Pamela Stone is Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her research has been supported by a variety of funders including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Sloan Foundation. Former chair of the Department of Sociology at Hunter, Stone was the recipient of a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, where she also served as Associate Director of the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute. She is a fellow of Hunter's Gender Equity Program, supported by NSF's ADVANCE program, the goal of which is to promote women in science.

An honors graduate of Duke University, Stone received her PhD in Sociology from Johns Hopkins University. Active in her profession, she was recently elected Vice President of the Eastern Sociological Society for 2009-10 Visit Dr. Stone's website.

Donna Freitas is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Boston University. She received her Ph.D. from Catholic University in 2002 and her B.A. in philosophy from Georgetown (CAS 94) In addition, to writing books, Donna regularly contributes to a number of magazines, newspapers, and webzines, including Beliefnet, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Christian Century, and the School Library Journal.  Visit her website.  Visit Dr. Kevin Keough's blog.

Christina Meldrum received her Bachelor of Arts in religious studies and political science from the University of Michigan. After working in grassroots development in Africa, she earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. She has worked for the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, Switzerland, and as a litigator at the law firm of Shearman & Sterling. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family and is on the advisory board of Women of the World Investments. Madapple is her first novel.   Visit her website.

Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.

Jessica Brody, 28, knew from a young age that she wanted to be a writer. She started self "publishing" her own books when she was seven years old, binding the pages together with cardboard, wallpaper samples and electrical tape.

After graduating from Smith College in 2001 where she double majored in Economics and French and minored in Japanese, Jessica later went on to work for MGM Studios as a Manager of Acquisitions and Business Development. In May of 2005, Jessica quit her job to follow her dream of becoming a published author. Between 2006 and 2007, Jessica sold two adult novels to St. Martin's Press and two young adult novels to Farrar, Straus, Giroux. The Fidelity Files, her debut, is now available in stores (in real binding) and the sequel, which she is currently completing, is slated for publication in the summer of 2009. The Karma Club, Jessica's debut YA novel will be released in the spring of 2010.

The Fidelity Files has already sold in the UK, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia and Taiwan (to date).Jessica now works as a freelance writer and producer. She currently writes for Yahoo's hilarious online TV recap show, "Prime Time in No Time." The most recent episodes can be viewed at: http://primetime.tv.yahoo.com

Additionally, Jessica produces feature-length films for Cyur Films. Please visit www.cyur.com for information on current and upcoming releases.  Visit her website.

Visit Jaime Mason's website and blog.

Kate McLaughlin was born and raised in Ontario, California. She attended Chaffey High School and graduated magna cum laude from the University of La Verne with a liberal arts degree. She married her high school sweetheart, attended graduate school at Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State San Bernardino, and worked in the Upland School District. Her three children were born in Southern California.

 After teaching elementary school, coordinating special programs, and training fellow teachers and classroom aides for over a dozen years, Kate began her writing career. As a columnist for Southern Progress Corporation, a subsidiary of Time-Warner, Kate wrote dozens of magazine articles, then added two regional gardening books to her list of achievements before switching gears to write, speak, and advocate on topics related to Bipolar Disorder, Depression, and mental health.

Kate frequently writes and speaks to Parent-Teacher groups, high school and college students, mental health consumers and their families, and other community members. She is a member of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the Juvenile Bipolar Research. Visit her website www.katemclaughlin.net. 

Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.

Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.

Lynn Weise Sneyd is a freelance writer focusing on health and parenting issues. She earned a B.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1998, she received a writing fellowship at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois, where she began work on her  book Holistic Parenting: Raising Children To A New Physical, Emotional And Spiritual Well-Being.

Lynn became interested in Holistic Medicine as a result of her husbandâs degenerative nerve condition. After he endured seven years of unsuccessful conventional medical treatments, she decided to explore the world of Alternative Medicine. As she learned, she gradually incorporated changes in her familyâs lifestyle. A pantry of organic foods, a kitchen without chemical cleaners and a microwave, and a medicine cabinet full of herbal and homeopathic remedies have become her familyâs norms. In addition, her children no longer receive vaccinations. Her eight-year-old daughter has never been on an antibiotic, despite having childhood bouts with ear infections, sore throats, colds and flu.

