Deanna Adams is a freelance writer, essayist, writing instructor, and speaker whose articles and essays have been published in Ohio Magazine, Writers' Digest, Northern Ohio Live, The Plain Dealer, Sesame Street Parents Magazine, Soho Magazine, Lake County Business Journal, Today’s Family, Lake Erie Living Magazine, and other publications. She also contributed an article on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum for the The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia.

Her first book, Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Cleveland Connection by Kent State University Press, was a finalist for the 2003 ARSC Award (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) for excellence in research, and a 2003 finalist for the Ohioana Book Award for nonfiction.

Her book, Confessions of a Not-So-Good Catholic Girl, is a collection of true stories about growing up a baby boomer in the Midwest.

Her latest book, Cleveland's Rock and Roll Roots, is a photographic celebration of the rich and colorful Cleveland music history of the '50s through the '70s.

Deanna is an instructor at Lakeland Community College, and director of the Western Reserve Writers' Conference, and the founder of Women Writers’ Winter Retreat.

She has recently completed her next book, a novel.
 

Dr. Grace Gawler DHM (dist) DBSc ATMS Mem IPOS (International Society for Psycho-Psychology) has been involved with teaching cancer survival strategies for more than 39 years. Trained as an Herbalist/ Naturopath with an early background working in veterinary medicine with her ex husband who became a cancer patient in 1974. Over the years Grace became a pro-life cancer recovery strategist and trained in body psychotherapy with Ilana Rubenfeld in the USA. She co-founded Australia's first Cancer Support groups and residential courses and has worked throughout the world in the area of cancer as a public and keynote speaker and workshop facilitator. She has chosen to emphasize the emotional-psycho-spiritual aspect of cancer recovery and management at all stages. Grace learned a great deal when in 1997 unexpected post-surgical complications from a routine surgery left her with colon paralysis. After 21 surgeries geared at keeping her alive Grace eventually found her solution - an experimental 'bionic' sacroneuromodulation implant performed in Holland. The procedure was a 'world first' for this condition. Grace had her life back knowing what it was like to be in the shoes of a patient with a life threatening condition. She wrote her memoir Grace, Grit and Gratitude in 2008 to celebrate her survival.

As Founder and Director of the Grace Gawler Institute, Grace can now help patients to find integrated cancer solutions. She helps patients to transform the challenge, PTSD, fear and myriad of emotional issues surrounding cancer into becoming a successful patient - the best one can be whatever the outcome. She works in conjunction with medical oncology and integrative oncology clinics in Australia and Europe assisting patients with fully supported medi-tours to Hallwang Private Oncology Clinic in Germany's Black Forest. You can listen to Grace's US-based free to air internet radio show Navigating the Cancer Maze on Voice America’s Health and Wellness channel.

Radames Pera now Radames Pera was born in New York City in 1960. He moved to Hollywood with his mother in 1963 so she could pursue her acting career (their first apartment was around the corner from the historic Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd.). In 1967 Radames was discovered by director Daniel Mann and cast as Stavros, the dying son of Anthony Quinn and Irene Papas in A Dream of Kings (1968). His mother found him an agent and he ended up guest-starring in several TV shows in the late 1960s and 1970s. An early live television appearance was as Oliver Twist on The Red Skelton Show (1969). For the first few years of his career he tended to be cast in roles as the sensitive or troubled boy. This reputation led to his landing the co-starring role of the Shaolin monk, "Grasshopper" in the seminal TV series Kung Fu (1972) and later as the writer/poet John Jr. (and Mary Ingalls' fiancée) in Little House on the Prairie (1975).

In the summer of 1978 Radames began his three-year intensive study of acting and directing with Stella Adler, first in L.A. and then at her Conservatory in New York City. While in New York he portrayed Alan Bates' estranged son in the British feature film, Very Like a Whale (1981).

After returning to Los Angeles in 1981 Radames then discovered for himself the painful reality that nearly every child actor faces: "The Business" was done with him. Because he was no longer a "child actor" and was now (un-)officially an "ex-child star" he was basically un-hirable! Even though he was as the top of his game, experience and training wise, casting executives were unable to see beyond their pidgeon-hole. As strange as this might sound, imagine being on the receiving end of it!

Radames' last feature film role was working opposite Charlie Sheen, Patrick Swayze and Lea Thompson as the Soviet Radar Tracking Expert, Sgt. Stepan Gorsky in John Milius' Red Dawn (1984). That same year he wed his wife, Marsha Mann. His last TV role was working with Stacy Keach as a Nazi vigilante youth-gang leader in The New Mike Hammer (1985).

In 1988 he started his own business designing and installing home theaters and residential sound systems. In 1993 he successfully moved his family and business to Portland, Oregon, then returned to Southern California in 2002, living in Ventura from 2002-2004. Since the end of '04 Radames has been a resident of Austin, Texas, where he has continued pursuing his writing and directing talents.
 

Emmy nominated casting director Craig Campobasso is writing, producing directing his Short Film Stranger at the Pentagon based on the popular UFO book about Created Being Valiant Thor (from Venus) who lived at the Pentagon under the Eisenhower Administration. This film is in post production.

His first book The Autobiography of an ExtraTerrestrial Saga: I AM Thyron is about the star seed program currently underway on Earth from Melchizedek.

It was at age 26, when Craig had a spiritual awakening with Master Teachers (including Melchizedek, the Universe’s University of 490 planets in an outer space city) and he began receiving communications from other dimensions. His ‘universally awake’ training is still active now, 27 years after initial contact.

Join Star Gate Round Table as this fascinating story/interview unfolds. There will be an opportunity to call in and ask your questions.

