Saturday Mornings with Joy Keys
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Regina Hartfield is CEO and president of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America. Hartfield served on the association’s board of directors for three years, including as chair of the fundraising committee. Previously, she managed federal, state and commercial contracts for CVP, an information technology consulting firm in Virginia and Maryland. Hartfield was a community affairs professional in the nonprofit arena in New York for more than 25 years where she gained experience as a leader in nonprofit organizations. She graduated with honors from Lehman College of the City University of New York with a Bachelor of Arts in community outreach. Servio Astacio was born in the Dominican Republic with sickle cell anemia and experienced symptoms from an early age. His condition prevented him from pursuing his dream of military service, but he remains driven to growing in other areas of his life. Now 25 years old, Astacio lives in Miami, owns a business and pursues interests in finance and technology. He advocates for sickle cell awareness and research and has spoken at conferences, symposia and roundtables.
***THIS IS A PRE-RECORDED INTERVEW.*** Catherine Adel West was born and raised in Chicago, IL where she currently resides. She graduated with both her Bachelors and Masters of Science in Journalism from the University of Illinois - Urbana. Her work is published in Black Fox Literary Magazine, Five2One, Better than Starbucks, Doors Ajar, 805 Lit + Art, The Helix Magazine, Lunch Ticket and Gay Magazine. Catherine's sophomore novel THE TWO LIVES OF SARA is slated for release September 6, 2022 (Park Row Books). Her debut novel SAVING RUBY KING was published June 2020 (Park Row Books). Her short story ORION'S STAR is featured in the body positive anthology EVERY BODY SHINES (Bloomsbury, May 2021). In between writing and traveling, Catherine works as an editor.
***Pre-recorded interview*** Corey Gumbs, the owner of Black Label Media, LLC, has over 20 years of experience in recording as an independent music producer and artist. His experience in the music industry also includes working as an intern at Def Jam Records as a key member of their street promotions team in the mid-late 90s, as well as promotional tour support for Def Jam recording artist Foxy Brown, and Violator Records recording artists CRU during the 1997 Smoking Grooves Tour. He is currently the founder of Black Label Media, LLC and chief recording engineer of its service imprint: Black Label Podcast Studio, as well as the chief Podcast Development Strategist. In addition, Corey has a Bachelor of Science in Web Development and Design from Full Sail University. He is also the Founder of The Black Podcasters Association Powered By Afros & Audio, an online community dedicated to black podcast creatives and professionals. His mission is to create a space that offers support, collaboration, and can act as an advocacy body for Black podcaster creatives and professionals within the greater podcast economy. To work with Corey or to learn more about Black Label Media, LLC’s, Black Label Podcast Studio, or our other programs and services, contact the team at: team@blacklabelmediallc.com
Nasheeda Pollard is a wife and proud mother of two beautiful breastfed children! An International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, author of Magical Milk, and owner of Lactation Goddess LLC. A brand focused on helping new and expecting families unapologetically define their breastfeeding journey so they can feel confident in their abilities to lactate in a way that fits their lifestyle. Her passion for supporting lactating families of color and normalizing breastfeeding is the motivation behind Magical Milk. Working with breastfeeding families and hearing their stories along with her own experiences pushed her into purpose.
In this much anticipated follow up to New York Times bestselling Beasts of Prey, Koffi’s powers grow stronger and Ekon’s secrets turn darker as they face the god of death. Koffi has saved her city and the boy she loves, but at a terrible price. Now a servant to the cunning god of death, she must use her newfound power to further his continental conquest, or risk the safety of her home and loved ones. As she reluctantly learns to survive amidst unexpected friends and foes, she will also have to choose between the life—and love—she once had, or the one she could have, if she truly embraces her dangerous gifts. ABOUT AYANA GRAY: Ayana Gray is a New York Times bestselling young adult fantasy author and a lover of all things monsters, mythos, and magic. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, she now lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she reads avidly, follows Formula One racing, and worries over the varying moods of her adopted baby black rhino, Apollo, and her mini goldendoodle, Dolly. Her debut novel, Beasts of Prey, is being adapted for feature film.
