Meet Your Host
Abbey Harlow
For more than 20 years, I've worked alongside nonprofit leaders as a staff member, then consultant. Much of that work has been with small, rural organizations, where the executive director is also the grant writer, the IT department, and the person who unlocks the building. Through Harlow Nonprofit Consulting, I help leaders fund their work, build real connections, and lead sustainably. And through the Rural Roots Roundtable, my membership for rural nonprofit leaders, I make sure they never have to figure it out alone.
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Keegan Albaugh
Keegan Albaugh is the founder and Executive Director of Dad Guild, bringing over a decade of experience in trauma-informed education and family support. Prior to founding Dad Guild in 2019, Keegan spent ten years teaching at Howard Center's Centerpoint School, where he developed expertise in working with youth facing significant mental health and behavioral challenges. As Executive Director, Keegan oversees all organizational operations, program development, staff supervision, and strategic partnerships. His personal experience as a father of two young children, combined with his professional background, informs his passionate commitment to engaging fathers in their caregiving roles and promoting healthy masculinity. Keegan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Development from Colby College, and a Nonprofit Leadership Certificate from Common Good VT. Under his leadership, Dad Guild has grown from serving 35 fathers to a network of 3,000+ dads across Vermont.
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Cat Ashton
Catherine Ashton founded Giant Squid Group to build fundraising programs that don't run on burnout. Her clients raise millions, but the real work is the infrastructure underneath — systems and teams built through an intersectional feminist and antiracist lens, for humans instead of org charts. She's heavily involved in the Community-Centric Fundraising movement, sits on the AFP Greater Austin and Austin Social Sector Consultants boards, and speaks nationally on sustainable fundraising practice. When she's not thinking, writing, or talking about the social sector, she's making something, chasing her toddler, or horseback riding throughout Texas.
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Sarah Andrews
Sarah has over 20 years of experience in nonprofit management and fundraising. Her extensive background includes strategic growth planning, organizational capacity building, annual and capital campaigns, engagement and stewardship programs, grant writing, and major giving programs. A lover of aha moments when things click and then action happens! Sarah is a native of Manchester, NH who thrives on strong coffee, live music (90’s throwbacks anyone?) and being outside. In her spare time, she loves to spend time with her family and friends and she is a proud mom to two daughters, along with her husband Justin. She is also a yoga instructor at Humble Warrior Power Yoga.
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Lachandra B Baker
Lachandra B. Baker, MBA, CDP, is an award-winning workforce optimization strategist, author, five-time TEDx contributor, and the founder of LBB Edutainment. Known as a powerful “Conduit for Connection,” she helps organizations turn corporate complexity and burnout into clarity, confidence, and collective momentum. By aligning mindset, behavior, and structural systems, she equips teams to move from passive disengagement to high-performing alignment with grit and grace. A multi-Quill Award winner and a Columbus Future50 leader, Lachandra is the author of Your Own Biggest Cheerleader and leverages her deep multi-industry leadership experience to build inclusive, human-centered workplace cultures nationwide.
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Sarah Barton
Sarah Barton is The Generosity Strategist and founder of Nonprofit411, a fundraising coaching and training practice that helps small and rural nonprofits build community-supported revenue. Based in West Virginia, she has spent 25 years in the nonprofit sector, including more than a decade in a university development office and eight years in community health. Over her career she has helped raise more than $17 million.
Sarah has also sat on the funder's side of the table as executive director of a small foundation and as a grant reviewer. She created the Generosity Engine, a nine-step system that turns larger-organization fundraising practices into something a team of one or two can run and pass on through a staff transition.
She is also host of the Nonprofit411 podcast, which brings expert voices to the sector to support the work they're doing.
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Christal M. Cherry
Christal M. Cherry is the Beyoncé of board leadership.
Founder of The Board Pro, Christal is a nationally recognized nonprofit consultant, speaker, and coach who brings courage, curiosity, and care to every boardroom. With over two decades of experience in fundraising, board governance, leadership development, and DEI strategy, she helps nonprofit leaders and boards move from stuck to soaring. Known for her humor, wisdom, and truth-telling, Christal turns board retreats into transformational experiences and trains CEOs to lead with intention and inclusion.
She’s also a published author, adoptive mom, and breakfast lover who never shies away from the tough conversations—or the opportunity to make your board braver, bolder, and more effective.
