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Meet Our Facilitators

Presented here are our nationally certified facilitators' descriptions of themselves. They are listed in alphabetical order location and emails are noted for each. Their experience and backgrounds differ...their talents and commitments are of the highest quality. Find a certified facilitator near you by selecting your State, below:

California

Colorado

Illinois

Iowa

Massachusetts

Minnesota

New York

Virginia/DC area


Resources

Judy Fisher
San Diego, and southern CA; JudithRFisher@gmail.com
View her web site

I have been a writer and teacher for more than twenty years, along with being a wife and mother to three children.  Formerly a technical writer for IBM, eBay and other high tech companies, I began legacy writing after attending one of Rachael Freed’s workshops on writing a spiritual ethical will in 2005.  I was able to apply my love of writing to help me heal after my parents’ deaths because it provided me with a meaningful way to write about and pass on their legacy as well as my own to my children and future grandchildren.  “From generation to generation” is part of my Jewish heritage but I believe has meaning and purpose for everyone.  I have expanded my legacy work in different areas, including education by educating teachers about how to bring legacy writing into the classroom for our children, and foundations by working with Jewish women to join their philanthropy with their values.

Having lived through the wildfires in the San Diego area in 2003 and then again in 2007, my family and I evacuated from our home but fortunately, we did not lose our property.  I was struck by the impermanence of things—hearing about boxes of family heirlooms, pictures, videos, photo albums—all ashes or water damaged due to the fires and their aftermath.  So, the idea to convert these objects into a digital format and save them along with writings, such as spiritual-ethical wills, legacy letters, family stories that imbue them with value, gave birth to my new company, eLegacy LLC and its website, www.elegacy.us.com  This website will provide online resources, coaching, storage, access and retrieval—safe, secure and easy to use.  

I have worked in the high-tech world for the last twenty years, writing and designing documentation and user-interfaces for hardware and software, specializing in the area of usability evaluation.  My goal has always been to design products, websites and documentation that are easy to use to help people accomplish their work.  I am applying these principles to designing the eLegacy website.  Merging my technical skills with my passion for writing and legacy is enabling me to coach people to write their spiritual-ethical wills and their family stories to pass on their values and wisdom and to provide a way to safely store them for future generations.  I am honored to be part of this life-affirming work.

Edna C. Groves
Naperville, IL (Chicago area)
edna@wordsthatendure.com
Link to Edna's web site

Link to read how the Naperville Sun described Edna's legacy work.

Link to read about Edna's  love of words, a legacy from her father.

I love the act of writing. I believe in writing as an instrument of self-exploration, understanding and ultimately, healing. I come to Legacy-writing from many facets of myself: I'm a former psychotherapist with twenty-two years of privileged connection to people's stories. I worked with individuals, couples and groups, using the writing process as one means of self-discovery. I am grateful to be able to offer a safe yet stimulating climate in which people can learn, understand, forgive as necessary, and grow...and even laugh now and then.

Since 1975 I've also been an ongoing workshop leader and facilitator, a teacher, a speaker, a life-long seeker, a published writer, and an occasional Wise Woman. I'm becoming cognizant about the challenges of growing older in body as my spirit grows wiser. I'm a wife, mother, and grandmother. I live the same questions that I invite others to explore. I believe that the wisdom of seasoned people is a treasure, and that Legacy Writing connects us to that wisdom. I've known sadness, and have come to know joy.

In addition to my Master's degree in Counseling Psychology, I'm a Certified Sage-ing Leader (from the former Spiritual Eldering Institute). I'm a member of the Heartland Grandmothers' Council, and have taken PeerSpirit Circle training with Christina Baldwin. I'm honored to offer myself in the service of writing our legacies.

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Gracia Hegener
Twin Cities area & West Metro area, Cologne, MN; GraciaH@aol.com

There are some words that describe our lives that connect to legacy expression:  Transformation, fertile ground, tilling soil, and new life.

As a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College, I have worked as a public health nurse in inner-city Minneapolis and rural MN.  These words accompanied me as I walked every day with women searching for their voices to be heard.
 
As graduate of Luther Seminary and a Diaconal Minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, I am aware of the need for connection and healing in a world of fast-paced living and materialistic values.  Writing, connecting people, community compassion and involvement, and treading the wise woman path are gifts I most appreciate. 

Our family of three daughters, grandchildren and husband challenge each other to define and refine our legacies to give this abundant life meaning.  Partner in the company, LegacyWish, I have developed a CD to store medical, financial, legal, practical, spiritual, and legacy story information needed by family upon the death or serious illness of a loved one. 

Finding and uplifting my own voice in this process of maturing as a woman has been a blessing.  It is an honor to be a part of the sacred space that nurtures the voice of all people.

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Cammy Iverson
Minneapolis, MN; cammyiverson@gmail.com

I believe that each woman has an extraordinary story to tell, and it is my hope and mission to provide a quiet, nurturing place for women to come together to write, explore, and unearth their own stories, in their own words, for their own benefit and for the benefit of future generations.

The legacy story of my great-great grandmother who in 1883 became a physician at the age of 42 has served as inspiration to the women in our family for generations.  Faced with cultural and societal obstacles, she pursued and achieved her dream of helping those in need through her medical practice which she continued until the age of ninety.  Hers is a legacy story with far-reaching and awe-inspiring elements, an extraordinary account of courage.  Women in our family have taken solace in her history for years and have discovered, through her legacy, that the impossible just may be possible. 

Originally trained as a registered nurse, I have lived in many different places throughout the United States and Europe, and no matter the location, I have found that women of all cultures and backgrounds share the desire to be remembered and have their stories preserved.  

