Presenter Biographies

Keynote Speaker
Julie Davey combined her background as a full-time college writing and journalism professor with her two-time breast-cancer survival to create a unique and successful Writing for Wellness program at City of Hope National Cancer Center in California. Julie teaches patients, medical staff, caregivers and family members how to write effectively to relieve stress and frustrations. Her book, Writing for Wellness: A Prescription for Healing is being used in several wellness centers and medical facilities.

Franklin Abbott, LCSW has been writing a lot more as a consequence of being part of the Ninth Muse Writing Group. In the past, he has published three anthologies on men’s issues, the most recent being a second edition of Boyhood: Growing Up Male, 1998, University of Wisconsin Press. He is a poet. His first book of poetry, Mortal Love, was published in 1999. His new collection, Pink Zinnia (www.pinkzinniapoems.com), debuted at this year’s Decatur Book Festival. He has given readings and workshops through the U.S. and abroad. He coordinates the community poetry reading series at Atlanta’s Outwrite Books and is Chairperson of the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival. He has been in private practice as a clinical social worker for almost thirty years. He believes that psychotherapy when it is good is good poetry and good poetry is psychotherapy.

Sara Baker is a poet and fiction writer. Her work has appeared in The Art of Grief: The Use of Expressive Arts in a Grief Support Group, The Journal of Poetry Therapy, The Healing Muse, Ars Medica, The Spirit That Moves Us, The Lullwater Review, The Chattahoochee Review and many other venues. Her most recent article is forthcoming in Traumatolgy, The International Journal. She facilitates healing writing workshops at the Loran Smith Center for Cancer Support in Athens, Ga. She writes about her experiences there in Word Medicine: www.saratbaker.wordpress.com. For more information about the workshops, please go to www.saratbaker.com.

LaDonna Benedict, LPC is a Licensed Professional Counselor, currently retired, a former high school English creative writing teacher and former Certified Catastrophic Rehabilitation Counselor in the Workers’ Compensation area. Her degrees are in education and counseling. Writing has been her favorite muse; and, in fact, her first semester of college was paid for with a Rotary Club monetary award for an essay contest. As a graduate student award, one of her essays on workers’ compensation was published in the journal Rehabilitation Counseling. LaDonna has written an as-of-yet unpublished novel Love’s Blind Aim. She is currently working on a series of essays and is very humbled and grateful to be part of the Ninth Muse Writing Group, even though, or maybe especially because of, her tendency to drag her feet (or in this case her pen) when it comes to actually writing.

Susan Borkin, M.A. is a passionate believer in the transformative power of journaling. She is also a psychotherapist and writing coach, specializing in the use of writing for personal and professional growth. Her focus is on helping people overcome creative blocks and achieve deep personal transformation through the use of writing. She has been teaching workshops on journal writing since 1978 and is the author of When Your Heart Speaks, Take Good Notes: The Healing Power of Writing and Writing From the Inside Out: Using a Journal for Personal Growth & Transformation. Visit Susan on line at SusanBorkin.com or write to her at susan@susanborkin.com.

Angela Buttimer, MS, RYT, LPC and Dennis Buttimer, MEd, RYT, CEAP have been using writing as a therapeutic tool with clients for many years. Currently in their work at Cancer Wellness at Piedmont, a center for integrative healing for cancer patients, they use writing in various groups with cancer patients, survivors, and their loved ones. Angela facilitates Writing for Recovery, a program that specifically focuses on the transformative power of writing and sharing that writing with others in a sacred circle. Angela presented her work on Writing for Recovery in the 2008 conference. Angela and Dennis facilitate other groups and workshops at Cancer Wellness where writing is utilized including Mindfulness, Humor, Yoga, Chakras, and Support Groups. In addition, Angela and Dennis often use writing in private practice with both couples and individuals. Clients sometimes are not aware of how they feel and think about an issue until they have written about it. Frequently clients need to write before they can speak to help form, articulate, and clarify what is happening on the inside. The surprising insights that evolve from putting pen to paper consistently deepens the work a client is doing in session. Writing between sessions also assists in enhancing the work of therapy.

Megan Cutter is the co-owner of Cutter’s Word, offering writing, editing, and photography services. Megan teaches specialty writing classes including creative journaling, journaling through loss and grief, finding your authentic voice, haiku as a spiritual practice and preserving family history. Her non-fiction work has been published in many local and national publications. She is currently working on a memoir with her husband about disability and relationships, and samples can be found at www.loverollson.wordpress.com and www.cuttersword.com.

Rebecca Dierking is a former high school English teacher, who is now pursuing her doctorate in English Education at the University of Missouri. Her dissertation will focus on writing and healing.

Roy F. Fox is Professor of English Education, former Chair of the Department of Learning, Teaching, & Curriculum, and Director of the Missouri Writing Project at the University of Missouri.

Leatha Kendrick, MA, English; MFA Creative Writing; Teaching experience at college level since 1971; Currently teach memoir and poetry writing, plus writing to heal at The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, KY; have taught creative writing at the University of KY and in Morehead State University's graduate program as well as at regional writing conferences; have been a presenter at the Associated Writers and Writing Programs' national meetings, 1999, 2006.

Jill Knueppel, LMT is a Licensed Massage Therapist practicing independently as well as in partnership with a chiropractor in the Atlanta metro area. She holds a Master of Divinity degree and in her prior profession, served as a Lutheran pastor in parishes in Colorado and Texas. Moving from parish ministry, where weekly expression through the media of preaching, teaching and music was the norm, to the solitude of the therapy room, Jill has found the need to rediscover her creative voice. She is grateful to be a part of the Ninth Muse writing group, where she has found encouragement, inspiration and companionship in her quest.

