Amy Baker, PharmD
Currently living and dreaming in Ashland, Oregon, but definitely from the Southwest (New Mexico). The simplicity of country ways lies in my soul, yet I have also lived in and loved San Francisco, Boston and Maui.

I am a single mom of an 18-year-old and a recent empty nester, with 3 weddings and 3 divorces under my belt. For work, I am la directora de la farmacia (Director of Pharmacy) at a non-profit health center. In my nature, I am a dancer, mover, explorer and dreamer. I am about to enter the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and move to a city I have never visited in the Midwest.
Life is about to get very interesting, indeed!

The picture is after a week in a Gateless writing retreat in the Columbia Gorge area of northern Oregon. I was alight with life and inspiration.

Stanley Dankoski has fiction published at Literary Orphans, The Great Smokies Review, and Lime Hawk. His first published story landed on the 2016 Wigleaf longlist, and another was a semifinalist for the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize. As a literary photographer, he has covered events such as GrubStreet’s Muse & the Marketplace writers conferences, Literary Death Match, and Gateless retreats. He has experience as a website developer, making designs function as expected. Having spent most of his life in New England, he now writes from Asheville, North Carolina, and is working on a linked collection of stories.

Stanley Dankoski has fiction published at Literary Orphans, The Great Smokies Review, and Lime Hawk. His first published story landed on the 2016 Wigleaf longlist, and another was a semifinalist for the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize. As a literary photographer, he has covered events such as GrubStreet’s Muse & the Marketplace writers conferences, Literary Death Match, and Gateless retreats. He has experience as a website developer, making designs function as expected. Having spent most of his life in New England, he now writes from Asheville, North Carolina, and is working on a linked collection of stories.

I am Jacquie Donahue: intrepid spiritual pilgrim (yes, I stole these words from Suzanne and want to find my own version), long-time women’s workshop facilitator, artist, writer, Realtor, cancer survivor, and champion of a woman’s journey to reclaim awareness and reality of her Soul! I am here to help women of all ages and stages navigate the inner world of Woman, listen with heart, see with insight, speak the truth, find their joy, and reclaim their soul-purpose to heal themselves and create new realities! It is my passion and privilege to support women in bringing the Soul of Woman back to Life.

What I know: For a woman to feel right, whole and alive within herself she must regularly embark upon an inwardly directed quest through the shadowlands of her own unconscious. She must courageously walk the unfamiliar pathways of metamorphosis to remember the reality of her soul and reclaim her lost creative spirit and joy. The slow, often lonely climb out of confusion, disappointment, illusion and pain to discover her true identity, strength and that place within, in which she is whole, is the most empowering and intimate personal journey a woman ever undertakes. Sharing, what she remembers, her lived and felt experiences, hard-won wisdom, reclaimed joy and faith with other women of heart, is a next step in the collective tale of humanity’s Great Remembering that each woman has a part in bringing to life.

Why I Am Here: I Am deeply immersed in organizing and birthing an intimate expression of Self and Soul, a comprehensive program for women I call: Journey To The Hidden Heart. I envision this program as a series of facilitated women’s gatherings, online forums, writings, teaching aids, audio supports and other media dedicated to sharing and exploring our individual and collective remembering of what it is to BE woman in today’s modern age. I Am living this program out as it unfolds through me. I have walked the dark and soul-harrowing roads of initiation, reclaiming my Self from the shadows, healing old wounds, repairing my soul and reclaiming the living blueprint of Woman within my bones. I am here at Gateless seeking to spread my new/old/ancient wings in ways that help me develop language / vocabulary / writing style and the steadfast courage I have lacked to fulfill my passion and purpose. I Am here, in the sanctuary of others find my unique voice and know that I have brought Her HOME. My voice is the super-power I have come to reclaim.

Dylan Essertier is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn, New York. Dylan's writing has appeared in WSJ Magazine, InStyle, Coveteur, Domino Magazine, Travel + Leisure, Harper's Bazaar Art, and Global Citizen, among other top publications.

Previously, Dylan worked as the Features Editor for Savoir Flair, the Middle East’s largest English online fashion and lifestyle publication, where she oversaw Savoir Flair’s culture category, traveling the world to report on the latest hospitality trends as well as conducting interviews with key designers and fashion personalities, including Carolina Herrera, Mario Testino, Diane Von Fürstenberg, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and more.

