Angela Luna is competing for the title of Miss Missouri June 12-18 as Miss Zona Rosa 2016.

Born and raised in the St.Louis area, Angela aspires to become a Television News Anchor by studying Mass Media in Multimedia Journalism/Sports Broadcasting at Northwest Missouri State University. Luna is entering her senior year and has had many field reporting experiences particularly at the 2016 Iowa Caucuses. While competing through the Miss America Organization, Luna is raising funds for Children's Miracle Network which is the national platform for Miss America as well as her own personal platform: Raise Your Voice It's Your Choice "Educating generations about the importance of the right to vote."

You can also help Angela make it to the Miss Missouri Top 11 by voting for her as "People's Choice" with a dollar a vote going towards the Miss Missouri Scholarship Program

Simon Fox, Executive Director of the Adventures in Caring Foundation,(AiC), is pioneering the education of the heart. He is also co-Author of What Can I Say? A Guide to Visiting Friends and Family Who Are Ill and co-producer of five video-based training programs on  compassion,including The Medicine of Compassion and Oxygen for Caregivers.  For 30 years AiC has taught the art and practice of compassion—as a skill that restores well-being and promotes healing. Their work is now recognized globally.

Adventures in Caring is based in Santa Barbara and despite its small size it is having a big impact. Founded by Simon’s wife, Karen Fox, in 1984, the nonprofit is most famous for its Raggedy Ann and Andy  volunteers who visit local nursing homes and hospitals to lift the spirits of patients who are lonely. What is less well known is who is under those wigs, what they discovered, and how far their influence has spread.

Many people still think that compassion cannot be taught—considering it a personality trait that’s either there or not. Others think of compassion as a philosophy or a feeling. Under Karen and Simon’s tutelage Adventures in Caring has taken it a step further: compassion as a verb—the practical skill of getting it across to a person who is sick or injured so that they realize that you care and they no longer feel alone. Fox says “That’s when the magic happens—when the other person gets it. That’s when you see their body language change, their vital signs improve, and their outlook become more hopeful.” He says this is the secret of all great nurses, physicians, and health care practitioners—they know the language of healing that lifts the spirits, dispels loneliness, and inspires the will to heal.

Under the leadership of Simon Fox, this is what the Adventures in Caring team has decoded and now teaches to undergraduate students from the University of California–Santa Barbara who are studying to become doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals. They learn this art through a one-year service-learning internship. After in-depth training they visit the residents in a nursing home or the patients on a hospital unit on a weekly basis for a school year, practicing the art of listening carefully, taking an interest in lives, not just bodies, and building the emotional maturity to create meaningful connections with those who are suffering. By reflecting in writing on what happened in each interaction, and being coached year-round, the students develop skills that last a lifetime.

Simon and the AiC team have shared their discovery far and wide,  with volunteers and health professionals. David Chernof, MD, former AiC board president and professor at the David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine said, “This is a remarkable program, I highly recommend it.” General Colin Powell took notice: “I applaud your efforts to teach volunteers how to interact with people who are suffering… I am sharing your work with my staff.”

More than one thousand hospitals, one thousand hospices, two thousand churches, and several hundred nursing schools have used AiC programs. Santa Barbara City College School of Nursing has integrated the entire AiC Cultivating Compassion series into its new Memory Caregiver program that teaches nursing assistants how to built better relationships with patients who have dementia. Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara has trained its own team of mentors to teach the Cultivating Compassion program throughout the entire agency, to equip its staff with the most advanced skills for communicating compassion to the sick and dying. Even the American Trauma Society in Washington DC used AiC expertise—to help teach trauma surgeons how to better communicate with the families of trauma victims in those crucial moments when they must deliver news right after surgery.

In addition to teaching healthcare providers to be more compassionate, under Simon’s direction, Adventures in Caring created the Oxygen for Caregivers program to protect the health and emotional well-being of health care professionals.  According to Simon, deteriorating health of the people who work in health care is a growing problem throughout the world—they are in poorer health than most other occupations. He shares one of the more startling facts, nursing assistants are more likely to be injured on the job than construction workers. Nurses are more likely to experience on-the-job violence than all other professions. Doctors too are affected: more than one in three physicians may be clinically depressed, and surgeons think of suicide as much as three times more often than the general population. Many trauma workers and social workers are physically assaulted at work, and those who work in palliative care have higher stress scores than patients newly diagnosed with breast cancer.