Lezlie Laws is a professor of English at Rollins College where she teaches writing and literature courses in Creative Nonfiction. She is an essayist by bent (Bush League Essays, Millennial Letters, and Shifting Gears), but has recently taken a brave turn toward poetry. Her essays on teaching and writing have appeared in English Journal, Journal of Teaching Writing, Thought and Action, among others. When she’s not teaching, advising students, conducting workshops, or writing, Lezlie is a student of Buddhism and ashtanga yoga. She is working on a collection of writing prompts, called Twelve Doors, forthcoming this fall.

Noreen Lape is Director of the Writing Program at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where she concerns herself with all things related to writing on campus, including directing the Norman M. Eberly Writing Center, training its tutors, and conducting cross-curricular faculty workshops. Her most recent essays focus on training tutors in emotional intelligence and revision as a therapeutic process.

Barbara Locascio, LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Hypnotherapist, Reiki Master and Polarity Practitioner with private practices in Grayson and Athens, Georgia. Barbara earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism in 1979 and a Masters Degree in Social Work in 1987. She has been writing in one form or another for over 40 years. Her professional writing includes newspaper articles, newsletters, TV and radio announcements, news releases, journal articles, brochures, educational materials and a magazine article. Barbara is grateful to be part of the safe and loving Ninth Muse writing family, where she feels free to be erratic, occasionally irreverent and very real in her written expressions of life and imagination.

Ric P. Long is on the faculty of the Department of Counseling, Foundations and Leadership at Columbus State University, Georgia. In addition, Ric counsels individuals, couples and families and supervises therapists. He is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy, and an Approved Supervisor. He has presented at international, national, and state conventions and conferences.

Debbie McCulliss is a registered nurse for 30 years became passionate about writing ten years ago when she began to take journal writing classes. She is a Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator and Certified Journal Instructor. Debbie is passionate about inspiring others to write and facilitates women's writing/poetry groups and retreats. She is currently developing a narrative medicine course curriculum and the manuscript of her memoir, The Rhythms of Birth, is near completion.

Debra Moffitt's fiction and non-fiction essays and articles have appeared in publications in the US , Europe and Asia. Her fiction was broadcast globally by BBC World Services Radio. She presents workshops in the US and Europe on connecting writing with symbols and guiding values. As a full time writer who made a leap of faith from the corporate world into the creative one, she helps other writers and people seeking transformation to connect with and write from the heart.

The Ninth Muse is a group of writers and health care workers who include two LCSWs (Franklin Abbott and Barbara Locascio), two LPCs (LaDonna Benedict and Pat "Wren" Wells), a LMT and former pastor (Jill Knueppel), and a psychologist (Emily Simerly). They are, after eight years, a close-knit group that has survived sturm and drang and lived to write about it. They are currently co-writing (yes, six authors) a novel called Duermavela, about a town turned upside down by a tornado, ghosts, a mystical artesian spring, and a little thing called magical realism. Please see their individual bios as well.

Diana M. Raab, MFA, RN is an award-winning memoirist and poet of five books. She also teaches in the UCLA Extension Writers¹ Program. Her memoir, Regina¹s Closet: Finding My Grandmother¹s Secret Journal, is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2009 Mom¹s Choice Award for Adult Nonfiction. Her work has appeared in over 100 publications. She¹s editor of Writers and Their Notebooks, (USC Press, 2010). Her memoir, Healing With Words, is forthcoming in late 2010. Her website is http://www.dianaraab.com.

Emily Simerly, PhD, is a clinical psychologist employed by MHM Services. Her day job is Clinical Director of a 500-bed MH/MR unit at a maximum security men’s prison in Georgia. She uses narrative styles in psychotherapy that promote a reduction of misery, increase radical acceptance, and increase change. She has used these styles in the Georgia Department of Corrections’ high maximum security unit, with severely and persistently mentally ill inmates, and on Death Row. It will probably come as a surprise to you that Death Row can be a sanctuary. She also is able to have a small private practice.

Brenda Stockdale has been the Director of Mind-Body Medicine for Georgia Cancer Treatment Center for over a decade where the latest research in mind-body medicine serves as an adjunct to medical treatment. As the National Program Director for ECaP [founded by Bernie Siegel, M.D.] Brenda designed ECaP's first hospital-based program and co-created ECaP's national retreats for person's with life-challenging illness. She has been featured on Oprah, NPR, other TV talk shows, as well as in a variety of print media. She has also developed a health psychology program for primary care settings specializing in preventive medicine, autoimmunity and stress-related conditions.

Kathy Vayder is a Certified Life Coach and Care Giving Ministry Volunteer at Cornerstone Fellowship in Livermore, California. Kathy received her B.A. in Psychology from San Diego State University and Life Coach Certification from The Institute for Life Coach Training (ILCT); she is currently pursuing her ACC. Her work focuses on those suffering from loss and significant changes in their lives. Kathy leads the current Writing for Wellness: A prescription for healing program at Cornerstone Fellowship.

Pat (“Wren”) Wells, LPC is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist in private practice in Atlanta and Athens, GA. She writes both fiction and non-fiction, sometimes publishing as Wren Wells. She currently has a book under contract entitled Self-Care for Tough Times. Her novel, Making A Killing, launches the Madison Mystery Series. She has published a teen guide for job readiness, a personal essay in the Petrigru Review literary journal, and several articles in professional journals and newsletters. She is collaborating on a children’s book with a colleague and on a novel in magical realism with her writing group, whom she loves for the encouragement, creative stimulation, companionship, and accountability. In addition to the Ninth Muse Writing Group, she participates in Sisters in Crime (an international women mystery writers organization) and studies with Harriette Austin at UGA and with Rosemary Daniell through her Zona Rosa writing network.