After experiencing the simplicity and effectiveness of a holistic lifestyle, Lynn decided to write Holistic Parenting. The book explores such topics as Homeopathy, Herbal Medicine, Ayurveda, Organic Nutrition, Environmental Toxins, Vaccinations and Holistic Dentistry. 

She also contributed to Healthy Solutions: A Guide to Simple Healing and Healthy Wisdom, written by David N. Russell, Ph.D, D.Sc., as well as How Happy Families Happen: Six Steps to Creating Emotional and Spiritual Health at Home, written by Audrey Ricker, Ph.D. Lynn's freelanced articles and poetry have appeared in publications around the country.  Lynn resides in Tucson, Arizona with her husband and 2 children. 

Lynn Wiese Sneyd directs the literary publicity division of Russell Public Communications, coordinating national, regional, and local publicity campaigns for authors of non-fiction and fiction works  Visit her webpage.

Charles Barber was educated at Harvard and Columbia and worked for ten years in New York City shelters for the homeless mentally ill. The title essay in his first book, Songs from the Black Chair, won a 2006 Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in the The Washington Post, The New York Times and Scientific American Mind, among other publications, and on NPR. He is a senior administrator at The Connection, an innovative social services agency, and a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. He lives in Connecticut with his family.  Visit his website .

Visit the North Star Guardians blog and Dr. Kevin Keough's blog.

John Izzo is a visionary, author, community leader and professional speaker on leadership development, performance management, corporate culture, and organizational change. Dr. John Izzo has more than 17 years experience working in a wide variety of corporate settings. His clients include nonprofit organizations, Fortune 500 companies, Healthcare Organizations and mid-size companies. Over the last two decades, John Izzo has married his first career as a minister with his second career as a management & leadership consultant to help leaders create corporations and organizations where values and purpose are the foundations for success. Dr. Izzo spent five years as a senior organizational development consultant for Kaiser Permanente, and 4 years as Vice President of The Einstein Consulting Group, an international customer service consultancy prior to establishing his own firm. Currently he focuses on helping leaders and organizations reach sustainable success through the integration of purposeful leadership and business practices.

John Izzo obtained his Bachelor of Sociology from Hofstra University in 1978 before completing a dual Masters degree from McCormick Divinity School in Theology while simultaneously attending the University of Chicago to complete his Masters in Organizational Psychology. Dr. Izzo then completed his Ph.D. in Organizational Communication from Kent State University shortly thereafter. He is the author of over 60 articles, and is the co-author of the best selling book Awakening Corporate Soul: Four Paths to Unleash the Power of People at Work and its companion workbook. He is also the author of  Values-Shift: The New Work Ethic and What it Means for Business. His pioneering work has been featured on CNN, ABC World News, the LA Times, Canada AM, CBC Radio, The American Medical Journal, B.C. Business, The Seattle Times and the cover of Association Management Magazine on "Creating Inspiring Work Places".

Based on leading edge research and experiences with more than 200 companies, John Izzo helps people understand these shifting values and how they differ across generations and across gender.John Izzo works with leaders who are serious about finding and keeping talented people and who are willing to do what it takes to create an organization where values and purpose are the foundation of the culture. Visit his website.Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.

 As senior perinatologist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Thornton established and developed the program for a new form of early prenatal diagnostic testing known as CVS (chronic villus sampling). Dr. Thornton was one of the original American investigators whose CVS results were relied upon by the FDA prior to its granting approval for the procedure in 1989.  Visit her website.

Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.

After graduating Vassar College with honors, Ms. Cheney attended UCLA School of Law. She then specialized in intellectual property and entertainment litigation at several prominent L.A. firms, including Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Over the course of her sixteen-year career, Ms. Cheney represented many celebrities and major motion picture studios, including Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Universal, Columbia, etc. Her pro bono work ranged from counseling local theaters to petitioning the United States Supreme Court on behalf of the ACLU.

