Our Board
Emra Smith – Founder, President/CEO
http://www.emrasmith.com/
Emra Smith is the Founder, President & CEO for the International School of Story where she has created a Place and Platform where women give and receive HOPE, empowered to boldly step into their stories., finding purpose for their dreams with goals and entrepreneurial ventures. Emra is creator of the HOPE Doll Project and HOPE Walk and Voices of Hope.
Emra is a TEDX, Global Speaker, Author, Speaker, Corporate Trainer, Executive Life Coach – a Social Impact Entrepreneur.
Emra is a Facilitator of HOPE currently writing her 5th book and developing The HOPE App which is Your Private Mentor Coach to prevent emotions from escalating when you’re under stress. Keeping you focused on HOPE, not anxiety, depression and being ineffective. Emra is passionate about inclusion in diversity, helping women unpack, heal, find purpose, write and publish their stories of HOPE.
As a sought after Executive & Life Coach for leaders to facilitate change, Emra is a Certified Coach through Coach Training Alliance and has also completed Licensure and Specialty-Certification as a New Life Story® Wellness Coach. Her expertise in the psychology and neuroscience of coaching extends her considerable experience in Life Coaching.
Emra started speaking and teaching as a teen in her church and continued to do so throughout her Marketing & Sales career. She became a Corporate Trainer in the Hospitality Industry and further specialized in Customer Service and numerous Human Resource and safety training. Emra is a global speaker who speaks to many various organizations, churches and corporations.
Emra has differentiated herself through her unique and powerful inspirational speaking which is poured into any given topic or training.
Dr Tina Allton
Dr Tina Allton is a global entrepreneur, global keynote speaker, educational psychologist, and an award wiinning business mentor spanning the international business, nonprofit, medical, women’s empowerment, and global impact worlds.
Tina has co-founded 6 successful businesses over a 16-year period and worked and mentored over 5,000 entrepreneurs along her career.
Tina is Vice President for the Women’s Committee and former High Commissioner to Ghana for the World Business Angels and affiliated partner of the G20 Financial inclusion Committee, she helped identify key partners within the government of Ghana to deliver a comprehensive Africa Master plan developed by the WBAF.
She’s the co-founder of Undefeeted, a fastest growth diabetes nonprofit inspired by her daughter, which launched in UK in 2015, within 5 months won an award for Best Not for Profit organisation and has done for for 4 years running, a year to date in 2016 it had had an unprecedented 6.7 Million global reach.
Tina has started a movement NOW – Nations Of Women. Their vision is to inspire, empower and strategically vand to connect women in order to spearhead systemic change across the nations.
Shaillee Junega – Chief Strategy Officer
https://shaillee.com/
Shaillee is a technology and operations optimization advisor specializing in developing and managing innovative services portfolios for health systems and service collaboratives. She is highly experienced in leading transformation solutions that generate measurable value and create performance excellence. Recognized as a national expert in business innovation and analytics,
Shaillee works with organizations globally to build strategies that align organizations’ business objectives with evolving market trends, positioning them for sustainable success. She currently runs healthcare consulting firm, leading the Digital Innovation and Advanced Analytics services portfolio for Lumina Health Partners. Prior to running a successful healthcare consulting practice, Shaillee has held positions as global leader Digital Health and Advanced Analytics; Chief Data Officer, VP Customer Success, IT Director Interoperability and Continuum of Care; and National Lead Business Services Transformation.
As Chief Global Strategy Officer with Empower Billion Women Foundation, Shaillee assists with development and execution of global strategy allowing EBW to expand its contribution and impact within domestic and international markets by financially empowering women to launch, grow and scale their businesses and support UN Sustainable Development Goal of gender equality.
With the bulk of her primary education from India, she got her bachelor’s in business administration from Eastern Michigan University in Michigan, USA. Shaillee also works with high risk youth, teaching mindfulness as a tool to create academic and behavioral excellence. She lives in Austin, Texas with two rambunctious boys and her husband.
Rebekah McLeod is an author, musician, and storyteller. She spent seven years as an independent singer/songwriter, releasing two albums and touring regionally in the Washington, D.C. Metro area. After blogging for three years, Rebekah published a book, The Secret Life of a Doctor’s Wife, in 2016. She is currently a ghostwriter, book editor and co-founder of Marigold Press Books Publishing Company in Savannah, Georgia. Her children’s book,The Hungry Sun, was released in December 2022 and her 31-day devotional, I Just Feel . . . in December 2023. She lives with her husband Ian and their youngest daughter, Skye in Savannah, GA.
