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APH Leadership
Meet the Board Members
Paula Stahel—APH President
Paula Stahel of Tampa, Florida, became active in APH in 1999. As an independent writer and author since 1983, she decided to specialize as a personal historian in 1998 and discovered APH within a year. By 2000, she began volunteering, first as 2001 conference chair. In 2003, she began the first of two terms as Secretary, which concluded in December 2006. Her volunteer work did not conclude then, however: this year she’s remained active on the conference committee and with the anthology selection team, as well as other projects. While focusing primarily on print, Paula has earned numerous awards over the years for audio and video scripting and production. She also has extensive experience in business-to-business marketing, teaches writing classes, presents educational programs to business groups, and edits manuscripts for published authors. With APH’s incredible growth and several outstanding projects now underway, Paula hopes as President to help the board transition in creative directions and develop a stronger, broader volunteer base to support the organization.
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Web site: www.breathandshadows.com
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Pat McNees—APH Vice President
Pat McNees of Bethesda, Maryland, joined APH in 2001, the year of the Tampa conference, but has been helping people write their stories since 1990. A commissioned biography about a small-time Midwestern industrialist led her in two directions: helping others write their memoirs and writing organizational histories. Pat’s background was in publishing as an editor, freelance journalist and independent writer-editor. That, plus her experience with memoirs and organizational histories, led her to her most interesting and worthwhile project, a history of the most important research hospital in the U.S. (the NIH Clinical Center). As bylaws chair on the board, Pat is leading an effort to totally revise the APH bylaws. Her strength as a personal historian is knowing how to make good money as a professional writer-editor with a subspecialty in personal histories. As a member of the executive board she will provide the voice of one who has been around the block a few times.
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Web site: www.patmcnees.com and http://www.writersandeditors.com and http://www.comfortdying.com
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Adrienne Johns—APH Treasurer
Adrienne Johns of Lake Forest, Illinois joined APH in 2006. “Our business was just getting started when we joined APH and we found an invaluable resource in the people, the conference and the communications.” Her background prior to APH was as a Chief Operating Officer for a book and software publisher and 30 years in large corporations as an executive managing large budgets, lots of people and projects. She brings the experience of being on the boards of many nonprofit organizations and associations to the APH Board. With the orientation of a businessperson as well as that of a new personal historian, she hopes to add value from both perspectives in the Treasurer position.
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Libby Atwater—APH Secretary
Libby Atwater has been telling the stories of individuals, families, businesses, and organizations since 1989. She has produced numerous profiles, oral histories, and personal and corporate histories. Her background is in journalism, education, marketing communications, public relations, and fundraising. She has written and edited for numerous organizations, including McGraw-Hill; WellPoint Health Networks; the University of California, Los Angeles; and the University of Southern California. Libby served as APH newsletter editor from 2005-2006 and joined the board as Print Communications Director in 2006.
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Web site: www.chooseyourwords.net
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Gillian Hewitt—APH At-Large Director
Gillian Hewitt of Stoney Creek (Niagara Region) Ontario, Canada, joined APH in 2002. After teaching high school for 33 years (among other things), she embarked on a second career of personal historian, taking the Epstein Oral History certification, followed by a the Soleil Lifestory Network certification course. She has produced 11 personal history books for individuals, one dog story (which has sold over 500 copies) and recently published a book of teachers. stories. Her volunteer work included working with students at a private school to produce a book of stories from war vets and a second book on women in World War II. She has acted as co-chair of the Eastern Canada Region for the past two years and enjoys sharing her knowledge and expertise with others. Known as the .motorcycle mama. of APH, she is eager to help the organization grow and develop.
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Web site: www.keepsakememoirs.com
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Teri Duff—APH By-Laws Director
Teri Duff of Oakland, California, became active in the APH in 1999. Working in video production and listening to her Grandmother’s stories, Teri felt she should create a video of her grandparents talking about their lives. When her young son saw the video and commented that his great-grandparents were speaking to him, Teri decided to quit her job and start Family Archive Films. Producing videotaped oral histories and personal documentaries Teri has been successful in helping other families preserve their stories for future generations. Teri values the APH for the colleagues, education and thorough understanding of the personal history field she has gained. As Bylaws Director, she looks forward to being an integral part of policy formulation that keeps APH moving in a positive direction.
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Web site: www.PassItDown.com
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Susan Owens—APH Conference Planning Director
Susan Owens of Lexington, Kentucky, joined APH in 2005. After owning an Information Technology consulting firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for 20 years, Susan started a new career as a writer when she moved to Lexington in 2003. She has had an interest in personal history since reading her grandmother’s memoir about homesteading on the Saskatchewan prairie in the early 1900s and, after taking an online class in oral history in 2004, she knew she had found her calling. To date, Susan’s projects have consisted of writing human-interest articles for local publications and working with authors to edit their book-length memoirs, although she looks forward to moving into more in-depth interviewing in the future. APH has been a source of both information and inspiration for her, and she is eager to use her skills to help the organization grow and prosper.