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Stephanie Cooper
Stephanie Cooper is the owner of Cooper Consulting Services, LLC, where she draws on 26 years of nonprofit executive practice to help other nonprofit leaders and boards strengthen governance and sustainability. Her consulting work centers on board governance and development, executive coaching, fractional CEO services, and strategic/succession planning and implementation. Cooper also currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Douglass Community Services, Inc. She is an Office of Head Start Fellow through UCLA's Anderson School of Management, a BoardSource Certified Nonprofit Board Consultant, holds an LMSW in the State of Missouri, and earned her master's degree in social work from the University of Missouri-Columbia. In her spare time she volunteers with Griffiths Leadership Society for Women at Mizzou, the American Legion Auxiliary and is a member of Little Black Book: Hannibal. She lives with her family in Hannibal, Missouri.
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Marcus Cunningham
Marcus is a Community-Centered Fundraiser, an organizer, and an advocate for the nonprofit sector and its workers. He has over a decade of experience in the social sector, working in institutions serving PK-16 education and movement infrastructure organizations in Texas and across the U.S. Marcus' fundraising specialties are institutional giving and operations. He strongly believes that good systems and a focus on relationships are the through-line for gifts of all sizes and streams. He is a member of the Community-Centric Fundraising Emeritus Council and serves as an organizer for the CCF Texas Chapter. Born, raised, and currently residing in North Texas, Marcus holds a BBA in Management from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
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Josh Feldman
Josh walks daily. He watercolors on Zoom calls, and on good days you can find him hiking in the mountains of western MA. Josh is a master facilitator, coach and public speaker with 20 years of experience building cohort communities, experience design and community building with other do-gooders. He is a creativity evangelist, dirt-digging aspiring gardener, and lifelong student to his three kids.
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Michelle Flores Vryn, CFRE
Michelle Flores Vryn, CFRE, is a strategic fundraiser and marketer with 15+ years of driving results across conservation, education, and civic engagement nonprofits. From major gifts to message strategy, she bridges brand and revenue to move missions forward. Michelle's work lives at the intersection of values alignment and storytelling — helping nonprofits find the words, the clarity, and the confidence to fund their boldest ideas.
Michelle co-founded the AI Equity Project, the Social Impact Staff Retention Project, and the Community-Centric Fundraising (CCF) Texas Chapter. Michelle frequently writes and speaks on building healthier nonprofit systems and serves as the Vice Chair of Professional Development on the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Global Board of Directors.
Outside of work, you can find her on long walks with her dogs, discussing big ideas with her (endlessly patient) husband, provoking nonprofit conversations on LinkedIn, and maintaining her 20-year daily meditation practice. -
Vivian Gietz
Vivian Gietz is a Fractional COO for nonprofits and founder of Melondrop Nonprofit Ops. For almost a decade, she's worked in nonprofits, as an operations director, executive assistant, and marketing coordinator, watching the same pattern play out again and again: a smart, driven Executive Director becomes the sole decision-maker for everything, and the organization stalls waiting on her.
Vivian closes that gap. She holds both the operations side, where the structural gaps live, and the marketing and communications side, where those gaps show up as lost funding. This dual perspective is her edge. Using her Seed to Harvest framework, she works with EDs over a focused 90 days to rebuild the systems and decision-making structure their org actually needs, freeing EDs up for the work they got into this for: donor relationships, strategic planning, sustainable funding.
Vivian lives in Vancouver, BC with her dog, Sedona, and cats, Teddi and Baby.
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Cara Hachten
Cara Hachten is the Founder & Chief Grant Strategist of Noteworthy Grants, where she partners with healthcare and human services organizations to build stronger grant strategies that expand services and grow impact. Since launching Noteworthy Grants in 2024, she has helped organizations secure over $3.8 million in federal, state, and foundation funding. With nearly a decade of experience in nonprofit fundraising and development, Cara’s approach combines meticulous research, relationship building, and strategic storytelling to help organizations strengthen their grant pipelines and secure sustainable funding for their missions. She is a Certified Grant Writer through the Learn Grant Writing Collective. Outside of the office, Cara is a saxophonist and woodwind musician who teaches and performs across New England.
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Kel Haney
Kel Haney is the founder and president of Kel Haney Consulting, where she helps nonprofits grow mid-level donor and subscriber revenue through five-minute phone calls, made by artists.
Kel has trained and coached nonprofit organizations to raise more than $30 million, primarily through gifts under $10,000. After personally making over 20,000 fundraising calls, she developed her signature 5-Minute Fundraising Ask framework.
Her guiding principle is “Taking the Ick out of the Ask.” She transforms fundraising from a transactional exchange into an opportunity to build meaningful relationships.
