Speakers
Alicia Hansen – @poiseinparma
As a lifelong member of the Northeast Ohio community, Alicia Hansen grew up in the Greater Cleveland area and is proud to still call it home. She writes Poise in Parma, a healthy balance blog for Clevelanders. She began her blog in October 2009 to help keep her accountable for a 100 plus pound weight loss while showing others that they too could live a happy, healthy lifestyle in the Northeast Ohio region.
Professionally, Alicia was recognized by CBC Magazine in February 2011 as the Connectors Choice Awards’ Rising Star for 2010 for her work as an events director for local non-profits. She currently serves as Director of Operations for Nishkama Yoga while also developing her own event planning and social media management company. By November 2012, Alicia will have her Yoga Alliance yoga teacher certification through Nishkama Yoga’s teacher training program.
Serving as the Cleveland chapter president of the Ohio Blogging Association, social media has given her a chance to connect with a variety of Clevelanders, as well as folks from around the globe. Alicia lives in Parma, Ohio with her husband Hans and her golden retriever Grady.
Alison Lewis – @alisonlewis
Alison Lewis is a nationally known Recipe Developer, Cookbook Author, Nutitionist, Magazine and Internet Journalist, Television and Social Media Spokesperson and Consultant, Food, Travel, Fitness, and Lifestyle Blogger, Food Educator, Health/Nutrition, Wellness and Event Speaker and President of Ingredients, Inc., a Food Media Consulting company in Birmingham, Alabama.
Amy Nowacoski – @amynowacoski
“You’ve got to be freakin’ kidding me? Seriously? We’re going to a fitness conference? As a speaker? OMG What are we going to wear? We are not spending the weekend in spandex, I’m telling you that right now. Do you know how big my butt looks in yoga pants? We have to lay off the cupcakes STAT and we are NOT taking on training for another race. NOT. Do you hear me?”
Amy Nowacoski has a crazy Fat Girl that lives in her head. She started running when she was 275 pounds and hasn’t stopped. She is the creative voice behind “Fat Girls CAN Run” exploring the idea that “Impossible is just a typo”. Amy is an advocate for falling in love with fitness and ending the “I can’t” conversation. Currently, training for a marathon and a triathlon, Amy is reinventing herself as an athlete while freaking out about having to wear a wetsuit.
When she’s not having conversations with the crazy people in her head, Amy is the founder of Ginger Snap Works , a social media marketing company that ends social media pollution by giving brands and individuals a voice in social media. Trained in international diplomacy and traditional marketing, Amy believes that it is the conversations we have, in social media or in life, that define the quality of our lives.
Amy is obsessed with Pinterest.com, knitting socks, creating the perfect smoothie and being the mom of the best pug on earth. With new adventures always on the horizon, she is expanding her business, writing a book, exploring martial arts and, of course, is running her pants off.
Follow her on Twitter! @amynowacoski, @FatGirlsCanRun
Brandi Koskie – @DietsInReview
Brandi Koskie is the managing editor at DietsInReview.com and takes full credit for the site’s successful five year run. (Fully kidding.) She’s actually one of many who make this leading diet and health site tick. Unfortunately, everyone else wouldn’t fit in her carry-on bag. While in her fifth year with DIR, she’s learned enough to know she’s never done learning and loves finding new opportunities for engaging the site’s loyal and enthusiastic readers.
Brandi is a respected health journalist and has worked with some of the biggest names in dieting and fitness. She’s attended seven Biggest Loser finales, shared sushi with Jillian Michaels, made Jimmy Fallon laugh, and was called “an expert” on NPR’s Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me. She’s embraced the world of interactive marketing and is proficient in SEO best practices, so much so that her super dorky hobby is researching keywords.
Personally, Brandi launched the web’s first IVF fundraiser site, BabyOrBust.com. There she “begged” the Internet for money in exchange for bearing all about her (successful) test-tube-baby making. Her story has been featured on the CBS Early Show, NPR’s StoryCorps, the book “Budgeting for Infertility,” Conceive Magazine, and the Johnson’s Baby “Moments of Joy” campaign.
Brandi lives in Wichita, Kansas with her husband and daughter, where she gets most of her exercise being a human swing set for the (almost) two-year-old. Brandi has a journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma and is, of course, working on her first book.
