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This is a combined list of our presenters for every event. These folks led workshops, were on panels and/or gave presentations. Each one sharing their skills and knowledge with attendees. |
Marti Abernathy |
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Marti Abernathey is a trans activist, political strategist, and trans media pioneer. She has been a grass roots organizer on the state and national level and has organized the Indianapolis Tax Day Protest, The Indy Pride HRC Protest, Indianapolis Transgender Day of Remembrance, Indiana’s Witch Hunt, Rally At The Statehouse and the Madison 2011 Transgender Day of Remembrance.Abernathey was a member of Barack Obama’s LGBT Steering and Policy Committee, and the founder of the Transgender sub-committee. She was Indiana’s first ever transgender delegate to the DNC in 2008, also co-organized the 2008 Indianapolis Obama Pride, and was an invited guest at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration and the 2011 White House Pride Month Reception.
Abernathy was also a co-host on trans media programs such as Trans-Sister Radio Live!, The T-Party, and the Radical Trannies/Sodium Pentothal Sunday and is probably best known as the founder of the Transadvocate, and former managing editor (2002-2013). Panels
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Valerie Aurora |
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Valerie Aurora (formerly Val Henson) is the Director of Training, co-founder, and former Executive Director of the Ada Initiative. With co-founder Mary Gardiner, she created and implemented projects like the Ada Initiative conference anti-harassment policy, now adopted by hundreds of open tech/culture events. Aurora and Gardiner were both recognized as one of Femme-o-nomics Top 50 Women to Watch in Tech in 2011 and SC Magazine’s 6 Influential Information Security Thinkers in 2012. Aurora created and teaches the Ada Initiative Ally Skills Workshop, which teaches men simple ways to support women in open tech/culture.
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Jennifer Beahan |
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Jennifer Beahan is Assistant Director of Center for Inquiry–Michigan. She was raised in a fundamentalist christian family and graduated summa cum laude from Cornerstone University with a Bachelor’s of Music Education. While attending Cornerstone University she and her childhood sweetheart/best friend of 21 years, and husband for 11, Jeremy Beahan, came to see the light of reason and were introduced to philosophy and critical thinking. Jennifer and Jeremy became members of the Freethought Association of West Michigan, now CFI–Michigan in 2002 and have been actively involved in the organization ever since. In 2007 she was hired on as the first staff person, and since she began volunteering in 2003 she has helped to develop numerous programs, and expand the programming of CFI–Michigan from 3 events each month to over 20 events a month in 8 cities throughout Michigan. In 2014 she helped organize 300 events throughout Michigan! Her professional interests include volunteer management, program development and evaluation, secular activism, and women’s rights. She holds a Bachelor’s of Music Education (K-12), and in addition to her work for CFI she teaches private music lessons on piano and woodwinds. She also enjoys hiking/camping, gardening, and loves to cook.
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Xandra Best |
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Xandra is a recent graduate of St. Olaf College with a B.A. in math and computer science. While she was there, she was president of her campus SSA group and a co-organizer of the SkepTech conference at the University of Minnesota. She currently works as a technical consultant in the Minneapolis area doing all manner of nerdy things, all while singing and dancing on a near-constant basis. |
Brianne Bilyeu |
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Whatever it takes to stand up for reproductive justice–clinic escorting, writing, lecturing, lobbying, bowling, or eating tacos–Brianne Bilyeu has done it. When she’s not working tirelessly for access to reproductive medical care in all its forms, she blogs at Biodork and cohosts Atheists Talk, the Minnesota Atheists radio show. Despite all that, she sometimes still finds time to take photos.
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Greta Christina |
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Greta Christina has been writing professionally since 1989, and has been writing about atheism since 2005. She is author of several books, including “The Way of the Heathen: Practicing Atheism in Everyday Life,” “Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do with God,” “Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why, and “Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless.” She blogs at Greta Christina’s Blog, at The Orbit, and is on both Facebook and Twitter. She lives in San Francisco with her wife, Ingrid.
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Haddayr Copley-Woods |
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Haddayr Copley-Woods is a scifi/dark fantasy writer, radio commentator, and essayist with pieces and performances in places such as Minnesota Public Radio, Apex, Story Club Minneapolis, Science Fiction & Fantasy, and Best American Erotica. Her radio commentaries, essays, and spoken-word performances cover disability issues, community, queerness, and politics, as does her column Bitter Butch at bitterempire.com. Learn more at haddayr.com.
