Alycia Kaback

Pat Addiss

Pat Addiss is one of the most prominent female producers in Theatre-- in fact, she is responsible for the number one, longest running musical ever-- The Fantasticks, which has played in theatres world-wide. Before becoming so heavily involved in theatre, Addiss ran her own promotions company for 30 years called Pat Addiss Enterprises. Addiss is currently working on the continued performances of The Fantasticks Off Broadway at the Snapple Theatre. Addiss has produced other notable Broadway musicals such as Promises Promises, Little Women, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, Bridge & Tunnel, Spring Awakening, 39 Steps, Passing Strange. Her notable off Broadway projects inclued: Shout, War Brides NYMF2007, Housewives of Manheim, and A Christmas Story The Musical opening in Hershey , Pa on Nov 8th and then moving to Detroit, Raleigh, Tampa, and then spending the last 3 weeks of December 2011 in Chicago. Addiss is also responsible for running TEA@3 at the Algonquin Roundtable, The reading series at the National Arts Club of New Plays and Musicals and is member of The Broadway League and The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW).

Wendi Caplan-Carroll

Wendi Caplan-Carroll is a Social Media and Digital Marketing expert with over 25 years experience in Marketing, Business Development and Event Marketing working for major media companies including CBS Radio, Infinity Broadcasting, and Emmis Broadcasting. Caplan-Carroll is currently Developement Director for Constant Contact, helping small businesses, associations, and nonprofits connect with their customers, clients, and members. Today, more than 200,000 customers worldwide trust Constant Contact to help them connect with their audience. Due to Caplan-Carroll's efforts Constant Contact was ranked number 127 in Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 in 2007. Wendi uses her expertise to provide coaching for small businesses and organizations on best practices of email marketing, designing strategic marketing initiatives and developing creative approaches to marketing with the use of online tools. She is speaks regularly on the Power of Email Marketing and Social Networking.

Lubna Dajani

Lubna Dajani is a pioneer in the field of digital & mobile media and technology with over twenty years experience in consulting, senior management, cross-platform engagement marketing, and new business development. Ms Dajani has worked with industry leading multi-national corporations, global not-for-profits, industry associations, standards bodies, entrepreneurs, investors, and many of the world’s top business, marketing and IT thought leaders. Lubna was named as one of Mobile Marketer’s “Mobile Women to Watch 2010.”

Lubna focuses her efforts on helping her clients/employers develop and implement a strategic vision using wireless broadband, technology innovations, and mobile services, together with multimedia content and next generation applications to create compelling “analog-digital” experiences that especially appeal to today’s, always on, “Connected” generation; with the ultimate goal of increasing point of purchase impulse buying, customer loyalty and brand recognition; resulting in the realization of new revenue streams within the Gen X / Gen Y / Gen “C”, B2B and B2C customer base.

Among the challenges Lubna has successfully addressed include corporate and business unit strategy, market assessment, sales and marketing effectiveness, go-to-market strategies, distribution and channel strategies, new product development, and new business operating models.
Lubna joined The Fresh Diet as VP, Mobility & Digital Engagement in December 2010. Prior to Joining The Fresh Diet, Lubna was Executive Advisor at Booz & Company’s Consumer Media and Digital practice. Previous to Booz & Company, Lubna was the Managing Director of Stratemerge Inc. a Marketing & Technology Management consultancy she led from 1998 - 2010 specializing in the global convergence of mobility, digital communications, and cross-platform marketing.
At Stratemerge Lubna worked on long-term projects involving engagement marketing, standards and IT strategies, solutions architecture for clients including Microsoft, Nokia and DETECON Inc. in the United States; Tribute Third Millennium Limited a global media campaigning company in the UK; dotMobi in Ireland; and Voxson Ltd in Australia. Lubna was also retained by the founding investors and board members as the Interim CIO for IWO, a Northeast based Regional Sprint PCS affiliate, from 1998 - 2000.

Previously, Lubna served as Collaborative Systems & Emerging Technologies Director and CIS Customer Care & Network Services Director at Viacom International from 1992 - 1997. Lubna began her career at General Electric Consulting Services Inc. after receiving a BBA in Computer Information Systems with Dean’s List honors from CUNY-Baruch College.

