Sam Pressler is the President and Executive Director of the Armed Services Arts Partnership and an Echoing Green Global Fellow. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude from the College of William & Mary in 2015, where he received the Ewell Award, McGlennon Scholarship, and recognition as a TEDx Innovative Thinker. While in college, he founded the W&M Center for Veterans Engagement, W&M Military & Veterans Council, and Student Veterans of W&M. Pressler is largely credited with establishing the robust veteran’s arts community in Southern Virginia, and for leading the transformation of W&M's policies toward its student veterans.

The Armed Services Arts Partnership strives to build and sustain communities around the expressive arts at no cost to veterans and military families by partnering with respected nonprofits and colleges located in areas with high military populations. We focus on developing the literary, musical, and comedic skills of our veterans in sustained, community-based environments. In the process, we also hope to foster resiliency and improve well-being among our participants, and bridge divides by connecting veterans, students, and local communities through the arts.

Sam is also the Founder and President of The William & Mary Center for Veterans Engagement (WMCVE) enables William & Mary students and faculty to create, plan, and execute community-creating, expressive arts initiatives for service members, veterans, and military families throughout Virginia. The WMCVE provides three therapeutic outlets - community, expression, and learning - without the stigma associated with seeking traditional therapy.



Current offerings include:



- Writing: Veterans Writing Project (veteranswriting.org) & Hampton Roads Veterans Writing Group

- Music: Musicorps (musicorps.net)

- Comedy: Comedy Bootcamp (ComedyBootcamp.org)

Comedy Bootcamp is an eight-week comedy writing and performing class exclusively for veterans and service members. Each course, which is led by a professional comedy instructor, covers the basics of writing and delivering jokes, stage presence, and developing and organizing material. Throughout the class, aspiring comics receive constructive feedback from their instructors and fellow classmates. By the end of the eight weekly sessions, participating veterans deliver a five-minute stand-up set to a public audience, and are then inducted into alumni meet-up groups. We've been featured in Soldiers Magazine, Military Times, Stars & Stripes, and on NPR, and our class is being covered by the Washington Post and ABC News this fall.

Laura Eisenhower is an internationally acclaimed speaker and is the great granddaughter of President Dwight David Eisenhower.  She is considered by many to be one of North America's leading researchers on Exopolotics, Alchemy, Meaphysics and Galactic History.

Laura works to free us from the 3-D holographic time loop and hidden agendas, so we can take our power back.  Feeling a calling regarding her mission since she was a child, she has incredible insight about how to guide us into higher Earth energies.  Her passion is to inpsire unity consciousness, restore our Avatar blueprint and bring us back to the Pleroma/Zero point field, the totality of our divine powers.

Christina brings training and support through her consulting, writing, classes, and her live radio show.  She brings more than 20 years of experience in alternative health, publishing, and corporate sales management. 

Christina offers her clients and listeners a unique perspective of the wellness industry from her vast experience as an Alternative Health Business Consultant, Marketing Professional, and Teacher. She has worked with international organizations specializing in wellness products and services as well as the small business .



In addition to her alternative health business experience; Christina holds a BA in Journalism/Mass Communications from UNC which led her to create Big Country Publishing, an international multi-media publisher of print books, audio, video and electronic products. This company is a traditional publisher who offers a new energy to the publishing industry.

Through combining her experience with marketing and her knowledge of publishing, Christina offers a unique skill set to her clients and authors. She understands how to custom tailor their unique business offerings through her consulting creating a valuable branding and product development plan for their business.



Christina has learned how to successfully merge her vast experience in the alternative health field with her top performance track record in the corporate world. As an owner of several small businesses and recognized nationally as a multi-million dollar top sales producer in the high tech industry; Christina offers a fresh approach to the new era of business.