Christie Inge, HHC – @christieinge
Christie Inge is an intuitive eating and body image coach and is the creator of The Body Love Alchemy Community. After years on the diet and binge roller coaster, she realized that the answers she was looking for had nothing to do with the size of her blue jeans or the food on her plate. She set out onto a quest to make peace with food, her body and her weight once and for all. She began sharing her experiences on her popular, heartfelt blog. Overtime, she found that her greatest gift was helping women, just like her, overcome their struggles, too.
She has taken what she learned in the school of hard knocks and coupled that with what she has learned in her professional trainings to create a system that has helped thousands of women to make peace with food and to stop hating their bodies. She offers support, insight, and real world tools for creating a body and life you love. You can stay in touch with by subscribing to her inspirational weeklyeLetter or join the conversation facebook and twitter.
Cynthia Crowsen – @itallchanges
Cynthia Crowsen began writing It All Changes three years ago as a reminder healthy living is full of ups and downs. What started as a personal reminder and a way to keep in contact with friends and her mom (Hi Momma!) has become a passion to share how healthy comes in many forms and with many challenges. Weekly blog posts include everything from recipes and fitness to emotional health and goal setting and there’s always lots of mind wandering.
Cynthia is a full time pastor currently residing in the Berkshires of Massachusetts with Hunni (her husband) and two dogs who begrudging share their apartment. She previous presented on Making Friends Through Social Media at Healthy Living Summit 2011.
David Hylton – @runningbecause
David Hylton is a marketing writer/editor by day and a father, husband, blogger and co-moderator of #runchat, the most popular chat about running on Twitter.
David’s career has taken him from copy editing/page design at a small newspaper to public relations to marketing. Being active on social media in the day jobs led to the desire to do something on a personal level – running.
David and Scott Miles started #runchat in June 2010 and have seen it grow to include a Facebook page and a website. The Twitter handle — @therunchat — was created to promote #runchat events and gained more than 1,000 followers in its first week.
In addition to #runchat, David started a running blog – www.runningbecauseican.com – in 2007 as he started training for his first marathon. David has run in nearly 50 races since 2004 when he started running to lose weight.
David lives in the small town of Bedford, Va., with his wife of 8 years, Christina; son, Conner; and his best running partner, his golden retriever Duke.
Emily Sandford – @skinnyemmie
Emily Sandford is the weight loss blogger behind Skinny Emmie: a journey to get fit and live life. Since starting Skinny Emmie, she has lost over 110 pounds through workouts, clean eating, and addressing emotional issues and triggers. She is a social media consultant, blogger, and brand marketer with over eight years of experience in directing traditional, interactive, and social media marketing management to companies with revenues over $100M.
Emily owns Authentically Social, a social media marketing consultancy. She serves as community manager for Enell Sports Bras, fashion blogger at Emmie Loves, contributor to ShePosts, contributor to HerKentucky, and marketing consultant to several companies. She is nearly always available via social media at @skinnyemmie or @emilysandfordon Twitter, and facebook.com/skinnyemmie. Emily has appeared in Skirt! Magazine, Spry Magazine, Shape Magazine online, Health Magazine online, Ace Weekly, and the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Emily resides in Lexington, KY with her murse (male nurse) husband David and their airedale terrier Lilly. She loves traveling and reading, and is easily distracted by sparkly things.
Kara Richardson Whitely – @fatwmnonthemtn
Kara Richardson Whitely is a plus-size adventurer who hikes mountains on her way to better health and a better world.
She is committed to telling her story — with a mission to encourage others to be active with their bodies and in their community — because she is one of the two-thirds of Americans who struggle with their weight. Kara has been featured in Self, Redbook and American Hiker magazines as well as several television, radio and online outlets.
Kara, who is now a content developer for Monaco Lange, a top NYC branding agency, has been a journalist for the past decade. She has written for daily newspapers, as well as Self, Every Day with Rachael Ray and Runner’s World magazines.
Her book, Fat Woman on the Mountain: How I Lost Half of Myself and Found Happiness
Visit Kara on bigfatmountain.com and fatwomanonthemountain.com
Karen C.L. Anderson – @kclanderson
Karen C.L. Anderson: Author. Blogger. Speaker. Creator of ah-ha moments. Lover of what is.
