Madison 2024 Participants
Charlotte Coplin: Hi everyone, I’m Charlotte. I’m originally from New Zealand, have lived all over the world, and have recently moved to Los Angeles for love. I’m a writer, astrologer and author. My first book, How to Be Fabulous, a vintage shopping guide, came out in Australia & New Zealand in November last year. I’m currently working on my first novel and setting up a side business doing astrology readings. I’m very new to the US, just got married mere weeks ago and decided to do the teacher rather last minute (literally days before we are due to arrive in Connecticut). I’m really looking forward to meeting everybody and to deepening my work with Gateless, a modality which has certainly changed my life.
Kim Vandrilla is a creative powerhouse who has directed numerous rebrands, app and website launches, ad campaigns and more during her nearly two decades as an inhouse creative leader, with stints at brands including Zillow, Slice, Bonobos, Dashlane, Clorox, Brita and Burt’s Bees.
A creative problem-solver through-and-through, Kim credits her tri-dexterous career path as a writer, designer and brand strategist for the well-rounded creative leader she’s become. Whether at a fledgling startup or an established, world-class brand, Kim thrives on the creative challenges companies face during times of reinvention and transformation.
Kim was introduced to Gateless through a very dear friend—and while she feels lucky her day job allows her to work with words daily—she’s thrilled that Gateless has reignited the joy and playfulness that she originally felt when she fell in love with writing as a child.
Eva Sevenig is 46 years old and was raised in West Germany. After graduating from Highschool I became a hotel specialist and lived in Thailand for a year, where I worked in the tourism sector. Returning back to Germany the fascination for Thailand wouldn’t let go of me. So I made the master’s degree in Anthropology, writing my master thesis on the cosmologies and believe systems of three ethnic groups in Highland-North-Thailand. For my doctoral thesis I lived and did research in Highland Laos.
Today I live in East Germany, work as a research associate at a Police University and am writing my second romance novel.
Copyrights: The picture was made by M. Dedeke
Monica Metz is a writer, certified life coach and holistic wellness expert who supports women through life’s big changes with deep warmth and compassion. Drawing from over 20 years of corporate experience in professional sports marketing and public relations — and personal experiences ranging from multiple miscarriages to divorce — Monica specializes in guiding women through significant life transitions such as perimenopause/menopause, career changes, and empty nesting. Through her writing and coaching, she creates a safe, sacred space for women to process their experiences, prioritize their needs, and live in alignment with their truest selves. Monica believes that times of change, while often challenging, offer opportunities for immense growth and self-discovery, and she uses her unique blend of professional expertise and personal insight to help clients and readers navigate life’s challenges and emerge stronger and more empowered.
Kate Hanley is a bestselling ghostwriter, author, journalist, and editor. Among the books she has collaborated on are: New York Times bestselling Reversing Alzheimer’s: The New Toolkit for Protecting Brain Health with Dr. Heather Sandison, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller, Ageless Aging: A Woman’s Guide to Increasing Healthspan, Brainspan, and Lifespan with Maddy Dychtwald, and The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience, and Leadership in the Most Male-Dominated Organization in the World, with Shannon Polson. Kate’s work has appeared in such magazines as Real Simple, Parents, Natural Health, and Yoga Journal, on-line publications including GoodHousekeeping.com and ClevelandClinic.org, and for six years she was a Contributing Writer at Whole Living, a Martha Stewart Publication.
Kate is the host of the “Finding the Throughline” podcast, where she speaks to working writers each week about their creative process and career path, and the author of “How to Be a Better Person,” “Stress Less,” and “The Anywhere, Anytime Chill Guide.” She lives in Providence with her family and a rescue dog named Cookie.
Trez Thomas is an award-winning Creative, Executive Creative Director and Brand Strategist, known for turning global media brands into pop culture sensations. With a unique approach to creating addictive, buzz-worthy brands and a track record that includes Bravo, Lifetime, BET and ESPN, Trez has been instrumental in shaping the media and pop culture landscape.
Trez uses her entertainment-based method to show businesses how to build a cohesive, larger-than-life, binge-worthy brand that captivates audiences, connects digitally, IRL and experientially, converts fans into obsessed brand evangelists who are eager to buy and make sure the buzz around a brand never ends.
Corinne Mullen. Above all, Mother to Dariana. Lawyer, Journalist at NBC News in a former life. Faculty, Currently representing people in free speech space and internet defamation.
Jill Harris has taught writing privately, in high schools, and in college classrooms and has written long form and short form, for publication and for pleasure. The constant creativity of raising a family and dancing on the edge of the world becoming the word and the word becoming the world is where she is most at home.
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Sarah Montana is a WGA screenwriter, writer, and public speaker. She has written several screenplays for the Hallmark Channel, including “Rescuing Christmas,” “Love to the Rescue,” “A New Year’s Resolution,” and the Christopher Award winning “Two Turtle Doves.” Her play, “The Girl, The Ghosts, and the Minotaur” was a winner of the Life Jacket Theater Company’s Proof of Concept Reading Series.
She is sought after public speaker about resilience, trauma, and forgiveness, which has led to speaking engagements at TEDx, women’s conferences, corporate retreats, colleges, and podcasts. Her viral talk “What Shapes You Can’t Break You” (see her talk here or on Goalcast) was featured on Goalcast and now has tens of millions of views. Her TEDx talk “Why Forgiveness is Worth It” is featured on TED.com, has received millions of views, and has been incorporated into college curriculums and therapeutic practices.
She is a Gateless Writing Method certified teacher and teaches students of all ages how to fall in love with the creative process. She’s also a representative for Film/TV/Streaming on Writers Guild of America East Council. Stay in touch at sarahmontana.com, facebook.com/sarahmontanawriter or @sarahemontana
Jeanne Layne, Ph.D.: Jeanne is a fully licensed clinical psychologist who has built a thriving private practice near Detroit, Michigan. Her expertise lies in holding difficult emotional spaces and speaking to the strength, resilience and innate genius in her patients’ adaptations. She is sought out by individuals seeking to rewrite the script of long-standing trauma; together, they co-create new and more actualized ways of being in the world.
In 2007, after graduating from the Bennington College Masters in Fine Arts program, Suzanne founded Gateless Writing, an internationally-acclaimed organization whose unique methodology combines brain science and therapeutic touch to draw out writers’ unique talent and singular genius, enabling them to move through residual blocks and create domain-changing prose. Through retreats, workshops, one-on-one intensives and career training programs, Suzanne has helped countless writers on their path to acquiring top agents, signing 6-figure book deals, hitting bestseller lists and wining prestigious literary awards. Her writers have been interviewed by the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and major Hearst publications, they have seen themselves on CBS, NBC and ABC affiliates, and have appeared in Forbes, USA Today, and on the Jane Pauley show.
As a writing intuit, Suzanne’s “channeling” and shamanic practices have created incredible shifts in her writers’ work and in their lives. Ultimately, she believes the urge to write is a dancing order from the divine; writers are “scribes”, and the messages they are called to write have extraordinary power to change the world.