Speakers
Matt Artz is a business anthropologist exploring the effects of technology on society. As the Head of Product and Experience at Cloudshadow, and the Founder and Principal Researcher of Azimuth Labs, Matt works at the intersection of research, design, and strategy. In these roles, he advocates for the responsible development of technology. His anthropology research focuses on the benefits and risks of consumer DNA testing. Outside of work, you can find Matt writing, speaking, composing music and photographing the everyday life of people around the world.
Monica Simon loves swimming in the vast pool of expansive knowledge presented to us at every waking moment of the day. Ideas hit her like microscopic bullets and therefore she has a passion for learning in order to make those ideas a reality. She loves discussing the Civil War and hanging up beautiful Sharpie-written reminders that being a good human being is something we all ought to try to strive for. Her current projects include a mural, a painting, a blog, and trying to remember that love is not a project but a way of life.
Jeremy Ciliberto creates hyperrealistic human bone sculptures and articulates them into functional home decor. He refers to the art series or brand as "Catacomb Culture." Over years of creating Catacomb Culture, it has given Jeremy a unique perspective on death, dying and the dead. Though his reflections and engagement with supporters, he's discovered his passion and mission is to develop an organization that offers green or natural burials and free burials throughout the United States. Traditional burials and cremations are toxic to the environment and financially crippling to a grieving family. Jeremy wants to propose better ways to care for our dead, that are beneficial to the environment and families and allows the deceased individual to continue on life's final metamorphosis in returning to the earth, naturally.
Suzanne Kapral is a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children (CASA), Big Sister mentor, and Animal Welfare Advocate. Her day job includes developing programs and raising much needed money to best serve vulnerable children and at times, adults. Transformation through trauma and grief is tough, painful, messy, and terrifying. Yet, it is critical in order to move us individually and collectively toward a happier, healthier, and more sustainable life. The trauma Suzanne experienced growing up started a long journey of self-initiated nature and animal assisted therapy. This evolved into spearheading a local Children’s Grief Camp. This camp, now in its 5th year, combines farm-based activities, farm animal assisted therapies, and grief education. Suzanne believes the term unconditional love is redundant. True love, including self-love, has no conditions.
Cole Hastings Goldstein is the Director for Advanced Manufacturing at Johnson College, a volunteer for the Lackawanna Arts, Culture, and Education Council, and owns a design company specializing in bespoke manufacturing of home and office furnishings using sustainable technology. The maker movement is one of his most passionate causes – a combination of sustainability, hyper local manufacturing, and an uncontrolled evolution in the design world.
Lisa Reynolds is a professor at Wilkes University and graphic designer, born and raised in Northeastern Pennsylvania. She has been active in this market for 20 years, primarily specializing in education. She is passionate about this area and all it has to offer, and regularly encourages young people to be active in the community in which they live.
Mason Crawford is a Tunkhannock native and local poet. He graduated class of 2017 from Tunkhannock Area High School. He found a love for poetry in school and joined a local youth run nonprofit the Breaking Ground Poets. During his time with the group Mason traveled all across the country performing Spoken Word Poetry. He can be found admiring cats, always on the job, or spending time with his friends and family. Mason believes writing poetry saved his life and brought him to an understanding of his mental illness. Through poetry he hopes to bring awareness to many topics including LGBT+ causes, Bipolar Disorder, and the immense pain of grief.
Laurel Radzieski is a life-long resident of Northeastern Pennsylvania, a poet and a grant writer. As a poet, her creative practice goes back and forth between research-driven poetry and poems that are written in public settings for strangers. Her debut poetry collection, Red Mother, was published in 2018 (NYQ Books), and her poems have appeared in Down the Dog Hole: 11 Poets on Northeast Pennsylvania, The Slag Review, Glintmoon, Word Fountain, Really System, and elsewhere, including on roadsides and a parking sign in rural Wisconsin. She is the grant writer for Lackawanna College and a teaching artist for Arts in Education in Northeastern Pennsylvania (AIE/nepa). Laurel has taught in formal education and community programs and has also worn many hats in the theatre. Presenting on-the-spot poetry installations has changed the way she looks at poetry. She does these installations because she wants to give the public the opportunity to experience poetry in a format that is personal, relatable, and exciting.
Steve Gavin is an NEPA-born-and-raised environmental lawyer with a demonstrated history of working in both the Federal and State Court Systems, skilled in environmental law, legal writing, trials, civil litigation, and hydraulic fracturing. He became an environmental lawyer because of the issues facing our region, particularly fracking, deforestation, and Superfund sites. As long as Steve can remember, he felt like a "good resume with an empty person behind it." Even with clinical depression, he achieved many tangible things, but was deeply unhappy. Meditative practice changed that – but, it was a very long road. He intends to help remove some of the speed bumps he encountered so as to make it easier for the next person to pursue a meditative practice.
Jourdan Cole is a digital media manager and content creator for Garden Media Group, a women-owned-and-run public relations firm specializing in the home and garden industry. She currently resides in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where she volunteers as a Penn State Master Gardener in her free time. Her goal is to convince people that brown thumbs can, in fact, be turned green.
John Morrow is an activist, advocating for social justice and equity. His occupation is in the environmental field, doing watershed conservation, land conservancy, and trail development work. His passions include remediation and restoration projects, which would induce a more indigenous, bio-diverse ecosystem in Scranton through the reintroduction and fostering of flora and fauna affected by the region’s industrial past, particularly the mining of anthracite coal, which is core to achieving these goals in our area.
Glynis Johns is a native Scrantonian, historian, sociologist, artist, documentarian, advocate, and founder of The Black Scranton Project. A modern day Renaissance woman, she spends a lot of time researching Scranton in attempt to pieces together narratives of the black community. Currently, she is building the foundation of a non-profit organization dedicated to doing just that. She curates a Black History Month exhibition in Scranton – the first of its kind. She is proud to shift local perspectives on culture, inclusion, representation, and history. For Glynis, passions and projects are indistinguishable from each other.