Carmel Glenane B.A. Dip Ed. Owner/Director of Atlantis Rising Healing Centre™ and Mystery School.  Founder of the philosophy of The Divine Feminine in 2002 and Senju Kannon™ Reiki in 2008, teaches The Divine Feminine Mysteries through her Mystery School Ascension Training program.   A powerful interactive and dynamic motivational speaker; Channeled writer, esoteric teacher and sought after healer.  Carmel is known for her transformative tours to Sacred Destinations such as Hawaii, North, Central and South America, Turkey, India, Bali, Japan 3 Tours, Egypt 12 Tours and the great central heart of Australia, Uluru. With over 20 years in business in Personal Development, Carmel’s intent is to allow people to receive through the Heart’s Intelligence through The Mother’s wisdom.

Carmel is the Australian Ambassador for HappyCharity.org as Director of Happy Spirits and is currently writing training programs for all her books to take her courses On Line.

Jessica joined NBC Right Now and SWX in 2014 and now serves as Sports Director and Weekday Sports Anchor.

Jessica Benson serves as the Sports Director and Weekday Sports Anchor for KNDU and SWX in the Tri-Cities. Jessica grew up in Denver, CO, but she has family in Gig Harbor, Seattle, Moses Lake, Lake Chelan, Spokane, Lewiston (ID), and even right down the street in Kennewick.



Before joining KNDU, Jessica could be seen on the sidelines as a reporter for the Sun Belt Network.  She also served as a reporter for 247sports (a Rival's property) at all home and away football games for the USC Trojans.  



Jessica graduated Summa Cum Laude from USC in May 2014 with a degree in Broadcast and Digital Journalism.  While at USC, Jessica served as an Executive Producer for Annenberg TV News, the school's student-run nightly news program.  She has also worked for ESPN's "SportsNation," NBC's production of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the Rose Bowl (2012-14), the 2014 BCS National Championship Game and NBC Nightly News.



Once upon a time, Jessica worked as a ball-girl for the 2002, '03 and '04 NCAA Finals Fours and had the privilege of wiping up sweat off the court from future hall of fame coaches Roy Williams, Jim Calhoun and Billy Donovan.  She is not opposed to someday becoming the first adult ball-girl so that she can live a long and happy life underneath the basket during March Madness.

Robert Norberciak 

"When your whole career has been an uphill journey, you learn to rise to the occasion." Robert was "forced" into sales at 17, when his father told him to go sell swimming pools for the families swimming pool company. By the age of 19, Robert had reached over $1M in annual sales. He had destroyed every sales record in the entire company along the way. At 22, he left the pool industry and went in to Advertising Sales, selling in the daily deal space, prior to "Groupon" becoming a household name or had any type of brand recognition. Consistently, Robert held the top 3 position, in a sales force of 150 people. Robert was quickly moved in to a management position and there he took a team that was in the gutter and moved that entire team to become the best in the nation for the company. 

Unfortunately, Life happens and Robert and his wife both lost their managerial positions in 2012, one week apart. This is where the real journey of trials and tribulations began, Robert is truly my personal 90/10 rule.  This is the self taught marketing genius every entrepreneur truly aspires to become.His talent in the digital marketing arena leaves me in awe. He has the ability to title himself a true overcomer. I know that this journey of losing managerial positions may look like losses, but his story will inspire and motivate with the desire to believe in the American dream. 

After losing his job, he started with a housecleaning company, then moving back to an advertising company, and finally settling with a Day Spa in Scottsdale Arizona that was losing over 10k per month, they revamped, rebuilt and started completely over, he and his wife got to market and promote everything from the ground up. Today we will discuss how they have taken all of the techniques, strategic approaches, marketing ideas, and entire journey the embarked upon. As they took a Scottsdale Day Spa that was losing 10k per month to now generating over $300k in Revenue in just 15 months.....

HEATHER POWERS “GRATEFUL GIRL”

Heather is an award winning, internationally acknowledged, recording artist, writer and speaker. She has recorded two albums and is currently working on a third release set to come out in the Summer of 2015, as well as writing songs for licensing for feature films, TV and web corporate advertising campaigns. ​ ​Heather’s music has been featured on national television and in motion pictures for Warner Brothers and Universal Pictures. She was a breakout voiceover talent in the movie version of the Broadway smash hit, “Rent”. 

