SCHEDULE:
10:30 AM - Jessica Whatley - Who are you leading?
11:00 AM - River City Street Poet - The Sacredness of Writing for Strangers
11:30 AM - Catherine and Tanya - The Goddess Guide: Breaking the Cycle
12:00 PM - Michael Stone - Dethroning Content as the King of Education
1:30 PM - Jimmy Urciuoli - Let's Talk Trash
2:00 PM - Morgan Sharpe - Becoming Placed
2:30 PM - Laura Marsh - Flipping the Script on Conservation
3:00 PM - John Kerns - Free the Plant
3:30 PM - Ella Livingston - Building Legacy
4:30 PM - Marie Mott - Where do we go from here?
5:00 PM - Tj Tate - Building Resiliency: Integrated Community Sustainability
5:30 PM - Valisa Griffin - The Semantics of Shadow Work
6:00 PM - Marshall Mosher - How Fear Gives You Wings

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Common House
1517 Mitchell Avenue
Chattanooga, Tennessee, 37408
United States

Dr. Tanya Manoni Dr. Catherine Needham

Dr. Tanya Manoni is a Chattanooga-native but spent 13 years in Utah ski-bumming while earning her Bachelor of Science in chemistry and Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Utah. She brings with her years of experience in pharmaceutical science, women’s health, and leadership. Tanya's professional interests include not only women’s health and dermatology, but also nutrition and fitness, in which she became interested while training as an NCAA Division I athlete. Dr. Catherine Needham is a Chattanooga-native who returned to our area after earning her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Samford University in Birmingham, AL. As a clinical pharmacist at Designer Drugs compounding pharmacy, she specializes in hormone balance, fertility, and skincare. She and her husband met while leading worship at their church, and they now have 3 boys ages five, three, and 10 months.

Ella Livingston

Ella Livingston was born in Ghana, West Africa into a family of educators, health practitioners, engineers, and cocoa farmers. She immigrated to the United States when she was about three years old with her family. After graduating high school, Ella went on to obtain a bachelor of science in Mathematics and a minor in Japan Studies from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. While at Spelman, she spent her junior year studying abroad in Tokyo, Japan. It was there that she realized the reputation Ghana had as a country that grew some of the best cocoa beans. It was also there that she got the opportunity to try a special type of chocolate called Nama chocolate, which uses fresh cream to create a decadent treat. Her experience in Japan inspired her to want to start her own chocolate company. She began Cocoa Asante in 2018 and in January of 2021 her business partner, Natasha Guerrero, joined the company as co-owner and head chocolatier. Their goal is to have an upscale bean to bar shop that sources cacao beans directly from Ella’s family’s farm. The shop will allow customers to tour the facility so they can see how chocolate is made and learn more about the inequities that exist in the industry and what Cocoa Asante is doing to make a difference.

Jessica Whatley

In February of 2012, Jessica Whatley moved to Chattanooga with her husband and two boys to become the Executive Director for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Chattanooga. Jessica had previously worked with the Big Brothers Big Sisters in Birmingham, AL for 6 years. Throughout Jessica’s life she has benefited from mentors at every stage that saw the potential in her and helped her get to the next step in her personal life or career. Jessica is an advocate for mentoring both in the lives of youth and adults. According to Jessica, being a part of helping youth see and realize their full potential is one of the best reasons to get up and go to work every day.

Jimmy Urciuoli

Jimmy is an advocate for both human and animal rights, intersectional environmentalism, veganism, and mindfulness practices. He earned a Bachelor’s degree of Environmental Science- Policy & Planning from The University of Chattanooga and has worked in conservation since 2015. Jimmy identifies as gay and wishes to further bridge the gap between queer spaces and the outdoors.

John Kerns

John Kerns is Co-Founder and CEO of New Bloom Labs, which provides the chemical analysis of cannabis and cannabis products for the purposes of legal compliance, consumer safety, and quality control. He is a longtime Chattanooga entrepreneur, founding his first company, Preferred Care at Home, in 2009. A civic activist, he has served on several nonprofit boards and neighborhood groups. He and his wife, Sara, live on Missionary Ridge with their best bud, Banjo.