MOROWA YEJIDÉ, a native of Washington, DC, is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Time of the Locust, which was a 2012 finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize, long-listed for the 2015 PEN/Bingham Prize, and a 2015 NAACP Image Award nominee; and Creatures of Passage, which was short-listed for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and was a 2021 Notable Book selection by NPR and the Washington Post. She lives in the DC area with her husband and three sons. NEPHTHYS KINWELL IS A TAXI DRIVER OF SORTS in Washington, DC, ferrying passengers in a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere with a ghost in the trunk. Endless rides and alcohol help her manage her grief over the death of her twin brother, Osiris, who was murdered and dumped in the Anacostia River. Unknown to Nephthys when the novel opens in 1977, her estranged great-nephew, ten-year-old Dash, is finding himself drawn to the banks of that very same river. It is there that Dash—reeling from having witnessed an act of molestation at his school, but still questioning what and who he saw—has charmed conversations with a mysterious figure he calls the “River Man.” When Dash arrives unexpectedly at Nephthys’s door bearing a cryptic note about his unusual conversations with the River Man, Nephthys must face what frightens her most. Morowa Yejidé’s deeply captivating novel shows us an unseen Washington filled with otherworldly landscapes, flawed super-humans, and reluctant ghosts, and brings together a community intent on saving one young boy in order to reclaim itself.
Louis Chude-Sokei’s work includes the award-winning, The Last Darky: Bert Williams, Black on Black Minstrelsy and the African Diaspora, The Sound of Culture: Diaspora and Black Technopoetics as well as the acclaimed memoir, Floating in A Most Peculiar Way. He teaches at Boston University, directs the African American Studies Program and is Editor in Chief of the journal, The Black Scholar. He is also founder of the sonic art and archival project, Echolocution and was a curator of Carnegie Hall’s 2022 Festival of Afrofuturism.
Special Guest: Dr. Kyra S. O’Brien grew up in Northern Virginia and received her bachelor’s of science in biology from Yale University. She received her medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and stayed to complete her internal medicine internship and neurology residency training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focus during medical school and residency aimed to characterize the clinical syndrome of primary age-related tauopathy and identify its potential genetic risk factors. As a clinical fellow at the Penn Memory Center, she hopes to focus her research on improving access to and quality of care within community practices for patients with Alzheimer’s dementia. She is excited to gain more experience with clinical trials and looks forward to working with the staff, patients and caregivers at the Penn Memory Center.
LaSheena Riley-Duval, MSW, LSW, CCM, is a licensed social worker with more than 15 years of experience working in a variety of settings within diverse communities. LaSheena’s career started as a case manager working with children, youth, and families victimized by sexual abuse. Additionally, she has worked extensively with adolescents and families in areas of behavioral health, parenting, and life skills training. LaSheena currently works as a high school social worker in the City of Philadelphia. Her passion is working with teens and their families to combat barriers to success. In the evenings LaSheena is a therapist working with adults, children, and families impacted by trauma. Janelle S. Peifer, PhD, LCP is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Richmond. She also leads Peifer Psychology (peiferpsychology.com) as a speaker and consultant for organizations committed to inclusive excellent and mental wellness. In addition, as a licensed clinical psychologist, she founded and leads The Center for Inclusive Therapy + Wellness (inclusivetherapywellness.com). Dr. Peifer earned her PhD in Clinical and School Psychology at the University of Virginia and is an alumna of Wake Forest University. Her research examines college student development with a focus on questions of identity, intercultural competence, and mental health with a focus on complex trauma
Alex Jennings is a writer/editor/teacher/poet living in New Orleans. He was born in Wiesbaden (Germany) and raised in Gaborone (Botswana), Tunis (Tunisia), Paramaribo (Surinam) and the United States. He constantly devours pop culture and writes mostly jokes on Twitter (@magicknegro). He loves music, film, comix, and even some TV. He’s going a little nuts shut up in his Central City apartment, but thankfully he has two of the best roommates on earth (one of whom is a beautiful beautiful dog named Karate Valentino. His debut novel, The Ballad of Perilous Graves is due out from Redhook in 2022. You can also find him goofing around on Instagram: (@magicknegro) Nola is a city full of wonders. A place of sky trolleys and dead cabs, where haints dance the night away and Wise Women help keep the order. To those from Away, Nola might seem strange. To Perilous Graves, it’s simply home. In a world of everyday miracles, Perry might not have a talent for magic, but he does know Nola’s rhythm as intimately as his own heartbeat. So when the city’s Great Magician starts appearing in odd places and essential songs are forgotten, Perry realizes trouble is afoot. Nine songs of power have escaped from the piano that maintains the city’s beat, and without them, Nola will fail. Unwilling to watch his home be destroyed, Perry will sacrifice everything to save it. But a storm is brewing, and the Haint of All Haints is awake. Nola’s time might be coming to an end.