Karen is the author of AFTER (the before & after): a real life story of weight loss, weight gain and weightlessness through total acceptance. Her blog, “Before & After: A Real Life Story,” continues the conversation she started in her book and explores how self-acceptance heals the mind, body, and spirit.
She is currently enrolled in the Psychology of Eating coach training program where she is learning about Dynamic Eating Psychology and Mind-Body Nutrition.
Karen is also a freelance writer and speaker. Prior to becoming a freelancer, she spent 17 years trying to fit her right-brained self into a left-brained career as a trade magazine journalist in the field of plastics (and if she had a dime for every time someone mentioned that line from The Graduate…). She worked mostly in New York City, which helped make up for the trauma. She lives in New London, CT, with her husband, Tim who is most definitely a left brainer. She sincerely appreciates that in him.
Kia Ruiz – @bodhi_bear
Kia Ruiz is a yoga instructor, writer, photographer and holistic wellness advocate. She uses her science background (former academic and ecologist) to work with clients on simple green and health actions. Kia is currently training for the summer triathlon season and backpacking weekends in the Colorado mountains.
Liz Neporent – @LizzyFit
Liz Neporent has spent her entire career helping people realize their fitness dreams and improving their health. She passionately believes in the power of healthy living as a means to a better life. It’s important to her that health information is based on real science and delivered in an easy-to-understand manner.
Although she started out as a health & fitness professional working in corporate wellness, somewhere along the line, Liz realized she could reach a very large audience by stepping out of the gym and sitting at her keyboard to write about health and fitness topics. She garnered work in numerous national publications including The New York Times, The Daily News, Shape Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Fitness Magazine, Men’s Health, etc. She’s written for iVillage, AOL, Shape.com, ABCNews.com, Dr. Oz’s Youbeauty and scads of other destination websites.
Liz soon branched into books. She co-wrote two best sellers: Fitness for Dummies and Weight Training for Dummies. Books really kicked in the compulsive nature she developed as a lifelong distance runner: To date she’s written/co-written 20 titles including last year’s smash hit, The Winner’s Brain with Mark Fenske, Ph.D. and Jeff Brown, Psy.D., two brainiacs with Harvard pedigrees and the newly release Harvard Health Publication’s The Migraine Solution and Change your Gambling Change Your Life.
Liz has been on all the morning shows as well as CNN, New York One, The Food Network and more. She serves on the emeritus board and is a national spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise and is the fitness and media advisor for The Hudson Valley Women’s Health Initiative, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the health needs of an underserved community. Liz also regularly consults with companies, authors and medical experts on developing successful social media strategies. She herself has more than 18,000 followers on Twitter.
When not pounding the pavement or pumping iron Liz can be found hanging out with her super cute hubby and daughter. For more info, check out her website www.liznep.com and follow her on Twitter @lizzyfit.
Mara Glatzel – @mmarzipan
Mara Glatzel is the rabble-rouser behind the body image and self-love blog Medicinal Marzipan, where topics include authentic entrepreneurship, creating relationships that don’t suck, and learning to love the skin that you’re in. Medicinal Marzipan documents Mara’s belief in the importance of loving her body with relentless compassion, no matter what her pant size or relationship status. She loves caffeine, avocados, polka-dots, and helping you cultivate a life that makes you feel ecstatic about being alive.
Monica Olivas – @RunEatRepeat
Monica Olivas started blogging four years ago to document her weight loss and training for her first marathon at Run Eat Repeat. For some odd reason people started reading and the site has grown into a dream job! Now she blogs daily offering running tips, food diaries, weight loss features and random musings that are mostly only entertaining to her.
Monica is an ACE certified personal trainer living in southern California. She has presented at Fitbloggin ‘11 on Blogging 101 and the Healthy Living Summit ‘11 on Blogger Safety. You can follow her on twitter @RunEatRepeat or check out her site www.runeatrepeat.com
Sarah Dussault – @DietSarah
Sarah Dussault is one of the most viewed fitness personalities on YouTube. She has produced over 700 videos, earning over 100 million total views. Since 2006, Sarah has pioneered the YouTube channel for diet.com, DietHealth, as the senior video producer. From Bethenny Frankel to Ellie Krieger, Dussault has worked with some of the most influential names in the
health industry. She created her own channel, SarahsFabChannel, in 2008 and began blogging shortly thereafter at SarahFit.com. As a full time blogger, she produces, hosts, films and edits her own videos. She also hosts the YouTube produced series, Next Trainer.
