Estelle Erasmus

Author, Professor of Writing, New York University, ASJA Member

Estelle Erasmus, author of Writing That Gets Noticed: Find Your Voice, Become a Better Storyteller, Get Published (June 2023), is a professor of writing at New York University, the host of the Freelance Writing Direct podcast, a contributing editor for Writer’s Digest, and is the final judge for the 2024 Writer’s Digest personal essay contest. Sign up for her Substack (of craft advice, stories and opportunities) at estelleserasmus.substack.com.

Sessions: Fireside Chat: Sliding Your Way into Story Using a Side Door (Wednesday closing session)

CONFERENCE SESSION SPEAKERS

(In alphabetical order)

Sherry Amatenstein

Psychotherapist, Author, Anthologist, Journalist, ASJA Member

Sherry Amatenstein, LCSW is a NYC-based psychotherapist, author, anthologist (http://howdoesthatmakeyoufeelbook.com), seminar leader and journalist. Sherry has written for many publications including New York, Next Tribe, Hadassah, AARP, Good Housekeeping and Better Homes and Gardens. She is currently working on a project about Israeli and Muslim women in the Middle East. See more at howdoesthatmakeyoufeelbook.com or X @SherapyNYC

Sessions: Landing the Impossible Book Deal

Simar Bajaj

Science Journalist

Simar Bajaj is a science journalist who writes on everything from stigmatized diseases to AI in healthcare—for publications like The Guardian, Washington Post, TIME Magazine, National Geographic, NPR, and others. He started pursuing journalism in Summer 2022, after being rejected from every internship he applied to. And over the past two years, he has won the Student Journalism Award from the Online News Association and Newcomer of the Year by the Medical Journalists’ Association.

Sessions: Journalism Award Winners Share Their Secrets

Caila Ball-Dionne

VP, Strategy and Editorial Operations , Masthead

Caila Ball-Dionne is a communications professional and content marketing executive with nearly two decades of marketing experience. She oversees strategy and editorial operations for Masthead, where she has led demand gen projects for clients including Google, American Century, Prudential, Peloton, Nutanix, OXO, Marriott Vacation Club, JanSport, and Reebok. Prior to Masthead Media, Caila worked across marketing and communication verticals including content creation, social media and event marketing.

Sessions: The Ins and Outs of Working with a Content Agency in 2024

Felicity Barber

Felicity H. Barber is a speechwriter, executive communications professional, and founder of Thoughtful Communications <https://www.thoughtfulcomms.com/> . She has spent more than a decade helping leaders at the Federal Reserve, BlackRock, and Lloyd’s of London tell their stories and develop their thought leadership platforms. She is host of the podcast, The Friendly Ghost, which is all about the weird and wonderful world of speechwriting.

Sessions: Changing Hearts and Minds: A Speechwriting Playbook

Holly Baxter

Executive Editor and Staff Writer, The Independent

Holly Baxter, author of the debut novel Clickbait, is an executive editor and staff writer at the Independent in New York. She has worked on both sides of the Atlantic, starting in the Independent’s London office. Her work was shortlisted for a Press Award for Feature of the Year in 2019 and she often appears on British radio and television. Baxter lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Sessions: It Takes a Village to Write a Book, How Do I Find Mine?

Lexie Bean

Multimedia Artist

Lexie Bean (they/he) is a trans multimedia artist from the Midwest whose work revolves around themes of bodies, homes, cyclical violence, and queer identity. They are a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship Alum, TIn House Workshop Alum, member of the RAINN National Leadership Council, and a Lambda Literary Award Finalist for their anthology Written on the Body. With the help of Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency, Lexie integrated their personal experiences into the acclaimed The Ship We Built.

Sessions: The Secrets of Landing a Literary Agent

Jennifer Belle

Author

Jennifer Belle is the best-selling author of five novels: GOING DOWN which was named best debut novel by Entertainment Weekly and optioned for the screen by Madonna, HIGH MAINTENANCE which was optioned by HBO, LITTLE STALKER, THE SEVEN YEAR BITCH, and most recently SWANNA IN LOVE which Kirkus called, “Both a rioutous page turner and a thoughtful examination of girlhood, vulnerability, and sexual power.”

Sessions: It Takes a Village to Write a Book, How Do I Find Mine?

Deborah Lynn Blumberg

Freelance Writer, ASJA Member

Deborah Lynn Blumberg is a Washington D.C.-area-based freelance writer specializing in health and wellness and business and finance. She has written for publications and clients including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, MarketWatch, The New York Times T Brand Studio, JPMorgan Chase, and the American Heart Association. Previously, she was a reporter for Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal. She is the ASJA Washington D.C. chapter president, and she’s working on her first book.

Sessions: The Ins and Outs of Working with a Content Agency in 2024

Ruth Bonapace

Ruth Bonapace is a Brooklyn-born author with a BA and MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from Stony Brook University. Ruth has been a journalist, essayist, mortgage banker, real estate agent, laundromat manager and, of course, waitress. Not in that order. The Bulgarian Training Manual, published by Clash Books, is her debut novel. Ruth’s fascination with the world of athletes began while covering professional sports for The Associated Press.

Sessions: It Takes a Village to Write a Book, How Do I Find Mine?

Spencer Campbell

Writer, Editor

Spencer Campbell writes features and edits service packages for 5280 in Denver. The Texas A&M University alumnus and almost graduate of the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas (he’s one class shy!), has won too many honors to mention here.

Sessions: Reporting from the Middle: The Untapped Power of Regional Outlets

Laura Carney

Author, Writer, Copy Editor

Laura Carney is the author of the memoir My Father’s List: How Living My Dad’s Dreams Set Me Free (Post Hill Press), one of Real Simple Magazine’s Best Books of 2023. She is a writer and copy editor who has worked with publications such as Good Housekeeping, People, Guideposts, Vanity Fair, and GQ. The story of her quest to complete her father’s bucket list, more than a decade after he was killed by a distracted driver, has been covered by CBS News Sunday Morning, NPR, the BBC and NBC Nightly News.