Laura Marsh

Laura Marsh is a field ornithologist and conservation biologist. She founded Nova Conservation to bring more funds to the most beneficial wildlife organizations through ethical ecotourism. She holds a Master’s in Environmental Science and has spent many years conducting biological fieldwork. Laura serves on the board of Chattanooga Audubon Society, as well as various environmental committees. A mom of two young boys, she also has an amazing husband who encourages her conservation travel adventures around the world.

Marie Mott

Marie is a native who grew up in East Chattanooga within a vibrant community. Being raised by two hard-working parents with assistance from her beloved grandmothers Mary Ruth and Betty Jo, Marie learned the lessons of integrity, drive, and commitment to the community through public service. Building on those foundations into adulthood, Marie began using her voice to speak truth to power at local City Council meetings and built a rapport as an activist. Marie believes we all deserve access in this society to become our best selves and leave the world better for our children. Because of her consistency and commitment to her community, Marie continues to win the trust of her neighbors and grow her tribe. Marie is the Co-Founder of ICANTBREATHECHA, an organization formed during the summer of 2020 protests to advocate for public policy and social change in Chattanooga. Marie also currently serves as the Chairperson of Economic Development for the Hamilton County/Chattanooga Branch of the NAACP. Marie uses her voice and community influence to advocate directly for economic advancement, black business investment, jobs, and fair housing for the local African American Community.

Marshall Mosher

Marshall uses action sports + technology to show teams that limits, like fears, are often just an illusion and help people discover that "impossible" is simply relative to the mindset they choose to live by. Marshall do esthis through his company, Vestigo, with their virtual reality performance-enhancing experiences that train leaders to embrace innovation and navigate change through a mindset of courage. By providing teams with accessible opportunities to embrace new challenges and conquer our innate fear of failure, Vestigo can help companies adopt a culture of innovation and the mindset needed to win the future. As an avid action/adventure sports enthusiast in just about everything he can get his hands on (whitewater kayaking, paragliding, mountain biking, kiteboarding, snowboarding, scuba diving, and aviation), Marshall uses his passion for the outdoors and the world around us to help others discover their potential, challenge their perceived limits, and adopt an empowering mindset of focus in the presence of fear.

Michael Stone

Michael Stone serves as the VP of Innovative Learning for the Public Education Foundation. Michael joined PEF in 2016, after concluding a one-year appointment as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC. He spent the first 10 years of his career as a math and computer science teacher. In his current role, he has led the development of the largest school-based Fab Lab network in the world (35 school-based labs and growing). This work has garnered international attention, allowing him to present in numerous countries and venues including presentations at the White House, and a US Senate Briefing on the importance of school-embedded digital fabrication labs. He is also the cofounder of devX, LLC, an education consulting group that has developed 17 school-based Fab Labs across midwestern United States. He has also written two books including coauthoring “Let Me Try It: Enhancing Maker Education through Digital Fabrication.”

Morgan Sharpe

Having lived a somewhat transient life during her formative years, including New Jersey and Nicaragua, Morgan Sharpe is learning that there is power in place, in belonging to the land and people that surround her. It was from a sense of placeless-ness and an innate need for beauty that Morgan started Creekside Flower Farm in 2016. As a Farmer-Florist, Morgan both grows and designs flowers to be shared with the Chattanooga area; However, her deeper desire is to connect people back to the land, to share in a sense of becoming placed. Morgan hopes to incite wonder through the beauty of her flowers and to cultivate affection for the land by sharing her journey of flower farming.

River City Street Poet

River City Street Poet is a local writer and curator of stories. When not writing poetry on the street here in town, you can find them collecting ideas elsewhere—in autumn leaves, sad songs, and hand-holding. River City Street Poet lives with their wife—by whom so many love poems are inspired—and their 2 rescued greyhounds.

Tj Tate

Tj Tate is a conservationist, entrepreneur and marine scientist. She has spent the last 20 years of her life working to protect our planet and its people. She is a firm believer that small actions create a ripple effect leading to positive changes when we work together.

Valisa Griffin

Valisa Griffin is a Black American writer, motivational speaker and founder of Folding Chair Literacy Group, an organization that builds cultural esteem through ethnocentric literacy aid development. She uses Black literature and the sacred art of vulnerable storytelling to herald Black American truth where gentrified folklore and biased omission would better serve our egos. She exists to push our society beyond the comfortable and trendy façade of “Diversity and Inclusion” that we might wrestle with our shared generational traumas to birth a cultural embodiment of truth and acceptance within our authentic selves.