**This list is tentative and is subject to change**
Keynote
Anita Wagner Illig
Anita Wagner Illig is a long time polyamory activist and leader who has worked tirelessly toward polyamory awareness and acceptance. Anita is a nationally recognized thought leader and media spokesperson on the subject of alternative relationships and families. As a passionate educator and sexual freedom advocate, for more than 15 years Anita has assisted others in exploring an array of family and relationship options. Her website, practicalpolyamory.com, offers educational materials and handouts from programs she presents all over the U.S. on these subjects
Anita has co-founded non-profit educational and social groups that support relationship choice and sexual freedom. She speaks regularly and occasionally keynotes before audiences at such events and venues as Fet Fest, Atlanta Poly Weekend, Good Vibrations, Momentum Con, Dark Odyssey, Transcending Boundaries, Poly Living, The Floating World, and Black Rose. She occasionally speaks on challenges faced by sexual compulsives in sex-positive culture, most recently at the annual conference of CARAS – the Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities. She has also served as polyamory community advisor to CARAS.
Anita is a faculty member at passionateU.com, kinkacademy.com, a founding member of the Polyamory Leadership Network, and an elite member of SPECTRA, a professional mentorship program for feminist Sex Positive Educators, Counselors, Coaches, Therapists, Researchers, Activists and Advocates in the sexuality field. She has also served on the boards of a variety of organizations that advocate for sexual freedom and relationship choice, including the Advisory Council of the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance.
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Music
Robin Renée
Robin Renée is Mantra-Pop! --accessible, lyric-driven alt-folk rock with a spiritual twist. Conscious and melodic with an edge, think of blending the voices of Chrissie Hynde and Joan Armatrading with the wordsmith intelligence of Elvis Costello and the mystical passion of kirtan chanting. Her recordings include In Progress, All Six Senses, Live Devotion, spirit.rocks.sexy – mantra-pop headlines from the clairaudient dreams of the evocative Robin Renée, This., and the most recent single, “All I Am.” Robin is also a longtime outspoken member of the bi and poly communities and currently hosts events for the Philadelphia Mindful Polyamory Meetup Group. www.robinrenee.com
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Workshop Presenters
Virginia Brown
Virginia Brown is a professional sexuality educator with a master’s in human sexuality education from Widener University. She runs a website called Sex in Specs, where she gives evidence-based information on topics ranging from gender and orientation to desire and arousal. She is passionate about combining biological and sociological perspectives to come to a fuller understanding of human sexuality. She has been known to be overly analytical, and isn’t sorry one bit. Virginia lives with her partner and their greater poly family in southern New Jersey. The five of them were featured in 2013 on Our America with Lisa Ling. Together the majority of the household writes for the blog polyskeptic.com, and performs in the Philadelphia burlesque troupe Busts and Trunks. When not writing, talking, and teaching about sexuality, Virginia can most often be found knitting and watching Doctor Who.
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Julio Cortes
Julio Cortés is a trainer and consultant who specializes in building long-term mutually beneficial relationships using a blend of modalities from eastern and western philosophies and spiritual practices. A graduate in East Asian Studies with a focus on Chinese and Japanese Philosophy from UCLA, Julio has dedicated his life to finding simple yet powerful ways to assist people in becoming more effective and fulfilled, as they find the bigger picture in their lives. Julio teaches workshops and seminars on effective communication, relationship skills building and sacred sexuality. He has studied with such teachers and masters as Dan Millman, Mantak Chia, Wang Fu-lai, Jibiki Hidemine, and Jim Tamm and has been teaching and in practice since 1991 in the United States and Japan. In addition Julio is also a licensed Tai Chi instructor with additional extensive martial arts training in other systems (Jeet Kune Do, Zong Nan/Cheng-Ming Internal Kung Fu, Systema). Finally, Julio has had in-depth intensive training in energy work and is a master healer and teacher in several modalities (Reiki, Johrei, Sekhem, Qigong, Light Body).