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Bridgett Crutchfield |
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Bridgett ‘Bria’ Crutchfield is the head of the Detroit affiliate for Black Nonbelievers. She also serves on the board for the organization, as well as for Secular Woman and Godless Perverts. A native of California, she was raised Jehovah’s Witness, and then segued to Pentecostal Christianity, where she assumed various leadership roles. Bria has a heart for newly identified atheists, and assisting those who are truly interested in forming alliances with people of color in the secular community.
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Eli Heina Dadabhoy |
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Eli Heina Dadabhoy is an ex-Muslim atheist feminist who has written at Skepchick and Freethought Blogs. They now blog at The Orbit, a social-justice oriented network of which they are a co-founder. You may have heard them at Skepticon, the American Atheists National Convention, the Huffington Post Live, and Have Your Say on the BBC World Service or read about them in the New York Times.
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Chelsea DuFresne |
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Brother Jed once called Chelsea Du Fresne devil spawn, so she has been involved in atheist community organizing ever since. Her biggest not-big project was Skeptech, a progressive student-run conference about critical thinking and technology at the University of Minnesota. Now she mostly plays Skyrim and makes tradigrade jokes.
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Alyssa Ehni |
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Alyssa showed up to Minnesota Atheists events one day and was recruited by the board. Shortly thereafter, she became president and served until she hit her term limit. She must be doing something right.
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Sam Farooqui |
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Sam Farooqui immigrated to Florida from Pakistan when she was 7 years old, and found herself to be an atheist by 14. She went on to have a B.S. in Psychology from Florida State University, where she organized the first ever Southeast Secular Student Regional Conference as one of the founding officers of the Secular Student Alliance at FSU. She is greatly interested in social institutions and systems, how they come to be, and how they affect people’s lives.
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Kelley Freeman |
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Kelley Freeman is fresh off the campaign trail, literally having just finished managing a door-to-door campaign for Planned Parenthood Votes, so please be nice to her. Prior to that, she worked in abortion services for Planned Parenthood, and has previously worked as the Secular Student Alliance’s Communications Associate. She has also been a Director of Religious Education for a UU Church, and an intern for both the SSA and Foundation Beyond Belief while still in undergrad. Basically, she keeps busy AF, and is down to talk to you about the politics of fiber arts and crafts vs. art, burlesque, food, cats, and DIY stuff.
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Sarah Frey |
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Sarah Frey is the Grassroots Coordinator at the Secular Coalition for America. Sarah earned a duel BA from The College of New Jersey in English, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is also trained to counsel Domestic Violence victims of all genders and ages, and has worked with many women of all faiths and none. Sarah Frey joined the Secular Coalition in April 2018. She has worked on numerous political campaigns and issue-based community organizing efforts, and worked for her NJ Congressman both in-district and on the Hill. In her free time, Sarah enjoys practicing Martial Arts and is a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
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Noelle George |
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Noelle is a secular activist who grew up in Seattle and studied chemical engineering at the University of Washington. She worked for a Fortune 500 company as a chemical engineer and project manager, and started volunteering for secular activist causes ten years ago. Noelle has worked with multiple national secular organizations and founded two nonprofit organizations, and has traveled around the country consulting with local secular groups on the topics of volunteering, leadership, and organizational skills.
As Noelle became involved in the secular movement, she heard the national leadership discussing the lack of diversity. (At that time it was ‘Too many men, where are the women?’) Noelle saw the prevalence of lecture-type and social bar events and started advocating for more diverse gatherings like community service projects and family-friendly meetups. To that end, she founded a secular volunteering charity in 2009, but in 2011 merged it with FBB to create the volunteer network that is now the Beyond Belief Network (BBN). Noelle has been the executive director at Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB) since 2015, and has held many different roles in the organization since she first began as a volunteer. Noelle has several privileged identities, but wants to acknowledge the privilege of being a cis white woman whose parents were able to support her in earning a college degree, which has allowed her to volunteer her skills and experience for charitable causes or to work part-time while her husband financially supports their family as an engineer. Noelle lives in Houston TX and has a 7 year old daughter, two cats, and a dog. Panels
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Allison Gill |
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Alison M. Gill is an accomplished attorney and a nationally recognized expert on civil rights and constitutional law. As Legal and Policy Director for American Atheists, Alison directs American Atheists’ legal and legislative advocacy strategy, coordinates with state and local advocates, and represents American Atheists in Washington, DC.