Sessions: Building the Dreaded Author Platform: What to Do Before Sending Out Your Proposal

Cathy Linh Che

Cathy Linh Che is a Vietnamese American writer and multidisciplinary artist. She is the author of Becoming Ghost (Washington Square Press, 2025), Split (Alice James Books) and co-author, with Kyle Lucia Wu, of the children’s book An Asian American A to Z: a Children’s Guide to Our History (Haymarket Books). She is working on a poetry manuscript, a creative nonfiction manuscript, and a short documentary on her parents’ experiences as refugees who played extras on Apocalypse Now..

Sessions: How to Pay the Bills While Writing Your Book

Mark Chimsky

Editorial Consulting Business Founder

Mark Chimsky is the head of his own editorial consulting business (markchimskyeditorial.com) based in Portland, Maine. He was editorial director of Harper San Francisco; director of trade paperbacks at Little Brown; editor-in-chief of the trade paperback division at Macmillan; and editor-in-chief of the book division of Sellers Publishing. Mark has taught at New York University and was director of their prestigious Summer Publishing Institute. He is currently a faculty member at Emerson College.

Sessions: Landing the Impossible Book Deal

Hsiao-Ching Chou

Principal, Marketing & Enablement, Salesforce

Sessions: Beyond the Bylines: Using Journalism Skills in Adjacent Professions

CJ Clouse

Writer, Editor, Photographer, ASJA Member

CJ Clouse is a writer, editor, photographer and perpetual wanderer. After spending nearly a decade as a freelance journalist, she has found her way back to the writing she loves best: creative nonfiction. Her personal essays and journalism have appeared in HuffPost, the Guardian, GreenBiz, Mongabay, National Geographic, The Forge Literary Magazine, Southeast Review and beyond. She is currently at work on a memoir.

Sessions: Building the Dreaded Author Platform: What to Do Before Sending Out Your Proposal

Laura T. Coffey

Editor, Feature Writer, Author

Laura T. Coffey is a veteran editor and feature writer with more than 30 years of journalism experience. She is president of the Society for Features Journalism and author of the bestselling nonfiction book “My Old Dog: Rescued Pets with Remarkable Second Acts.” Laura spent 14 years working as a senior writer, editor and producer for NBC’s TODAY show and its website, TODAY.com. She also worked as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers across the country.

Sessions: Beyond the Bylines: Using Journalism Skills in Adjacent Professions

Dr. Martin Davidson

Interim Executive Director, Contemplative Sciences Center

Martin N. Davidson (he/him) is the Interim Executive Director of the Contemplative Sciences Center. He is the Johnson & Higgins Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He also serves as senior associate dean and global chief diversity officer for the School. His thought leadership has changed how many executives approach inclusion, diversity, and equity in their organizations. He teaches, conducts research and consults with global leaders.

Sessions: Disrupting Bias: Whose Story Is Worth Telling?

Bobbi Dempsey

Journalist, Author, ASJA Member

Bobbi Dempsey is a journalist with a lifelong love of stories – both reading and writing them. She firmly believes that books have saved her life on more than one occasion, and she will forever hold a special place in her heart for the libraries that served as her refuge as a child.

Sessions: Journalism Award Winners Share Their Secrets

Bella DePaulo

Author

Social Scientist Bella DePaulo’s Single at Heart: The Power, Freedom, and Heart-Filling Joy of Single Life was rejected by 57 publishers before she took a deal with no advance, just profit sharing. Her book subsequently was named a ’top book’ by AARP and Ms, was excerpted in Time and Next Avenue and been translated into multiple languages including Spanish, Portuguese, and Albanian. https://belladepaulo.com/

Sessions: Landing the Impossible Book Deal

Mike De Socio

Author, Journalist

Mike De Socio is the author of the new book Morally Straight, How the Fight for LGBTQ+ Inclusion Changed the Boy Scouts—and America (Pagasus/Simon & Schuster, 2024). He is an award-winning independent journalist, whose articles on the climate crisis and the LGBTQ community have appeared in the Washington Post, Bloomberg, the Guardian, Fortune, Xtra, YES! Magazine, and more. He’s also an avid cyclist and an Eagle Scout. He lives in Boston and spends as much time as he can Italy.

Sessions: Building the Dreaded Author Platform: What to Do Before Sending Out Your Proposal

Tiffanie Drayton

Journalist, World Traveler, Mother

Tiffanie Drayton is a mother, world traveler and journalist originally from Trinadad who has written for The New York Times, Vox, Marie Claire, Salon, Yahoo and The Daily Dot. Her debut memoir “Black American Refugee: Escaping the Narcissism of the American Dream” published by Viking began with a New York Times Opinion piece.

Sessions: 3 Pages Can Change Your Life

Amelia Edelman

Editor, Content Strategist, and Journalist

Amelia Edelman is an editor, content strategist, and journalist specializing in travel, parenting, and wellness. She is the founder of Edelman Editorial, which provides “editorial landscaping” for brands, publications, and nonprofit organizations. Current clients include various tourism bureaus, Understood.org, Lonely Planet, Parsley Health, Rand McNally Road Atlas, and more. Previous publications and editorial roles include Travel + Leisure, the BBC, US News and World Report and Parents.

Sessions: Do You Have What it Takes to Be a Content Strategist?

Treasa Edmond

Content Strategist, Consultant, Ghostwriter, Podcast Host

Treasa Edmond is a content strategist and consultant, best-selling ghostwriter, and podcast host. On her podcast, Boss Responses, Treasa and her weekly guest hosts explore how freelancers and small business owners can navigate the sometimes tricky path of client management and communication. Through Strategy Bosses, she teaches content professionals and consults with businesses on how to create personalized, SEO-optimized content strategies.