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Beverly Dale
Rev Bev is a public theologian who challenges sex-negativity both in the Christian church and culture as she helps people reconnect their spirits and their bodies. A lively and entertaining public speaker who uses music, poetry, and story telling as an ordained clergy she has presented workshops at Charm City Fetish conference, Woodhull’s Sexual Freedom Summit and at previous Poly Living conferences. She provides spiritual direction for those in non–exclusive and non-heteronormative relationships and is currently the founder and chair of the Incarnation Institute for Sex and Faith a non-profit that provides educational initiatives on the breadth of diversity of sexual expressions within a Christian framework that is sex-positive, body affirming, and women-friendly. She is the co-founder of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Reproductive Justice and has served as a volunteer chaplain at Planned Parenthood. She has been recognized by the Philadelphia Law Project for her work in passage of the Domestic Partnership Law in Philadelphia and been given the Community Service Award by the Diabolique Foundation as a “Kink-positive Missionary of Pleasure.” She is currently completing her first book, Sex Without Apology, Becoming a Sex-Positive Person of Faith in a Sex-Negative Culture. www.beverlydale.org
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Wesley Fenza
Wesley Fenza is an attorney working in South Jersey and Philadelphia. He and his wife have been polyamorous since 2009, and he's been dating on okcupid since 2010, where he met his second primary partner. Wesley blogs about topics related to polyamory and skepticism at polyskeptic.com, and his family was featured along with Robyn Trask's in season 4 of Our America with Lisa Ling on the OWN network. He has previously conducted this workshop at Atlanta Poly Weekend, and is looking forward to bringing it back home to Philadelphia.
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Jim Fleckenstein
Jim Fleckenstein is a polyamory/non-exclusive relationships educator, coach, researcher and activist. His currently heads The Earth Moved, LLC, an educational and coaching practice helping individuals and groups find and succeed in their ideal relationship. A polyamory and open lifestyles activist since 1998, in 2000 he co-founded the Institute for 21st Century Relationships, now the Foundation of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF). He has spoken at events like the PolyLiving and Building Bridges conferences and the NYC Poly Pride event, as well as CatalystCon East 2013. He’s been interviewed by the Chicago Tribune, the Guardian (UK), and on TV and radio. Jim is a member of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) and the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS). In recognition of his expertise, Jim has been chosen to present at multiple AASECT and SSSS conferences, and was invited to author the Polyamory section of the U.S. chapter of the Continuum Complete International Encyclopedia of Sexuality. He is a member of the NCSF Board, and co-edited their recent booklet, What Psychology Professionals Should Know About Polyamory. He is presently co-investigator on the largest survey of self-identified polyamorous persons ever conducted.
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Jesus Viramontes Garcia (Chuy)
Jesus is the Board President of Loving More Nonprofit, polyamory activist and leader in the community. He is a native of the San Francisco Bay area who began exploring alternatives to monogamy in 2004. In 2005 he attended his first Loving More Retreat. In September 2006 he was invited to join Loving More’s Board of Directors. He has worked at raising money for many worthy causes and continues to work tirelessly as Loving More Nonprofit’s volunteer Director of IT. Jesus has been presenting on polyamory at conferences, Universities and special events. He is a key coordinator for Loving More conferences and volunteers. In addition Jesus has worked in the computer information technology field since 1995.
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Raven Kaldera and Joshua Tenpenny
Raven Kaldera and Joshua Tenpenny are two members of a big, queer, Pagan, and blissfully perverted poly family they call Tribe Rex Mundi. Raven is a queer FTM transgendered intersexual shaman and the author/editor of 34 books, including "Pagan Polyamory" and “Power Circuits: Polyamory In A Power Dynamic”. He and his slaveboy Joshua have been teaching and presenting workshops regularly for many years to the BDSM, Neo-Pagan, Sex/Spirituality, transgender, and other communities. Joshua is Raven's Boy, and his devoted assistant, partner, and slave for life. He is a massage therapist, Shiatsu practitioner, and yoga teacher. He is the author of "Real Service", and finds spiritual fulfillment through any kind of worthy service. Raven and Joshua live on a small homestead farm in MA with Raven's wife Bella, their second slaveboy Brandon, and many visits from others in the Tribe. ’Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.