After years of secretly struggling with manic depression, Ms. Cheney decided to leave the law and devote her advocacy skills toward a cause that is closer to her heart: writing about her illness, and encouraging the mentally ill to tell their own stories. In recognition of her efforts, she was appointed a member of the Community Advisory Board of the UCLA Mood Disorders Research Program, the nationâs largest nonprofit research consortium regarding manic depression. She also founded a weekly community support group at UCLAâs Neuropsychiatric Institute.

Ms. Cheney currently lives in Los Angeles.  Visit her website.

Visit Jamie Mason's website and blog.

]]> Medicine Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:01:00 GMT http://northstarguardians.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=305476# klkeough@gmail.com 00:40:51 ill children, pediatrics, special needs children, dr christopher johnson, jamie mason, north star guardians, psychjourney Dr. Kevin Keough Miracles Do Happen Clean http://northstarguardians.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=303849# Dr. Jerome C. Wakefield, co-author of The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder published by Oxford University Press.

We experienced minor audio recording difficulties that appear near the end of the first of a two part interview with Dr. Wakefield.  Please accept our apologies for  this technical problem  that hasn't  proven easy to  eliminate. We intend to edit out the snafu as soon as possible.  We thank Dr, Wakefield for a stimulating and informative conversation and his graciousness and patience re: a delay in posting this podcast.

Jerome C. Wakefield is University Professor and Professor of Social Work at New York University, and he has also taught at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and Rutgers University. He is an authority on the intersection between philosophy and the mental health professions and the author of many articles on diagnosis of mental disorder. Visit his webpage.

Visit Dr. Keough's website and blog.

We experienced minor audio recording difficulties that appear near the end of the first of a two part interview with Therese Borchard.  Please accept our apologies for  this technical problem  that hasn't  proven easy to  eliminate. We intend to edit out the snafu as soon as possible.  We thank Therese Borchard for a stimulating and informative conversation and her graciousness and patience re: a delay in posting this podcast.

Therese J. Borchard is the best-selling editor (with Michael Leach) of I Like Being Catholic, I Like Being Married, and I Love Being a Mom. After her Prozac pooped out, she didn't like much of anything, so she compiled The Imperfect Mom: Candid Confessions of Mothers Living in the Real World, which was featured in Real Simple, Parenting, More, Working Mother, Psychology Today, Fit Pregnancy, the Chicago Tribune, and on Salon.com and Beliefnet.com. Her syndicated column on young-adult spirituality is distributed by Catholic News Service, and her work has appeared in Ladies^TM Home Journal, Parenting, American Baby, Working Mother, Publishers Weekly, the Washington Post and on Beliefnet.com. She lives with her husband, Eric, and their two "spirited" preschoolers in Annapolis, Maryland.  Visit her blog Beyond Blue.

Visit Dr. Keough's website and blog.

We experienced minor audio recording difficulties that appear near the end of the first of a two part interview with Therese Borchard.  Please accept our apologies for  this technical problem  that hasn't  proven easy to  eliminate. We intend to edit out the snafu as soon as possible.  We thank Therese Borchard for a stimulating and informative conversation and her graciousness and patience re: a delay in posting this podcast.

Therese J. Borchard is the best-selling editor (with Michael Leach) of I Like Being Catholic, I Like Being Married, and I Love Being a Mom. After her Prozac pooped out, she didn't like much of anything, so she compiled The Imperfect Mom: Candid Confessions of Mothers Living in the Real World, which was featured in Real Simple, Parenting, More, Working Mother, Psychology Today, Fit Pregnancy, the Chicago Tribune, and on Salon.com and Beliefnet.com. Her syndicated column on young-adult spirituality is distributed by Catholic News Service, and her work has appeared in Ladies^TM Home Journal, Parenting, American Baby, Working Mother, Publishers Weekly, the Washington Post and on Beliefnet.com. She lives with her husband, Eric, and their two "spirited" preschoolers in Annapolis, Maryland.  Visit her blog Beyond Blue.

Visit Dr. Keough's website and blog.