Namina Forna is the author of the instant New York Times bestseller The Gilded Ones, the first book in an epic fantasy trilogy. She has an MFA in film and TV production from USC School of Cinematic Arts and a BA from Spelman College. Originally from Sierra Leone, West Africa, she moved to the US when she was nine and has been traveling back and forth ever since. She now works as a screenwriter in Los Angeles and loves building fantastical worlds and telling stories with fierce female leads. Visit her on twitter at @NaminaForna and on Instagram at @namina.forna. Discover the gripping sequel to Namina Forna's New York Times bestselling YA fantasy, THE GILDED ONES. Set in an ancient West African-inspired world, this series is perfect for fans of CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE and BLACK PANTHER. THE MERCILESS ONES is the second, thrilling instalment of the epic fantasy series in which a young heroine fights against a world that would dare tame her.
Ladee Hubbard is the author of The Rib King and The Talented Ribkins, which received the 2018 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, The Times Literary Supplement, Copper Nickel and Callaloo. Hubbard is a recipient of a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, a Berlin Prize Fellowship, and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. She has also received fellowships from MacDowell, Art Omi, the Sacatar Foundation, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, Hedgebrook, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Born in Massachusetts and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida, Ladee Hubbard currently lives in New Orleans.
'Queen of Glory' is the story of Sarah Obeng, the brilliant child of Ghanaian immigrants, who is quitting her Ivy League PhD program to follow her married lover to Ohio. When her mother dies suddenly, she bequeaths her daughter a Christian bookstore in the Pelham Parkway section of the Bronx where Sarah was raised. A follow-up on the classic immigrant's tale, Queen of Glory provokes laughter and empathy, as its heroine is reborn through her inheritance. Nana Mensah – Director / Writer / “Sarah Obeng” Nana Mensah is a Ghanaian-American writer, director, producer, and actress. Upcoming, Mensah will star in Queen of Glory, which she also wrote, produced, and directed. Queen of Glory will premiere in the U.S. Narrative Competition lineup at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 15, 2021 as a part of their Juneteenth programming. This film also marks Mensah's directorial feature debut. On August 20, 2021, Mensah will appear in a series regular role opposite Sandra Oh and Bob Balaban in Netflix’s upcoming six-episode half hour comedy series The Chair. This Fall, Mensah is attached to reprise her role in the Off-Broadway play Nollywood Dreams. Most recently, Mensah was a staff writer on Season 2 of Random Acts of Flyness at HBO and is currently staff writing on Amazon's The Power. She also co-wrote and co-starred in Season 2 of Netflix’s Bonding. Previous film credits include: IFC's Farewell Amor (which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival), Like Father, The King of Staten Island, and the upcoming A24 film After Yang. Previous TV credits include: Madame Secretary, Evil, Little America, New Amsterdam and 13 Reasons Why.
Kevin McGruder is Associate Professor of History at Antioch College. His interest in community formation led to a career in community development, with positions that included Program Director at Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Director of Real Estate Development with the Abyssinian Development Corporation (Harlem), and Executive Director of Gay Men of African Descent (New York City). Now as an academic, his research interests include African American institutions, urban history, and LGBTQ history. He has a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University, an M.B.A. in Real Estate Finance from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in U.S. History from the Graduate Center of City University of New York. He is the author of Race and Real Estate: Conflict and Cooperation in Harlem, 1890-1920 and Philip Payton: The Father of Black Harlem.
JaimeSanders is the author of the award-winning blog The Migraine Diva. She is a participant with the Coalition for Headache and Migraine Patients, with whom she worked to create an Issue Brief on Disparities in Headache and is a part of the leadership of the Disparities in Headache Advisory Council (DiHAC). Jaime is a stakeholder with the Headache and Migraine Policy Forum, works with the Society for Women’s Health Research Interdisciplinary Migraine Network, sits on the Patient Leadership Council with the National Headache Foundation, and serves on HealthyWomen’s Chronic Pain Advisory Council. She has lived with migraine since the age of two and has been chronic and intractable for the last fifteen years. Through her advocacy work and blog, Jaime’s mission is to make a very invisible disease visible to the rest of the world and validate the real pain of millions. The Migraine Diva – http://www.themigrainediva.com
Eric K. Washington is an independent historian and a Bundles Community Scholar of Columbia University. Hismost recent book is Boss of the Grips: The Life of James H. Williams and the Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal (Liveright, 2019), the biography of aonce influential Black railway labor figure and his Harlem-based workforce. The book won the Herbert H. Lehman Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in New York History(New York Academy of History), the GANYC Apple Award(Guides Association of New York City) and special recognition as a finalist for the Brendan Gill Prize(Municipal Art Society of New York). Washington is a board member of the Biographers International Organization (BIO), for which he spearheads the Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship, an annual award for African American biography,.