Ms. Dajani is also an advisor and board member of several organizations and non-for-profits including the NYC Seed Fund, NJIT College of Computer Science, National Adoption Center, AW2I, and MobileMonday. She is also a mentors to MMA’s WiW. Lubna is particularly passionate about the application of green and socially conscious technology enabled solutions.

Lubna is also a highly sought after speaker and moderator at industry events world wide. She is a recognized visionary and industry thought leader who has been published and quoted in industry magazines, conferences and proceedings both in the U.S. and abroad.

Lubna lives in Ridgewood New Jersey, USA with her two daughters Hana and Nina.

Gala Darling

Gala Darling’s unrelenting devotion to positivity & magic has earned her cult celebrity status & rabid fans all over the globe, from India to Sweden.

From the 1,000,000 hits her website garners on a monthly basis to her legendary Things I Love Thursday lists, this writer, nomad & international playgirl easily transfers her enthusiasm for life into the written word.

Described in the New York Times as “a Web-tethered gadabout”, she was recently named one of the 10 most influential style bloggers in the world (Fashionista). She has been described as “a tattooed Miss Manners” (The Bargain Queen), a “downtown Carrie Bradshaw” (Elle) & a “New York City society gal” (Filament). Celebrity stylist & icon Rachel Zoe says Gala & her site are “très chic”.

Gala has been featured prominently in The New York Times, New Zealand Herald, Teen Vogue, New York Post, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Time Out New York, Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph, Next, Cleo, Girlfriend, The Age, Sunday Herald Sun, The Dominion Post, Inked magazine, Glasgow Guardian & on CBS & ABC News, among (many) others.

Gala is an accomplished & enthusiastic public speaker, having spoken to audiences of thousands at South By South West Interactive & Evolving Influence, & is frequently invited to make guest appearances on specialty panels about fashion & the internet. Her radical self love workshops are a runaway success. She has spoken to many audiences about entrepreneurship & making business out of the arts.

Gala believes in pink lingerie, sequins, stardust & candy-coloured Cadillacs. She believes in making mischief & the triumph of magic over the brute. She believes in short skirts & lip gloss & bringing about the radical self love revolution. She believes life doesn’t have to be serious, that you create your own reality & that beauty is all around us.

Check out her website here: www.galadarling.com

Laura Fredricks

Laura is not only the bestselling author of THE ASK, but she has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for worthy causes and organizations. She travels throughout the world speaking and helping people get what they want. Laura Fredricks is a fundraising consultant, speaker, and bestselling author. She runs a boutique consulting company that provides training and coaching to help non-profit organizations and businesses effectively raise money. As Vice President for Philanthropy at Pace University, she spearheaded their centennial $100 million capital campaign, raising over $92 million in six years, and oversaw all aspects of fundraising and alumni relations for a staff of forty on five campuses. She also served as Associate Vice President for Development at Temple University where she began fundraising toward a $300 million capital campaign. Additionally, she has managed and coordinated major planned giving programs; corporate and foundation funding; and alumni relations for fifteen schools and colleges, two hospitals, and the athletic program. She is the author of THE ASK: How to Ask For Support For Your Non-Profit Cause, Creative Project, Or Business Venture and DEVELOPING MAJOR GIFTS: Turning Small Donors into Big Contributors.

Judith E. Glaser

Judith Glaser is one of the most innovative and pioneering change agents and executive coaches in the consulting industry – and refers to herself as an Organizational Anthropologist. She is the world’s leading authority on WE-centric Leadership. Through her dynamic, interactive and provocative keynotes, and leadership summits, and executive coaching, she has introduced her powerful transformative leadership technologies to CEO’s and their teams from major Fortune 500 companies. Glaser is the author of 3 best selling business books on leadership. Her first two books Creating WE: Change I-Thinking to We-Thinking & Build a Healthy Thriving Organization and The DNA of Leadership (Platinum Press, an imprint of Adams Media), made Amazon Business Book Best Seller Lists in 2005 and 2006, and were also selected by both Forbes and Business Book Review as two of the top business books of 2005 and 2006. She is the Founder of Benchmark Communications, Inc., the Co-founder and Chairman of Creating WE Institute and founding partner of Creating WE, LLC. She served as an Adjunct Professor at Wharton, visiting guest speaker at Harvard, Kellogg, Loyola, University of Chicago, NYU, IIT, University of Stellenbosch and others. She is currently on the boards of The We Are Family Foundation, Expeditionary Learning, and was a founding member of The Executive Woman’s Business Forum. She was awarded Business Woman of the Year in New York City in 2004.