]]> Depression Fri, 1 Feb 2008 04:49:00 GMT http://northstarguardians.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=302559# klkeough@gmail.com 01:10:35 depression, mental health, Catholic, spirituality, beliefnet,beyond blue,Therese J. Borchard , dr kevin keough Dr. Kevin Keough Clean http://northstarguardians.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=287294# Janette Merrill is a mother of three, living in Portland Oregon. She will be presenting the Podcast series entitled Birthing Soul which will focus on the Feminine, women's issues and inner growth with a wide range of topics including feminine archetypes, sacred sexuality, parenting, natural childbirth and childcare, partnership studies, raising kids body-positive, reconnecting to the body, menarche and menopause celebrations, and holistic psycho-spirituality.

Janette has a B.A. in Social Science and intends to pursue an M.A. in Transpersonal Psychology

Visit Ms. Janette Merrill's blog.

Janette Merrill is a mother of three, living in Portland Oregon. She will be presenting the Podcast series entitled Birthing Soul which will focus on the Feminine, women's issues and inner growth with a wide range of topics including feminine archetypes, sacred sexuality, parenting, natural childbirth and childcare, partnership studies, raising kids body-positive, reconnecting to the body, menarche and menopause celebrations, and holistic psycho-spirituality.

Janette has a B.A. in Social Science and intends to pursue an M.A. in Transpersonal Psychology


Visit Ms. Janette Merrill's blog.  Visit Dr. Kevin Keough's website and blog.

Geri Weis-Corbley graduated with a degree in TV/Radio from Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, and went on to work in TV news and video production in Washington, D.C., in the 1980's. That's when she first conceived of the Good News Network as a television show and cable network (abbreviated GNN, like CNN). Ten years later she left her freelance career in television to raise a family at home during the 1990's.

WHEN

In 1997, she could stand it no longer. The declining state of the U.S. news media and the rising tide of the Internet combined to compel her into action. She bought some software and created the online edition of the Good News Network, premiering in August 1997.

WHAT (What else happened?)

She designed, wrote and uploaded weekly good news to the site for six years. A bimonthly printed newsletter, Some Good News, earned 75 paid subscribers.

A treatment for a weekly TV magazine news show and radio pilot for series of two-minute segments were produced, pitched to Hollywood, then set aside.

The number of visitors to the Web site jumped in a salient spike on 9/11 and the following day in 2001, when terrorists attacked the United States. (Commemorative 9/11 Edition, pdf format)

WHERE (Whereâd she go in 2003?)

In 2003, Geri left the Good News Network on an 18-month sabbatical to work on a presidential campaign, or two. All during this sabbatical â even through September 2005 â GoodNewsNetwork.org was visited nearly 1,000 times a day, even without the benefit of any new content, for 18 months.

WHY (Why did she engage in politics and then return to the GN Network?)

"I dove into politics for the same reason I created the GN Network. I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to try to make a difference to my country when I saw it veering sharply from wiser paths.

But while I made inroads with my grassroots work, I couldn't help but notice that politics is mostly a negative business. Its very nature is divisive and seems to direct our focus onto the worst in people (opponents) ...

In our grassroots campaign, though, I experienced a tremendous outpouring of camaraderie from people young and old who, like me, had never been involved in politics before. It was spurred on by anger, yes, like the GN Network had been, but it was mostly a joy-filled effort infused with positive thinking, rather than negative.

Many, many Americans of every stripe appreciated the way we talked to them â on train platforms, sidewalks, libraries, and doorways â with respect, like citizens, rather than consumers.

However, I gladly returned to work on the GN Network with a goal to bring compassion back into our discourse. Instead of polarizing society into two camps (which politics necessarily must), we instead focus on the commonality of human experience, infusing both sides with the eagerness to overcome adversity and improve the human condition. We will nurture the instinct for community and cooperation over competition and tribalism."

HOW (How is the past relevant to the future of GNN-i?)

Working on all aspects of communications in the high-tech campaign world of 2003â04 imparted a vast array of knowledge to Geri along with ideas about how to build an exciting online community that empowers its members and elicits pure joy. 

"In an 'Aha moment' I realized that community is what the Good News Network was missing. Community will be the key to creating my success on the internet. And if Charles Schultzâs Linus were here, he'd say... 'Community is what the world is all about, Charlie Brown.'"

Visit the Good News Network website

Visit Dr. Keough's website and blog.