In 2003, I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spirituality and Holistic Studies at Vermont College where my focus was women’s spirituality at midlife.  There I engaged in independent study on the subject of generativity which intrigued me with the life-changing opportunities legacy presents to all who intentionally seek to record and share their life stories. 

  I have been the Director of Women’s Ministries at Glenkirk
  Presbyterian Church in California and I have led women’s legacy
  groups at First Congregational Church in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. 

  Just as my great-great grandmother’s legacy has inspired women in
  our family, your unique story can leave a lasting legacy for
  generations to come.  It deserves to be told.

Diane Nimmer
Minneapolis, MN; Diane@Nimmerfamily.com

Mary Tuchscherer
Orinda & Lafayette, CA (Bay Area); mary@voiceflamewriters.com
Link to Mary's web site


Mary’s passion is to teach women to value their life experience through legacy and story. She believes the most important legacy we leave is the wisdom we gain from the stories of our lives. She has been listening to her own life story through self-revelatory writing for decades. This powerful experience has led her to a deep trust in her calling to facilitate legacy work.

Mary has learned through experience that when women gather to share their lives, something magical happens. She provides a safe, creative, healing environment free of criticism and shame. Together women learn to value their struggles, celebrate their strengths, and comprehend their pain. They learn the value of the legacy inherent in the wisdom and richness of their lives.

Mary is a transformative leader who inspires women through her insightful and gentle guidance. Her distinctive services are offered in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout the country, including an annual retreat on the Big Island of Hawaii. Mary has a Master’s degree in Spirituality and Culture and is an Adjunct Faculty member at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, CA. She is the founder of Voiceflame Writers.  She is trained in the Amherst Writers and Artists methodology and is a nationally certified facilitator with Women’s Legacies.

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Carla Vogel
Twin Cities area & Rochester, MN; CarlaChai@yahoo.com
Link to Carla's web site

As a storyteller, writer, educator, and community artist my work is deeply rooted in the transformative power of story. Inspired by my Eastern European Jewish roots I write and perform both original and traditional Jewish and multicultural stories.

I am the storyteller-in-residence with Kairos Dance Theater, a program that nurtures intergenerational connections and affirms the role of elders as bearers of culture using the arts to transmit their life experiences. With Young Audiences and East Side Arts Council I work as a professional teaching artist empowering young people in the Somali, Hmong, Hispanic, Jewish, and African-American communities to respect their unique cultures and find their creative voices.

With Intermedia Arts I partner with the visual artist creator of        “Talking Suitcases” to facilitate storytelling, art, and oral history workshops for intergenerational groups exploring immigration issues.

I am honored to be bringing legacy to women.  I facilitate legacy   workshops and intergenerational programs, and work one-on-one with individuals to write their own spiritual-ethical wills.

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Marnie Williams
Boulder, CO (Denver Area); Marnie@integratedwork.com

Marnie is a certified facilitator with Women's Legacy Circles. Marnie also works as a facilitator in a professional development company in Boulder, Colorado, where her philosophy is that professional development should also be personal and spiritual development. Marnie is excited to bring her legacy experience into the corporate and non-profit world.

Marnie is committed to bringing the legacy experience to women of all ages, diverse backgrounds, and all walks of life. She brings humor, joy, wisdom, insight, and authenticity into her legacy work. She has a degree in Theatre, is a certified Trigger Point Myotherapist, and is an ordained minister in the New Order of Glastonbury.

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Claire  B. Willis
Concord, MA (Boston area); clairebwillis@comcast.net

Visit this link to read Claire’s 2008 legacy submission to Writing Works: A Resource Handbook for Therapeutic Writing Workshops

A clinical social worker, I co-directed a post graduate training program in group work for therapists at the Family Institute of Cambridge for fifteen years. Still a faculty member there, I currently teach a post graduate therapeutic writing program for therapists helping them explore how to integrate writing into clinical work with individuals, couples and groups.

I have been interested in the therapeutic aspects of writing all my professional life, especially helping women find their unencumbered voices through various writing processes. I facilitate a writing program at the Wellness Community, a national organization offering free services for people living with and dying from cancer. A yoga and meditation teacher, I have loved exploring the relationship between one’s body/breath and one’s voice in workshops organized around the theme of writing from the body.

A mother of two grown women, I find legacy writing very compelling, because I have very little remembered familial legacy. My great grandmother, Olympia Brown, was one of the original suffragettes, the only one who lived to vote in 1920. Perhaps her legacy to me is to continue to work on behalf of freeing women’s voices.

  When I was introduced to legacy work in the context of the
  feminization of a historically patriarchal model, I immediately saw its
  potential for my work.   I am interested in helping people create a
  legacy, most especially those at the threshold of life and death.      
  I have used legacy writing extensively in the last year for myself as
  well as with people in my writing groups. It has helped address the
  fear so many of us have of being forgotten, whether we are living
  with a life threatening illness or just aware of our aging process.

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Gretchen B. Wright
Cedar Rapids, IA; gbwright@mchsi.com

Gretchen, writer and artist, is mother to two teenaged children, step-mother to two adult children, and "Oma" to four lively young grandsons. Her legacy work expands women's writing experience to include a visual component enriching their celebration of foremothers and themselves.

Personal experience in the area of Special Needs enables her to utilize Legacy work in assisting parents with life planning for thier dependent adult children.

Gretchen was raised to value her family's genealogy and oral history, and was blessed with many rich stories from the past. As a parent herself through marriage and through adoption, she now appreciates a broader definition of "family", and relishes the beauty of our interconnected legacies.

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