The Illuminate Podcast

Heather Demetrios is a critically acclaimed author, writing coach, and certified meditation instructor. She’s published books in multiple genres and today she’ll be talking to us about her latest book, Codename Badass: The True Story of Virginia Hall, one of the CIA’s first female spies and a WWII hero. Heather shares how we can apply lessons from history to our own lives, how to...

Episode 100: A Supper Club Style Celebration with all 5 Illuminate Hosts Pull up a chair and join us for a “Supper Club” style celebration. Back at the beginning of the podcast, the original hosts would share episodes from their supper club. We bring back that tradition to celebrate 100 Episodes! Dive into some “deep” conversations with all 5 of your Illuminate Podcast Hosts. Learn where the podca...

Sociologist, Dr. Bertice Berry, is an innovative storyteller, story curator, community builder, author, lecturer, and more! At 26, Berry completed her Ph. D. and started her career as a professor, but by showing up every day, “walking with purpose” she “collided with destiny” and become an award-winning entertainer, lecturer, and comedienne – including winning the coveted national Comedian o...

Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin is the CEO of Gaia Project Consulting, LLC. which is a world-wide executive coaching and consulting firm. She is also the founder of the Gaia Project for Women’s Leadership. Her work has been featured on CNN, Forbes.com, The Huffington Post, and The New York Times.  Elizabeth is also the author of Becoming Heroines which is what she is here to talk about on the podcast...

Today’s guest is our new host – Emmy Burch! We’re changing it up this week and I’m interviewing her so you can get to know her before she is on the other side of the microphone! Emmy is a woman of many talents and hobbies. Emmy is a musician, a connector of people, conductor, music educator, singing pacer(!), runner, writer, podcast host, and just illuminates pure joy. This episode is host by Kris...

Sara Fenton is on the podcast today to talk all about Girls Inc. of the Pacific Northwest! Sara is the Southwest Washington Programs Manager for Girls Inc. This is a nonprofit organization that is working to inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. They provide life-changing programs and experiences for youth ages 6-18 that help them grow up healthy, educated, and independent. In this epis...

Today’s episode is extra special because our guest, Mariam, will actually be joining us as a new host for The Illuminate Podcast! We as a team are so excited for her to join us and I am so sure that you will be too after you listen to this episode!! Mariam has worn so many hats in her professional career. She started out as a divorce lawyer for the super-rich in London and then went on to lead and...

TinaMarie Hernandez is the Executive Director of Diveheart;  a non-profit organization that provides and supports educational SCUBA diving, surface supplies gas (SSG), snorkeling and related experience programs which are open to any child, adult and veteran with a disability; with the hope of providing both physical and psychological therapeutic value to that person, while building confidence, ind...

Susannah Wellford is the founder of Running Start, a nonprofit organization aimed to inspire young women and girls to pursue political leadership.  They host training programs that that are focused on educating young women about leadership campaign strategy, and teamwork, without a partisan lens. Susannah is also the cofounder of an organization called Women Under Forty Political Action Committee...

Neli Vazquez Rowland is the co-founder and president of A Safe Haven. A Safe Haven Foundation is a 501(c)3 not for profit, social enterprise that helps people aspire, transform and sustain their lives as they transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency with pride and purpose. A Safe Haven provides the tools for each individual to overcome the root causes of homelessness through a holistic and...

Shantae Smith is the Systems Transformation Advisor at Community Solutions. Community Solutions is a nonprofit organization that is working to create a lasting end to homelessness. They are proving that homelessness is solvable with their movement of Built for Zero. Through that they are working with more than 80 cities and counties using data to change how they work and the impact that they can a...

Lia Valencia Key joins the show today! She is the founder of Valencia Key Jewelry where she creates beautiful wearable pieces of jewelry that are meant to inspire others to reach their full potential. She hand sketches each design with the intention to spread the message of empowering others to find their joy, love, dreams, and more!  Lia has a story of humble beginnings where she grew up impoveri...