Dylan is currently working on a memoir about her time in the Middle East.

Lisa Faulkner (also known as the Pole Dancing Professor) is a public health expert who mentors women to quiet their busy minds and increase presence through dance, play, sensuality and nature connection.

She’s longed to live in a world filled with vibrant individuals since writing her first research paper on biofeedback in junior high school in Connecticut. Lisa has a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. She studied psychobiology in college at the University of Pennsylvania and spent twenty years in academia researching and teaching determinants of health. However, it wasn’t until discovering sensual dance that she found the secret to radiant well-being.

Lisa’s first book, How Pole Dancing Changed My Life, chronicles the journey of an overworked and overweight assistant professor who takes up pole dancing to unleash her “erotic creature.” The pole terrifies her at first; for months she reminds herself, “it’s not about the pole.” Eventually, she befriends the pole, transforming from a thoughtful academic who wears granny panties and believes she was cursed with a low libido, to a feisty woman with a drawer full of leopard and hot pink lingerie, who’s insatiable for her husband’s kisses and inspires others with her irrepressible joy and lust for life.

Her essays have been featured in Vertical Arts and Fitness magazine and on numerous websites including Hot Flashes Sexy Stories and Bad Kitty. Lisa writes to inspire women to discover the treasures buried in their hips and unleash their inner sirens.

When she’s not home in California writing, teaching, or dancing, you’ll find Lisa traveling, taking photo walks, sipping champagne with her husband, or asking a new friend, “When is the last time you cried tears of joy or answered the call of your wild soul?”

To learn more about Lisa visit poledancingprofessor.com, where you can also download a free chapter.

Mary Gauthier is a Nashville based singer songwriter who has released 9 records after beginning her full time music career at the age of 40. Prior to that, she owned and ran 3 different restaurants in Boston. She became well known for creating the 120 seat Dixie Kitchen, Boston's first New Orleans style eatery. She sold the restaurant to her investors in 2001, and moved to Nashville to pursue her songwriting career.
Mary's just completed a book on The Art of Songwriting for Yale University, and a recording of songs she co-wrote with veterans and their families. Both are due out in early 2018. She continues to tour the world solo with her songs and her guitar.

She teaches songwriting globally, and also holds several workshops a year in Nashville on the campus of Scarrett Bennet in conjunction in Performing Songwriting Creative Workshops.

She's single, and enjoys having dinner parties for friends, fellow songwriters, musicians and authors. She loves hiking Nashville's Warner Park 4 1/2 mile red trail, and can be found in coffee shops around Nashville, enjoying coffee and conversation with friends.
Words matter.
Facts are real.
Truth exists.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marygauthiersongs
For more information www.marygauthier.ccom

Terri Trespicio is a New York–based writer and branding consultant, and works with individuals and organizations to help nail their messaging and engage clients, customers, and fans. She speaks widely at conferences and events, and her TEDx talk, “Stop Searching for Your Passion,” has earned more than 2.7 million views.

A former magazine editor and radio host at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has appeared on the Today show, Dr. Oz, The Early Show, The Martha Stewart Show and The Anderson Cooper Show. She's written for Oprah magazine, Marie Claire, Prevention, Business Insider, and MindBodyGreen, among others. Her essay, “The Rules of Boxball,” won first place in the Baltimore Review in 2016.

An in-demand speaker. Terri speaks widely at national conferences and events; including TEDxKC, TEDxStLouisWomen, BlogHer, Barron’s, Workfront, NAPO, Public Relations Society of America, Blackstone, and How Design Live, where she was rated the #1 speaker by attendees in 2015 and co-emceed the 2017 event. Terri also performs comedy all over New York City, including Caroline’s, Dangerfield’s, Gotham, Broadway, and New York Comedy Club.

Mel Maure
One of the things I struggle with in bio creation is the statement; I am (fill in the blank). So I will humbly share the stuff I do with my life energy, gifts and talents on a daily basis.

I live in a gorgeous, life-giving place called British Columbia, Canada. A real playground for the outdoors addict; that would be me.

