Involved in fire and EMS for over 45 years, Deputy Chief Bernie Meehan Jr., whose comfort zone is chaos, has participated in over 400 critical incident debriefings. He was one of the paramedics responding to the Sandy Hook shooting. A true icon of emergency services in Connecticut, Chief Meehan is an expert in Peer Support and Finding an Appropriate Clinician in the “New” Emergency Services.

A Career firefighter for 35 years, and an active Paramedic for past 38 years, Bernie has been involved in both career and volunteer fields. He is a founding member of Connecticut CISD Team in 1988 and is a Peer Helper trained in both fire and law enforcement disciplines.

STEFF REED

Steff Reed is a Musician, Educator, and Activist. By sharing his story, Reed shows others that they are not alone. He is a Black Man that loves and gives greatly, modeling that emotional sensitivity and compassion can make us stronger as a community.

As a singer, songwriter, producer and multi instrumentalist, Steff Reed is known to affect audiences with his spiritual, uplifting energy and song. He is unafraid to be vulnerable and open in his own story, sharing lessons of resilience, healing, self-betterment. Reed blends genres of folk rock, alternative rock, pop rock to culminate in inspirational, humanitarian messages.

Over the years, Reed has gained national acclaim as a producer and song-writer having worked with the likes of Trey Songz, Jhene Aiko, Eric Roberson, Swizz Beatz, Kenny Lattimore and Gordon Chambers on songs that made it to the Billboard Charts.

As an Educator, Reed has taught thousands of youth between the ages 4-24 over the last 15 years. In 2013, he was nominated for the GRAMMY Music Educator Award and taught a “Power of Love” workshop at NYU/Ed Sullivan Fellows.

Reed is currently building a Brooklyn-based non-profit, Power of Love, in partnership with Judson Memorial Church. His latest music project is of the same name. By using his social capital and influence, Reed is scaling his impact to empower wider audiences and impact real political change.

Steff is inspired by socially-conscious artists like John Lennon, Prince, Tracy Chapman, U2, Jean Michel Basquiat, and Jimi Hendrix.

CASSANDRA MARY BAUER

Cassandra Mary Bauer is a NDE survivor, Spiritual Thought Leader, Author, Personal Evolution Mentor, Radical Re-programmer, Ascension Coach and Founder of NOWLEVELUP. 

As a survivor of deep child trauma and abuse, Cassandra grew up with a low sense of self-worth, self-esteem, and self-confidence. She struggled in the early part of her life with feeling alone, invalidated, disconnected, and lost. 

After her profound awakening in 2013 and finding her way back to herself and creating the magical life that she had once dreamed of, led her to wanting to help others do the same.  

Cassandra has worked with thousands of souls all over the world sift through their programming to discover the superhero that lives underneath all the conditioning, beliefs, thoughts, and fears. 

Cassandra focuses on empowering adults and children to expand their awareness, master their emotions, balance their energies, and break free from their pain by feeling it, alchemizing it, and transcending it so they can step into their divine purpose, now. 

“I believe we came here to be the heroes of our own stories and to do that we must be willing to feel the entirety of our story.”

Cassandra isn’t your typical coach. She is an Ascension Coach – living proof that by embodying your deepest desires and being in alignment with your intuition, you can achieve far greater heights of success, happiness, and abundance – and that the journey doesn’t have to be hard. It gets to be fun and playful. 

Those who work with Cass experience massive shifts in mental health, self-expression, financial wealth — and everything in between. 

Cass believes that when you awaken in one area, you awaken in all areas — and this is the pathway to a life of emotional liberation, self-transformation, and inner peace.

Cassandra teaches The NOWLEVELUP Method through workshops, classes, events, and coaches’ personal clients internationally. 

Cassandra has been told by thousands of people that she is the ‘Perfect Mirror,’ Why? 

Because she understands the depth of feeling unseen, unheard, unacknowledged and invalidated for the magic that lives within. 

And, she also knows the power, strength and courage it takes to walk the path of reconnecting back to one’s individual magic and understanding that the only one that can validate that magic is oneself.

THERE ARE ONLY TWO WAYS OF SPREADING THE LIGHT : TO BE THE CANDLE OR THE MIRROR THAT REFLECTS IT

Edith Wharton

RUTH BROYDE SHARONE

Honored internationally for her interfaith activism and leadership, filmmaker/journalist Ruth Broyde Sharone is the creator of INTERFAITH: The Musical which has ignited the enthusiasm of people around the world eager to see their religious and cultural diversity reflected in mainstream theatres. Both lyricist and composer, she released her first album for the musical in 2015 and the second one in December 2021.

Eight songs were performed publicly to a full house at the Pico Union Project in LA in 2019.  She is currently completing the libretto.

A passionate interfaith activist for more than 30 years, Ruth pioneered ground-breaking interfaith pilgrimages to the Middle East in the 90s, was a co-founder and then served for 10 years as Co-Chair of the Southern California Parliament of the World’s Religions, and worked on the staff of the Global Parliament as well. She created a popular interfaith program on college campuses with her prize-winning film, God and Allah Need to Talk.   

Her riveting interfaith memoir, MINEFIELDS & MIRACLES, considered a “primer” on interfaith engagement, has received multiple literary awards and endorsements from 30 religious leaders including H.H. the Dalai Lama. Ruth also penned more than 60 articles for The Interfaith Observer, and co-authored the 2018 best-selling Amazon book, 21ST CENTURY VOICES: Women Who Influence, Inspire, and Make A Difference.

Among her many awards for inspirational interfaith leadership, in 2013 she was inducted into the Martin Luther King, Jr. Advisory Board at Morehouse College and recognized as an outstanding interfaith leader by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2015.  She resides in Los Angeles.

EVA PERLMAN

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Albert Einstein

Eva was born in Berlin, Germany in 1932.

Her family survived WWII by hiding in the mountains of southern France.

Following her childhood in Germany and France, she has lived in Israel, Switzerland, England, Uganda, Canada, and now the U.S.

She has had several careers in many fields including healthcare, and her goal is to help people maintain and improve their health.

She was married for 32 years, has three children, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

She has always been a wonderful storyteller, and now published her autobiography: “Eva’s Uncommon Life

Guided by Miracles.”

Eva’s Uncommon Life – Guided by Miracles is an extraordinary life story that begins in hiding in the south of France during World War II, narrowly escaping capture by the Nazis. Eva Perlman’s autobiography details the first of many miracles that kept her family alive and permeated her long and rich life. After adventures, travel and hardships she ultimately found her purpose as a Holocaust survivor educating Jewish teens on the annual March of the Living. Perlman brings pearls of wisdom, humor and joie de vivre to her tale of love, loss and choosing happiness.

Eva, not only is your story so inspiring, but your genuine love of life is amazing.

Your jokes kept me laughing when I needed to feel good. Your conversation kept

me listening when I needed to be inspired, and your story kept me learning when

I needed to gain perspective.

-Bryan G., Student, BIE March of the Living, 2012

Eva’s positive outlook, ability to overcome hardship, and the ways in which she

has used her experiences to teach others about tolerance and respect are models

we should all strive to emulate in our own lives. This memoir is a beautiful and

honest reflection on a life well-lived

Maya Aharon, Director, Teen Experiential Education Programs, Builders of Jewish Education, Los Angeles