities for Rachel and her diverse network. A native New Yorker with the sensibility to match, her inherent talents strengthen the tie between professional achievement and social consciousness. Prior to founding her company Rachel served as Director of Program Development with Donna Karan's Urban Zen Foundation and produced film and television pieces alongside Academy Award winners Barbara Kopple, Alex Gibney, and Emmy Award winner Marc Levin. Rachel's creative reach has led her to produce concerts and events for musical heavyweights such as The Roots, Mary J. Blige, Dave Matthews Band, Eminem, The Black Eyed Peas, Kanye West and Moby. Being a certified Yoga Shanti teacher combined with being a Hoffman Institute graduate makes Rachel a very content spiritual jew. www.agentofchangenetwork.com

Patty Goodwin formerly co-founder and Creative Director of Broadstreet, a strategic communications company, is a freelance writer/producer based in New York City and the Hudson River Valley. Patty serves on the boards of Omega Institute, Sustainable Hudson Valley and the Woodstock Land Conservancy. She is also on the advisory board of Feminist.com. Patty was raised a Roman Catholic, has explored many religious traditions and has a regular spiritual practice which sustains her.

Sheherazade Jafari is a PhD student in International Relations at American University’s School of International Service. Her research interests include gender and identity in conflict and conflict resolution. Previously, she led the Religion and Conflict Resolution Program at the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, where she worked with religious peacemakers from armed conflict zones around the world.  Sheherazade has also worked with women's rights and development NGOs in the Middle East and South Asia, as well as on civic education and rights for Iranian Americans, and has published on related subjects. She has an MA in International Affairs from The George Washington University and a BA in Sociology and Women's Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She is a Muslim Iranian American and is on the Board of REVEAL.

Linda Kay Klein is a writer, speaker, and spiritual strongwoman based in New York City. She is a frequent speaker at colleges, universities, conferences and nonprofits, and has been featured by outlets such as NPR, PRN, and the American Prospect. Linda urges authentic engagement around life’s biggest questions—be it in her role as a former evangelical Christian who now gathers stories from young evangelical and ex-evangelical women about sex and gender, or as the Director of Work on Purpose at Echoing Green's program to equip Millennials to do work that is right for them and good for the world. Linda has worked for a number of progressive religious organizations—from the multifaith gender equality foundation, The Sister Fund, to the young women’s spiritual leadership movement, REVEAL: Young Women Defining the Divine. She was the assistant writer for “Testimony,” a documentary theater piece on the religious culture wars which was incubated by Princeton University, and she sits on the advisory board of our very own Feminist.com’s “Our Inner Lives” religion and spirituality project. Linda holds a Masters in religious studies and creative writing from NYU, where she focused on American Evangelical sex and gender education, and a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and theater from Sarah Lawrence College. For more information, check out her blog at www.manmadegirls.com.

Stephanie Kristal, M.A. is a Hypnotherapist and Integrative Yoga Therapist with a private practice working with individuals and couples in Woodstock and Kingston, New York. Stephanie's work is creating safe and sacred space in which she guides people in accessing their own inner wisdom and insight for healing and developing inner and outer resources for self-empowerment and to support their journey. Stephanie has been a practitioner of yoga and mindfulness for over 30 years and these disciplines inform both her personal and professional life. She also teaches workshops for girls and young women on developing positive body image, self-esteem and taking a critical look at the negative impact of media and advertising related to these issues. Stephanie is also the author of numerous articles and a contributor to the book Help Me To Heal by Bernie Siegel and Yosaif August. Stephanie resides in upstate New York with her soulmate John, two beautiful daughters and various animal friends.

Elizabeth Lesser is the co-founder of Omega Institute, the United States’ largest adult education center focusing on health, wellness, spirituality, and creativity. She is the New York Times best-selling author of Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow and The Seeker’s Guide: Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure (both from Random House). For more than 30 years Elizabeth has worked with leading figures in the fields of healing, spiritual development, and cultural change. In 2008 she worked closely with Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle in the creation of a ten-week online seminar based on Tolle’s book, A New Earth. The “webinar” was viewed by millions of people worldwide. Since then, she has appeared several times on The Oprah Show and Oprah.com webcasts, and is an ongoing host on Oprah Radio, a weekly show on Sirius/XM. A student of the Sufi master, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan since 1971, Elizabeth has also studied with spiritual teachers and religious scholars from other traditions, as well as psychological practitioners and healers. Previous to her work at Omega, she was a midwife and birth educator. She has been active in environmental issues for many years in New York State's Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains, where she lives with her husband. She is the mother of three grown sons.

