Dr. Paulette Kouffman Sherman is a licensed psychologist, certified life coach and author of 21 books, including, ‘Dating from the Inside Out,’ published by Atria Books and the upcoming, ‘The Book of Sacred Baths,’ published by Llewellyn Worldwide this August.  After having survived breast cancer 4 years ago, she decided to publish a legacy of 22 books.  She’s now on book #21 and is feeling great.  She has a private practice in Manhattan and does life coaching by phone.  With 20 years as a therapist, she is often featured on JDate and has a monthly dating column in Eligible Magazine.  She’s also an expert on television shows like the CBS Early Show & the AM Northwest Early Show and a radio guest on the Curtis Sliwa show, NPR’s Cityscape, Pathways and others.  She's quoted on MSN.com, USA Weekend, the NY Post, Newsweek, Lifetime.com, More, Match.com, Foxnews.com, Fox Business, Crains, Better Homes & Gardens, Reader’s Digest, Redbook, Glamour, Forbes, Woman’s Day, Metro newspapers, Men’s Health, Seventeen, Men’s Health, New York Magazine, Web MD, Everyday Health, Complete Woman magazines, the Huffington Post and the NY Times. 

Cultures around the world have long used bathing and bathhouses to connect with Spirit and to promote personal wellness and cultural milestones. The Book of Sacred Baths shows how to use this wonderfully relaxing practice to create transformation in your love life, career, health, and spirit. Discover everything you need to know about the history of sacred baths, the healing medium of water, meditations and prayers, creating intention, essential oils and crystals, visualization, Law of Attraction, and much more. Discover 52 recipes for sacred baths, one for each week of the year. Each bath recipe is tailored to a specific emotional or spiritual need, and helps you align your thoughts, feelings, and emotions to attract your highest good. Use essential oils, crystals, candles, and color therapy along with visualization and ritual practice to raise your vibration and release negative energy down the drain.

DEBORAH MARAGOPOULOS

The Hormone Queen® Deborah Maragopoulos MN FNP blends the Science of Medicine with the Art of Healing. Upon graduating from UCLA with a Masters in Nursing, Deborah studied nutritional science, functional medicine, quantum physics, genetics, neuro-immune-endocrinology, and metaphysical healing. Through clinical research and two decades of collecting empirical data Deborah developed a unique holistic health care model blending naturopathic and allopathic therapies, as well as a promising nutraceutical product – Genesis Gold®.

Because of her success with the most challenging cases, patients come from around the world to her Intuitive Integrative Health practice – Full Circle Family Health.  An inspirational speaker, Deborah has shared her pearls of wisdom at the California Women’s Expo, the Southern California Women’s Herbal Symposium, and the American College of Nurse Practitioners. Her debut novel LoveDance® was awarded Reviewers Choice for Best Spiritual Fiction.

Deborah donates thirteen percent of her profits to Divine Daughters Unite, a nonprofit she created to empower young women through compassionate service. Founder of Genesis Health Products Inc, former clinical endocrine advisor to Genova Laboratory and Sansum Medical Clinic, and past president of California Association of Nurse Practitioners, Deborah lives with her husband in the beautiful Ojai Valley. Her international best seller – Hormones in Harmony®: Heal Your Hypothalamus for Optimal Health, Graceful Aging and Joyous Energy — is available on Amazon.

JESS WAYNE

Jess Wayne – singer/songwriter, poet and guitar player. His original music is soulful and from the heart and more often than not, blues injected. It is simultaneously old and new, familiar with a twist. Real songs, real words, real music. Music for adults who have lived and know that life is complex, messy, muddy, simple and beautiful – all at the same damn time. It’s songs with a groove.

Jess Wayne aka Douglas Wayne Jessop was born in 1951 at West Point, New York. His father was in the air force and the family moved a lot in the early years. Ultimately they settled down in a suburb of Denver, Colorado. Jess started playing music when he was eight years old – first on autoharp, graduating to tenor ukulele and finally guitar. He took guitar lessons when he was 11. He was soon invited to join the first of many rock and roll bands playing the latest music of the time – Beatles, Hendrix, Rolling Stones and more. In college (University of Colorado Boulder), his interest shifted to acting and psychology. Although his electric guitar was stolen, he kept playing and writing on a borrowed acoustic guitar. After graduation, he went to New York City to learn and perform modern dance – ultimately receiving a masters degree in theater and dance. He performed and toured with several NYC dance companies and listened to and danced to a lot of very avant garde music. He also worked a lot of ordinary jobs – dishwasher, short order cook, bus boy, draftsman, handyman, janitor, painter, messenger, carpenter, sports team mascot, and secretary. He still found time to play guitar.

By the time he was 29, it was time to move on. He spent the next two decades as a successful , nationally recognized lawyer with an international practice based in Denver. He even took a turn as a law professor. But it was never enough. He formed a variety of bands during this period, studied jazz and music theory and played as much as he could given the demanding work schedule. In 2009, he closed his law firm and headed to Los Angeles. There he immersed himself in the Musicians Institute’s Guitar Institute Technology program.

Today, Jess is fronting the Jess Wayne band, singing, playing guitar and writing songs. He also plays for other projects and artists both live and in the studio. He recently published a book of poetry entitled “Before They Were Songs – A Musician’s Love Poems To His Muse.”

EDWING SANKEY

Based out of Los Angeles, CA, Edwing Sankey has devoted himself to creating, playing, and teaching music that is innovative and healing. He is an accomplished Jazz Guitarist, plays healing Siddha Music with his Zithers, and recently invented a New Tuning System for the Ukelele.

Edwing has depth, not only from his rich musical history, but from his international travels, and from many years emerging victorious over life’s obstacles.

After several decades of touring the world, playing Jazz and healing music with his band Indigo Triangle and with his Zithers, Edwing has been making several happy trips to China where he is blessed to teach and play for the Children, and all generations, to uplift, enrich and empower them by enhancing their ability to express through music.

He believes we have to prioritize teaching the children and playing music for them. As such, he devotes his time in China sharing the new tuning system he invented based in pentatonic music – which is easy to play on the 5th interval.

People can continue to play and share. The Ukelele is a tool of expression, and it’s not exclusively for certain people. Together we are creating an environment where all people have access to this wonderfully expressive instrument.

Edwing and his partners see the Ukelele as a tool of transformation for the survival of the future.

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." 

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!