Abiola Abrams

Abiola Abrams, your favorite bad girl and good woman, writes books, blogs and columns and broadcasts TV and web shows about love, lifestyle and pop culture. Current projects include: BBC Radio Entertainment Correspondent reporting on celebrity news and relationships, MTV Teen Dating Empowerment Coach on the reality series “Made,” blogger and editor on her lifestyle site “Abiola’s Passionista Playbook,” and host/producer of her own award-winning web series and advice vlogs.

Abiola's upcoming book, The Passionista Playbook for Rockstar Living, is part humorous memoir, part fun handbook, about living with passion. Dare (Simon & Schuster), a hip hop love story, Abiola's popular debut novel was taught at Amherst College and her essays have been published in anthologies such as Behind the Bedroom Door, Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex, and A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer. In the past Abiola Abrams has hosted TV shows like BET's “The Best Shorts,” HBO's “The Buzz” and NBC's “Source: All Access,” starred as “Miss Picky” on VH1 reality series “Tough Love” and appears as a pop culture talking head on networks like FOX. Recent press includes being interviewed for a feature about sex toys in Essence Magazine, being quoted in The New York Times about Fashion Week and talking about the Person of the Year on The Judith Regan Show on Sirius XM Radio. Abiola has written for and been written about in publications from Gawker and Jezebel to Paper Magazine and Self. Abiola is a lead lifestyle & entertainment content contributor (articles, videos, celebrity interviews) in the areas of love, lifestyle, pop culture including advertorial and branded entertainment. She’s interviewed celebrities such as Patti Labelle, Quincy Jones, Chris Rock, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J and Henry Louis Gates, Junior. Clients and sites include and have included: Pepsi We Inspire, American Airlines' Black Atlas, HP, Yahoo, Glam, Hello Beautiful, Examiner and Luv Em or Leave Em.Abiola Abrams has given keynote addresses on empowerment at many schools such as NYU, The New School for Social Research and Howard University. She was featured in the 2010 Sex Bloggers Calendar and as a part of her ongoing safe sex initiative she directed the award-winning and critically acclaimed feminist erotica art film, "Afrodite Superstar." Her social issues short films and documentaries have shown in festivals, museums and universities. Abiola Abrams has a BA from Sarah Lawrence and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She curated the Chashama Gallery exhibit Hos, Putas and Dragon Ladies: Our Sexuality Remixed and VDay’s Until the Violence Stops Film Festival at the Museum of The City of NY and the Museum of TV and Radio. Recently Abiola hosted the 6th Annual African American Literary Awards in New York City.

Visit her site here: www.abiolaabrams.com

Judith R. King

Judith R. King, the lead partner and co-principal of The Morris + King Company (MKC), is the driving force behind MKC’s extraordinary growth and singular success as a Top 100 independent public relations firm. Ms. King personifies MKC’s shared values of integrity, focus and precision, which are at the core of its commitment to achieving the goals of its clients.

Ms. King’s business savvy and unparalleled creativity–as well as her passion for delivering spectacular results for every client that walks through MKC’s door sets the benchmark standard in the communications industry. By spearheading the firm’s strategy to combine traditional PR expertise with unrivaled digital and new media capabilities, she has brought in the lion’s share of MKC’s top-tier clients, including such renowned names as Susan G. Komen For the Cure, Michael J. Fox Parkinson’s Foundation, Marquis Jet, Ritz-Carlton Club, Music Choice, David Barton Gym, Visiting Nurse Service of New York, the University of California, San Francisco medical centers and The Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco. Ms. King also built MKC’s thriving West Coast practice, acquiring numerous healthcare and public policy accounts.

In addition to her role as co-head of new business development and managing all aspects of the company’s burgeoning operations, Ms. King is a marketing and branding specialist with an uncanny ability to craft clever and ingenious slogans, conceptualize sharply targeted advertising campaigns and write the highest quality marketing materials. She also has a richly deserved reputation as an expert media trainer, traveling across the country to help MKC clients shape and articulate their stories to customers, investors and industry influencers.

