We are pleased to announce our first in a series of speaker highlights! We’ll be announcing our final list of speakers in the next few weeks, however, if you are interested in speaking, there is still some time. We have a few remaining sessions available. We are accepting proposals until June 15. If you see a session or workshop that you know you are a good fit for, or you have ideas of your own, please send Greta an e-mail at gdupuy@thenicheparent.com.
SPEAKER: Kimberly Seals Allers
Session Title- The State of the Mother’s Union Address: Discussing Issues that Affect Moms of Color
Session Description: Kimberly will facilitate an honest and open conversation between co-panelists and attendees about what it means to be a social media mother of color in today’s time The conversation will include everything from the unique issues we face and choose to express on our blogs, to how to balance being a voice for our communities while also protecting our brand/blogs. Get ready to discuss the heart of the issues in Kimberly’s Sate of the Union Address!
Kimberly Seals Allers is an award-winning journalist, a leading authority on motherhood and breastfeeding issues in the African American community, author of The Mocha Manual™ series of books and founder of MochaManual.com, a daily parenting and lifestyle destination and blog for African American moms and moms-to-be.
A former senior editor at Essence magazine, Kimberly’s thoughtful and provocative online commentaries on motherhood, breastfeeding disparities and infant health and the intersection of race, class and culture, received over 10 million page views last year. In 2011, Kimberly was named an IATP Food and Community Fellow, funded by the Kellogg Foundation, with a mandate to increase awareness and engagement around “the first food”—breast milk, in vulnerable communities. She was also recently selected by the United States Breastfeeding Committee as a lead commentator for the nationwide “Break Time for Nursing Mothers” federal campaign.
In addition to her work as a consultant, writer and public speaker on African American motherhood, Kimberly is also a fiercely committed and highly respected advocate in the fight to reduce the high infant and maternal mortality rates and increase the low breastfeeding rates in the African American community. In March 2012, she launched Black Breastfeeding 360°, a first of its-kind online multi-media content library for media professionals and the black community featuring resources, news, voices and analysis on the black breastfeeding experience.
Kimberly has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, Anderson Cooper, the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Fox News and various national and local media outlets, including U.S. News & World Report, Essence, Black Enterprise, and more. Her freelance work has appeared in Ladies Home Journal, The New York Daily News, Real Simple, Better Homes & Gardens Family Money, Fortune, Pregnancy and others.
A sampling of Kimberly’s popular commentaries:
When ‘Breast is Best’ Is Not Enough
Is Slavery Why Black Women Aren’t Breastfeeding?
Connect with Kimberly on Twitter @MochaManual
SPEAKER: Tracey Friley
Session Title: 10 Secrets of Successful Travel Blogging
Session Description: Inspired by a mommy blogger who asked for a candid review of a travel post, travelpreneur and travel philanthropist Tracey Friley openly shared some of her travel blogging secrets and now she’s anxious to share those same secrets with you. Join Tracey in an interactive workshop that will have you travel blogging like a pro in no time! Ever wonder how you might be able to turn your love of travel into a blogging/business opportunity? Ever wish it was YOU on that press trip to Brazil? Wondering what PR firms and travel brands are looking for, when/how to pitch them, what to say? In this hands on workshop, you won’t get talked at and simply walk away with a list of travel blogging secrets, but you’ll get to practice a little travel blogging too! Be prepared to share your favorite travel post, whether from your own blog or someone else’s.
An award-winning travel-preneur and blogger, Tracey pens a popular series on American Airlines BlackAtlas.com, is the founder of OneBrownGirl, Wandermania, #TravelByExample, and The Passport Party Project, a philanthropic global awareness initiative sponsored by Expedia® that gifts underserved U.S. girls with their very first passports. A self-proclaimed culturalista and environmental steward, Tracey is a lifelong entrepreneur that hosts trips to Paris, owns & operates OBG Adventure Camps, the only travel camp of its kind in the nation for girls 11-17, and when she isn’t on a plane, a train, a car or a boat can be found planning and producing travel events aimed at giving girls of all ages a world view.
Connect with Tracey on Twitter at @OneBrownGirl.
SPEAKER: Lindsay Ferrier
Session Title: Election 2012: The Influence of the Dot. Mom
Session Description: Lindsay Ferrier, social media election correspondent for CafeMom, will lead a panel discussing the rise and influence of the social media mom over the 2012 election. The panel will include a range of topics such as how social media moms have received the attention of campaign staff members and elected officials, the rules of engagement, Election 2012 hot topics, and how the “Dot Mom” can leverage her blog and voice to influence politicians on issues that matter to her. Attendees will also learn how to access information they need for their posts.
Lindsay Ferrier is the Election Correspondent for CafeMom, Emmy Award-winning journalist and mom blogger behind the ultra popular blog, Suburban Turmoil. Lindsay F
errier is spending this year crisscrossing the nation to bring moms interviews with the presidential candidates and reports on the issues that matter most to them. Lindsay is also hosting the video series, “I’ll Take That Dare,” also on CafeMom, and on YouTube as part of its new original programming venture. Suburban Turmoil gets regular mentions in newspapers (Chicago Tribune, The Tennessean, Austin American-Statesman) magazines (Redbook, All You, Cookie) and on websites (WashingtonPost.com, Salon.com, Newsweek.com, BBC.com, AdAge.com, GoodHousekeeping.com).
Lindsay is a Top 100 Mom Blogger of 2011, according to Babble.com. She has been named by SAY Media as one of the 100 most influential voices on the web, listed as one of Parenting Magazine’s Must-Read Mom Bloggers and was named a Top 50 Mom Blogger in Access Communications’ social media study. Awards for Suburban Turmoil include Divine Caroline’s Editor’s Pick for Best Mom Blog, Parents Connect’s voters’ choice for Best Local Blog in Nashville, and the Best of Blogs award for Best Parenting Blog. She’s balancing this job with raising her four children and stepchildren, ages 5, 8, 18 and 21.