Amy Richards is a founding board member of Feminist.com. She began her career as a feminist activist, writer and organizer when, after graduating from Barnard College, she organized Freedom Summer ’92, a cross-country voter registration drive. Amy went on to co-found and lead the Third Wave Foundation, a national organization for young feminist activists. Amy became leading voice for young feminist issues and has appeared in a range of media venues including Fox’s The O’Reilly Factor, Oprah, Talk of the Nation, New York One and CNN. She is also the voice behind Ask Amy, the online advice column she launched at Feminist.com in 1995. Amy is the author of Opting In: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself, and the co-author of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future and Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism. Amy’s writings have also appeared in The Nation, The LA Times, Bust, Ms. and numerous anthologies, including Listen Up, Body Outlaws and Catching A Wave. She is the co-founder of the feminist speakers’ bureau, Soapbox. Says Amy, “I think I am more spiritual than religious and have actually noted on many occasions that Ask Amy is my faith—in a Buddhist sense of practice the religion not merely reflecting on it. That said, I was baptized Methodist.”

Kim Rosen, MFA, author of Saved by a Poem: The Transformative Power of Words (Hay House), 29, has touched listeners around the world with poetry’s power to awaken, inspire and heal. She is the co-creator of four CD’s of spoken poetry and music and has delivered poetry in a wide spectrum of venues from the crypt of Chartres Cathedral to the New Orleans Superdome. Combining her devotion to poetry with her background as a spiritual teacher and therapist, she has given inspirational keynotes, workshops, trainings, retreats and private sessions in corporations, colleges, high schools, nonprofit organizations, retreat centers.

Bethany Saltman is a writer who has lived in Phoenicia since 2002. Her non-fiction work can be found in magazines like Parents, Body + Soul, The Sun, Buddhadharma, Mothering.com, Shambhala Sun.com, Clean Eating, as well as a monthly column on being a Buddhist mom (which she is!) in the Hudson Valley’s Chronogram. Her poems have been published in journals like Witness, New York Quarterly, and Spoon River Quarterly. She has taught writing for almost twenty years in colleges, high schools, and communities, and has worked as an editor and writing coach for individuals and publishing houses. While Bethany grew up Jewish, she has been a practicing Buddhist for many years. She became a student of John Daido Loori, Roshi in 1997, has lived at Zen Mountain Monastery for years at a time, and now, since his death in 2009, she practices with one of his successors, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Sensei. www.bethanysaltman.com

Kathe Schaaf is a co-founder and core leader of Women of Spirit and Faith, organized in 2010 with the intention of exploring, nurturing and celebrating women’s spiritual leadership. She is also one of the co-founders of Gather the Women in 2002 and has anchored numerous ‘collaborative conversations’ connecting women and women’s organizations internationally. She is an editor of Women, Spirituality and Transformative Leadership: Where Grace Meets Power, an anthology of women’s wisdom published by SkyLight Paths which was honored as one of the 2012 Top Ten Books on Religion and Spirituality by the American Library Association. She is a regular contributor to The Divine Feminine blog, and has written about women’s issues for The Interfaith Observer. Kathe has served on the Board of Trustees of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions and remains active with their Women’s Task Force, where she represents the “Nones”, those who are spiritual but unaffiliated with any specific religion. She has been a delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women for the past five years.

Marianne Schnall is a widely published writer and interviewer. She is also the founder and Executive Director of Feminist.com and cofounder of EcoMall.com, a website promoting environmentally-friendly living. Marianne has worked for many media outlets and publications. Her interviews with well-known individuals appear at Feminist.com as well as in publications such as O, The Oprah Magazine, Glamour, Marie Claire, In Style, The Huffington Post, the Women's Media Center, CNN.com and many others. Marianne is a regular contributor to the nationally syndicated NPR radio show, 51% The Women’s Perspective. Her new book based on her interviews with a variety of well known women, is titled Daring to Be Ourselves: Influential Women Share Insights on Courage, Happiness and Finding Your Own Voice. Her new book is What Will It Take to Make a Woman President: Conversations About Women, Leadership & Power. Through her writings, interviews, and websites, Marianne strives to raise awareness and inspire activism around important issues and causes. Marianne was raised Jewish yet considers herself a "seeker" weaving together her own spiritual tapestry from her explorations of various traditions and practices such as meditation and yoga. www.marianneschnall.com

