Our Team
Please click photos to learn more.

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Editorial

Myrna Beth Haskell
Executive Editor

#WheresYourSanctuary: Dance does it for me. Dance feeds my entire being - body, mind and soul. For me, dance is an escape. It's wild abandon and stress relief wrapped into one. If I'm feeling in need of a calming environment...a soaking tub, good book and glass of wine will do.​

Learn more from our TEAM TALK interview with Myrna.

"I am forever grateful to have such talented, professional and dedicated women helping me to create a high-quality publication that women can count on to empower, inspire, and educate each and every month. This labor of love is a team effort and one I am so very proud of. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart."

                                                             ~ Myrna

Karen Shan
Co-Associate Editor

#WheresYourSanctuary: Home is where I find sanctuary - specifically, when cozied up on my plaid club chair. It’s the perfect spot for reading, meditating, chatting with others, sipping a café au lait and taking in outdoor views. It’s my centering spot.

Learn more from our TEAM TALK interview with Karen.

Carol Lippert Gray
Co-Associate Editor​

#WheresYourSanctuary: I find sanctuary when I’m baking, particularly for my family. I think combining all the disparate elements and creating something new and delicious is absolute alchemy. The process itself is meditative. And having people, especially my grandchildren, enjoy the result is, as they say, priceless. 

Learn more from our TEAM TALK interview with Carol.​

Mare Leonard
Poetry Corner Editor

#WheresYourSanctuary: ​Ironically, I find my peace and fire in the same place: writing.  Every morning I get up early and either revise or start a new poem. I am writing Ekphrastic poetry right now - poems inspired by art - and love this because I am a visual thinker. ​

Sandra Bertrand
Culture & Travel Editor

#WheresYourSanctuary: Sanctuary comes in various forms, such as the intimacy of sharing time with loved ones (my partner as well as my two cats, who show me love every day). It comes in the form of travel, where the finite and the infinite can fill the same space in extraordinary ways, whether it's a solitary walk at sunset to an old familiar rock on Santorini or the first glimpse of Machu Picchu, an eternal city in Peru on a clear morning…or even facing the beauty and terror of a blank page or canvas and waiting to see what will appear.

Learn more from our TEAM TALK interview with Sandra.​

Laura Pensiero, RD
Columnist
"Laura's Corner Table"

#WheresYourSanctuary: ​ Anytime I land in Italy…the smells…the feel of it…it’s like I’ve landed home. There are times when I need alone time, too – you don’t get that in the restaurant industry. So, in a broader sense, anywhere that I have the time and space to think and to develop ideas and thoughts.

Learn more from our TEAM TALK interview with Laura.

Jillian Crocetta
Contributor

#WheresYourSanctuary: ​I find my Sanctuary inside a bookstore, somewhere in between the memoirs and fiction. There is some type of meditative effect to being surrounded by stories; it brings me to the closest understanding that my story fits somewhere among the vast array of literature. It inspires me to pick up a pen, but also to enjoy my life as it is. 
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Jill Valentino
Contributor

#WheresYourSanctuary: I find sanctuary both at home and through music. At home, I can be one hundred percent, unabashedly myself. I feel safe at home, surrounded by those I love unconditionally and who also unconditionally love me. Music has been my sanctuary since as far back as my earliest memories allow. As a toddler, dancing to 45s spinning on my little record player, and as an adult, losing myself in a playlist I made after everyone in the house is asleep, music has been my entertainment, my escape, and even at times, my therapy - all of my life.

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Design

Rachel Morrison 
Masthead Photographer

#WheresYourSanctuary: Photography is my sanctuary.  I see the camera as a tool to communicate and encourage, to examine the world in my search for answers.  It’s an expression and joy.

​Tēgan Caylee Moeller
Photography

#WheresYourSanctuary: My sanctuary is my family, which includes all of my fur babies. When you have three dogs, two cats and a bunny rabbit, you always find sanctuary. They are always there with unconditional love and the availability for much snuggling.

Ashley Pagsuyuin
​Logo Design

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Panel of Experts

Sherry Kelly, Ph.D. 
Expert Panelist
Family Relationships &
Crisis Counseling

#WheresYourSanctuary: I find sanctuary in my relationships with friends and colleagues. I also find sanctuary in the new connections I have made through the many webinars I have attended since the COVID pandemic began more than two years ago. One of the “silver linings” that arose during COVID was the opportunity to make new friendships with wonderful people across the globe.

Learn more from our TEAM TALK interview with Sherry.

Carla Manly, Ph.D. 
Expert Panelist
Wellness & Mindfulness

#WheresYourSanctuary: I’ve learned to find sanctuary within myself. This was not always the case; for many years, I didn’t realize that I had the power to be the source of my own peace and serenity. I often looked at the actions of others as the cause of any internal distress; yet I’ve learned that – regardless of what others or the world at large may be doing – serenity is always waiting inside of me. Of course, the external world also offers me places of sanctuary. Yoga, meditation, gardening, morning walks, cuddling with my husband, stroking my dog, writing, music, enjoying board games, and “just being” with beloved family and friends are also wonderful sources of sanctuary. As well, my work with clients is also a sacred form of sanctuary.

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Advisor

Cornelia Seckel
Advisor to the Executive Editor

#WheresYourSanctuary: In my garden and at the beach. In my garden, I’m planting and weeding and doing nothing else. Gardening is a meditation for me, and whatever produce or flowers I may harvest is a bonus. At the beach I read, walk, pick up shells and rocks and don’t do anything else. The beach is my place for healing.

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Find Work from Former Contributors:

Amy Beth Acker, LCSW
Former Contributor
Nancy Burger
Former Editor & Contributor
​Emily Dodi
Former Contributor
Dana Jones
​Former Social Media Intern
Pearson Marx
​Former Contributor​