I offer somatic therapy in my counselling practice. It’s like talk therapy for your body. I also teach yoga and have been doing some form of bodywork for almost 20 years Somewhere along the way I thought it a good idea to gather a Master’s degree in Psychology. The jury is still out on whether that was a well thought out rather expensive endeavour? I guess my clients find comfort in the little letters behind my name.

I write. This is the one thing I do that helps me hear my thoughts with clarity. My first novel is in the throws of going to a publishing house for a first-fifty-page read. I’m trying not to think about this as it makes my tummy feel like stew.

I have written nonfiction in a few publications, my favourite being elephant journal. Probably, my favourite because they accept my pieces. I appreciate that deeply. Those that don’t accept my work, I secretly picture their website crashing.

I take photos. Mostly of moss and other greenish stuff. This has to do with my abiding connection to nature. Too long in the city and I begin to gasp like a carp out of the water. Most of my writing is done in some natural setting. It seems my mind is cleared by the sway of branches overhead, and my concentration is grounded by the roots under my backside.

I play the guitar. I use the word play very loosely. I love how I went from making god-awful twanging noises to “hey, that sounds like music” in only a few short years. Music, specifically the playing of it, is my touchstone for humility and the greatest reminder of the importance of practice.

I explore. I’m not sure if it’s the astrological proclivity of being Gemini or not, but I’m going with that for now. I have always explored inside and out. My world, my body, my heart, my mind, my spirit. Which it turns out are one in the same. Who knew? I adore travel in big and small doses. Nothing turns my crank more than wandering a new place completely untethered from day-to-day routines where no one knows your name. Anonymity is a drug to my being.

I learn. A student I shall be, as long as I am walking around in this fleshy container…and hopefully thereafter. Just like anonymity, books send me into a euphoria that is unmatched, especially if said book has something to teach me. With that in mind, Paulo Coelho is the shit as far as I’m concerned. Followed by Stephen King, of course.

So, use this bio information in whatever way pleases you and hopefully the hard copy of me is far more satisfying than the on-screen version.

Born in Newton, Kansas, Dr. I. Murphy Lewis is an author, psychoanalytic shaman, and lecturer. She received her Masters and Doctorate of Philosophy in Mythology from the Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpenteria, CA, and completed an Associates Degree in Fashion (1988) from Parsons School of Design in New York City and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (1980) from the University of Kansas.

Dr. Lewis had a high profile career in the fashion industry, as Vice President, Director of Sales for Badgley Mischka (1998- 2001) and Halston (1997), and was formerly employed as Director of Sales for Mary McFadden (1993-1996) and Bergdorf Goodman (1988-1991).

In 2002, Dr. Lewis became the Founding Director of a 501(c)3, private operating foundation, Global Voice in honor of the Kalahari San Bushmen, to benefit indigenous peoples. Her organization provides water pumps, corn-threshers, education, food, medicine, and clothing. She created IML Publications, L.L.C. to produce art books, poetry and film by various female artists. For the past twenty-two years Dr. Lewis has been researching the stories and recording the music of the San Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. From 1998 to 2004, during six journeys into Laloshwa Highlands, Kenya, Lewis participated in the shamanic initiation rites of the Maasai Warriors, returning in 2013 to officially annul her marriage.

She is author of the young adult book and director of the short documentary film, Why Ostriches Don’t Fly and Other Tales from the African Bush (1997, 1998), as featured on WABC News (2002). She is the director and producer of three short documentaries, Music that Floats from Afar (2001), How do you Name a Song? (2003), and The Sacred Forest of the Lost Child (2007).

When Lewis isn’t traipsing through the Kalahari, she is immersed in a private practice of psychoanalytic shamanism with adults in the safety and love of the Akashic Records, managing to faithfully write in her lifelong journal of forty-six years, now 25,000 pages.

For the past five years, she has been residing in Paris, France with her husband, Jean-Pierre Pranlas-Descours, author, architect, urban planner, and professor.

Alysa Osvog, Certified Yoga Therapist, Creator of Project-11 -Yoga Meditation Writing for Recovery I believe we are all in recovery from the layers of life that dull who we really are, these tools to help us remember, reveal and empower our own sense of self. I lead workshops to teach other yoga teachers how to work in non-studio settings, and lead trainings on energetic healing, Yin, Restorative yoga, the root Chakra and Bliss. I also teach regular studios classes and private sessions, in person and over the phone for meditation coaching.