Drawing on 20 years as a theater director, Kel empowers nonprofit staff, leaders, board members, and freelance artists to become confident community-builders by embracing the skills they already possess: empathy, candor, vulnerability, enthusiasm, and storytelling.
Her clients include The Old Globe, Manhattan Theatre Club, TDF, MCC Theater, The Glimmerglass Festival, Signature Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, and Primary Stages.
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Diana Farias Heinrich
Diana Farias Heinrich (she/her) is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and champion of ethical non-profit storytelling. As CEO of Habrá Marketing, she safeguards equality, respect, and dignity in nonprofit communications while helping organizations raise funds with integrity.
She created EquaStory®, a transformative 4-step framework that ensures nonprofits stay true to their foundational values while powerfully sharing their impact. As the visionary behind The Ethical Nonprofit Summit™, she leads the industry dialogue on ethical storytelling and fundraising practices, protecting the values that draw people to nonprofit work in the first place.
Diana is a certified Advocate for Survivors of Domestic Violence and for DEI in the Workplace. She holds bachelor's degrees in Literature/Writing and Latin American Studies, is bilingual and biliterate in Spanish and English, bringing depth and cultural awareness to her work. One of her proudest accomplishments is helping women in rural Ghana start a sustainable clean water business.
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Gwen Frisbie-Fulton
Gwen is a essayist and storyteller based out of North Carolina. Her written work focuses on working class people, places, and issues and can be found on the Working Class Stories Substack, The Nation, and in Courier News affiliates across the country. She also works with on the ground storytellers to write opeds and essays, start local media projects, and put on live storytelling events.
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Bre Holmes
Bre Holmes is a Tailored Systems Strategist, PMP, and founder of The Tailored PM Strategic Management — a women-owned consultancy helping nonprofits and mission-driven organizations build the operational backbone behind their next stage of growth. Bre is an organizational alchemist. She takes what is chaotic, undocumented, and living in someone’s head and transforms it into something clear, usable, and tailored to the way you actually work. Because your vision deserves a system that is as unique as you are.
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Fielding Jezreel
Fielding Jezreel, MSW, GPC — a federal grants strategist, teacher, and coach with a background spanning federal grant writing, program design, and organizational readiness. She's spent my career on every side of the grants table: writing winning proposals, managing multimillion-dollar portfolios, and serving on review panels that decide which applications make the cut. Fielding founded Jezreel Consulting in 2016 and has supported organizations in receiving $145M in federal grants. She helps nonprofit teams make sense of federal funding and ensure it works for their communities.
Fielding is also the founder and resident expert of the Federal Grants Accelerator, a learning community I launched in 2025 for small to mid-sized nonprofits and the grant professionals who serve them. Members get everything they need to navigate the federal grant process with confidence: a self-paced online course with resources and templates, group coaching, and AI tools to expedite federal grant-seeking.
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Christina Martin Kenny
Christina Martin Kenny is a nonprofit fundraising strategist, consultant, and founder of Guava Tree Strategies. A recovering Development Director with over 15 years of experience, she has raised more than $20M for organizations focused on voting rights, affordable housing, human rights, paid leave, affordable childcare, and education — and has been the burned-out solo fundraiser herself.
She founded Guava Tree Strategies on a belief most consultants won't say out loud: staff retention is a fundraising strategy. She works with nonprofits in the $1M–$10M range to build sustainable fundraising systems and the strong teams needed to run them.
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Jeanette Langston
Jeanette Langston is the founder and owner of Social Roots Studio, a mission-driven social enterprise in Rutland, Vermont, working as a Connection Strategist and Facilitator with organizations, workplaces, and communities. She designs and delivers training, experiential practices, and strategic implementation support that help teams and communities build meaningful connection into their planning, projects, and everyday life. A U.S. Regional Ambassador for the global Social Connection Collective and a Social Innovation Diploma holder from the UN-mandated University for Peace, she founded and led the nonprofit Social Tinkering before launching Social Roots Studio. Jeanette is dedicated to fostering authentic, regenerative connection practices that strengthen the wellbeing of people, teams, and communities.
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Andrea L. Lowe
Andrea L. Lowe, DrPH, MPH, CPH operates the Social Impact Studio Consulting, LLC where she works with small-to-midsized health and human services agencies to build equitable policies, practices, and strategies at the local, state, and national level. Prior to starting her business in 2022, she spent 13 years supporting policy, advocacy, and strategic initiatives for local, state, and national governments, non-profits, and private sector entities. Now, she appreciates the opportunity to flex her entrepreneurial muscles in service to small-to-medium non-profits and local government agencies. Dr. Lowe holds a master of public health degree from University of South Florida and a doctorate in public health (DrPH) in health policy and leadership. In her free time, she loves to read, play outdoors, and spend time with her friends and family.