Sessions: Do You Have What it Takes to Be a Content Strategist?

Richard Eisenberg

Freelance Writer, ASJA Member

Richard Eisenberg was the Managing Editor of PBS’ site for people 50+, Next Avenue, before he “unretired” in 2022. He now writes The View From Unretirement column for MarketWatch, freelances for Next Avenue, Fortune.com, AARP and Wirecutter and co-hosts the personal finance podcast for people 50+, Friends Talk Money. He is the former Executive Editor of Money magazine and is the author of “How to Avoid a Midlife Financial Crisis” and “The Money Book of Personal Finance.

Sessions: Breaking Into the AARP Publishing Empire

Becca Farsace

Journalist, YouTuber

Becca Farsace is a YouTuber known for her unique style of engaging visuals mixed with her real-world experience that has allowed her to reach a wide audience of both tech lovers and the tech curious alike. Formerly of The Verge, where she produced more than 250 videos for the site, she recently went independent as a creator with a focus on taking tech outside. From scripting, to hosting, to editing, and promoting there isn’t a part of the video creation process that she doesn’t touch.

Sessions: Knowing What to Say: Writing Scripts for Podcasts and YouTube Channels

Diane Faulkner

Freelance Writer, Speaker, Editor, Author, ASJA Member

Long-time ASJA member Diane Faulkner is a freelance writer, speaker, editor, and author with more than 25 years of experience covering employment law and HR issues for companies such as Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, LegalZoom, ADP, American Express, Delta Dental, Goodyear, as well as major law firms. She has ghostwritten many books and is the author of the book, “Don’t Get Sued, Get Smart: A Small Business Guide to Avoiding Employment Law Landmines.”

Sessions: Organizing Your Freelance Business

Whitney Fleming

Writer, Communications Consultant, Mother, Advocate

Whitney Fleming is passionate about telling stories that help others feel less alone. As a writer, communications consultant, mother, and advocate, she puts an authentic and empathetic voice to issues such as parenting, mental health, grief, marriage, and midlife. She co-owns the successful blog parentingteensandtweens.com, is the voice behind the popular social media pages Whitney Fleming Writes, and the author of three books.

Sessions: Can a Facebook Platform Boost Your Career?

Aaron Foley

Journalist, Author

Aaron Foley, author of “Boys Come First,” reports and writes on Detroit, blackness, and queerness for This American Life, PBS NewsHour, Jalopnik, the Atlantic, CNN, several anthologies, and more. A Detroit native, the city’s first appointed chief storyteller, and a former magazine editor, he is the author of How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass and editor of The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook. He splits his time between Brooklyn and Detroit.

Sessions: How to Pay the Bills While Writing Your Book

Michael Franklin

Founder and Chief Thought Leadership Officer, Words Normalize Behavior

Michael Franklin is the Founder and Chief Thought Leadership Officer of Words Normalize Behavior LLC (WNB), a Black and Gen Z-owned and certified LGBT Business Enterprise by the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). Michael is also the Executive Director of Speechwriters of Color, a global community of expert and aspiring communicators founded in 2020. Not all of us have the word speechwriter in our job title, but we all believe in the power of writing to make a difference.

Sessions: Changing Hearts and Minds: A Speechwriting Playbook

Alex Frost

Journalist

Alex Frost is a Cincinnati-based journalist and founder of an editorial marketing agency, that offers brands strategy and content collaboration across all of their platforms and projects. She’s known for her no-nonsense approach to writing and consulting, to ensure brands and publications achieve their content goals in a meaningful way. She’s worked with publications like The Atlantic, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Popular Science, and Glamour, and with brands from Sam’s Club to Johnson & Johnson.

Sessions: Do You Have What it Takes to Be a Content Strategist?

Ed Gandia

Business-building Coach

Ed Gandia is a business-building coach who helps established freelance writers and solo marketers earn more in less time doing work they love for better clients. His High-Income Business Writing podcast has more than 1.3 million downloads. And his insights and advice have been featured in Forbes, Inc. magazine, Fortune, Fast Company, CNN Radio, CBS Radio News, The Christian Science Monitor, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, DM News and The Writer, among others.

Sessions: The Ethics of AI: Using Artificial Intelligence as a Tool

Rus Garofalo

Founder, Brass Taxes

Rus Garofalo founded Brass Taxes, which specializes in working with creatives and self employed individuals and businesses, in 2008 in Brooklyn, NY. At the time, he was making his living as a video editor, while working on becoming a writer/performer in comedy. Creating a company for people like himself quickly became his favorite activity. Currently Brass Taxes has 22 remote employees and they work with clients all over the United States and overseas.

Sessions: Going it Alone: Sole Proprietorship, LLC, or S-Corp, Which Structure is Right for You?

Aquilino Gonell

Iraq War Veteran, former Capitol Police Officer

American Shield author Aquilino Gonell grew up in the Dominican Republic and moved to New York at 12. He enlisted in the Army at 20, became a decorated Iraq war veteran and proud U.S. citizen. At the Capitol Police force, he rose to Sergeant. Wounded on the front lines on January 6, 2021, he was one of the first to testify before the House Committee investigating the insurrection. He’s won the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Citizens Medal give to him by President Joe Biden.

Sessions: 3 Pages Can Change Your Life

Gabrielle Gayagoy Gonzalez

Author, Editor, Podcast Host, ASJA DEAI Co-Chair

Gabrielle Gayagoy Gonzalez (she/her) is a Filipina American writer and Co-Chair of ASJA’s DEAI Task Force. She was named to Diversity Woman Media’s Power 100 List and is a co-author of Racial Justice at Work: Practical Solutions for Systemic Change. She is co-managing editor of the online publication The Inclusion Solution and a co-host of The Inclusion Solution LIVE podcast from The Winters Group, Inc., a Black women-owned global diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice consulting firm.