Shirley Pérez
Shirley is motivated by love and passion in all of her entrepreneurial endeavors.
She is mother to Abraham, Andre and Gael, all exactly 5 years apart. She considers herself part of a great winning team of three – Michael, her husband, God the Lord and herself, for the past 23 years.
Shirley graduated Emerson College in Boston Massachusetts with a Bachelor’s in Public Relations Communications and Management and has a Masters degree in Education from Framingham State College in Massachusetts.
Most of all Shirley considers herself a student of life, always curious of what lies ahead to be learned, discovered and most of all, shared in a way that inspires others to find their true calling, purpose and fulfillment.
Shirley Pérez created an educational platform for parents with the mission to accompany parents as they guide their children to discover their own greatness. Via her collaborators, experts in diverse fields such as psychology, educators, motivational speakers and doctors; her platform, NUESTROSHIJOS, meaning Our Children, in Spanish, has operated for close to 16 years. Via in person workshops, content delivered through her digital online magazine, and a newly launched podcast, “ We all have a story”, “ Todos tenemos una Historia. As a way to heal her own childhood wounds, Shirley conducts Healthy Self Esteem Workshops for girls all throughout the Dominican Republic where she had resided for the past three decades. She always finds this work with girls fun, while being the mother of three boys.
Presently, Shirley is residing in beautiful historic Savannah, Georgia with her youngest son and traveling husband. Shirley loves Savannah and all of its southern charm. She believes the wonderful stories that live in Savannah’s exquisite Spanish moss, weave wonderfully with the true theatrical performer that lives inside of her.
www.nuestroshijos.do @todostenemosunahistoria
Sue Suliman
Thraia Sue Suliman is a Sudanease/Egyptian Writer/Author, Producer., Curator, Art & Media Manager, Speaker and Business Mentor. Sue strives to lead a purposeful life, by being a voice of empowerment, a pillar of strength and support, standing in the stead for women as they learn to claim their own. Utilizing both her business mentorship skills, as well as her rooted passion for storytelling , expressed through different mediums, like podcasts, public speaking, acting, content creation, and film production and distribution.
She also has a strong passion and vision for a reconciled and restored Africa to its pre-designed destiny through networking and resource development, art and cultural collaboration, as well as capacity building, training, and mentorship.
Sue is the founder of The Light Project and art, entertainment, media and technology networking hub, that aims to build up, empower and mobilize artists from similar backgrounds and mindsets, to grow as impactful leaders in their areas of influence. Together with her husband, IMDb.me/EMADMAHER, they co-founded their post production house, GRAIS PRODUCTION, operating from Cairo, Egypt, serving the whole Middle East and Africa region. They also co-founded a production, art and culture management, filmmaking, workshops, digital, marketing, and social media management company, GO PARTNAZ with a Nigerian-American couple operating from California, USA.
Sue lives with her husband and only son in Cairo, Egypt.
Barbara Hollace
Barbara J. Hollace is a resilient woman, who is an author, editor, publisher, prayer warrior, and speaker. On her own life journey, Barbara has learned the power of telling your story, both writing and speaking it. Her passion is to “identify the good and magnify it” through Hollace Writing Services, which includes writing her own stories, ghostwriting the stories of others, and polishing the stories of those who dream of being published. As a writing coach, she helps budding authors move from the seed of the story through rough drafts to publication.
Her speaking journey led her from local and regional events to the Greenleaf International Servant Leadership Conference. In 1985, Barbara self-published her first book. She is the author or contributing author of 25 books and many newspaper articles, with other books in development. Her favorite project is the Miracle Man trilogy.
Barbara earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration, with an English emphasis, from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington and returned to school to receive her Juris Doctor degree from Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Washington.
Barbara is the Communications Director at Spokane Dream Center, a non-denominational church in Spokane Valley, Washington. Barbara also sits on the Board of Directors for Freedom Has A Face which serves the families of our fallen military heroes. She is a certified Prayer Powered Mastermind Facilitator and enjoys hosting mastermind groups for writers. Barbara is also a member of the Christian PEN (Printers and Editors Network).
For more information about Barbara and her business, go to www.barbarahollace.com.
You matter to God.
Your stories matter to Him.
The big ones and the everyday little ones.
It is through you and each of your stories that
He shares HOPE, LOVE and LIFE to the world around you.