One of Ms. King’s most remarkable achievements has been creating the unique ethos that fosters a sense of collaboration among MKC’s clients, partners and employees. She developed and implemented the firm’s signature Charrette process and the Clients-in-Residence program, two innovative initiatives that bring together MKC’s experienced account executives and senior management with key members of a client’s team to establish close working relationships and build carefully orchestrated strategic communications campaigns. With Clients-in-Residence, Ms. King encourages clients to “pull up a desk” and work out of the MKC offices as often as they would like. Ms. King also designed MKC’s strikingly modern and widely acclaimed offices, changing the way its employees work, create and collaborate. On a full floor on Lower Fifth Avenue, MKC’s offices are all at once an art gallery, a creative lab and an interactive space where serious work gets accomplished in a unique and colorful environment.

Prior to joining forces with Andy Morris to launch MKC, Ms. King was a sought-after New York-based copywriter and marketing consultant for Starwood Hotels, Whole Foods, Banana Republic, Miramax Film Corp., hotelier André Balazs, Coach, MAC Cosmetics, Philippe Starck, Target and Ian Schrager Hotels, among others. She also served as the senior editorial consultant for Dan Klores Communications, one of the country’s leading public relations firms.
Ms. King graduated with honors from Princeton University.

A native New Yorker, Judith R. King and her partner live on New York City’s Upper East Side.

Vikki S. Ziegler, Esq.

Valerie Smaldone

Valerie Smaldone is a 5-time Billboard Magazine Award winner and is well known for her unprecedented success, holding the #1 on air position in the New York radio market, as well as hosting numerous nationally syndicated programs featuring in-depth interviews with top artists such as Paul McCartney, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and many others. During her two decades in the business Smaldone has won numerous awards, including: The American Women in Radio and Television’s Golden Apple Award for Broadcast Excellence, The Radio and Records’ Contemporary Personality of the Year 2001 – 2006, the Italian Welfare League even named her 'Woman of the Year.’ Smaldone has started her own production company, Two Sides of a Coin, dedicated to supporting projects developed by women. Smaldone’s voice extends beyond the radio waves through many avenues such as playing the “Voice of God,” a role typically given to those with deep male voices. She has performed in this capacity for many prestigious live events including: The Clinton Global Initiative, The Emmy Awards, and The Tony Preview Concert. Smaldone also works face to face, speaking at conferences ranging from topics such as women in media and business, to women’s health, and Ovarian Cancer. At 43, Smaldone was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, had a tumor removed from her right ovary, and underwent chemotherapy. After her experience, Smaldone became the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation (GCF) spokeswoman. She has twice been honored by the Sass Foundation for Medical Research and received an award from the World Foundation for Medical Studies in Female Health along with Jenny Craig for their efforts promoting women’s health.

Sibrena Stowe

Sibrena Stowe is founder of La Chic Media, formerly Stowe Communications, Inc., specializing in publicity and advertising for an extensive client roster including high profile entertainment executives such as artists from Czar Entertainment, Kedar Entertainments, Jive Records, Tupac Shakur's The Outlawz, Arista's DJ Quik and Run/DMC, Universal's Juvenile, Lil Wayne & Big Tymers, The legendary Rakim, MJG & Eightball and countless others! Stowe will continually buy media/ad buys for Music World Entertainment singers Solange Knowles and multi-platinum selling pop star, Beyonce Knowles, and R&B singer Joe from Kedar Entertainment Group, just to name a few. Stowe also works outside of music with Amber Brooke who has a recurring role as, Glenda on CW’s hit television series, One Tree Hill, and The Vampire Diaries, and Dashaun “Jiwe” Morris author of War of The Bloods In My Veins and of the Emmy Awards Emmy nominee star of Sundance channel’s hit docu-series, Brick City, and television personality and legal analyst, Vikki Ziegler of CNN, HLN and Fox News. La Chic Media/SCI also has an event planning division has organized events such as the NFL's Official Super Bowl’s Passion for Fashion produced by then Philadelphia Eagles, Rodney Peete and actress Holly Robinson-Peete which was hosted by Star Jones; as well as the movie premiere party of: STANDING IN THE SHADOW OF MOTOWN, co-hosted by The NARAS Grammy Committee and Artisan Films.