Oxygen for Caregivers: Guarding Against Burnout, Sustaining Compassion, has been adopted by the international group of nurse educators, ELNEC (End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium) who deliver programs in 80 countries. The AiC Oxygen for Caregivers is now a key part of the ELNEC train-the-trainer summits and so far has been presented in the U.S., China, Kenya, and Romania. “These resources are beautifully created to remind us of the importance of self-care” said Pam Malloy, ELNEC Director.

From hospice care to trauma care, this ripple of compassion that began in Santa Barbara is spreading throughout the world. Glen Holden Jr., current AiC board president, added, “If you have ever wondered if love really has the power to heal, you might want to take a look at the AdventuresInCaring.org website. No matter what kind of help you give to someone in need, when you also make a heartfelt connection, the difference you make in their life is so much more powerful and lasting. That’s why it is essential to teach compassion.”

Datta Rokade in Prune-India is a Personal Empowerment coach, Master SPIRIT LIFE Coach with 10 years experience. "I work with individuals who have too many choices in their lives and who feel the need to design a simple, sustainable, flexible and elegant life and lifestyle. I help you to see the glass full and overflowing. You know those moments in life when you think, "Ah! Life is good." I help people have way, way more of them. Think of possibilities that they never considered before. I help you let go of a lot of baggage you never thought you'd get rid of. Contact me to have a conversation to discover the benefits of being coached and the difference it can make in all areas of your life, such as business, career, relationships, health and wellbeing, etc." 

A Pet Safety advocate, Lindsey Wolko is best known as the Founder of the Center for Pet Safety (CPS), a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit research and consumer advocacy organization dedicated to companion animal and consumer safety. Her passion for pet safety has received global attention and her accomplishments include creating, overseeing and developing such facets as Carrier & Harness Restraint System Test Protocol & Ratings Systems, Crashworthiness studies and development of the first instrumented and weighted Crash Test Dog.

Terry Kaye is a professional writer, actress and singer, actually she’s just coming off a great performance in “Bill W. and Doctor Bob,” She sang back-up for Jessica Simpson at the American Music Awards, starred as Claire in the pilot episode of "Forbbiden Doors," a series based on the popular novels by Bill Myers and will be in the upcoming thriller “We Go On,” but in her dog Belle's first book, "Dog Only Knows," Terry's role is translator – not German, French, Spanish or even American Sign Language, but translating canine!

Guy McPherson is an energetic speaker and talented moderator. He has been labeled an anarchist and eco-terrorist by senior members of the Obama administration. He readily pleads guilty to the former and probably also the latter, depending upon how it is defined.

McPherson has appeared before countless audiences to speak about the two primary consequences of our fossil-fuel addiction: global climate change and energy decline. Because these phenomena impact every aspect of life on Earth, his talks reach a wide variety of audiences such as universities, associations, nonprofits, and numerous educational and scientific symposia and conferences. Selected presentations are available at McPherson’s YouTube channel or, more recently, Nature Bats Last’s YouTube channel, but each presentation is uniquely prepared for the specific audience. A host’s perspective in the wake of Guy’s departure.

Guy is professor emeritus of natural resources and the environment at the University of Arizona, where he taught and conducted research for twenty award-winning years. His scholarly work, which has for many years focused on conservation of biological diversity, has produced more than a dozen book and hundreds of articles. He lives in an off-grid, straw-bale house where he puts into practice his lifelong interest in sustainable living by fully engaging with his rural human community.

Guy developed a comprehensive set of durable living arrangements in response to the ongoing collapse of the industrial economy and global climate change. He shares property in a rural area developed specifically to provide abundant supplies of food and water as well as maintaining comfortable body temperature in the absence of fossil fuels. He is available for consultation if you are serious about doing the same.

Because the topics of his presentations sometimes induce despair, Guy became a certified grief-recovery specialist in January 2014. The certification came from The Grief Recovery Institute.

Guy McPherson on Extinction Dialogs: How To Live With Death In Mind

Growing up in India combined with travels to Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Asia and Europe, gave me a great love of writing for Indian mythology and divinity tales. I write short stories and articles inspired by the power of happiness, love, laughter and the compelling flow and ebb of human emotions that make life an exhilarating journey! I am former journalist, now turned writer and part of a fantastic editorial team  for the Coffeelicious online magazine on https://medium.com/ with 1.9K+ followers. I am also a content contributor for Thought Catalog, an online magazine for millennials. An MBA in Marketing and with a second masters degree in international relations, I work in marketing/business development/vendor relations roles for corporate entities in the United States. I have just completed my new book - " Be Perfectly Imperfect", 41 short essays on life, laughter and happiness - now available on my website