L.M. Archer lives in Seattle and is an award-winning writer, speaker, and content consultant for consumer, B2B and B2C platforms, conferences, and publications worldwide. She is a 2020 Errazuriz Wine Photographer of the Year award finalist. Designations include Bourgogne + Champagne Master Level and French Wine Scholar from the Wine Scholar Guild. When not working, she’s drinking Oregon sparkling wine. Find her at: lmarcher.com + IG/Twitter @lmarcherml
Gigi Berardi is a Fulbright Scholar who lives in Shaw Island, Washington, and teaches at Huxley College of the Environment in Bellingham. In addition to teaching food and geography classes internationally, she homesteads 25 acres with her family, and milks sheep and makes cheese. Berardi maintains a popular food blog (https://wp.wwu.edu/gigiberardi/), and also contributes to dance publications. Berardi’s most recent book, FoodWISE, received a silver medal in the Living Now Book Awards: Website: gigiberardi.com
Maxine Cass lives in Gold Hill, Oregon. The writer and author of travel and narrative history books has a B.A. in History and Medieval Studies. She has traveled the world and lived on the island of Samos, Greece and in Senegal, West Africa. A lifelong urban dweller, in 2014, Maxine transitioned to truly rural living on a 20-acre dual-forest property. She is writing and photographing her “going to the land” experience. Email: mcass@pobox.com
Sondra Forsyth is an award-winning freelance writer, author and former ballerina who lives in Olympia, Washington. She is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the health website, third.AGE.com, and a dance critic for Broadway World Dance. Forsyth has authored or co-authored 12 books and written scores of articles for major magazines. She has been on the faculty of many dance centers including the Studio de Ballet Opera in Beirut, Lebanon. Website: sondraforsyth.com/
Carla Furlong is a business writer and university educator who lives in Richmond (near Vancouver), British Columbia. With an MBA in Marketing, she develops corporate materials such as case studies for the investment, resource, and health care industries. Her book, Marketing Money, was one of the first to focus on the unique nature of financial communications; her second one, Marketing for Keeps, was one of the first to do the same for customer retention.
Fred Gebhart covers the trade side of medical, pharmaceutical, and bioscience developments from Gold Hill, Oregon. Between gigs, he cooks, battles looping tendrils of blackberry and poison oak in a forest restoration project and tries to dissuade ground squirrels from snacking on lettuce, chard, and tomatoes.
Website: FredGebhart.com
Rosemary Keevil lives in Whistler, British Columbia. She has been a TV news reporter, a current affairs radio show host, and managing editor of a professional women’s magazine. Rosemary has a master’s degree in journalism and is currently a journalist covering addiction, recovery and grief. She is the author of The Art of Losing It: A Memoir of Grief and Addiction. Website: rosemarykeevil.com
Catherine Kolonko is a features writer based in Portland, Oregon. Catherine often reports on medical topics. Her additional journalistic interests include sustainability, design, technology, travel, and humor writing. Catherine has worked for a biotech company and began her career as a newspaper reporter covering breaking news and crime for a Southern California daily newspaper. She holds a journalism degree from San Diego State University.
M. Carolyn Miller, MA (she/her/hers) is the PNW chapter president and lives in Portland, Oregon. Called the Story Lady by her clients, she has worked with story for 30 years as a writer (books, articles, essays, short fiction), and as a narrative instructional designer (storyboards, immersive/interactive, games/gamification). You can learn more about story–hers and yours–by visiting her website: cultureshape.com
Joanna Nesbit is a content marketer and service journalist with a focus on personal finance, higher education, parenting, and aging. She writes regularly about financial aid and other college topics. She spent four years abroad in her 20s and lives in Bellingham, Washington, near the island where she grew up. Website: joannanesbit.com
Michelle Rafter is a Portland-based ghostwriter on business and management topics, editorial project leader, and occasional freelance writer covering business, tech, freelancing, and the future of work. Website: michellerafter.com
Randy Stapilus is a writer, editor and publisher who lives in Carlton, Oregon. He has been a newspaper reporter and worked in TV news. Randy has since operated Ridenbaugh Press, first in Idaho and now in Oregon. He has written more than a dozen books for his own publishing company and for others (most of those for Globe-Pequot) and a weekly newspaper column on politics and society in the Northwest. Website: ridenbaugh.com
Sharon Elaine Thompson lives in Salem, Oregon, and is a Graduate Gemologist and Fellow of the Gemological Association of Great Britain. Her articles have been published primarily in jewelry publications. A docent for five years at the Los Angeles Zoo, Thompson has written about cheetahs, gorillas and Sumatran rhinos. She has authored three science-related young adult books. Sharon writes women’s fiction/suspense under the name Liz Harley. Website: sharonelainethompson.com
Darlene West lives in the southern Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. She covered the energy industry in Calgary, Alberta, before moving to BC, nearly two decades ago with her husband to grow wine grapes. Darlene divides her time between the vineyard and freelance writing, specializing in travel and the outdoors. She is the author of three travel guidebooks. Currently, Darlene is focusing more on essays and other creative nonfiction along with photography. Website: darlenewest.ca
Minda Zetlin lives in Snohomish, Washington, and is a past president of ASJA. She writes about business, career and technology. Her work often appears in Inc.com, Business Insider, CNBC.com, and CIO.com. Minda’s books include The Geek Gap: Why Business and Technology Professionals Don’t Understand Each Other and Why They Need Each Other to Survive. Her next book, Career Self-Care, was published in 2022. Website: mindazetlin.wordpress.com