Tamsen Fadal

Tamsen Fadal is an Emmy Award winning Television Journalist, Relationship Expert and Author.  From U.S Presidents to Hollywood Royalty to hottest stars on Broadway, Tamsen Fadal has interviewed some of the most exciting names out there. This award-winning television personality is also the author of two top selling books, Why Hasn’t He Called? and Why Hasn’t He Proposed?

Tamsen loves all things tech, fashion and green and she can be seen bright and early Monday-Friday anchor the WPIX-TV, Morning News starting at 4AM. There, she gets a first hand look at the news of the day and the newsmakers of our time. Tamsen’s lifestyle segment, Totally Tamsen, gives viewers a firsthand look at new and exciting places and things in the tri-state area. In January 2010, Tamsen made her Broadway debut in CHICAGO, the musical! It was a dream come true!

Prior to joining WPIX-TV, Tamsen was a correspondent for the CBS flagship station, WCBS-TV. With more than a decade of experience, she has covered stories ranging from the Columbia Shuttle Crash to the London Bombings to the war on terror. In 2002, she traveled to Afghanistan with the American troops reporting on the war. She was also sent to Air Force bases in London and Germany to report on local troops during Operation Enduring Freedom. Prior to that, Ms. Fadal reported for WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and WOWK- TV in Charleston, West Virginia and KYW-TV in Philadelphia doing investigative journalism.

Tamsen was awarded an Emmy in 2005 for her work as an Investigative Reporter. She was also awarded a Broadcast Journalism award in 2004 by the National Air Disaster Foundation [NADF] post 9/11, for contributions leading to improved aviation safety.

Tamsen began her broadcasting career as a morning drive anchor for WHNZ Radio in Tampa, Florida after graduating from the University of South Florida with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. Tamsen was named the 2004 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award Recipient.

Tamsen is extremely active in the fight against Breast Cancer after losing her mother to the disease in 1990.

Along with her job as a TV journalist, Tamsen works alongside her husband, Matt Titus, a TV Host and nationally renouned relationship expert. The two co-authored the book Why Hasn’t He Called? How Guys Really Think and How to Get the Right One Interested in You (McGraw-Hill; February, 2008), their second book, Why Hasn’t He Proposed? Go From The First Date To Setting The Date (McGraw-Hill; February, 2009) Tamsen is the co-founders of The Love Consultants, a matchmaking and dating coach service in Manhattan.  Matt and Tamsen have a national segment with Meredith Television, ASK MATT and TAMSEN where they answer questions from viewers all across the nation. You can read their advice on their website: TheLoveConsultants.com.

Chelsea Krost

For the enterprising 20-year-old Chelsea Krost, the word “entitlement” doesn’t exist; it never did. From the time she was a child involved in numerous charitable endeavors and throughout her teen years when she traded vacations for life altering philanthropic missions across the globe, Chelsea has been driven by her passion to make a difference in the world. "Charity is my drug of choice," she proclaims.

Chelsea has become a sought after resource and voice for the teenage/young person’s generation, bringing her fresh perspectives and off the cuff familiar style to television with guest appearances and news segments that include, Fox’s Good Day New York and Street Talk, CNN Headline News, NBC’s The Today Show, News 12 New Jersey, and Fox 5 News San Diego that covered a plethora of topics of peer pressure to Father’s Day technology gifts to Lindsay Lohan and the MTV remake show “Skins.” Seventeen Magazine named Chelsea a “Mini Mogul, who gave teens a voice by creating her own radio show.”

Chelsea Krost recently released her first book, "NINETEEN: A Reflection of My Teenage Experience in an Extraordinary Life. What I Have Learned and What I Have To Share." Chelsea describes the book as a combination “memoir/self-help/humor/insider’s guide for teens and young women” which she hopes will inspire the reader to know that with persistence, hard work and belief in yourself anyone can accomplish great things! Later this year, Chelsea will start off her national book tour for “NINETEEN beginning in California, along with the launch of her new unique lip product “with a refreshing twist.”