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LeeAnn Mallorie
An implant from the SF Bay Area, LeeAnn Mallorie recently moved to Philadelphia to pursue her first love: building authentic communities through the power of dance. For the past ten years, she has trained with Bay Area conscious dancers, martial artists, sound healers, shamans, coaches, somatic therapists, body workers and musicians, while boldly disseminating their cutting edge work to the rest of the world. LeeAnn believes that intimate relationships are a path to personal transformation. Walking her talk, she followed the thread of her parents failed marriage and her own series of tumultuous monogamous relationships, through the barriers of social convention, to the joy of loving openly. She has been in a creative and open relationship with her partner, Jorge Cortez since February of 2013, when her sexuality cracked open while studying the practice of Orgasmic Meditation.
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Gina Martinelli
Gina Martinelli is a chemist/musician/actor/visual/artist/burlesque dancer living in Collingswood, NJ with her husband Wes, Wes' girlfriend Jessie, Gina's boyfriend Shaun and Shaun's wife Ginny. Gina and Wes have been together for 10 years and poly for 4. The whole gaggle has been living together for a year and this past Spring was featured in Our America with Lisa Ling's polyamory episode which aired in March on the Oprah Winfrey Network. When she's not playing in a laboratory or being artsy/fartsy, she also writes for the family's joint blog at Polyskeptic.com about subjects like polyamory, skepticism, feminism, as well as her occasional thoughts on toilets and movies like Sharknado.
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Carol Morotti-Meeker, MS, MLSP
Carol Morotti-Meeker, MS, MLSP is a researcher, activist, speaker and therapist. She works in a community mental health clinic in Philadelphia, Pa. and also has a private practice with adults and families who engage in alternative sexuality and consensual non-monogamous lifestyles. She has provided professional education at the 2007 and 2012 American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) annual conferences. She was on Advisory Board Member 2000-2007 for the Institute for 21st Century Relationships and on the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom Board in 2005-7. She has made presentations at the 2008, 2010 and 2011 Poly Living Conferences in Philadelphia. Carol led a professional round table discussion for the Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities (CARAS) in 2011 in Washington, D.C. and co-presented about communication and sex in non-monogamous relationships at the 2013 CARAS event for students and professionals.
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Michael Rios
Michael Rios is an entrepreneur and practical visionary with a creative genius for freedom and empowerment; as some have said, “Michael doesn’t have a box to think outside of.” In 1964, he founded a commune based on service, spirituality, and sensuality that lasted 25 years and (among other projects) provided emergency shelter and support services for homeless people and troubled young adults. In addition, he started one of the first domestic violence hotlines in the USA in 1971, and one of the first computer business in the DC area in 1976. Michael co-founded and lives at Chrysalis, a small urban intentional community in Arlington, VA, whose mission is to support activists and healers (www.chrysalis-va.org). Since 2004, he has been a major organizer of Network for a New Culture’s East Coast Summer Camp (www.nfnc.org, www.cfnc.us) and other events aimed at creating a culture based on awareness, compassion, and freedom rather than on fear and judgment. In 2011, Michael became the director of Abrams Creek Center (www.abramscreekcenter.com), a retreat center in the mountains of West Virginia. His current passion is creating an “intentional village” there and in the nearby town - a place where people live consciously with and near one another, building a life based on personal enterprise and freedom, economic independence, and a web of social interconnectedness (http://aciv.cfnc.us).