Sessions: Disrupting Bias: Whose Story Is Worth Telling?

Jaclyn Greenberg

Freelance Writer, ASJA Member

Jaclyn Greenberg is a former tax accountant who became a freelance writer after her middle son was born with multiple disabilities. She writes about parenting, disability accessibility, inclusion, and advocacy. Jaclyn has written for The New York Times, CNN, Wired, Huffpost, Parents, Good Housekeeping, and other places.

Sessions: The Emerging Role of Advocacy Journalism

Jennifer Goforth Gregory

Technology Content Marketing Writer, ASJA Member

Sessions: The Ethics of AI: Using Artificial Intelligence as a Tool

Jennifer Goforth Gregory is a freelance technology content marketing writer. Her clients include IBM, Microsoft, Adobe, Salesforce, Google, Dell, and Verizon. She also runs a popular FB group for freelance content marketing writers with over 10K members. In her spare time, she rescues about 130 dachshunds every year.

Erin Hallstrom

Associate Director of SEO Strategy, Endeavor Business Media

Erin Hallstrom is the Associate Director of SEO Strategy for Endeavor Business Media, where she works with more than 150 journalists across 80 brands to implement SEO best practices. Erin is also responsible for Endeavor’s metrics reporting, where she uses her expertise in website analytics to help teams understand their data to make informed SEO decisions. Erin holds multiple technical certifications in Google Analytics and regularly trains audience and marketing groups how best to utilize SEO.

Sessions: What You Need to Know About SEO in 2024

Jeff Henigson

Author

Jeff Henigson is the Seattle-based author of the debut YA memoir Warhead: The True Story of One Teen Who Almost Saved the World, published by Random House. It chronicles how, as a teenager, he battled brain cancer. He then attended the London School of Economics and graduate school at Columbia Universities.

Sessions: Genre Fluidity: How Switching Genres Might Turn a No Into a Yes

Mike Hoinski

Deputy Editor, Texas Highways

Mike is the deputy editor at Texas Highways. oversees the Open Road essay series. He has written for the New York Times and Texas Monthly, among others. He enjoys long-distance running and discovering new music.

Sessions: Reporting from the Middle: The Untapped Power of Regional Outlets

Jeanette Hurt

Cocktail Historian, TEDx Speaker, Author

Jeanette is a cocktail historian, TEDx speaker, and author of 16 books, most recently, The Whiskey Sour. Her most notable books include Wisconsin Cocktails, The Unofficial ALDI Cookbook, Cauliflower Comfort Food, and Drink Like a Woman. She regularly contributes to Forbes, Simply Recipes, Milwaukee Magazine and dozens of other publications. When she’s not testing out cocktail riffs, writing about her latest ALDI find or closing a Tedx conference, she’s usually cooking for or with her husband.

Sessions: Reporting from the Middle: The Untapped Power of Regional Outlets

Debbie Abrams Kaplan

Freelance Writer, ASJA Advocacy Chair

Debbie Abrams Kaplan is a long-time ASJA member who covers supply chain, health/medicine, and business (and often the combination) for industry and journalism clients. She is ASJA’s advocacy chair, and a co-leader of Fight for Freelancers, working to protect freelance rights. Debbie swears by Calendly, MyHours, and her Excel spreadsheets that hold all her business secrets.

Sessions: Organizing Your Freelance Business

Tyler J. Kelley

Journalist, Author

Tyler J. Kelley has written for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Bloomberg Businessweek, and The Economist. His piece for the New Yorker attracted his agent and his article for the Times about an aging lock and dam on the Ohio River helped launch his debut nonfiction book Holding Back the River: The Struggle Against Nature on America’s Waterways (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster 2021). He teaches journalism at The New School.

Sessions: The Secrets of Landing a Literary Agent, 3 Pages Can Change Your Life

Amy Frushour Kelly

Editor, Instructor, AI Content Policy Consultant

Amy Frushour Kelly is an editor, instructor, and AI content policy consultant. She is an outspoken advocate for the ethical use of generative artificial intelligence, presenting at conferences and appearing as a regular guest lecturer on AI ethics. Amy has 30 years of editing experience, working in journalism, technical writing, finance, and content marketing.

Sessions: The Ethics of AI: Using Artificial Intelligence as a Tool

Amy Klein

Amy Klein wrote the New York Times “Fertility Diary” column, chronicling her journey to have a baby (ten doctors, nine rounds of IVF, four miscarriages in three countries). She thought she would sell a memoir of her experience but after feedback from agents, decided to turn it into a first-person self-help book, The Trying Game: Get Through Fertility Treatment and Get Pregnant Without Losing Your Mind (Penguin/Random House). Amy writes about health, parenting and reproductive rights.

Sessions: Genre Fluidity: How Switching Genres Might Turn a No Into a Yes

Linsey Krolik

Assistant Clinical Professor, Santa Clara University School of Law

Linsey Krolik is Assistant Clinical Professor at Santa Clara University School of Law where she teaches classes and clinics in privacy law, startup law, and technology law. She is the Director of the Entrepreneurs’ Law Clinic (ELC) where she oversees law students as they advise entrepreneurs, the Director of the Tech Edge JD program which is an experiential certificate program for law students interested in working in technology law.

Sessions: Going it Alone: Sole Proprietorship, LLC, or S-Corp, Which Structure is Right for You?

Marci A. Landsmann

Managing Editor, Cancer Today

Marci A. Landsmann is the managing editor of Cancer Today, a magazine and web resource for cancer patients, survivors and their caregivers published by the American Association for Cancer Research. As part of her responsibilities, she has developed fact checking guidelines and works closely with fact checkers, who are all freelancers, to ensure content is clear and accurate.