2011 will also mark the re-launch of her radio show that at just sixteen years old, Chelsea conceptualized and created, born out of the desire to provide a safe and non-judgmental platform for teens like herself to share their feelings on topics relevant to their lives, as well as global concerns. In March 2008, just after her seventeenth birthday, Chelsea became the youngest AM radio host when her show, Teen Talk Live with Chelsea Krost debuted on WBZT 1230 AM, establishing the tagline, “Our voice. Our opinions. Our time to talk.” Chelsea researches all show topics and invites a rotating panel of young adults who discuss their questions and views, along with guest celebrities and experts who offer their perspectives, expertise and answers for the thousands of listeners who access her show every Tuesday from 7-8 p.m. on www.teentalklive.net.

In January 2009, Chelsea acted as exclusive teen journalist for the non-profit group People to People, traveling to Washington, DC to cover the inauguration of President Obama. Chelsea also reported live from the CNN building with Suzanne Boyd, anchor/reporter for the local Florida CBS and Fox affiliates that air in Chelsea’s hometown of Delray Beach/Boca Raton, Florida. Chelsea has also appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly, and was a guest on Good Day New York and News 12 New Jersey.

In the summer of 2009, together with her family, Chelsea coordinated a Teen Talk Live “mission to Africa,” a philanthropic trip to Nairobi to hand-deliver hundreds of feminine hygiene products to the HEART Freedom for Girls Program and the Nyumbani Children’s Home. As the exclusive teen correspondent for her local Florida CBS and Fox affiliates, Chelsea documented her compelling mission in a special four-part TV series, which aired in June 2009 on her local Florida CBS/Fox TV stations.

Following the Africa trip, Chelsea was tapped by Kotex to be their ‘Millennial Spokesperson,’ making media appearances including guest spots on The Tyra Banks Show and Teen Kids News. Chelsea was asked to offer her insights into the advertising and marketing campaigns for Kotex's new U by Kotex products for teens, and contributed a monthly blog entry for the company’s website. At the end of 2010, Chelsea went out for anther philanthropic trip to schools in Peru to deliver supplies and books to the many children.

Chelsea also just completed a five day mission to Joplin, Missouri for CBS and Fox News affiliates to document the progress made since the devastating deadly tornadoes in May. Armed with a film crew and a compassionate heart, Chelsea chronicled the aftermath of the tornadoes, interviewing the people who lived to tell of their harrowing experiences, visiting the hospitals and schools to bring needed supplies and welcome toys and gifts, and shedding light on the rebuilding process.

Chelsea is active with a number of charities, including SOS Children’s Villages, The Pajama Program, The Unicorn Foundation, Africa Heart, and Dream Sponsors, Inc., an organization through which they met and sponsor a nine year-old orphan boy, Bryan in hopes of giving him a chance at an education and a healthy and successful future. “We live in such a narcissistic society; so, if I had just one message to share with other young adults it would be to ‘go outside your comfort zone’ and help others. Nothing feels as good as knowing you’ve made a difference in someone else’s life.”

Chelsea is currently working on a television pilot, “Positively Ernie” featuring Ernie Anastos, the Emmy Award-winning New York City Fox News anchor.

Chelsea resides in New York City and attends Marymount College, where she juggles the role as a Broadcast Journalism major and bi-coastal television personality.

Abby Ellin

Abby Ellin has been a freelance writer for 20 years. She started out writing for The Boston Phoenix, an alternative weekly newspaper. In 1994 she moved to Manhattan and submitted to Self, Marie Claire, Good Housekeeping, Sassy, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan and Glamour. Her essay about her six years at fat camp, was published in the dearly departed Mademoiselle in 1996. A few years later I penned a more amusing version for the late, great Spy. At this time Abby felt a little like Farrah Fawcett during her Charlie’s Angels heyday. She longed to be considered a Serious Actress, but everyone laughed until she gave an Emmy-nominated performance in The Burning Bed.