Before joining American Atheists, Alison worked as a consultant to foundations and nonprofits focusing on advocacy strategy and systemic change. Prior her consultancy work, Alison served as Senior Legislative Counsel at the Human Rights Campaign where she managed state-level advocacy on issues such as conversion therapy, bullying prevention, education discrimination, LGBTQ health and wellness, youth homelessness, and LGBTQ data collection. Alison also worked as Government Affairs Director with The Trevor Project and as State Policy Manager with GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. Alison received her B.A. in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry from Rutgers University and her J.D. from George Washington University Law School. Workshops
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Debbie Goddard |
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Debbie Goddard is an organizer with experience in secular and skeptic organizing, queer activism, and racial justice work. Recently hired as VP, Programs at American Atheists, she now oversees American Atheists’ organizing, activism, and outreach programs and is a senior member of the leadership team. Before joining American Atheists, Debbie worked at the Center for Inquiry directing Campus & Community Programs and African Americans for Humanism. While there, she launched a national billboard campaign highlighting black freethinkers, coordinated an international campaign on blasphemy laws and free expression, and organized the Women in Secularism 4 conference and the annual CFI Leadership Conferences.
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Andy Gonsalez |
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In their daily work running a pre-school age classroom in Minneapolis, Andy Gonsalez takes great care to put their convictions into practice, coming at each problem with a conscious compassion. As all good teachers/child caretakers do, they bring their questions everywhere they go, getting feedback from the community members in their life on topics surrounding early childhood, racial inequality, and gender essentialism. In their free time they can be found biking the cities and watering their plants.
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Heather Hegi |
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Heather is the current Secretary for Minnesota Atheists after having served the maximum term as its Chair. She was the youngest Chair in Minnesota Atheists’ history and has consistently advocated for events and practices that make Minnesota Atheists accessible and appealing to people of all ages.
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Rebecca Hensler |
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Activist, educator and counselor Rebecca Hensler is the founder of Grief Beyond Belief, and has spoken twice at Skepticon, once on creating a secular support community and once on being a school counselor in a diverse urban middle school in trying times.
Hensler has a MS in Counseling, training in Restorative Practices, and over 30 years of experience facilitating groups. From educational workshops on LGB issues in first year dormitories, to contentious meetings of the AIDS activist coalition ACT UP, to HIV prevention workshops in public housing and homeless shelters, to restorative conferences between angry middle schoolers, to the first grief support workshops specifically for atheists and other nonbelievers, Hensler‘s experience with interpersonal and group dynamics runs the proverbial gamut. Workshops
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Olivia James |
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Olivia James is an autistic woman who currently works at the Autism Society of Minnesota. She began her life in the secular movement writing for Teen Skepchick before graduating to Skepchick, and has organized multiple conferences and dozens of events. She serves as accessibility coordinator for Autism Society of Minnesota events.
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Phyllis Kahn |
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Phyllis Kahn is the Minnesota State Representative for district 60B, which includes the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus. She’s had a long and distinguished career in the House, including authoring Minnesota’s Clean Indoor Air Act, which was the model for most of the public smoking bans that followed. In recent years, Rep. Kahn has sponsored Minnesota Atheists’ bill to permit atheist and secular humanist groups to designate their own marriage officiants. She has also spoken for the last several years at the Day of Reason events at the state capitol.
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Amanda Knief |
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Amanda Knief is an author and public policy expert. Her book, “The Citizen Lobbyist: A How-to Manual for Making Your Voice Heard in Government,” is being utilized to equip everyday Americans with tools to make their elected officials pay attention to them. Knief has a BS in journalism from Iowa State University and a JD from Drake Law School. She has worked for the Iowa Legislature, Secular Coalition for America, American Atheists, and the Library of Congress. She is currently the Lectures Program director at Iowa State.
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Gretchen Koch |
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Gretchen Koch has been arguing about religion on the internet since 1997. She became an atheist in college while majoring in religious studies, and earned a PhD in Religion and Cognition (focusing on belief in a soul and its relationship to empathy and moral responsibility) in 2009. The comic Giant If originated in 2016 immediately following the election when Gretchen got tired of arguing just in words and decided to try adding some images.
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Hiba Krisht |
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Hiba Krisht is a writer, lecturer, and professional translator from Beirut. Her stories have been published in The Kenyon Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Blackbird, and Mizna, among others. She is a recipient of the 2012 Jane Foulkes Malone Fellowship from Indiana University and the 2013 JoAnn Athanas Memorial Award in literature from the National Society of Arts and Letters. An apostate from Islam, she grew up between an international expatriate community in Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah guerrilla warfare culture in Lebanon. She has been interviewed about her life and work by VICE News, BBC Radio, and Grazia Daily, among others. She is working on a memoir expansion of her retired blog, Between A Veil and a Dark Place.