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Lisa Sandhusen
Lisa Sandhusen began her career in television and film production and through the years has evolved to become a Conscious Parenting Educator, Post Partum Doula, Peaceful Birth Advocate, Holistic Healing Arts Practitioner, Bellydancer and Grass Roots Community Organizer and Life Coach. In her role as Post Partum Doula and Conscious Parenting Educator, she supports families effectively bonding during the sensitive and intimate time of relationship transition. In this work she gently guides people into their new roles as parents by assisting them to identify the picture of a 'Happy Family' that is meaningful to them. As a Sexuality and Relationship Educator, Lisa works with and supports the diversity and uniqueness of each person and every family. Lisa also hosts the North Jersey Poly Potluck Discussion Group works to help others expand their possibilities and activate their passion for life. Lisa.Sandhusen@gmail.com or call 201-881-6338
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Dr. Elisabeth Sheff
Dr. Elisabeth Sheff is the foremost academic and legal expert on polyamory in the United States, and the worldwide expert on polyamorous families with children. Author of The Polyamorists Next Door: Inside Multiple-Partner Relationships and Families (2013, Rowman and Littlefield), Sheff’s academic research has focused on sexual minorities and their families, with studies on poly families with children and the intersections between and among unconventional sexual identities, including swingers, kinksters (people who practice BDSM or sadomasochism), and polyamorists. With a Ph.D. in Sociology, 15 years of teaching and research experience at three major US universities, and certifications as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (Fulton County, Georgia) and a Sexuality Educator (AASECT), Sheff is the CEO and Director of Legal Services at Sheff Consulting Group (SCG), a think-tank of experts providing legal and educational services for unconventional and/or underserved people and those who need to know about them. You can find her blog The Polyamorists Next Door on the Psychology Today website at http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-polyamorists-next-door, and her publications and presentations on her own website at http://www.elisabethsheff.com.
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Ben Silver
Ben is a singer, musician and poly and bi activist who has been in an open primary relationship for 26 years. He and his partner started a support group for committed non-monogamous relationships in the ‘80s which met monthly for over 15 years. As a performer, Ben’s music slides through folk, R&B, funk, jazz and back again; he sings about freedom, the environment, LBGT issues, parenting and love. His writing has been published in “Carry it On,” ”Sing Out” magazine and the book “Hearing Everyone’s Voice.”
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Sarah Taub, Ph.D.
Sarah Taub, Ph.D., is a cultural activist whose passion is creating events where people transform. She teaches the skills of peaceful, sustainable community – self-awareness, honesty, clear boundaries – and facilitates group processes of many sorts, including consensus decision-making, business meetings and retreats, ZEGG Forum (www.zegg-forum.org/), and conflict resolution sessions. Sarah co-founded the first cohousing community in Washington, DC, and for the past 12 years has lived at Chrysalis, a small urban intentional community in Arlington, VA whose mission is to support activists and healers (www.chrysalis-va.org). Since 2004, she has been a major organizer of Network for a New Culture’s East Coast Summer Camp (www.nfnc.org, www.cfnc.us) and other events aimed at creating a culture based on awareness, compassion, and freedom rather than on fear and judgment. In 2006, she left her tenured professorship in Cognitive Linguistics at Gallaudet University to focus full-time on events, community-building, and cultural change. Since 2011, she has been the financial and programs manager for Abrams Creek Center (www.abramscreekcenter.com), a retreat center and community in the mountains of West Virginia. Sarah’s current koan: only when you let go of urgency can you be truly effective.
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Robyn Trask
Robyn is the Executive Director of Loving More Non-Profit and a national organizer and leader for polyamory awareness. She is a polyamory counselor, workshop facilitator and writer. Since 2004 Robyn has worked to expand media awareness of polyamory appearing in numerous articles, radio shows and TV as well as helping to connect the media with other polyamory activists and individuals. Robyn and Loving More were instrumental in the formation of Polyamory Leadership Network. A national speaker and advocate for polyamory she has been a speaker at conferences, taught at universities and been a featured keynote speaker. Robyn has been openly polyamorous for 25 years, raising three children in a polyamorous family. Robyn has been running polyamory support groups, teaching and facilitating relationship and sexuality workshop since 1999. In addition she counsels polyamorous individuals and families. Currently Robyn is working on two polyamory related books.
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Valerie White
Lawyer, parent, and director of Sexual Freedom Legal Defense and Education Fund, Valerie White has spoken at numerous national and regional conferences. Her writing on polyamory has been published in “Loving More” and “The Humanist” magazines. A long-time sexual rights activist, she was president of the Vermont Civil Liberties Union. Currently, she serves on the advisory councils of Secular Organizations for Sobriety and the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance. She is president of Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness and serves on the coordinating council for Family Tree, the Boston-area polyamory group. She was treasurer of Interweave, the UU BGLT advocacy group. Her 19-year triad has 11-year-old twins; see https://openhouse.creatavist.com for more information.