A native of Durham, North Carolina, April Parker Jones first came to prominence through the role of Darcy on the cult sci-fi series Jericho (CBS 2006-2008). Born in Durham, North Carolina, Parker Jones attended North Carolina Central University. She received two Audelco Award nominations for her original portrayal in the role of Christina in the Off Broadway World Premiere of Plenty of Time, in which she costarred with her now husband, Joseph Jay Jones. She landed her first major TV appearance in 2006 on CSI: Miami. April’s Theater training has paved her way to numerous and exciting recurring roles on CBS’s S.W.A.T., TNT’s The Last Ship, Fox’s The Resident, ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder, Lifetime’s Devious Maids, Freeform’s The Foster’s and the CW’s rebooted teen soap 90210. In 2016, Parker Jones returned to her roots to originate the role of ‘Genie Ann Parker’ in the stage production of Love Soul Deep written and directed by Patricia Cuffie-Jones, in which she was nominated for a NAACP Theatre Award. April Parker Jones has most notably held the series regular role of ‘Natalie,’ a single mother and fast-food restaurant Manager on Tyler Perry’s television drama If Loving You Is Wrong on the OWN Network which made its series finale in 2020 after 5 seasons and the series regular role of ‘Colonel Lauren Haley’ on the CW series, Supergirl. Currently, she is set in the series regular role of ‘Lorraine Swift’ on the upcoming CW series, Tom Swift and also recurs on the Peacock series, Bel-Air. Social Media Handles: Instagram/Twitter - @a_parkerjones Facebook - April Parker Jones
Bethany C. Morrow is a national bestselling author writing for adult and young adult audiences. She is the author of the novels Mem, A Song Below Water, A Chorus Rises, So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix, and Cherish Farrah. She is the editor/contributor to the young adult anthology TAKE THE MIC, which won the 2020 ILA Social Justice in Literature award. Her work has been featured in The LA Times, Forbes, Bustle, Buzzfeed, and more. She is included on USA TODAY's list of 100 Black novelists and fiction writers you should read.
C. J. Washington is a data scientist and writer. He has a master’s degree in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife and daughter. The Intangible is his first novel.
Aishah Shahidah Simmons (she/her) is an award-winning Black feminist lesbian cultural worker who has examined the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and sexual violence for over 25-years. A survivor of childhood and adult sexual violence committed to healing and non-carceral accountability, Aishah is the editor of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology, love WITH accountability: Digging Up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse (A.K. Press), and the producer/director of the 2006- released, Ford Foundation-funded film, NO! The Rape Documentary. Aishah has received numerous awards and fellowships, including selection for the 2022 Changemakers Authors Cohort and a 2020 Soros Media Fellowship. She is a 20-year Buddhist student and practitioner, formerly in the S.N. Goenka tradition for 17-years and presently in the Insight tradition.
PRE-RECORDED INTERVIEW 2022 Stroke Awareness Month- Stroke is a leading cause of death in the United States and is a major cause of serious disability for adults. It is also preventable and treatable. ***Dr. Rani Whitfield-I have been in Private Practice and living in my home town of Baton Rouge since 2000. My specialty in Sports Medicine has allowed me to grow my outreach to youth in the Baton Rouge area and across the nation. I speak frequently for the American Heart/American Stroke Association and have been featured on CNN- House Call with Sanjay Gupta, the Michael Baisden Show, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, traveled with Tavis Smiley and his Road to Health Tour, and have recently been featured in Ebony, Jet, and Essence. I have developed a comic book series to educate youth on health issues (www.legionofhealth.com) and several music CD's with the same goals in mind. ***Hyvelle Ferguson--Davis-Stroke, Hewart Attack and Diabetes survivor- She is 48 and now motivating others, especially African Americans. Hypertension, a leading cause of stroke and heart attack, affects more than half of African American adults. Last year, Ferguson-Davis became an ambassador for Know Diabetes by Heart, a joint health and education initiative of the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association. She also recently started her own group for African American women called Heart Sistas, where members, including her sister Judy Ferguson-Missick, share heart-healthy information and motivation. One of their sisters recently died from a stroke, Ferguson-Davis said.