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Lauren Lane |
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Lauren Lane is the Founder and Executive Director of Skepticon, a national conference located annually in Springfield, MO that promotes skepticism, science education and community building. During her tenure as an undergraduate, Lauren held various leadership positions in the Missouri State University Chapter of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a secular student group that revolutionized student activism. She has been a contributor to The Friendly Atheist, MadArtLabs, and has previously spoken at conventions such as the Secular Student Alliance Convention, FTBCon, and Reason in the Rock.
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Sarah Levin |
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Sarah Levin is the Director of Grassroots and Community Programs at the Secular Coalition for America. Sarah graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies from American University, where she served as president of the university’s Secular Student Alliance affiliate. Since joining the Secular Coalition in 2013, she has managed and grown the Secular Coalition’s state chapter program and implemented various grassroots campaigns on the national and state level, including: the 2014 “Knit a Brick” campaign to protest the Hobby Lobby v. Burwell decision; the 2015 (now annual) Bad Bill Madness; and a new initiative in 2016 which culminated in the first ever Secular Caucus at the Texas Democratic Convention, where three secular policy resolutions were incorporated into the party platform. Prior to joining the Secular Coalition, Sarah completed her AmeriCorps service by serving low-income immigrant and refugee families as a community liaison at the Greenbrier Learning Center in Arlington, Virginia. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys learning new languages, planning her next trip abroad, and putting Frank’s Red Hot sauce on everything.
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Maddy Love |
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Maddy Love, a trans woman living in Minnesota, talks with and about people in the trans, atheism, skepticism, and science communities. Then, since there’s no one to stop her, she talks about anything else she finds interesting or irritating – like podcast hosts writing summaries of themselves in the 3rd person. When not podcasting Maddy may be hosting Atheist Talk on the Minneapolis airwaves 9am, Sunday mornings at AM 950 KTNF.
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Niki Massey |
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Niki Massey is a writer of queer smut and a disability advocate busy advocating for herself. She specializes in taking apart the rhetoric and behavior of anti-abortion activists to show what it isn’t: pro-life, counseling, based in science or medicine, or advocating for women. Sometimes all she has is words, but she knows how to use them.
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Elise Matthesen |
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Elise Matthesen is an essayist, journalist, poet, fiction writer, crafter of art jewelry, and long-time bisexual rights activist. She has provided role-play services on code of conduct violation reporting for conventions training their ops/safety staffers, but this is the first time (and quite possibly the only time) she will present this workshop, so if you want the unvarnished opinions of someone who’s been through it, this is a rare opportunity.
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Marissa McCool |
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Marissa Alexa McCool is an LGBT-rights activist and speaker, multiple podcast host, author, columnist, and stage performer whose goal is to speak out, speak loudly, and bring visibility to LGBT issues. She hosts the Inciting Incident and The Cis Are Getting Out of Hand podcasts, and is the author of seven books as well as numerous articles. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2017 and is now an MFA student at Augsburg University.
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Stef McGraw |
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Stef McGraw is a campus and community organizer at CFI and has degrees in philosophy and Spanish from the University of Northern Iowa. She spent four years on the executive team of the UNI Freethinkers and Inquirers, which in that time became one of the most successful and active groups on campus. In addition to her experience at UNIFI, Stef served as the Speaker of the Senate for the Northern Iowa Student Government, and was active in LGBT rights and other progressive causes in Iowa.
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Marian Melby Aanerud |
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Marian “M. A. Melby” Aanerud was born on a farm in rural Minnesota. She studied physics and music as an undergraduate and applied physics and computer music composition at the graduate level. After teaching college-level integrated science and physics in Flint, Michigan for seven years, she accepted a position teaching physics within a health sciences program in Minnesota.In college, Melby was highly involved in student government and served as the Minnesota State University Student Association Cultural Diversity Representative from her campus. She currently blogs at Sinmantyx and Secular Woman Salon. She was a panelist during FtBconscience2 and FtBconscience3. She is published in Atheist Voices of Minnesota: an Anthology of Personal Stories. She is active ontwitter and serves as a Block Bot admin. She was the lead author of thechange.org petition presented by Secular Woman, asking the Southern Poverty Law Center to list Gender Identity Watch as a hate group and is a contributor atThe TransAdvocate.