Sessions: Fact Checking: How To Do It Yourself or As a Freelance Gig

Leslie Lang

Freelance Content Writer, Journalist, ASJA Member

Leslie Lang, a freelance content writer and journalist for 25 years, has written about technology, healthcare, and travel for marketing agencies and clients that include Microsoft, IBM, Dropbox, Barclays, and Marriott. Over the years, she’s also figured out a few things about organizing a business.

Sessions: Knowing What to Say: Writing Scripts for Podcasts and YouTube Channels, Organizing Your Freelance Business

Deborah Jian Lee

Senior Editor, Economic Hardship Reporting Project

Deborah Jian Lee is an award-winning journalist and radio producer, senior editor at the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, journalism fellow at Harvard Divinity School, and the author of “Rescuing Jesus: How People of Color, Women and Queer Christians are Reclaiming Evangelicalism” (Beacon Press). She has worked as a staff reporter for the Associated Press, taught journalism at Columbia University, and has bylines in Esquire, Fast Company, ELLE, Foreign Policy and Slate.

Sessions: The Emerging Role of Advocacy Journalism

Leanna Lee

Future of Work and Disability Writer-Journalist, ASJA DEAI Co-Chair

Leanna Lee (any pronoun) is a future of work and disability writer-journalist who specializes in small business, DEAI, and mental health content. A disabled writer, she advocates for work and health equity, remote work, and workplace accessibility for both freelancers and full-timers. She is Co-Chair of ASJA’s DEAI Task Force. In 2023, she created The Chronic Worker/Chronically Self Employed, a blog and newsletter by and for disabled workers.

Sessions: Disrupting Bias: Whose Story Is Worth Telling?

Margaret Littman

Author, ASJA Member

For more than three decades, Margaret Littman has written about offbeat people, places, and things. Margaret has explored country music hot spots and the market for Frank Lloyd Wright ephemera. An award-winning freelance editor and writer, Margaret has covered road trips, pet-friendly travel, personal finance, startup businesses, women’s health, gardening, standup paddling, and everything in between for publications ranging from Condé Nast Traveler to Fortune.

Sessions: Journalism Award Winners Share Their Secrets

Dan López

Editor, Counterpoint Press

Dan López is an Editor at Counterpoint Press based in Los Angeles. His interests include literary and commercial fiction, cultural histories, works in translation, and books that explore the Hispanic/Latine experience. His projects include The Chinese Groove by Kathryn Ma and American Shield: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy by Aquilino Gonell and Susan Shapiro. Find Dan on Twitter @dan_lopez82.

Sessions: Landing the Impossible Book Deal

Banning Lyon

Author

Banning Lyon is the author of The Chair and the Valley, an inspirational memoir recounting his journey to find healing as a backpacking guide in Yosemite National Park after surviving 353 days in a psychiatric hospital as a teenager, only to discover six years after his discharge that his involuntary admission was part of one of the largest healthcare fraud scams in the history of the United States. It was published in The Open Field, Maria Shriver’s imprint at Penguin Random House.

Sessions: 3 Pages Can Change Your Life

George Mannes

Executive Editor, AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin

George Mannes is an executive editor at AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin, where he focuses on personal finance. He previously worked at Money magazine and at TheStreet.com.

Sessions: Breaking Into the AARP Publishing Empire

Miranda Marquit

Freelance Writer

Miranda Marquit, MBA, has a master’s degree in Journalism and has been freelance writing since 2005. She specializes in financial and small business topics, with bylines including Encyclopedia Britannica, Forbes, Newsweek, and TIME. Miranda also has a radio background and has been podcasting since 2014. In addition to writing and podcasting, Miranda is also a speaker and workshop facilitator.

Sessions: Going it Alone: Sole Proprietorship, LLC, or S-Corp, Which Structure is Right for You?

Kelly McSweeney

Content Writer, ASJA Member

Kelly McSweeney works from her home office in Massachusetts with a small dog by her side. She has been a self-employed writer for eight years, with clients including research institutions, big tech companies, and marketing agencies. Kelly explains cutting-edge science and emerging technology to intelligent, curious audiences through videos, webinars, and written content. She uses interviews, research, and creative storytelling to help people understand complicated topics.

Sessions: Knowing What to Say: Writing Scripts for Podcasts and YouTube Channels

Ashley Cisneros Mejia

Journalist, Freelance Writer, ASJA Member

Ashley Cisneros Mejia (moderator) is a journalist and freelance writer based in Orlando, Fla. She began her career in 2005 as a newspaper reporter and has since worked as a magazine editor, tech writer, marketing manager, and PR practitioner. Her work has appeared in USA Today, LatinaStyle, Hispanic Executive Magazine, in addition to other publications. As an entrepreneur, she founded two award-winning digital marketing agencies. Ashley hosts the Talk Freelance To Me Podcast.

Sessions: Making the Leap from Content Writer to Content Agency

Orlando Mendiola

Author

Orlando Mendiola, author of the children’s book “The Last Tamale, is a Mexican American author from San Antonio, Texas. He is a graduate of the New School and the proud owner of three Chihuahuas: Rusty, Ranger, and the famous Pearl. He spent his childhood making tamales with his grandma and family every Christmas. He hopes to inherit his family’s secret tamale recipe one day.

Sessions: It Takes a Village to Write a Book, How Do I Find Mine?

Gwen Moran

Independent Writer, Editor, Multimedia Content Strategist, ASJA Member

Gwen Moran is an independent writer, editor, and multimedia content strategist who has worked with Inc., Fast Company, AARP, Wondery, and many other publishers as well as international organizations and brands. Find out more about her latest endeavor at www.bloomanywhere.com.

Sessions: Do You Have What it Takes to Be a Content Strategist?

Lydia Moran

Editor

Lydia Moran (she/her) is guest editing a series of arts and culture stories at Barn Raiser, a nonprofit news source for rural and small town news. Previously she was lead editor at Minnesota Women’s Press. She is a graduate of Oberlin College and is currently based in Minneapolis.