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Madeline McGill
Hailing from Colorado, Madeline McGill began her career working on economic justice campaigns with non-profits and labor unions across New England. In 2018, she moved back to the Southwest to help found the Rural Utah Project, bringing their fundraising and communications programs online. After building a storytelling program with the advertising equivalency of $11.1M in the Four Corners, she’s remained rooted in rural narrative work ever since. In 2021, she founded Western Desk, a rural-based consultancy, to develop storytelling and narrative capacity within small organizations — creating programs that center the contributions of working people. Today she leads storytelling at Resource Rural, where she designed and built the program from the ground up. She has since grown it fivefold, from a pilot into a national program working alongside rural and Tribal organizations in every region of the country.
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Kelly McLaughlin
Kelly McLaughlin is the founder of From Scratch Fundraising, helping nonprofits with complex and messy missions build individual giving programs from the ground up. She began her career raising over $1 million a year for niche foreign policy advocacy, then built giving programs for missions spanning immigration, climate, and historic preservation.
Kelly holds a B.A. in Political Communications and wrote her Master's thesis on translating complex political ideas into language everyone understands — an extension of her years as a community organizer building relationships around exactly this kind of complexity.
Handed the standard fundraising playbook early on, Kelly found it extractive and ineffective for missions too complex for tidy metrics or elevator pitches. So she built her own approach instead: relationships over dollar signs, rooted in mission and community rather than templates. She now helps organizations develop messaging and systems for real relationship-based fundraising.
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Olanike A. Mensah
Olanike A. Mensah is a Workplace Culture Strategist, Fractional Chief People Officer, and founder of Mosaic Consulting Partners. For more than 20 years, she has helped nonprofit and mission-driven leaders strengthen the people and culture foundations that drive retention, leadership, and organizational change.
Olanike partners with Executive Directors, senior leaders, and boards navigating significant transitions to uncover what's really driving challenges like turnover, burnout, and stalled change. She created the Mosaic Culture Clarity® System, a research-informed framework that helps leaders translate employee experience data into actionable culture strategy - work that has included surveying more than 4,000 employees across 40+ organizations.
Her experience spans grassroots nonprofits, international schools, and Fortune 50 companies, giving her a rare grasp of team, board, funding, and capacity realities unique to nonprofit leadership.
A TEDx speaker and certified DISC practitioner, Olanike is passionate about helping nonprofit leaders spot culture issues early, before mission-derailing crisis hits.
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Llu Mulvaney-Stanak
A lifelong Vermonter, Llu is a passionate community organizer, with a long history in nonprofit work with the queer youth community, community media, the arts, and political campaigns. Since 2021, they rock their dream job as Executive Director of Central Vermont Community Radio, the community owned stations of WGDR, WGDH, and everywhere at WGDR.org. By night, they are "DJ Llu," hosting "Now Playing with DJ Llu" a two hour mixtape live radio show on Vermont Public, Saturdays 8-10pm. They also release a bi-weekly substack, "Now Playing" featuring a curated selection of new music, TV and movies, books and other recommendations.
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Rachel Muir
Meet Rachel Muir, whose passion for fundraising is so intense she’s been certified as an alternative energy source. Rachel launched Girlstart, a non-profit empowering girls in STEM in her apartment with $500 and a credit card at age 26. Several years later she had raised over 10 million and was featured on Oprah, CNN, and the Today show. Rachel holds a Certificate in Philanthropic Psychology with distinction from the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy. When she isn’t wishing all dresses came with pockets, she’s doing a webinar transforming people into confident, successful fundraisers in her League of Extraordinary Fundraisers membership program.
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Emoji Nightmare
Emoji Nightmare has been performing across Vermont and the region since 2015 and is one of the state’s leading drag entertainers. She is host and producer of many of the largest LGBTQ+ events of the past decade. She is the co-founder of the Vermont chapter of Drag Story Hour and winner of Seven Days’ annual Daysies Awards for Best Drag Performer or Group in Vermont. Her passion for rural queer advocacy is steeped in her work both on stage and off. When the lashes and wig are off, Emoji can be found in their day-to-day persona as a legislative advocate in the state house for environmental and democracy policies on behalf of Vermont Natural Resources Council.