Thabiti Lewis is from St. Louis Missouri, where he grew up in West and North St. Louis. A graduate of the University of Rochester, he received degrees in both English and History (with honors), and the Masters in the Art of Teaching (English) from the University of Rochester’s School of Education. He obtained a doctorate in English from Saint Louis University with a special focus on American literature and culture between the 1950s-1990s and Black Feminist writer Toni Cade Bambara. While completing his doctorate he earned a fellowship at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.
Tajja Isen is a writer, editor, and voice actor. Her first book, Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service, is forthcoming in 2022 from Atria/One Signal Publishers in the US, and from Doubleday Canada north of the border. She is the co-editor of the essay anthology The World As We Knew It: Dispatches from a Changing Climate, also forthcoming in 2022, from Catapult. Her essays have appeared in dozens of outlets across the US and Canada. She is the editor-in-chief of Catapult magazine, the former digital editor for The Walrus, and has also edited for Electric Literature. A voice actor for over two decades, Tajja can be heard assuming various guises and accents on such animated shows as Atomic Betty, The Berenstain Bears, Super Why!, Go Dog Go, My Big Big Friend, Jane and the Dragon, and many others––a habit she can’t easily discard when she leaves the studio. She went to law school, but it didn’t stick.
Special guest: Belinda Birnbaum, MD, Rheumatologist at Bryn Mawr Medical Specialists. Medical degree from University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Member of American College of Rheumatology and lPhiladelphia Rheumatism Society.. Previous positions : Temple University; Assistant Professor of Rheumatology 2005-2007 and The University of Pennsylvania; Assistant Professor of Rheumatology 2008-2016. Affiliated with Lupus Foundation of America. Special guest: Cheri M. Perron, Chair of the Board of Directors 2022. Cheri Perron, of Philadelphia, PA, has been a volunteer for the Lupus Foundation of America, Philadelphia Tri-State Chapter for more than 20 years. She is chair emeritus of the Chapter Board of Directors and has previously served in the role of Board Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary. Cher is a Chapter Ambassador, advocate, SLESH (SLE Self Help Course) facilitator, and Peer Mentor.. Cheri was diagnosed with lupus in 1994. Lupus Foundation of America: http://ww.lupus.org Special guest: Dr. DeAnna Baker Frost is an adult rheumatologist and physician-scientist. A native of Baltimore, MD, she completed a combined M.D. and Ph.D. degree program at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in 2012 and an Internal Medicine residency at Duke University in 2014. Upon completion of her residency, she became a certified American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) physician and returned to MUSC as an adult rheumatology fellow in the ABIM physician-scientist research pathway. Dr. Baker Frost was chosen as the Chief Rheumatology Fellow in 2017 and an American College of Rheumatology Distinguished Fellow in 2018. She then joined faculty at MUSC as an Assistant Professor in 2018 and became an ABIM-certified adult rheumatologist
Dorothy Roberts is the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. A contributor to the 1619 Project, she is the author of four books, including Killing the Black Body. Her other books include Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century (New Press, 2011); and Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare (Basic Books, 2002),. Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy Roberts reveals that the child welfare system is better understood as a “family policing system” that collaborates with law enforcement and prisons to oppress Black communities. Child protection investigations ensnare a majority of Black children, putting their families under intense state surveillance and regulation. Black children are disproportionately likely to be torn from their families and placed in foster care, driving many to juvenile detention and imprisonment. The only way to stop the destruction caused by family policing, Torn Apart argues, is to abolish the child welfare system and liberate Black communities.
Zain Ejiofor Asher was born to first-generation Nigerian parents in South London. A graduate of Oxford University and Columbia University, she is currently an anchor for CNN International. She anchors the weekend edition of CNN Newsroom and is currently launching One World with Zain Asher, her own global news program on the network. Ejiofor Asher’s brothers are Oscar-nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, successful entrepreneur Obinze, and medical doctor Kandibe. She is passionate about her family, career, and being of service. She lives in NYC with her husband and two sons.