Sessions: Reporting from the Middle: The Untapped Power of Regional Outlets

Rebecca Morrison

Journalist, Author

Rebecca Morrison is a lawyer and writer. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, TODAY, NBC News, Salon, HuffPost and Newsweek, among others. Her middle-grade novel, “The Blue Dress,” based on her childhood as an Iranian immigrant trying to fit into her family and her new American homeland, is coming out with Farrar Straus Giroux Books in winter 2026. You can find her at www.rebeccakmorrison.com.

Sessions: The Secrets of Landing a Literary Agent

Puloma Mukherjee

Writer, Financial Analyst

Puloma Mukherjee is an immigrant writer and mother based in New York City. She works as a financial analyst. Her work has appeared in the NY Times Tiny Love Stories, The Revealer, Guernica, Los Angeles Review of Books, Poets & Writers, and an anthology of short stories. She is currently working on her first novel.She works as a financial analyst.

Sessions: How to Pay the Bills While Writing Your Book

Christina Nafziger

Writer, Editor, Curator, Critic

Christina Nafziger is a Chicago-based writer, editor, curator, and critic interested in research-based practices, archives, labor and power, and the ways in which location affects identity and art making, particularly in the Midwest. Christina holds an MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths University of London and a BA. in Art History from Herron School of Art & Design. She is currently the Managing Editor at the arts publication and archiving initiative Sixty Inches From Center.

Sessions: Reporting from the Middle: The Untapped Power of Regional Outlets

Emily Paulsen

President, ASJA

A writer and editor based in the DC area, Emily Paulsen focuses on health and healthcare topics for online and print publications, healthcare organizations, government agencies, and non-profit associations. She is the co-author of three books and a former magazine editor.

Sessions: Welcome and Recognitions

Kae Petrin

Data & Graphics Reporter, Civic News Company

Kae Petrin is a Data & Graphics Reporter on Civic News Company’s data visuals team, where they collaborate with local reporters to tell data-driven stories about education and voting rights. Previously, they produced graphics, newsroom tools, and investigative reporting for St. Louis-based radio and print publications. In 2020, they co-founded the Trans Journalists Association and now serve as President and volunteer, interim Executive Director. .

Sessions: Crunching the Numbers: Data Journalism 101

Dorothy Pomerantz

Managing Editor, Fitch Ink

Dorothy Pomerantz joined Fitch Ink as a managing editor in 2015. She got her start in journalism in 1996, covering local politics for a group of community newspapers around Boston including the Newton Tab and the Somerville Journal. In 2000 she joined Forbes‘ Los Angeles bureau as a reporter and, over the next 15 years, rose to become the bureau’s chief. Dorothy’s Forbes work covered a wide variety of topics, from real estate to Hollywood.

Sessions: The Ins and Outs of Working with a Content Agency in 2024

Makena Rasmussen

Audience Growth Marketing Coordinator, Industry Dive

Makena Rasmussen is an Audience Growth Marketing Coordinator at Industry Dive. She provides SEO guidance for 37 websites that target niche, executive-level audiences from specific industries ranging from automotive to pharmaceuticals. Rasmussen uses her background as an editor to motivate journalists to see SEO as a visibility tool. Her motto is, “We don’t write for search engines; we write for our audience that uses search engines.”

Sessions: What You Need to Know About SEO in 2024

Ben Riggs

Writer, Editor, Writing Coach

Ben Riggs is a writer, editor, and writing coach with a compulsion for true storytelling. A graduate of Ohio State University, he’s been working with words for nearly two decades, and has writing and editing certificates from the Poynter Institute and Standard Health. He lives in Dayton, Ohio, with his wife, Emily, their black lab (Lewie) and daughter.

Sessions: Beyond the Bylines: Using Journalism Skills in Adjacent Professions

Laura Cathcart Robbins

Author

Laura Cathcart Robbins is the author the best-selling memoir Stash, My Life In Hiding (Atria/Simon & Schuster, 2023) and host of the popular podcast, The Only One In The Room. Her recent articles on the topics of race, recovery, and divorce have garnered her worldwide acclaim. She is the SDWF’s 2024 Memoirist of The Year, a TEDx Speaker, an LA Moth StorySlam winner, and an advisory board member for the San Diego Writer’s Festival and the Outliers HQ podcast Festival.

Sessions: Building the Dreaded Author Platform: What to Do Before Sending Out Your Proposal

Martha Salley

Supervising Producer of Branded Audio, Vox Creative

Sessions: Knowing What to Say: Writing Scripts for Podcasts and YouTube Channels

Rockwell Sands

Author, Musician, Entrepreneur

Rockwell Sands is a half-Chinese/half-Jewish author, musician, and entrepreneur. An avid storyteller from an early age, his vivid imagination often landed him in detention for what the grown-ups liked to call “over-embellishing.” He holds a finance degree from Arizona State University but skipped out on a desk job to join the ranks of Los Angeles-based rock bands that no one has ever heard of.

Sessions: The Secrets of Landing a Literary Agent

Jodi M. Savage

Author

Jodi M. Savage is the author of The Death of a Jaybird: Essays on Mothers and Daughters and the Things They Leave Behind (Harperperennial) She’s written for Oprah Daily, The Huffington Post and Catapult and her work has been supported by the Storyknife Writers Retreat, the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow, Rivendell Writers’ Colony, Brooklyn Poets, Tin House and Gotham Writers Workshop. She’s an MFA candidate in creative nonfiction at NYU..