Website @emojinightmare
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Chany Reon Ockert, CFRE
Chany Reon Ockert, CFRE, combines deep fundraising expertise with an engaging presentation that allows the attendees to “always walk away richer because of her shared information.” Nationally, she specializes in adapting capital campaign best practices and lessons across various sub-sectors of nonprofits in rural and small towns. She hosts the weekly 5-minute podcast, Reflections on Generosity, centered on cultivating the generosity mindset essential for capital campaign success. She has presented for all sizes of nonprofits from all-volunteer organizations to NonprofitPRO and Meta's Social Impact Partnerships. As a consequence of working with missions ranging from human services to conservation to arts and culture to animals, she brings the best ideas in fund development to each presentation. Attendees walk away with actionable ideas to improve their campaign practices and grow generosity among donors.
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Aparna Rae
Aparna Rae is an author, speaker and dot-connector who writes about the nonprofit and philanthropic world from inside it - the burnout, the funding gaps, and what sustainable leadership actually requires. As founder of the firm Moving Beyond, she partnered with more than 60 organizations, including major private foundations, to shift over $300 million in grantmaking toward BIPOC-led and Global South organizations. She also co-founded Future for Us, which grew into a movement of 20,000 women of color and translated into millions of dollars in raises and promotions for its members. Her trauma-informed leadership work with frontline managers at one of the Pacific Northwest's largest employers put real money back into the pockets of the workers who needed it most. Aparna has lived and worked in six countries, and she builds from one conviction: the people closest to the problem are usually closest to the solution — funding included.
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Seán Rose
My work exists at the intersection between philanthropy and nonprofit leadership. With a career that spans continents, time zones, and cause areas, I bring deep experience in the philanthropic sector and a passion to continue building a more just and empathetic world. I am a strategic thinker, a compassionate leader, and a committed ally. I understand the complexity and urgency of solving social issues and help leaders to imagine new possibilities. At Catchafire, I coach, train, and support nonprofit leaders across geographies, cause areas, and lifecycle stages.
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Amy Santee
I'm a career strategist for experienced professionals who are asking what comes next when their work no longer fits who they are. Fifteen years living and studying the relationship between individuals and organizations showed me how work really operates, and how it treats the people inside it. An anthropologist by training, I'm wired to understand how institutional and cultural forces shape our decisions, definitions of success, and what we believe is possible. Since 2020, I've coached people through their most pressing career questions by helping them see their options clearly and make a decision they can stand behind. Based in Portland, Oregon.
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Tim Sarrantonio
Tim Sarrantonio is the Founder of The Generosity Spectrum and the creator of The Generosity Roundtable, the nonprofit sector’s first educational gaming system designed to help organizations practice decision-making together. He has spent nearly twenty years working at the intersection of generosity, technology, and nonprofit practice, supporting organizations as they navigate participation, trust, and change.
Tim currently serves as Chair of the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, where he helps translate national fundraising data into practical insight for nonprofit leaders, and is a workgroup member of the Aspen Institute’s Alliance for Social Trust. His work has been featured at conferences including AFP ICON, the Nonprofit Technology Conference, and TEDx. He holds a Certificate in Philanthropic Psychology from the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy.
He lives in Niskayuna, New York, with his wife and three daughters.
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April Thompson
I'm April 👋, a fractional development partner for small and mid-sized nonprofits that need experienced fundraising support without the cost of a full-time hire.
I help overwhelmed Executive Directors turn chaotic fundraising into sustainable growth through:
✔ Donor retention & stewardship systems
✔ Mid-level donor cultivation
✔ Email fundraising campaigns
✔ Human-centered donor communications
✔ Campaign execution & fundraising infrastructure
One client increased donor retention from 33% to 66% after we rebuilt their stewardship and communications.
Most nonprofits don't have a fundraising problem- they have a capacity problem.
I work differently than traditional consultants. I don't just hand you a plan and go. 👉 I become an extension of your team, combining strategy and implementation to build systems that work in real nonprofit life, reduce burnout, and honor donors with dignity and trust.
I partner with US-based 501c3s across a full funding cycle, with time to build lasting results.
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Loretta Turner
Loretta is an exceptional social entrepreneur, executive coach, and advocate for an equitable nonprofit workforce. As the Founder and Principal Strategist at Do Good Leadership Collective, Loretta’s work focuses on caring for the social impact sector through organizational resilience and people + culture strategies. She believes in putting people first, and that prioritizing the wellbeing of those who work tirelessly behind the scenes of social impact is key to building and sustaining organizations. Loretta brings over 15 years of experience to her work as an executive leader, strategist, wellness practitioner, facilitator, and coach.