Monica Simon loves swimming in the vast pool of expansive knowledge presented to us at every waking moment of the day. Ideas hit her like microscopic bullets and therefore she has a passion for learning in order to make those ideas a reality. She loves discussing the Civil War and hanging up beautiful Sharpie-written reminders that being a good human being is something we all ought to try to strive for. Her current projects include a mural, a painting, a blog, and trying to remember that love is not a project but a way of life.
Jeremy Ciliberto creates hyperrealistic human bone sculptures and articulates them into functional home decor. He refers to the art series or brand as "Catacomb Culture." Over years of creating Catacomb Culture, it has given Jeremy a unique perspective on death, dying and the dead. Though his reflections and engagement with supporters, he's discovered his passion and mission is to develop an organization that offers green or natural burials and free burials throughout the United States. Traditional burials and cremations are toxic to the environment and financially crippling to a grieving family. Jeremy wants to propose better ways to care for our dead, that are beneficial to the environment and families and allows the deceased individual to continue on life's final metamorphosis in returning to the earth, naturally.
Suzanne Kapral is a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children (CASA), Big Sister mentor, and Animal Welfare Advocate. Her day job includes developing programs and raising much needed money to best serve vulnerable children and at times, adults. Transformation through trauma and grief is tough, painful, messy, and terrifying. Yet, it is critical in order to move us individually and collectively toward a happier, healthier, and more sustainable life. The trauma Suzanne experienced growing up started a long journey of self-initiated nature and animal assisted therapy. This evolved into spearheading a local Children’s Grief Camp. This camp, now in its 5th year, combines farm-based activities, farm animal assisted therapies, and grief education. Suzanne believes the term unconditional love is redundant. True love, including self-love, has no conditions.
Cole Hastings Goldstein is the Director for Advanced Manufacturing at Johnson College, a volunteer for the Lackawanna Arts, Culture, and Education Council, and owns a design company specializing in bespoke manufacturing of home and office furnishings using sustainable technology. The maker movement is one of his most passionate causes – a combination of sustainability, hyper local manufacturing, and an uncontrolled evolution in the design world.
Lisa Reynolds is a professor at Wilkes University and graphic designer, born and raised in Northeastern Pennsylvania. She has been active in this market for 20 years, primarily specializing in education. She is passionate about this area and all it has to offer, and regularly encourages young people to be active in the community in which they live.
Mason Crawford is a Tunkhannock native and local poet. He graduated class of 2017 from Tunkhannock Area High School. He found a love for poetry in school and joined a local youth run nonprofit the Breaking Ground Poets. During his time with the group Mason traveled all across the country performing Spoken Word Poetry. He can be found admiring cats, always on the job, or spending time with his friends and family. Mason believes writing poetry saved his life and brought him to an understanding of his mental illness. Through poetry he hopes to bring awareness to many topics including LGBT+ causes, Bipolar Disorder, and the immense pain of grief.
Laurel Radzieski is a life-long resident of Northeastern Pennsylvania, a poet and a grant writer. As a poet, her creative practice goes back and forth between research-driven poetry and poems that are written in public settings for strangers. Her debut poetry collection, Red Mother, was published in 2018 (NYQ Books), and her poems have appeared in Down the Dog Hole: 11 Poets on Northeast Pennsylvania, The Slag Review, Glintmoon, Word Fountain, Really System, and elsewhere, including on roadsides and a parking sign in rural Wisconsin. She is the grant writer for Lackawanna College and a teaching artist for Arts in Education in Northeastern Pennsylvania (AIE/nepa). Laurel has taught in formal education and community programs and has also worn many hats in the theatre. Presenting on-the-spot poetry installations has changed the way she looks at poetry. She does these installations because she wants to give the public the opportunity to experience poetry in a format that is personal, relatable, and exciting.
Steve Gavin is an NEPA-born-and-raised environmental lawyer with a demonstrated history of working in both the Federal and State Court Systems, skilled in environmental law, legal writing, trials, civil litigation, and hydraulic fracturing. He became an environmental lawyer because of the issues facing our region, particularly fracking, deforestation, and Superfund sites. As long as Steve can remember, he felt like a "good resume with an empty person behind it." Even with clinical depression, he achieved many tangible things, but was deeply unhappy. Meditative practice changed that – but, it was a very long road. He intends to help remove some of the speed bumps he encountered so as to make it easier for the next person to pursue a meditative practice.
Jourdan Cole is a digital media manager and content creator for Garden Media Group, a women-owned-and-run public relations firm specializing in the home and garden industry. She currently resides in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where she volunteers as a Penn State Master Gardener in her free time. Her goal is to convince people that brown thumbs can, in fact, be turned green.
John Morrow is an activist, advocating for social justice and equity. His occupation is in the environmental field, doing watershed conservation, land conservancy, and trail development work. His passions include remediation and restoration projects, which would induce a more indigenous, bio-diverse ecosystem in Scranton through the reintroduction and fostering of flora and fauna affected by the region’s industrial past, particularly the mining of anthracite coal, which is core to achieving these goals in our area.
Glynis Johns is a native Scrantonian, historian, sociologist, artist, documentarian, advocate, and founder of The Black Scranton Project. A modern day Renaissance woman, she spends a lot of time researching Scranton in attempt to pieces together narratives of the black community. Currently, she is building the foundation of a non-profit organization dedicated to doing just that. She curates a Black History Month exhibition in Scranton – the first of its kind. She is proud to shift local perspectives on culture, inclusion, representation, and history. For Glynis, passions and projects are indistinguishable from each other.