Sessions: The Secrets of Landing a Literary Agent, Genre Fluidity: How Switching Genres Might Turn a No Into a Yes

Gabrielle Selz

Author, Art Critic, Art Appraiser

Gabrielle Selz is an award-winning author, art critic, and art appraiser. Her books include the first comprehensive biography of the revered American painter, Sam Francis, Light on Fire: The Art and Life of Sam Francis, winner of the California Book Award in Nonfiction in 2022, and the memoir UnStill Life , a best memoir winner from the American Society of Journalists and Authors, 2014. Her essays and art reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times and The Daily Beast,

Sessions: How to Pay the Bills While Writing Your Book

Kavin Senapathy

Science journalist, Author, ASJA Member

Kavin Senapathy (they/she) is an award-winning science and health journalist and author of The Progressive Parent: Harnessing the Power of Science and Social Justice to Raise Awesome Kids (HarperCollins/Hanover Square). Senapathy’s writing appears in SciShow, Slate, Scientific American, SELF, The Daily Beast, Salon, Forbes, and more.

Sessions: Disrupting Bias: Whose Story Is Worth Telling?

Susan Shapiro

Author, Professor, ASJA Member

Susan Shapiro, an award-winning writer and professor is the bestselling author/coauthor of 18 books her family hates like Five Men Who Broke My Heart, Lighting Up, Unhooked, and her recent memoir The Forgiveness Tour just out in paperback. She lives with her scriptwriter husband in Manhattan teaches her popular “instant gratification takes too long” private writing and publishing classes online. You can follow her on Instagram at @Profsue123.

Sessions: 3 Pages Can Change Your Life, Genre Fluidity: How Switching Genres Might Turn a No Into a Yes

Christina Hernandez Sherwood

Freelance Writer, ASJA Member

Christina Hernandez Sherwood (moderator) is an ASJA member and freelance writer with 15+ years of experience. A former newspaper reporter, she now specializes in journalistic storytelling for institutional publications, crafting clear and compelling health and science content for universities, medical centers, health care institutions, companies and other clients. Christina is a longtime sole proprietor who thinks she’s finally ready to make the leap to LLC.

Sessions: Going it Alone: Sole Proprietorship, LLC, or S-Corp, Which Structure is Right for You?

Mary Ellen Slayter

Founder, Rep Cap

Mary Ellen Slayter is the founder of Rep Cap, a B2B content marketing agency, and publisher of Managing Editor magazine. Before launching the agency 12 years ago, she served as director of content development at SmartBrief, as a columnist and financial editor at The Washington Post, and as a late-night server at Louie’s Cafe, where she learned the fine art of getting drunk LSU frat boys to pay their bill without much of a fuss..

Sessions: Making the Leap from Content Writer to Content Agency

Elliott Smith

Author, Member of Microsoft Stories Team

Elliott Smith is a member of the Microsoft Stories team and a children’s book author with more than 70 titles under his belt. Previously he was a sports reporter for newspapers in Texas and Washington before embarking on a freelance journey that spanned publications including Entertainment Tonight, Coca-Cola, The Washington Post, Kentucky Tourism, Men’s Journal and Northwestern University (his alma mater).

Sessions: Beyond the Bylines: Using Journalism Skills in Adjacent Professions

Hyeseung Song

Author

Hyeseung Song is the author of Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl, forthcoming from Simon & Schuster in July 2024. She is an American representational painter best known for large-scale figurative oil paintings and prints whose visual idioms toggle between resolution and fragmentation. Her work explores creativity, psychological incipience, and the life of the artist. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Song grew up in Texas and studied philosophy at Princeton and Harvard Universities.

Sessions: It Takes a Village to Write a Book, How Do I Find Mine?

Scott Stransky

Founder and Content Lead, Thrū Content

Scott Stransky is the Founder and Content Lead at Thrū Content, a content development agency serving the B2B tech community. An accomplished and sought after writer and content strategist, he leads a team of tech marketing experts whose work has been trusted by industry giants like NetSuite, RedHat, and Pure Storage as well as dozens of other growing organizations in exciting verticals like cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and connected workforce automation.

Sessions: Making the Leap from Content Writer to Content Agency

Maggie Sullivan

Director of SEO, TechTarget

Maggie Sullivan is the Director of SEO at TechTarget. She offers guidance to writers and editors on how to implement SEO strategy and best practices to increase visibility and organic traffic, and support business goals through improved search engine performance.

Sessions: What You Need to Know About SEO in 2024

Raj Tawney

Writer, Journalist

Raj Tawney is a writer and journalist whose work largely reflects his mixed-race upbringing in New York. Tawney has explored his identity through personal essays published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and other outlets throughout the country. His debut memoir Colorful Palate: A Flavorful Journey Through a Mixed American Experience (Fordham University Press) was published in 2023 to much acclaim. His Middle Grade novel All Mixed Up (Paw Prints Publishing) will be released soon.

Sessions: Landing the Impossible Book Deal

Rodika Tollefson

Writer, Creative, and Marketing Professional

Rodika Tollefson is an award-winning writer, creative, and marketing professional who launched her freelance business more than 25 years ago — growing it from a part-time solo gig to a six-figure company. She has worked with global brands such as Dell Technologies, Cisco, Lenovo, and American Express. Her debut book, “The Freelancer’s Compass: Navigate Your Way from Corporate Cog to Solopreneur Star,” will be released in August 2024.

Sessions: Organizing Your Freelance Business

Cori Vanchieri

Executive Editor for Brain Health, AARP

Corinne Vanchieri Cori works with a stellar team of editors, writers and researchers to share information and tell stories that help people 50+ live their best, healthy lives. Her area of focus is brain health and conditions that most affect the 50+ audience, such as dementia, stroke, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson’s disease and depression/anxiety. Before joining AARP in 2023, Cori was features editor at several other health and science magazines, including Science News magazine.

Sessions: Breaking Into the AARP Publishing Empire

Jeff Vasishta

Journalist

Jeff is a career journalist who has written for many publications over two decades, including Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Independent, Interview, Variety, Business Insider, CNN, and Tin House. He’s passionate about fiction and graduated from the New School’s Riggio Honors program and holds an MFA from Fairleigh Dickinson. He has interviewed many authors including Ann Patchett, Louise Erdrich, Marlon James and Emma Cline. He is also working on his own debut novel.

