Biography/Memoir

Dr. Hicks is the author of Incongruent: Travel, Trauma, Transformation. Writing her first book at 10 years old, she has now been published in numerous magazines and websites including Forbes.com, Humanity Wine Co., The District, Doctor’s Life, Journal for Research Administration, and Moc Ideja (a grassroots policy manual for lawmakers in Bosnia funded by the US Department of State).

Dr. Hicks is an empathy-driven leader with more than two decades of experience in workforce, education, and nonprofits. Focused on the areas of human-centered leadership, strategic planning, employee engagement, and organizational culture, Dr. Hicks has worked with hundreds of clients over the course of her career including small to midsized companies, education institutions, and nonprofit organizations.

Dr. Hicks formerly served as the Vice President, Education Solutions Group at MGT Consulting where she leads business development for PK12, Higher Education and Education Transformation Practice areas. Prior to joining MGT, Dr. Hicks served as Assistant Provost at the University of Tampa where she created UT’s first Office of Sponsored Programs and oversaw the University’s 52 department budgets, and all grants and contracts. She also taught courses in Social Entrepreneurship, Environmental Policy, and Public-Private Partnerships, among others.

Prior to joining the University of Tampa team, she served as the Director of Research for the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida, an advocacy organization, and concurrently as the Managing Director of the Florida Independent College Fund, a 501c(3) foundation. While at ICUF/FICF, she implemented a four‐prong system for federal and state grant funding applications resulting in enhanced collaborative partnerships and led ICUF’s governmental affairs research for advocacy in Tallahassee and Washington, DC.

Dr. Hicks began her career as the Aide to Mayor of Tallahassee, a special projects coordinator with the Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, and as an adjunct professor of Public Administration for Florida State University and Barry University.

Outside of her professional activities, she is a Colorado girl at heart. Her hobbies include paddle boarding, biking, hiking, and is a certified yoga instructor. She also enjoys spending time with her husband Randy, stepdaughter Lauren, and her fur babies Eva and Molly.

I am a God-fearing woman, a mother, family member, and friend. I love with all of my heart and leave a smile on the hearts of those that I encounter. I am always full of joy and positive energy. I always keep it real. I have lived in Colorado Springs for 30 years.

Four-Time Olympian in the sport of luge. First four-decade Winter Olympian. Spoken for over 100 Fortune 500 companies since 2002. Sold over 300,000 books in 10 languages. TED talk, "The Power of Following the Leader" has over one million views. Ruben moved to Colorado Springs in 2010 and visits the Monument Library at least a couple times a week.

Having reaped the benefits of pedagogical academia, Eric J. Rodwell is an alumnus of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS). He has lived in the Pikes Peak Region since 1996. He is a retired military veteran with over twenty-one years of honorable and distinguished service. Ten of those years, being a paratrooper in the elite 82nd Airborne Division; and, he was ordained as a minister of the Gospel in 1983. He has been married to his beautiful wife, Tina, for over thirty-nine years and the proud father of two sons, one daughter, one son-in-law, six grandkids, and one on the way in January 2021.

Joyce Aubrey has been in Colorado Springs since 1995; an avid reader she has actively engaged PPLD. As a survivor of incest and family sharing, she advocated in the community using healing paintings to speak to various groups including military, faith, mental health, domestic violence/sexual assault and service clubs about the aftershocks of sexual abuse. In October 2019 she published a memoir of hope and inspiration, Beyond Aftershocks, under the author name MavaJoyce. As founder of the non-profit Finding Our Voices, she continues to serve survivors of sexual violence through creative art events and supportive activities.

William Edwin Baxter was born on October 11, 1954 in Fullerton, California. He was born with developmental disabilities, but has strive not to let his disabilities defeat him in life, but to go above and beyond them by accomplishing great things and inspiring others to do the same. This became his legacy. He lived most of his life in Orange County, California; but currently lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. On July 9, 2016, William suffered a massive pulmonary embolism which almost ended his life, but he survived. Had he died in the E.R. at Memorial Hospital, his legacy would have died with him. Realizing this, he began to write his first book, entitled W.E.B. Tales (W.E.B. is his initial name for William Edwin Baxter). The book was published as an e-book in May 2018, and as a paperback in July 2018. Other books have been published since W.E.B. Tales which can be found on my author page on amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/William-Edwin-Baxter/e/B07GC44FVR

Andrew served in the United States Army for 22 years and is a retired Master Sergeant. Upon retirement, Andrew and his family chose to reside in the Pikes Peak region to continue their Christian service within the military and veteran community.

Jené Jackson is the author of The Oat Project: How I Faced My Fear and Came of Age in One Wild Summer, a memoir about how she finally sowed her wild oats, doing 25 things her preacher’s daughter upbringing never allowed, like getting drunk, dancing, skinny dipping, smoking weed, and more…at the ripe age of 37 while a wife and mother of three. She was raised all over the U.S. as a preacher’s daughter before finally rebelling. When she’s not working on her first novel and the sequels to her memoir, she’s photographing, belly laughing with friends, making art, singing jazz, or squeezing words from her teenage children while driving them home from school. She lives in Colorado Springs and even does yoga and hikes every now and then like a good Coloradan. You can connect with her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JeneJ, on Instagram at www.instagram.com/spiralspiral, and at www.jenejackson.com.

14er Climber, Rocket Scientist, Published Novelist, Movie Connoisseur, and Amateur Photographer, Benjamin M. Weilert was born in Colorado in 1985. While he went to school for Mechanical Engineering (eventually earning a Master’s Degree), he has found science to be interesting enough to write fiction about it. He likes to classify his novels as “science fantasy,” wherein the science is real and (semi) accurate, but portrayed in a fantasy setting to make it accessible to non scientific readers. If you want stories that are surreptitiously educational, he’s your man. He currently lives in Colorado Springs and his most recent book is Fourteener Father, a memoir of climbing all of Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains with his dad.

Janyne McConnaughey, PhD, retired from a career in education that spanned forty years—from early-childhood educator to college professor—in order to heal from the effects of the childhood abuse she had suffered. During therapy, Janyne wrote her way to healing and now is redeeming her story by helping others to understand and heal from childhood trauma. Along with Brave: A Personal Story of Healing Childhood Trauma, Janyne is working on two forthcoming sequels. She also keeps busy blogging at Janyne.org, and guest blogging for other organizations that address childhood trauma. Janyne enjoys full-time RV living with her husband, Scott, at the edge of Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and treasures the time she spends in the Seattle area with her children and grandchildren.