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Ashley Miller |
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Dr. Ashley F. Miller is a writer, artist, activist, and communications professional from South Carolina, who has worked for LGBT, secular, and women’s rights for over a decade. Their research and art focuses on issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality. In a previous life, Ashley worked in film and television in Los Angeles, but currently works for the USDA in DC.
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Miri Mogilevsky |
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Miri Mogilevsky recently graduated from Columbia University with a Masters in Social Work. Her blog, Brute Reason, covers topics such as social justice, psychology, mental health, and whatever else keeps her up thinking till 3 AM. When not writing, Miri devours books and talks to anyone who’s willing to listen about how amazing New York City is.
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Amy Monsky |
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Amy Monsky is executive director of the Atheist Alliance of America. She is also president of the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry in Charleston, S.C., and has been active on their board of directors since 2009, having served as family activities coordinator before being elected president in 2012. She also serves on the board of Camp Quest Inc., a summer camp geared toward children from non-religious families. Monsky founded Camp Quest South Carolina in 2011 and continues to be its director.
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Stephanie Montgomery |
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Steph Montgomery, M.S. is a nonprofit and public sector professional with over 15 years of leadership experience related to public health, women’s health and improving the lives of families living in poverty. Steph is a full time working mom to the two best kids on the planet. They live a happy secular life in Omaha, Nebraska. She currently serves on the Board of Secular Avenue and manages the advocacy program for a large domestic violence and sexual assault services agency. She is a contributing blogger at Grounded Parents and Godless Revolution. In her free time, she enjoys baking pies, training for half marathons and gardening.
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Ingrid Nelson |
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| Ingrid Nelson is a nurse practitioner who specializes in HIV/AIDS and in prison health care. She was involved in grassroots AIDS and queer activism in the late 80s and early 90s with ACT UP, and Stop AIDS Now Or Else. She was a founding member of the SF Dyke March committee. She has demonstrated for abortion rights and marriage equality, and against the death penalty, the Gulf War, and police brutality.
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Amanda Novotny |
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| Amanda is a public speaker, activist, and advocate in the areas of atheism, mental health, intimate partner violence/sexual assault, and women’s rights. She has served on the board of directors for multiple freethought groups and as a state director for American Atheists. Amanda’s speaking engagements include the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s National Convention, Skepticon, the South Dakota Conference of Reason, SkepDakota, and the Minnehaha County Democratic Forum. Amanda has also presented at several South Dakota universities and schools. Amanda’s educational background is in psychology, with a special interest and focus on schizophrenia and anxiety disorders. When Amanda isn’t out doing all the activist things, she can be found hanging out with her dogs, playing baritone saxophone, doing something extraordinarily nerdy and Harry Potter related, watching NASCAR, or attempting to write.
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Trinity Pixie |
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Trinity Pixie is a transgender activist with a background studying cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which heavily informs her activism. She is a former member of the advisory council for Secular Women, has co-written with Zinnia Jones, and contributed to LGBTI+ employee education at the Mayo Clinic. Trinity has appeared at conferences such as Secular Women Work and Skepticon, where she speaks and hosts workshops on transgender and disability issues. She is an avid gamer and manages an online community for trans feminine gamers with over 500 members.
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Monette Richards |
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Monette Richards is currently the president of the Center for Inquiry, Northeast Ohio. Monette has organized their Secular Summit for the past six years, run successful workshops at Skepticon the past three years and planned a mini book tour of the Midwest for author Greta Christina. She is President of Secular Woman.
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Elsa Roberts |
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Elsa Roberts is the Communications Lead at Urban Impact Lab and Vice President of Secular Woman, and thinks a lot about access, equity, logic, walkability, and how to streamline and clarify messaging and design. Her writing has appeared in blogs that no one has heard of. Elsa has an MS in Rhetoric and Technical Communication and is currently trying to forget the trauma of grad school. She is obsessed with British murder mysteries and adult coloring books.
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Heather Rosa |
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Heather was a trained support group facilitator for the non-profit Fellowship for Renewed Living, an organization that served people dealing with divorce or other broken relationships. She served on the FRL board for many years, including three as the organization’s President. She has a long history in small-town politics, serving on her city council and as mayor for eight years. As her city’s representative on the library joint powers task force, she managed to expand her local library system in a time when many systems were shrinking.