Sessions: It Takes a Village to Write a Book, How Do I Find Mine?

Marina Villeneuve

Investigative Journalist, IRE Member, The Hechinger Report

Marina Villeneuve is an investigative reporter for The Hechinger Report. She worked for more than six years as a statehouse reporter for The Associated Press covering New York and Maine, where she chronicled the administrations of former Govs. Andrew Cuomo and Paul LePage. She has also worked as a legal reporter covering Trump’s legal battles for Salon, and as an investigative producer at a local Boston television station.

Sessions: Crunching the Numbers: Data Journalism 101

Karon Warren

Writer, ASJA Member

For more than 20 years, Karon Warren has written stories and content for numerous consumer and trade outlets as well as content marketing agencies and clients. Her primary topics are healthcare, insurance, personal finance, mortgages, travel, lifestyle and small business, and content includes articles, blog posts and website copy. After graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi with a bachelor of arts in journalism, Karon started her career as a copy editor for a daily newspaper.

Sessions: What You Need to Know About SEO in 2024

Sharon Sochil Washington

Cultural Anthropologist and Creator of White Space

Sharon Sochil Washington is a cultural anthropologist and creator of White Space, a newsletter on Substack that explores the meaning between the words we use, has written for The American Scholar, Huffington Post, Newsday (New York), Dallas Times Herald, and the Akron Beacon Journal. She received degrees from Columbia University and The New School in New York City and speaks regularly at universities and conferences on issues of social justice, race, economic insecurity, education, and media influence.

Sessions: It Takes a Village to Write a Book, How Do I Find Mine?

Aileen Weintraub

Author, Journalist, Editor, ASJA Member

Aileen Weintraub is an award-winning author, journalist, and editor whose work has been featured in The Washington Post, Oprah Daily, the BBC, and many others. She is the author of the middle-grade social justice book WE GOT GAME! 35 Female Athletes Who Changed the World; the best-selling Never Too Young: 50 Unstoppable Kids Who Made a Difference; and the 2022 memoir Knocked Down: A High-Risk Memoir, which became a University of Nebraska Press bestseller.

Sessions: Building the Dreaded Author Platform: What to Do Before Sending Out Your Proposal

Mark Jason Williams

Author, Journalist

Mark Jason Williams is the co-author of Out in the World, National Geographic’s first LGBTQ+ travel guide, which he started writing after his essay collection kept getting turned down. He’s also written for New York Times Modern Love, Washington Post and Huff Post. Find him at markjasonwilliams.com

Sessions: Genre Fluidity: How Switching Genres Might Turn a No Into a Yes

Christina Wyman

Author

Michigan State professor Christina Wyman’s Washington Post piece “I Am Insecure About My Face” (that she wrote for Susan Shapiro’s New School class) led to four book deals from MacMillan. Her debut novel Jawbreaker was a USA Today bestseller and Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2023. The middle-grade book follows a 7th grader with a craniofacial anomaly that’s caught the attention of school bullies — including her own sister. Her second novel “Slouch,” is out in the fall 2024.

Sessions: 3 Pages Can Change Your Life

Kim Yaged

Sessions: Knowing What to Say: Writing Scripts for Podcasts and YouTube Channels

Kim Yaged is an award-winning writer with a background in theater, television, and film. Her hilarious one-woman tour de force “Hypocrites & Strippers” was nominated for a Best Actress Artsie, and an excerpt of the play was published in Applause Books’ “One on One: The Best Women’s Monologues for the 21st Century.

Wudan Yan

Narrative Journalist, Fact-checker, and Entrepreneur

Wudan Yan is an award-winning narrative journalist, fact-checker, and entrepreneur based in Seattle, Washington. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, California Sunday Magazine, High Country News, MIT Technology Review, The New York Times, Popular Mechanics and beyond. She is a multi-grantee of the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and has also received grants from UC Berkeley, the Institute of Journalism and Natural Resources, and the International Womens Media Foundation.

Sessions: Fact Checking: How To Do It Yourself or As a Freelance Gig

Kimberly Yavorski

Freelance Journalist, Content Marketing Writer, ASJA Conference Content Marketing Co-Chair

Kimberly Yavorski is a freelance journalist and content marketing writer. While she often writes about parenting and education, she has never been content to only “write what she knows,” and is often happiest when learning new things to share with the world. A former assistant editor at a computer trade journal, she particularly enjoys the research aspect of her work, especially when it is about science or history. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Hill, Pacific Standard and Vox.

Sessions: Can a Facebook Platform Boost Your Career?

Fiona Young-Brown

Author, ASJA Member/ASJA Confidential Blog Editor

Fiona Young-Brown moved from academia into a writing career two decades ago. Since then, she has written 17 books (and counting) on topics as diverse as food history, Eleanor Roosevelt, and nuclear power. Her articles have appeared in BBC Earth, Atlas Obscura, Costco Connections, and many other outlets. She is currently hard at work on her first novel, a local travel guide, and a proposal for a new book about Kentucky history. Fiona lives in Lexington, KY.

Sessions: Fact Checking: How To Do It Yourself or As a Freelance Gig

Teresa Zumwald

Speechwriter, Executive Speech Coach, Storyteller, Zumwald & Company, LLC, ASJA Member

Teresa Zumwald is a speechwriter, executive speech coach and storyteller at Zumwald & Company, LLC, where she works 1:1 with leaders to write and deliver speeches and presentations that change how people think or behave. Since 2012, her speeches have won 27 awards including 20 Cicero Speechwriting Awards from Vital Speeches of the Day. Among her clients are board chairs, C-suite leaders, entrepreneurs and subject matter experts from the Fortune 500 and other U.S. and international firms.

Sessions: Changing Hearts and Minds: A Speechwriting Playbook