Umar Turaki's writing has been shortlisted for the Miles Morland Scholarship, longlisted for the Short Story Day Africa Prize, and has won the AFREADA Photo-Story Competition. Umar's short films have screened in numerous festivals, and his work in television both as a writer and director has been broadcast on various stations. Umar lives in Kelowna, British Columbia with his wife and daughter, where he is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at UBC Okanangan. SUCH A BEAUTIFUL THING TO BEHOLD, is literary, dystopian, and in this age of COVID, all too plausible. An African village is cut off from the world when a mysterious illness called the Grey spreads rapidly, affecting the villagers’ eyes and minds, leaving many dead.With the village surrounded by military blockades, a family of estranged siblings are forced to re-evaluate their relationships when they come face-to-face with an unstoppable evil.
Dr. Divya Patel’s focus is to improve the clinical care of patients with sarcoidosis and to be an advocate for them. She has completed specialized training in sarcoidosis and participates in clinical research with the aim to improve the quality of life of patients. She routinely recruits patients for both single-center and multi-center clinical studies including industry sponsored and investigator initiated clinical trials. Dr. Patel is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pulmonology and Director of the Sarcoidosis and ILD Programs at the University of Florida. Erica Courtenay-Mann was diagnosed with sarcoidosis in 2011 after it attacked her larynx and deactivated one of her vocal cords. It was later detected in her lungs, resulting in pulmonary sarcoidosis. After a bout of remission due to the various treatment and lifestyle changes, Erica came out of remission in 2017 and now has oral / perioral sarcoidosis. A three card-Monty winner with sarcoidosis does not stop her from being a FSR advocate, talking with others about living with a chronic illness, and enjoying all that life has to offer. Erica holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Chicago, but her true passion is helping others.
Actor and producer Ryan Michelle Bathé currently stars in NBC’s high-stakes thriller series THE ENDGAME. She portrays the relentless and socially-outcast FBI agent Val Turner, who is on the hunt for an international arms dealer. In 2020, Bathé starred in the Emmy nominated Amazon film SYLVIE’S LOVE, directed by Eugene Ashe, and in CBS’ ALL RISE, opposite Simone Missick. Since 2019, she has starred in the BET+ dramedy FIRST WIVES CLUB, based on the classic 1996 film of the same name. Bathé portrays Ari, a confident, type-A attorney with impeccable style who is reunited with her best friends after a crisis. In 2020, Bathé launched DOWN ON MAPLE PRODUCTIONS and signed a first look deal with ViacomCBS MTV Entertainment Group. The partnership covers content created and/or developed for television and new media, with the focus on identifying emerging talent and underrepresented voices. Bathé’s diverse television credits include roles in ABC’s THE ROOKIE, Fox’s EMPIRE, NBC’s THIS IS US, Lifetime’s ARMY WIVES and TV Land’s RETIRED AT 35. She has also appeared in GOOD FENCES, ER, DR. KEN, MEDIUM, BOSTON LEGAL, TRAUMA, HALF & HALF, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, THE EDUCATION OF MAX BICKFORD and HARRY’S LAW. In film, Bathe co-starred in Lionsgate’s ONE FOR THE MONEY, as well as the independent features ALL ABOUT US, BROTHER TO BROTHER and LEAVING BARSTOW, for which she received critical acclaim on the festival circuit.
Award-winning and USA Today bestselling author Sharon C. Cooper loves anything that involves romance with a happily-ever-after, whether in books, movies, or real life. Sharon writes contemporary romance, as well as romantic suspense and enjoys rainy days, carpet picnics, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She’s been nominated for numerous awards and is the recipient of Romance Slam Jam Emma Awards for Author of the Year 2019, Favorite Hero 2019 (Indebted), Romantic Suspense of the Year 2015 (Truth or Consequences), Interracial Romance of the Year 2015 (All You'll Ever Need), and BRAB Award-Breakout Author of the Year 2014, to name a few. When Sharon isn’t writing, she’s hanging out with her amazing husband, doing volunteer work or reading a good book (a romance of course). To read more about Sharon and her novels, visit www.sharoncooper.net. Business Not As Usual: I am beautiful. I am confident. I am lovable. I am a lottery winner. This is the mantra that will get Dreamy Daniels through each day until she makes it big. So what if she lives in a seedy part of Los Angeles in a house that’s one earthquake away from crumbling, or works an unfulfilling secretarial job while struggling to finish her bachelor’s degree? All Dreamy needs to do is win the lottery, which she’s been entering in as a weekly tradition with her grandfather. When she catches the attention of her boss’s potential investor, Dreamy has to remind herself to focus on her career goals so she can be her own boss. Who cares if he has the social grace of the Duke of Sussex and the suaveness of Idris Elba? No distractions allowed.