I graduated from CU Boulder with a business marketing degree, grad school at FIU Miami, industrial organizational psychology.

The word passionate makes me cringe a little- ha! I am motivated by bridging purpose into passion, honoring our shadows, and adding amusement along the way. I chose to embrace this lifetime without numbing out in anyway, sober since 2.10.12, currently enjoy my human experience living in Newport Beach.

Jennifer Whetham earned her MA in Literature from Western Washington University and her MFA in the writing of poetry from Pacific University. Devoted to the faculty and students of two year colleges in Washington State, she spent the first thirteen years of her career teaching a wide range of writing and literature courses, including college writing, technical writing, creative writing, Shakespeare, and the poetics of rap and hip hop. In 2013, Jen left the classroom to focus on creating 21st century professional learning experiences for the 8500 faculty who teach in the 34 community and technical colleges in Washington State. Over the last four years In her role as program administrator for faculty development at the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, she has organized retreats, conferences, and seminars that empower faculty from all disciplines to link their success with student success and cultivate professional identities that allow them to thrive in their organizations, as opposed to merely surviving. Jen also facilitates an emergent community of practice for professional developers in the community and technical college (CTC) system. Among her passions are cultivating shared and distributed leadership in communities of practice; the how-to's of expert facilitation in faculty learning communities; equipping faculty with the skills and competencies to be campus and state-wide leaders for student learning; and, finally, research-based teaching practices proven to simultaneously eliminate equity gaps, increase completions, and ensure student learning. She currently lives in Olympia, Washington with her partner, Ray, and their lovely dog Bird.

Kelly Hedglin Bowen is a satirical writer turned reluctant memoirist. Kelly has no natural pause and is therefore comma challenged. A passionate & vocal advocate for women and reproductive health, Kelly is presently stirring up an online storm. She lives in Vermont with her people & her dogs where they remain stuck in a perpetual mud season. Her memoir Mystic Trinities is currently under review. Kelly has been selected as a finalist for the 49th Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction, the Arts & Letters Prize in creative nonfiction, and The New South prize.

Her work has appeared in The Pitkin Review and online at The Huffington Post and The Fiction Advocate.

When not writing she chases the seasons gardening, snowboarding, & sailing.

Sandra Dunn
I am a psychotherapist by profession and have been practicing for over 35 years. I am currently in private practice, have taught on the college level, and have developed and conducted community education programs as well as professional workshops. I am certified in many modalities and am always updating and fine tuning my therapeutic approaches. I work a lot with trauma and grief, anxiety and depression, as well the many situations that life throws our way. During several years of my professional career, I had the privilege of providing grief counseling to terminally ill patients and their families and those suffering sudden and tragic loss, as a clinician for a hospice organization. This experience was life changing for me, both professionally and personally. The wisdom and knowledge imparted by these individuals about life and death could not be duplicated through any specialized training or book. It had a profound effect on the direction of my clinical practice.

I feel as though I have reached a crossroad in my life…I have been searching for something which would allow for an expanded version of myself to emerge, and something that would also nourish my mind, body and soul in the process. I was guided to Suzanne and Gateless by an intuitive nudge. Gateless sounded like a slice of Heaven where all of this could happen!

I am not a writer, however, I carry many stories and creative ideas within, and I feel strongly that there is a message yearning to make its way out. My intention is to take what I have learned as therapist and through my personal life experiences and catapult to another level…although I do not know what that looks like at this time. While my friends and colleagues are slowing down, I am moving in a different direction. I desire to reach more people and develop a platform to share myself, my energy, knowledge and spirit. I look forward to igniting that fire.
I am married and blessed to have three amazing daughters and three grandsons…all of whom are wonderful gifts in my life. I love being in nature, and the beach is my place of solitude. I like engaging in outdoor activities and recently have taken a liking to paddle boarding. I also like pushing my limits in other areas as well…like skydiving!

Kevin Melville Jennings is a metaphysical counselor and writer working in New York City. He works with the Tarot and Astrology. He authored "The Daily Scope" on Vogue.com. Since 1995 Kevin has been conducting a meditation group founded upon the Western Mystery Tradition. He is honored to have been chosen as one of the twenty five leaders in "Apples are Square, Thinking Differently about Leadership" by Susan and Thomas Kuczmarski.