"Hold your power. speak your truth. come from love." - Anita Roberts

Anita has been working in the field of violence prevention and women's empowerment since 1976.  She is the founder and guiding force behind SafeTeen’s internationally acclaimed Community Violence Prevention Programs. Chosen as a Canadian representative on Violence Against Women to the United Nations, Roberts is visionary, inspirational speaker, and award winning author. Her book, SafeTeen: Powerful Alternatives to Violence has been translated into Japanese and Chinese. Roberts has traveled to five continents to empower women, train educators and parents, and teach youth to hold their power, speak their truth and come from love.

Anita Roberts is a dynamic speaker who brings personal narrative, an engaging sense of humour and a passionate presence to her work.

Anita Robert’s TEDxTalk: http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxIsfeld-Anita-Roberts-The-Tr;search%3Atag%3A%22TEDxIsfeld%22

Fran Siederer Bio

I’m a sixty something year-old wife of my wonderful husband Marty (34 yrs.), a calligrapher for over 30 years, and mother of three wonderful children – Dave (32), Emily (26) and Ariel (22).

My story is about our second child Emily. My pregnancy and her birth and the months and years of struggle that followed have all been worth every minute of our time, love, effort and positive attitudes. She has grown into an amazing young woman. I mean to speak of the journey we have been on for these 26+ years, especially the pregnancy that I chose to continue with, even though my doctor was not very encouraging.

Love, the support of so many people around the world, positive attitudes, and real efforts to get through, and also help Emily through, difficult times have strengthened both our marriage and our belief in the power of love.

We have been fortunate to have a huge support system – loving family, wonderful friends, and even strangers who heard of our trials during my pregnancy and Emily’s years since. The journey continues.

Emily Siederer Bio

When I was born at 25 weeks, and a very low birth weight, the doctors said I wouldn’t live.

When I did, they said I wouldn’t function properly. I challenged them. They also said I wouldn’t walk. I didn’t walk, I danced.

At age 2 I began ballet, got along with people very easily, did well in dance class. Then reality hit. The “nice girl” was too nice, too much of a pushover.

At age 10 I began puberty, I gained weight and was shunned by all my peers. My friends didn’t want to play with me anymore, shows you how cruel children can be.

I then began to take on different “characters”. At age 12 I was a cheerleader, at age 14 I was a Wiccan, at age 16 I was an anorexic, at 17 I was a bulimic, by age 18 all I was, was an eating disorder. It had taken over, kept me stuck at age 16.

By age 18 (which I don’t even remember most of) I was bingeing, purging, restricting, over-exercising, blacking out when I stood up, and I wasn’t even underweight.

At age 19, I went for help, I went to outpatient treatment. I encouraged others in group therapy. I completed all my meals, but I was not filling out my food journal for my nutritionist. Consequently I was kicked out.

I stayed with my therapist from treatment, who is basically the only reason I am staying in recovery. She believed in me. Sometimes all it takes is that one person who you really connect with to make you believe in yourself.

I am now 26 years old and am at a job I love in fashion, my favorite activities include shopping, watching Netflix, hanging out with my friends, or just cuddling with my dog.

Christine Ha is the first ever blind contestant and season 3 winner of the competitive amateur cooking television show, MasterChef USA on FOX, with Gordon Ramsay, Graham Elliot, and Joe Bastianich. She defeated over 30,000 home cooks across America to secure the coveted MasterChef title, a $250,000 cash prize, and a cookbook deal.

“The lady has an extraordinary palate, a palate of incredible finesse. She picks up hot ingredients, touches them, and she thinks about this image on the plate. She has the most disciplined execution on a plate that we’ve ever seen. But the palate is where it’s just extraordinary. And honestly, I know chefs with Michelin stars that don’t have palates like hers.” –Chef Gordon Ramsay, MasterChef judge

Christine also has a Master of Fine Arts from University of Houston’s nationally acclaimed Creative Writing Program. During her time there, she served as Fiction Editor for Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts. She is currently working on a memoir.

Christine’s first cookbook, Recipes From My Home Kitchen: Asian and American Comfort Food (Rodale, 2013), was a New York Times best-seller. She has been featured on NPR and the BBC; made guest appearances on “MasterChef” Vietnam; and travels around the globe to give inspiring keynote addresses and cooking demonstrations, including a TEDx talk at University of California, San Diego, in May 2015. Her latest foray into television is a Canadian cooking show on AMI called Four Senses (Varner Productions), on which she is a co-host with Carl Heinrich, season 2 winner of “Top Chef” Canada. “Four Senses aims to encourage visually impaired individuals to get cooking in the kitchen and will begin production of its third season this fall.

Christine received the 2014 Helen Keller Personal Achievement Award from the American Foundation for the Blind, a recognition formerly bestowed upon Ray Charles, Patty Duke, and Stevie Wonder among others. Christine resides with her husband and two dogs in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Harriet Lerner is an author, speaker and psychologist. Dr. Lerner is one of the world's most respected voices in the psychology of women and family relationships. She is the author of 11 books published in 35 languages including The Dance of Anger, a New York Times bestseller that has helped rescue men and women from the swamps and quicksands of difficult relationships. The Dance of Anger can be found on Amazon at this link:

Dr. Lerner is a sought-after speaker for both professional and popular audiences. She is a dynamic presenter who has made numerous media appearances including Oprah, CNN, and NPR. 

Belle Dessa represents Great Plains Earth Institute in Wichita, Kansas. GPEI is an environmental education program that seeks spiritually integrated solutions to ecological challenges through transformational experiences.



As a community catalyst and change agent, Great Plains Earth Institute provides innovative programs that empower individuals and groups to take care of Earth. Programs emphasize individual responsibility as well as the importance of a supportive community, offer action-oriented educational, spiritual and creative forums for rediscovering our interconnectedness to all living things, and provide access tools and resources for individual and cultural change.