Gail Straub is the co-author of the best selling Empowerment: The Art of Creating Your Life As You Want It, and the author of the critically acclaimed The Rhythm of Compassion: Caring For Self, Connecting With Society, as well as Circle of Compassion , a book of meditations. Considered a leading authority on empowerment, she co-directs the Empowerment Institute, a school for transformative leadership. The Institute’s certified graduates from cultures as diverse as Afghanistan, Africa, Russia, and Asia are implementing the empowerment model in education, business, health, hip-hop, and social change. Over the past thirty years she has trained thousands of people worldwide in empowerment, engaged spirituality, and the wisdom of the feminine. Her latest book is the award winning feminist memoir, Returning to My Mother’s House. Gail was raised Catholic and today considers herself a Christian Buddhist as her spiritual practices include both meditation as well as a passionate prayer life.

Maggie Lyon Varadhan is a writer on wellness and spirituality, and a holistic lifestyle consultant. Hailing from Northern California, Maggie first studied Feminist Studies with Bettina Aptheker at UC Santa Cruz before transferring to Mills College where she graduated with a BA in Creative Writing. In 2002, she earned her Masters Degree in Education from Teachers College, Columbia. A practicing Zen Buddhist and Iyengar yoga practitioner since the age of 16, Maggie also drew on her training in nutrition, intuitive healing, energy medicine, and natural health to found Lyon Lifestyle in 2009. She is devoted to supporting women in connecting inwardly, empowering themselves, and thereby transforming their lives. Along with her monthly blogs, Maggie also writes regularly for Donna Karan’s Urban Zen Foundation. A mother of two young children, Maggie lives and practices quietly in New York City.

Meggan Watterson is the founder of REVEAL, a spiritual mentor, and a transformational speaker for women's spiritual empowerment. She facilitates The REDLADIES- a women's spirituality group in NYC where women come together to encourage each other to find, hear, and to follow the courageous and audacious voice of their soul. She has her Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity and her Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary. Her work has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, Women’s Radio, Feministing.com and StyleSubstanceSoul.com. Her first book, REVEAL, will be published in 2013 by Hay House. www.megganwatterson.com

Marianne Williamson is an internationally acclaimed spiritual author and lecturer. Six of her ten books have been New York Times Best Sellers. A Return to Love is considered a must-read of The New Spirituality. Marianne's other books include The Age of Miracles, Everyday Grace, A Woman's Worth, Illuminata, Healing the Soul of America, A Course in Weight Loss, The Gift of Change, and The Law of Divine Compensation: On Work, Money and Miracles. Marianne has appeared on Oprah, Larry King Live, Good Morning America and Charlie Rose. A native of Houston, Texas, Marianne founded Project Angel Food in 1989, a meals-on-wheels program that serves homebound people with AIDS in the Los Angeles area. Today, Project Angel Food serves over 1,000 people daily. Marianne also founded the Department of Peace Campaign, a grass roots campaign to establish a United States Department of Peace, and the SISTER GIANT Conference: on Women, Non-violence and Birthing a New American Politics. http://www.marianne.com

Jamia Wilson is vice president of programs at Women’s Media Center, after serving in several roles related to youth leadership development, grassroots organizing, and communications. Jamia worked for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where she managed their youth outreach program Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood and served on the PPFA Structure and Governance Committee and the Pro-Choice Education Project Steering Committee. After working with coalition partners and campus organizations to help bring thousands of students to the historic March for Women’s Lives, Jamia was honored as one of the “Real Hot 100″ by the Younger Women’s Taskforce. She has been nominated twice for Women’s Information Network’s annual Young Women of Achievement Awards. She has served on the Ms. Foundation Advisory Committee and The Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom Youth Advisory Committee. After growing up as an expatriate in Saudi Arabia, Jamia Wilson graduated from American University in 2002. In 2009, Jamia received her M.A. in Humanities and Social Thought at New York University, where she focused on research and writing inspired by critical race theory and gender studies. A board member of REVEAL: Young Women Defining the Divine, Jamia humbly reveres the sublime presence of the creator in all things, people, ideas, and essences.