Breakthrough Brain Health for Optimal Mental Clarity and Mood Management

Tony Stephan has a rare tragedy-to-triumph story about the mental health of loved ones as he developed a brain-nutrient supplement - internationally tested over 15 years - with unprecedented results.

This is a huge boost for one's optimal mental and physical health, especially stress coping as effects anxiety, blood pressure, anger, digestion, skin health, insomnia, brain fog, big mood swings, and afflicted mental health worthy of a "check up from the neck up": depression, bipolar, ADD/ADHD, addiction/OCD, trauma, autism, fibromyalgia, migraines, and many other brain-body conditions.

If you have loved ones suffering from debilitating mental health, Tony's story will give you hope with an opportunity to truly help. Since 1996, Tony's 'brain food' has benefited tens of thousands of people in over sixty countries.

Dr. Gay HannaGay Powell Hanna, Ph.D., M.F.A., an arts administration leader with 30 years management experience in the arts, education and health related program services, is the executive director of the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA), an affiliate of George Washington University. NCCA is an interdisciplinary nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering an understanding of the vital relationship between creative expression and the quality of life for older people regardless of ethnic, economic status or level of physical or cognitive functioning. NCCA provides professional development and technical assistance including service as a clearinghouse for best practices, research and policy development to encourage and sustain arts and humanities program in various community and health care settings.

Previously Dr. Hanna served as the executive director of the Society for the Arts in Health from 2003 through May 2007. Through faculty positions at Florida State University and University of South Florida from 1987 to 2003, Dr. Hanna directed VSA Arts of Florida, an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, providing arts education programs for people with disabilities including people with chronic illness. In 2001, she established the Florida Center for Creative Aging at the Florida Policy Exchange Center on Aging at the University of South Florida to address quality of life issues. As a contributing author to numerous articles and books, Dr. Hanna was the lead author of a recently published white paper produced by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Arts and Human Development, Framing A National Research Agenda For The Arts, Lifelong Learning, And Individual Well-Being (November 2011). Dr. Hanna is an associate professor at George Washington University in the Health Sciences Department. She holds a Ph. D. in arts education with a specialization in arts administration focusing on underserved communities from Florida State University; a M.F.A. in sculpture from the University of Georgia; and a bachelor of arts degree, magna cum laude in studio art, from Old Dominion University. She also holds certification in program evaluation from Florida State University and a nonprofit management executive certificate from Georgetown University.

KIRBY DICK is an Academy and Emmy Award nominated documentary director. His most recent film, OUTRAGE, which was nominated for an Emmy and released by Magnolia Pictures, is a searing indictment of the hypocrisy of powerful closeted politicians and the political and media institutions that protect them. In 2006 he directed THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED, released by IFC Films. A breakthrough investigation of the highly secretive MPAA film ratings system, the film compelled the MPAA to make long overdue changes in the way it rates films.

The Invisible War Movie PosterDick's prior film, TWIST OF FAITH, is the powerful story of a man confronting the trauma of his past sexual abuse by a Catholic priest. Produced for HBO, TWIST OF FAITH received a 2004 Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature. Dick's other films include, DERRIDA, a complex portrait of the world-renowned French philosopher Jacques Derrida, which won the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival, and the internationally acclaimed SICK: THE LIFE & DEATH OF BOB FLANAGAN, SUPERMASOCHIST, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Grand Prize at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Susan Avila-Smith is a former Army linguist who has experienced both MST (Military Sexual Trauma) and PTSD (Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder). As a veterans' advocate for those with MST and PTSD she has to her credits approximately 4,000 claims settled on behalf of fellow veterans suffering from MST, PTSD or both.

Founder and Director of VetWow, Ms. Susan Avila-Smith is a sought-after media guest who has spoken to international audiences about the challenges faced by survivors of Military Sexual Trauma - sexual harassment, assault and rape while serving on active duty. She has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, MSNBC, 60 Minutes, Dateline NBC, 20/20, NPR, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and others, as well as testifying at the House Military Subcommittee on Military Sexual Trauma. From VAMC health care to the VARO benefits system, she has discussed both their benefits and failures from the perspective of MST victims. Currently, she trains other advocates to help with this work. And realizing that American service personnel's needs were too often being ignored by the military and the government, she formed VetWow; the leading grassroots non-partisan organization, which addresses the needs of American service members and veterans.

Susan extends herself with courage, revealing something few MST survivors can express. In telling the story of her personal trauma and subsequent struggle, she opens the door to an insider's view of the hostile world confronting victims of MST. Her battles with bureaucrats for rightful recognition and compensation for her permanent disabilities trigger disgust and anger in those learning about the reality of the very system that is supposed to care for her and others with MST.

Ms. Avila-Smith's Active Duty training, her experience of reporting both DV and MST while in the Military, of being treated for years by Washington State's best counselors, of obtaining VA Benefits, and her extensive contact with other Active Duty and Veteran MST survivors as well as her participation in the 60-day National Center for PTSD's Women's Trauma Recovery Program (WTRP) give her an inside view of the real issues surrounding MST that is not offered anywhere else.

"I have changed victim's lives by helping them apply for and win their VA benefits, and I have had an extraordinary life over the past 15 years because of it. I have learned much and want to share this knowledge with people who can teach or do this work. By working on my personal PTSD issues, helping others, and sharing my experience; I have become healthier."

Since leaving the military, she has been a tireless advocate for veterans, and women veterans in particular. Ms. Avila-Smith is well-versed on the effects of PTSD. She speaks to these issues, as well as the increasing rates of suicide, substance abuse and homelessness among our service members. Her work is funded out of pocket.