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Wendy van Eyck
Wendy van Eyck is the founder of Believ, a communications agency that works with nonprofits and purpose-led organisations. She helps small teams make sense of what they’re trying to communicate, who they need to reach, and where their limited time and energy will have the most impact. Her work covers communications strategy, messaging, content and the systems that make all of that easier to manage. She’s interested in helping nonprofit teams get out of the cycle of trying to communicate everything, everywhere, all at once. Based in South Africa, Wendy has worked with organisations across Africa, Europe and the US in public health, education and social impact.
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Frank Velásquez Jr.
Meet Frank (he/him/él): Storyteller Extraordinaire, Social Justice Warrior, and Relationship Cultivator. In relentless pursuit of racial and gender equity, Frank's warmth brings folks together to talk through the tough stuff. Whether he's delivering a keynote onstage or talking one-on-one with a new connection, his real-talk energy remains consistent, powerful, and generous. Because for Frank, every person's story matters like each ingredient in a yummy bowl of jambalaya. Each standing on its own, but collectively making something unforgettable.
As the Founder of 4 Da Hood and the visionary behind the Ascending Leaders in Color program, Frank continues to forge pathways for Peeps of Color to step into their power. Authentically. Courageously. And with unapologetic joy.
And he's doing it one connection, one story, one courageous conversation at a time.
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Courtney Waring
As Executive Director of Island Readers & Writers (Maine), Courtney leads the organization’s mission to connect children and communities through books, nurturing a love of reading and learning. She sees curiosity and creativity as essential tools for growth and believes stories have the power to spark imagination, broaden understanding, and bring people together.
With more than 25 years in education and the arts, Courtney is devoted to promoting literacy, access, and meaningful learning opportunities for all children. She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Art History, along with a graduate-level certification in elementary education. Before joining IRW, she held roles in the education departments of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, the Delaware Art Museum, The Barnes Foundation, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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Evan Wildstein
Evan is a proud nonprofiteer who believes in building cultures that value people as much as
purpose. By day, he oversees Advancement for The Post Oak School in Houston, Texas. Evan also
co-leads the Social Impact Staff Retention research project, publishes a print zine about nonprofit
working life called Dear Nonprofiteer, and writes and speaks regularly about the social sector. -
Lauren Wirt
Lauren Wirt is the Regional Director of The Dollywood Foundation for the northeast U.S. She joined the team in 2023 and oversees the USA growth and support of the Imagination Library in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington D.C., & West Virginia. She is also a wife, a mom of three, and a volunteer. Lauren loves to try new recipes and play racquet sports.
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Brian Wray
Brian Wray is the award-author of six picture books and owner of Inklings Children’s Books in Waitsfield, VT. In 2003, he was awarded the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. During an opportunity to write for Walt Disney Studios, Brian discovered his passion for telling stories for children.
Since opening Inklings in 2023, it has been his joy to help spread a love of books, introducing families to Newbery Medal winners, Caldecott winners, and New York Times bestsellers. Inklings also uses its space to host free writing workshops, author visits, a knitting club, and a series called Dinner with the Author, now in its third year.
Brian and his family are grateful to be a part of this incredible community. -
Alyssa Wright
Alyssa Wright is the Principal and Founder of Wright Collective, a social impact consulting firm focused on helping nonprofit organizations access resources to meet their missions. She has deep experience in global social change, with clients including gender equality, birth justice, and international and refugee organizations. She is a published freelance writer, and sought-after speaker, and has developed the talent of a variety of fundraising professionals around the globe. Alyssa is an active member of her community in Southern Maine and raises three beautiful children while contributing her time and talents to the arts and human service sectors in her community.
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Jami Yazdani
Jami Yazdani is the founder of Yazdani Consulting and Facilitation, where she helps mission-driven leaders turn complex work into clear, collaborative action.
With more than 20 years of experience leading high-impact initiatives, including 14 years in higher education and library leadership, Jami brings both structure and empathy to how teams plan, make decisions, build ownership, and lead change.
Through her Clarity to Action Framework, she helps organizations combine practical project management with people-centered change approaches so progress is realistic, shared, and sustainable.
Jami is a Project Management Professional (PMP), Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM), and certified Change Management and Wicked Problem Solving Practitioner. Her work has been featured by Trello, ClickUp, Reworked, and Smartsheet.