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Jurgen Mollers—APH Marketing Director
Jürgen Mollers of San Francisco, California, is founder and president of Storyzon. Born in Germany, Jürgen studied literature and philosophy in Europe and the U.S. He lived and worked in publishing and marketing in several European countries before immigrating to the U.S. about ten years ago, and was formally trained in the process of creating personal histories by the Medienburo, in Berlin. Jürgen is a published writer who has developed and taught numerous workshops over the past six years for Cisco Systems. His passion for storytelling is based on a deep appreciation for the miraculous unfolding of lives. As marketing director, he would like to help build an organizational structure that supports APH in its goals to gain greater public visibility, to more fully connect to related organizations and to allow for better leveraging of existing marketing efforts across the membership under a unified umbrella.
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Web site: www.storyzon.com
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Diane Dassow—APH Membership Director
Diane Dassow of Lombard, Illinois, joined APH twice—first in 1999, then in 2003, just prior to establishing her personal history business, Binding Legacies. In 1979 Diane completed her bachelor's in management, taking classes on weekends while working full time in hospital administration. An MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management followed. While daughter Ellen was growing up, Diane freelanced as a medical transcriptionist and, for a dozen years, as a correspondent for the Daily Herald. Her first personal history interview was with her father in 1999, and the entrepreneurial bug bit. Diane enjoys all aspects of capturing people's life stories in print, as well as the challenge of building a business. She lives with her husband Ed; Ellen is (fingers crossed!) a college senior. Diane has been secretly hoping for time in which to get more involved in APH; with the board’s approval, the time is now, and she welcomes the opportunity to serve as membership director. As in all her past volunteer efforts, Diane looks forward to developing a committee approach to the post.
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Web site: www.BindingLegacies.com
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Susan Knight—APH Nominations Director
In 2001, Sue Knight of San Jose, CA attended her first APH conference in Tampa, FL. Two weeks prior she had never heard of APH. The rest is history. "I felt like I had come home—found my niche." Since joining, Sue has co-chaired the Northern California Region for two years and is currently on the APH Board as Nominations Director. She has been actively involved in the greeter/registration activities at past annual conferences and the "in house" non-professional photographer. The combination of these activities have given Sue the opportunity to personally meet many APH members. "People (and photos) are my passion. Searching for and recommending qualified members for APH Board positions is a challenge I love." An Autograph of Time is the name of her personal history business. Clients receive quality, well-designed life-story books.
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Ersula Odom—APH Online Communications Director
Ersula Knox Odom of Tampa, Florida, joined APH in 2001. Life happened and she rejoined in 2006. She worked in technology systems development, training and documentation for 20 years, and published her first book and CD in 2005. She has been the SMART/PELOTE historian for 18 years, and is currently an editor for a 40-year-old community newspaper. Ersula’s fascination with personal histories began at her grandmother’s feet whose voice she recorded 35 years ago. From high school she kept journals and scrapbooks and uses them to inspire others to preserve their family stories. Since her first conference in 2001 she has conferred with members of APH, recommended members, and advocated for APH. She looks forward to combining vocation and avocation in support of APH, while utilizing her strong writing skills to strengthen the APH website content.
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Web site: www.sulatoo.com
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Linda Coffin—APH Print Communications Director
Linda Coffin, of PageCrafters and HistoryCrafters, lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1980 Linda began working as a graphic designer and in 1985 she started her own home-based business. Over the years she has produced publications of all types for non-profit organizations and businesses, both large and small. During the last three years, Linda has turned to personal and family history work and is thoroughly enjoying it. She joined APH at the November 2004 annual conference in Baltimore and has been active in APH's GotStories group in Minnesota since then. Linda began designing the APH newsletter in the spring of 2005 and looks forward to continuing her work with APH's publications as Print Communications Director on the APH Board.
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Web site: www.historycrafters.com
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Sarah White—APH Regions Director
I have been an APH member since 2002, and held the Marketing Director position for the APH from January of 2004 to April of 2006, when I was appointed by the board to fill the vacated position of Regions Director. For twelve years I directed my own marketing communication firm. After the sale of that business I built a freelance writing/consulting practice, providing marketing communications and how-to advice for small businesses. This experience led me to write several books for business managers and articles for young people on consumer awareness and media literacy. Today I help individuals, families, businesses and communities record their stories for presentation in book form and more. I also facilitate life story writing workshops and hands-on intergenerational programs exploring personal history.
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Web site: www.whitesarah.com/lifestory.html
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