Jessica Koosed Etting and Alyssa Embree Schwartz are the authors of Fade Into the Bright, a Young Adult fiction book that was released in April. The novel is all about an 18 year old, Abby, who found out her estranged father is dying from a rare degenerative genetic disease called Huntington’s Disease. This gives Abby and her sister a 50% chance of testing positive for the gene. The book follows A...

Sasha Wolff is the founder of Still I Run. Still I Run is a community where people can share their experience of dealing with depression/anxiety etc. through running or any other type of physical activity. We encourage one another to take time out of our busy lives to run for our mental health. Through various  programs  we offer, we hope to educate others about running for mental health, raise me...

Ivy Lawson is the founder and owner of Logwood Company and Ivyees “Everything Honey”. Ivyees “Everything Honey” produces honey based health and beauty products, toothpaste, condiments, as well as their delicious honey.  Before starting her own company, Ivy spent nearly 2 decades in the corporate world before seeking out her true passions and becoming an entrepreneur.  In this episode, Ivy talks ab...

This week’s guest, Jolene Hart, is a holistic wellness expert. She coaches women on nutritional strategies to prevent and treat beauty concerns from acne to weight gain and aging, and educates consumers about natural beauty products through her company, Beauty Is Wellness. Jolene is a former magazine beauty editor and journalist. She shares her journey of moving from this world to becoming a...

Sarah Emerson was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2017 and documented her journey in a really beautiful and authentic way. She shared the hard but she also shared positive inspiration to others who are struggling. While Sarah was walking through her treatments, her neighbors stepped up to help her in a really beautiful way – she shares about that in this episode. Sine her diagnosis and seein...

Gaby Rodriguez is a certified gender professional, Venezuelan lawyer, and social economy specialist. She is also the founder and chair of the Amazona Foundation where she hosts monthly events to build community around gender equality, raises awareness about gender equality, and advises other clients on the creation and implementation of their gender, diversity, and inclusion plan for their program...

Mary Grove is an entrepreneur, community-builder, mom of twins and Managing Partner of Bread and Butter Ventures . In today’s episode, you’ll hear about Mary’s remarkable career, inspired by her parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Thailand. Mary began her career at Google working on the Google IPO and later as the founding director of Google for Startups, leading the company’s global efforts t...

Shayna Sangster is the director of marketing for the Indiana Fever at Pacers Sports and Entertainment. She is also the owner of Just Ride Indy. She was a gymnast growing up and she ran track and field in college as a 400m hurdler. In this episode, we get to hear how growing up as a serious athlete shaped her to who she is today, growing up as a gymnast, her career path, becoming a business owner,...

Laura Hertz is the CEO and Co-Founder of Gifts for Good. Gifts for Good is an e-commerce site that sells gifts from over 40 nonprofits and social enterprises throughout the country and world. They encourage corporations to redirect their gifting from items that will just end up in a landfill to purchasing their employees gift from Gifts for Good where every gift purchased gives back. You can also...

Liz Bohanan is the co-founder of Sseko Designs an ethical fashion brand that works to educate and empower women. She is also the author of the book Beginner’s Pluck and host of the podcast Plucking Up . In this episode we talk about seeking opportunity to live a purposeful life, we talk about motherhood, communal living and so much more. It’s a good one friends. What we talked about: 5...

Gina Mulligan is the founder of a nonprofit called Girls Love Mail, an author, and a breast cancer survivor. Gina was working on writing a book of letters when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. After her diagnosis, she began receiving letters from others (including strangers) and realized the impact that handwritten letters can have on someone. This lead her to start the nonprofit orga...

Tara Shupe is a humanitarian and outdoor photographer. She captures raw human stories, meaningful travel experiences, and focuses on women empowerment. She works with various organizations, brands, and people around the world to share their personal stories, the positive impact they are making, and more! She hopes to use her work to cultivate awareness and be a positive person in the creative worl...

Chris Norton was a collegiate football player when he mistimed a tackle and collided with the opponent’s legs and immediately lost all feeling and movement from the neck down. He was given the diagnosis that he would never be able to move again. After incredible amounts of perseverance and dedication, alongside the support of his family and friends, Chris was able to walk across the graduation sta...