In 1998, Abby says, “I decided it was time for my own futon to erupt in flames, so to speak.” She pitched an idea to the New York Times business section about boot camp for executives. The story ran and after that, the business section was launching a new column about young people and money, so she began to write Preludes, as it was called. Abby’s column ran in the Sunday Money and Business section of the New York Times from 1998 to 2002, where she had the opportunity to chronicle the beginning of the dot-com boom and its subsequent demise and interview folks like Monica Lewinsky, Donald Trump, Jeff Skoll. Abby still writes for the NYT business section, as well as the Arts, Education, and Style sections and has often had the excuse to crash strangers’ weddings for the Vows column. Abby has, on more than one occasion, done the voiceover for the feature “Other People’s Happiness.”

In 2005, Abby published Teenage Waistland: A Former Fat Kid Weighs in on Living Large, Losing Weight and How Parents Can (and Can’t) Help (paperback came out in 2007). The book (a/k/a Fat Camp Confidential), was part memoir of SIX years at fat camp–Colang! Kingsmont!–as well as an investigation into what works, and what doesn’t, when it comes to helping kids lose weight. The book got a lot of attention–it was excerpted in the New York Times Magazine, People and London’s Daily Telegraph, and promoted on TV and radio. It was also a finalist for the Books for a Better Life award, and optioned by Sony Television.

In addition to the above-mentioned magazines and newspapers, Abby Ellin’s work has been featured in The Village Voice, The New York Post, The NY Daily News, New York, Glamour, Self, Gotham, Time, Newsweek, More, Marie Claire, Redbook, Maxim, POV, Fortune, Psychology Today, Salon, and The Daily Beast, among others. Her twelve-part series, “How to Raise a Millionaire” ran on MSN.com. Her essays have appeared in The Secret Currency of Love and In Search of Adventure, and twelve of her words popped up in the Six-Word Memoir collections (“Jew-born. Yeshiva-educated. Date goyim” and “I’m too old for this S***!”) Abby Ellin makes a lengthy appearance as herself in the Sundance-award winning film We Live in Public (She wrote about the main character, Josh Harris, in 2000).

Abby Ellin has received the Sword of Hope award from the American Cancer Society for a story she wrote on breast cancer. More recently, she won a prize from the American Society of Journalists and Authors for my March, 2008 New York Times article on her disastrous Lasik surgery. Abby is the editor-at-large for Fitsmi.com, a website for girls and their moms who are struggling with weight.
Abby Ellin has nomadic tendencies and has written stories in exotic locales like India, Cuba, North and South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Russia, the Middle East (where she lived for a year), Europe, the Caribbean and the good old United States of America.

Abby has said, “Famous people are swell and all, but I am especially interested in giving voice to the underdog, in telling the stories others can’t tell for themselves.”

Abby Ellin is now in Phase Four of her life, in which she goes back to school for another Master’s, this one in International Relations at Johns Hopkins. Meanwhile, as of press time her greatest personal accomplishments have been summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro (with a broken wrist!) and naming Karamel Sutra for Ben and Jerry’s.

Fran Kirmser

As a consultant for artists and non profit arts organizations for over 15 years Fran has facilitated the work of hundreds of artsits to stage. A fixture in the arts she began her professional career at the age of 14 as a dancer. In the 90's she co-founded, Manhattan Theatre Source, a theater and arts service organization still in operation in Greenwich Village that rarely has a dark night. In 2002 she launched The Biography Project, a series of plays that tell the stories of artists in an effort to recognize their voices, better archive their work and explore their influence on culture. In addition to extensive work Off-Broadway, on Broadway Kirmser produced the award-winning Radio Golf, the last play and final chapter in August Wilson's epic ten-play cycle by one of our nation's greatest playwrights, and the 2009 Tony Award-Winner for Best Musical Revival, Hair. Continuing her passion for bringing unique and important voices to the stage, together with producing partner Tony Ponturo and in association with the NFL, Kirmser produced Lombardi based on the life of the Iconic Leader and renowned Football Coach Vince Lombardi. Lombardi, the longest running play of it's 2010-2011 Season, was nominated for Best Play by the Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards. And the play's featured actress Judith Light for her portrayal of Marie Lombardi, received a Tony Nomination. Through their formed Kirmser/Ponturo Group LLC, the team Ponturo and Kirmser recently announced their latest collaboration, Magic Bird. This new play tells the story of the rivalry and friendship between Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Larry Bird and is being crafted based on conversations with the two Hall of Fame players.