Her music has also garnered widespread radio play on stations around the world. Heather has recorded, toured and performed with many Hall of Fame and Grammy Award winning artists such as Huey Lewis and the News, Broadway Musical Director Tim Weil, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Bryan Duncan, John Schlitt (Petra/ 40 East), Bob Carlisle (Butterfly Kisses), Kurt Carr, Martha Munizzi, Rachael Lampa, Kevin Max (Lead singer of DC TALK/ Virgin Records) Wynonna Judd, and many others. ​

As both an artist and speaker, Heather has traveled the world entertaining and encouraging audiences through her music and her dramatic life story of young adult trauma, chronic illness, eating disorder, drugs and eventually finding complete life transition and learning to live day to day on a new path. ​ Heather has represented various humanitarian organizations including World Vision, Convoy of Hope (Heather Powers “Undone Disaster Relief “Tour Support), Food For The Hungry, The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, EmancipateME (Human Trafficking), Compassion International and the Global Federation of Eating Disorders.

EMII

Born Emily Rose Morrison in Pittsburgh, PA this future starlet always knew she wanted to be an entertainer. Growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, Community Theater was like a second home to Emii. She took every opportunity to write songs and perform on the stage. Shortly after her 18^th birthday, Emii hopped a Greyhound bus to New York City to pursue her dreams in the Big Apple with barely a penny in her pocket. “It’s safe to say my parents weren’t particularly thrilled with that decision,” she says. “But I knew what I had to do.”

While Emii worked in NYC comic book stores and photography studios by day, she would perform, write, and record in the studio by night. She recounts, “I’d work from 8AM until 5PM and then go straight to the studio. By the time a song was finished in the early morning, it was just about time for me to go back to work again!” Emii did anything and everything to further her career; she recorded with different producers, auditioned for television shows and theater, frequented open mic nights, fronted bands, and worked to perfect her craft, day-in and day-out. In an effort to keep balance in her life Emii took up martial arts training was her way of relaxing, and helped her maintain her focus.

After a few years of struggling as a “starving artist’, Emii finally met with an independent label that supported her vision and would ultimately change her life. It was then that she moved to Los Angeles, California to work with Slippery Eel Productions.

At the dawn of 2013, Emii signed with theatrical agent Media Artists Group and has been booking projects ever since. From her recent lead role in sci-fi features: Starship Rising and Starship Apocalypse, which brilliantly showcased her martial arts prowess and seasoned acting abilities to her upcoming feature film, Damage Control: First Strike. Emii has also captivated audiences in major venues and clubs around the world, sharing stages with the likes of Flo Rida, Iyaz, Inna, Robin S., and Mia Martina.

Described as “part Lady Gaga, part Amy Lee from Evanescence” by The Insider, this pop powerhouse is on a meteoric rise to the top. Emii is building a track record of success as an independent artist starting with the dance hit “Magic”, to “Mr. Romeo” Ft. Snoop Dog, to “Leaving You Behind” which quickly reached #1 on the Mediabase A/C Independent Artists chart most active new independent releases and spent an impressive 22 weeks on the Billboard-BDS A/C and Mediabase A/C charts, with 13 weeks inside the top 30.

Emii is currently on a dozen-city radio tour promoting her latest EP “Heart in a Box,” which features her single of the same name that hit #7 on Billboard’s Hot Singles Sales Chart and spent an impressive 16 weeks on the Mediabase Top 40 Pop Chart. The bombshell pop beauty is definitely paving her own way and has received rave reviews from the likes of The Insider, MTV Buzzworthy, Billboard Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine (Middle East), MTV’s LOGO On Demand, Vibe, VH1′s Pop-Up Video, and shows no sign of slowing down.