SPEAKERS
ARTISTS
Tina Alexis Allen
Director
As a break-out star on WGN’s hit series “Outsiders,”actress/playwright/author Tina Alexis Allen most recently starred as Shurn, a force to be reckoned with in the clash-of-cultures drama rooted in coal mining Kentucky. With Oscar-nominated actor Paul Giamatti on board as an executive producer, Allen acted alongside David Morse (“Treme,” “Hurt Locker”) and Ryan Hurst (“Sons of Anarchy,” “Bates Motel”).
The youngest of 13 kids in a Catholic family growing up in Chevy Chase, Maryland, Tina was a tomboy at heart. After accepting a basketball scholarship to the University of Maryland, she caught the fashion bug, earned an MBA in marketing and moved to NYC. While working as a fashion executive on Seventh Avenue, she spent her weekends seeing Broadway shows and igniting a love of the arts. Some soul
searching led to Tina leaving her successful career to pursue acting. She has since been celebrated for her diverse range of roles in theatre, film and television. “Acting coach to the stars,” Susan Batson, (Oprah, Nicole Kidman, Lady Gaga, Chris Rock, Madonna, Juliette Binoche) has described Tina as “a true chameleon—capable of playing anything.”
Allen wrote and performed her critically acclaimed solo show, SECRETS OF A HOLY FATHER, in New York and Los Angeles. Based on her own life, Allen yearned to understand the complicated and highly secretive double life of her father. By transforming herself into him, she took her father’s journey exploring the universal themes of family betrayal, redemption and forgiveness in a tour-de-force performance.
In Los Angeles, she performed a 12-character one-woman show, IRRESISTIBLE, lauded by critics as rivaling the work of Lily Tomlin. For her work in THE BREAK-UP NOTEBOOK, Allen was nominated for a GLAAD award alongside Jane Lynch. In addition, she starred in and produced the Slamdance Jury Prize film PHANTOM PAIN, and played opposite Theresa Russell in the 2014 feature film, MOVING MOUNTAINS.
In addition to acting and writing, Allen is the Co-Founder of Gina Raphaela Jewelry, which merges art, fashion, and social consciousness. The brand uses deconstructed and transformed bullets as a foundation for daring necklaces, rings and bracelets. Their philanthropic mission provides a percentage of all proceeds to be donated directly to non-profit organizations taking a stand for peace.
Chantal Cousineau
#metoo Activist | Actress
Chantal Cousineau is a Canadian actress and activist who used her platform to catalyze the #MeToo movement that revealed the actions of James Toback. Chantal testified on behalf of the union at a hearing of the state Senate Judiciary Committee in support of California Senate Bill 224 and continues to fight for better treatment for survivors of work-place sexual assault.
Friday, September 21st
Susan Lee, PhD
Therapist
Susan Lee, PhD is a therapist and program coordinator for the Recovery, Resiliency and Reintegration Integrated Services Management Program at United American Indian Involvement. She has worked with the Native American Community in Los Angeles since 2005. Dr. Lee has worked in community based and residential mental health settings with children, adolescents and adults. Her experience includes individual, family and group therapy in addition to advocacy and program development. She has specialized in working with trauma victims, multicultural populations and integrating traditions and
culture into treatment. Prior to clinical work in the community, Dr. Lee spent five years training and educating foster parents and social workers at a local foster family agency.
Sunday, September 16th
Marnie Goodfriend
Writer | Activist
Marnie Goodfriend is a writer, mentor, and sexual violence activist with fellowships from PEN America USA and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. As a freelance writer and author, she focuses on trauma, body dysmorphia, sexual assault, mental health, and women’s issues. Since 1996, she’s been a public speaker for RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network) and has consulted television networks on rape storylines including Private Practice’s multi-episode story arc. Marnie is the creative nonfiction editor at Angels Flight • literary west, essays editor at The Nervous Breakdown,
and an LA Weekly contributor. Her memoir, Chewing Gravel, about the double rape of two young women by a serial rapist dubbed The Top Gun rapist, is forthcoming.
Instagram: marnieleighgram
Twitter: mgoodfriend44
www.marnielgoodfriend.format.com
Saturday, September 8th
Nicki J. Monti
Writer | Therapist
Dr. Nicki J. Monti is not your typical therapist. She instantly gets to the core of presented issues, and immediately provides a clear path for genuine change. Her no-nonsense approach combines with extraordinary compassion and good humor to offer a clear, authoritative voice free of judgment and full of possibility. She quickly brings forward what others have somehow missed and then offers practical tools for truly productive resolution. Dr. Nicki is not only a great listener but she makes you feel safe, comfortable and open to what she has to say—she uses wit and her own experiences to reveal what’s undermining you, and to get you beyond being ‘stuck in your own story.’ Joining in a seminar, session or event, you will see first-hand her genuine care, humor and intelligence. Through her insightful advice and encouragement, she assists your most positive emotional and life changes.
Saturday, September 15th
Sunday, September 16th
Heidi Wells
Clinical Director Lotus Place Recovery
Heidi Wells is the Clinical Director and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist at Lotus Place Recovery. Heidi brings expertise in the area of trauma, substance abuse, dual diagnosis, PTSD, mood and anxiety disorders. She received her Masters in Psychology from John F. Kennedy University in 2007 and has been working primarily with clients in the acute trauma and substance abuse population bringing a holistic and mindfulness approach to her practice while using a variety of therapeutic modalities, including cognitive-based therapy, dialectical-behavioral therapy, psychodynamic and relational therapy. Heidi is also certified in Expressive Art Therapy providing effective and unique non-verbal ways for clients to process underlying core issues and trauma.
Saturday, August 18th
Hope Hall
Documentary Filmmaker
Hope Hall is a documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and photographer. Her cinematography work can be seen in dozens of independent feature documentaries, including three years of work on Beyond Conviction, a feature documentary on mediation between victim and perpetrator in Pennsylvania prisons. From May 2011 onward, she was President Obama's Principal Videographer at the White House in the Office of Digital Strategy, with both the position and the office being a creation of this President.
Camilla Borel-Rinkes
Co-founder of BeFrank
Camilla Borel-Rinkes is a co-founder of BeFrank, a company that creates thought-provoking videos that ask men to answer taboo questions. Their first video "Porn or #MeToo" asked men to decide which of these categories a proposed sexual scenario fit into. It went viral appearing in the Huffington Post, The Daily Mail and Cosmopolitan.
Katharine Bainbridge
Psychotherapist
Katharine is a certified Jungian Analyst, Buddhist & Somatic Experiencing Psychotherapist, and Energy Healer. A Holistic & Integrative Psychotherapist.
Julia Dixon
Deputy Alternate Public Defender
Represented indigent criminal defendants for almost 20 years - starting with simple DUI’s and petty thefts, to more serious felonies, and now almost entirely special circumstance murders. also a supervisor and a trainer.
Friday, August 17th