Sarah is a proud Laughing Cow Community Leader. In 2011, she appeared in Women’s Health and Men’s Health from June to November as a blog editor to promote the Urbanathlon race series, called Crushing The Course. Sarah stars in the JCore Body DVD series and infomercial starring Shape contributing editor, Jay Cardiello.
Sarah is a certified personal trainer through the ACSM and trains clients privately in Boston. She was additionally named one of Stuff @ Night Magazine’s “Bodies of Boston” in 2010. She is also a reporter for a local nightlife TV show, “Dirty Water TV” which airs on NESN.
Shauna Reid – @Shauna
Shauna Reid is an Australian writer living in Scotland. She’s co-creator of Up & Running online running courses, where together with renowned coach Julia Jones, she helps women around the world of every shape and size start running.
Shauna’s memoir The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl (Harper Collins) tells the tale of her 175 pound weight loss. She’s been blogging since 2001 at dietgirl.org. Her blog and book have been featured in People magazine, CBS The Early Show, The Washington Post, ELLE, O magazine and Marie Claire to name a few.You can find out more about Shauna’s adventures at www.dietgirl.org.
Susan Ito – @foodiemcbody
Susan Ito, aka FoodieMcBody, has been blogging at foodfoodbodybody since 2009. She has gone from a type 2 diabetic couch potato to a half marathon runner, triathlete and Weight Watchers leader. She is also a published author, solo performer and editor and has taught at UC Berkeley Extension and privately.
Susan Lacke – @SusanLacke
Susan Lacke does 5Ks, Ironman Triathlons, and everything in between to justify her love for cupcakes (yes, she eats that many). After earning Masters and Doctoral degrees in Health and Wellness, Susan did the most responsible thing a graduate with a giant mound of student debt could do: She became a writer. Today, she has a featured column in Competitor Magazine, a weekly blog in Competitor.com, and serves as Resident Triathlete for No Meat Athlete, a website dedicated to vegetarian endurance athletes. Recently, she signed her first book deal with VeloPress Publishing. You can find all of her work at www.susanlacke.com.
Susan lives and trains in Phoenix, Arizona with four animals: A labrador, a cattle dog, a miniature pinscher, and a freakishly tall triathlete boyfriend. She claims to be of sound mind, though this has yet to be substantiated by a medical expert.
Tara Martin & Meegan Dowe – @theHDD
Tara and Meegan met online in early 2009 when they were just beginning to crack the shell of their true selves, blogging about losing 100+ lbs and the physical, mental and emotional process involved. As they reached the high point of their life changing journeys they met in person as friends and ended up unexpectedly falling in love.
At The Healthy Dynamic Duo, Meegan & Tara write about how they are living their lives to the fullest together blogging about everything from recipes tested and tasted to how they currently maintain their combined weight loss of 230lbs.
At A Life Changing Journey Tara shares her story of being lost and uncovering herself. The way she tells it, she “began her life changing journey in a 270lb body dying a slow and very sad death.” She writes a lot about how her journey is about more than just weight loss, its about how she is saving her life on a mental, emotional and spiritual level. She writes candidly about the absolute truth of the process of uncovering your true self and how making her journey public has helped her in ways she is unable to explain.,
At Redstar5 Meegan writes about how she decided to reclaim her life at 30 after a battle with depression that left her feeling fat, tired and worthless and how she came out the other side feeling more like herself than she could have ever imagined. Her Life Changing Journey is chronicled as her weight loss progresses and the ups and downs of maintenance now unfold.
Tara and Meegan eloped in Vancouver, BC in July of 2001 and now share their healthful lives together in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 4000 miles away from Tara’s hometown of Tacoma, WA. They have joined together in their mission – to help others along their own Life Changing Journeys and build and army of people who care about who they are, feeling loved and deserving of happiness and then to turn the happy loose on others, especially those who don’t think they deserve it. Because, as they would tell you, “we know now, that everyone deserves it.”
Click here to FitBloggin’11 Speakers.
Click here to FitBloggin’10 Speakers.