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Desiree Schell |
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Desiree Schell runs the organizing department of Alberta’s largest public sector union and is passionate about effective activism. In her interview for SWW she says:
Schell is the cocreator of “The Skeptical Activism Campaign Manual” and a host of the “Science for the People” radio show and podcast. Panels
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Cassidy Slinger |
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Cassidy Slinger is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin Madison where she majored in Pharmacology & Toxicology and was active in Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics all four years she attended, serving as Vice President of the group for the last two. She hopes to eventually work in the medical field as a family medicine physician, with a focus on sexual and/or reproductive health. She’s passionate about reproductive justice, debunking pseudoscience, and making the secular community a safe and enjoyable place for all nonreligious people.
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Ari Stillman |
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Ari Stillman is a non-binary, pansexual, polyamorous atheist, so basically the Christian right’s worst nightmare. Their interests include J-rock, cynicism, developmental psychopathology, Oxford commas, and excessive trans visibility.
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Laura Thomas |
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Laura Thomas is the deputy state director of the Drug Policy Institute, California, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She oversees the Institute’s municipal drug strategy work in San Francisco and leads DPA’s California harm reduction and public health legislation. She has over 25 years of experience in HIV and public health policy, along with a strong commitment to community advocacy, thoughtful policy analysis and coalition building. She first became involved in AIDS activism with ACT UP in San Francisco. Before joining DPA, she was a consultant specializing in HIV policy and planning, with clients ranging from the California State Office of AIDS to the National Association of People with AIDS. She has also worked for Tenderloin Health, a nonprofit health and social service provider serving a predominantly homeless population in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
Thomas has been a syringe access volunteer for more than 18 years, and helped organize a successful 2007 symposium on safe injection facilities. She is proud to have received the AIDS Hero Award from the 2000 AIDS Candlelight Memorial. She serves on the HIV Prevention Planning Council and the San Francisco Cannabis State Legalization Task Force and is on the Steering Committee for the national HIV Prevention Justice Alliance. Workshops
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Mandisa Thomas |
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Mandisa Thomas is the president and founder of Black Nonbelievers, Inc. She also has a new project called New Turn. From their website: “The focus is to provide help for ex-convicts, at-risk juveniles and individuals who are at a general education and economic disadvantage by developing critical thinking and practical instruction and skills, as well as maximize entrepreneurial capability.” You can find out more about New Turn here.
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Amy Withawhy |
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Amy Withawhy is co-host of the Secular Soup podcast. She lives in rural Minnesota, and has been a local atheist and progressive community organizer for many years. She is the founder of Lakes Area Atheists & Freethinkers, as well as a co-organizer of her local Stand Up Minnesota chapter. She was an original organizer of Advocates for Reproductive Education, a locally-owned family planning clinic, and is a well-known community rabble rouser. She has been married for 17 years, is a small business owner, and the mom of two boys who she hopes will make the world a better place. You can find out more about her podcast and work at www.delightfulbitchcraft.com.
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Callie Wright |
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Callie Wright is the producer/host of Queersplaining, a podcast that seeks to tell the real life stories of queer and transgender folks from all walks of life. She’s a public speaker, educator, and advocate for the queer and trans community. An atheist since childhood, she’s particularly interested in the ways that conservative mainstream organized religion has marginalized the queer and trans community in the United States. She splits her time between roller derby, podcasting, the convention circuit, and making TERFs and fascists cry.
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Jessica Xiao |
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Jessica Xiao is a Washington, DC-based writer, interested in activist culture, radical vulnerability, feminism, race and identity, mass incarceration, and climate injustice. You can find her work at Everyday Feminism, The Establishment, Huffington Post, TheHumanist.com, and Medium.
She is the Prison Book Club Coordinator at Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop, a nonprofit serving incarcerated youth tried as adults. She is also a grant writer for Artistri Sud, a Montreal-based nonprofit providing social entrepreneurship and leadership development training to Indigenous women artisans. Previously, she was a Community Facilitator for McGill University’s “Social Learning for Social Impact” GROOC (massive open online course for groups) and the Marketing and Communications Lead for their environmental hackathon “On the Earth, For the Earth” at the 2016 World Social Forum. From 2015 to 2016, Jessica was the Projects Assistant at the American Humanist Association, Operations Manager at Humanist Press, and Assistant Editor at TheHumanist.com. She is Co-Chair of the Feminist Humanist Alliance. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Economics and Psychology from McGill University. Workshops
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Stephanie Zvan |
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Stephanie Zvan is the former associate president of Minnesota Atheists, and has been part of the committee running their conferences for the past two years. While blogging at Almost Diamonds, she has put together panels for all three FtBCons, the online conference of Freethought Blogs. She has also run well-received workshops at both Minnesota Atheists conferences and for the past three years at Skepticon.
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