Jeff Koziatek is a nationally recognized speaker, certified life coach, author and an award winning international entertainer.

Organizations continue to seek out Jeff’s creative talents to create original programs designed to both entertain and educate on leadership, teamwork, GRIT, Communication, and Social Emotional Learning.

Some of his clients include: Microsoft, Centene, Novus, Mercy, Ameren Missouri, UHY Advisors, VIP Corporate Housing, Citi, Fusion Marketing, Delta Dental, the American Diabetes Association, and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Jeff has spent over 20 years working in the entertainment industry. He has managed national touring acts, performed over 4000 live shows, produced award winning film and theatre, and operated a complete event management company catering to high end corporations and nonprofits.

He believes in the inherent value found in each person and his passion is to help people find personal significance and experience freedom.

Speaker / Coach website: www.coreauthenticity.com

Performer website: www.jugglingjeffSTL.com

My Book: www.blueprintforvalue.com

Jack Wright is an up and coming guitarist, singer, and songwriter in the St. Louis music scene. He has performed at venues such as the Old Rock House, The Naked Vine, The Broadway Oyster Bar, and more. He's performed as a part of music festivals such as TOCO Festival, Phillipalooza and more as well as civic events such as Soulard Mardi Gras, The Walk to DeFeet ALS, and others. He's shared the stage with some of the top talent in St. Louis including the Scandaleros, the Funky Butt Brass Band, Jake's Leg, Sean Allen Canan, Alligator Wine, and many more. He currently performs regularly as part of a duo including frequent collaborator Sam Avery of One Way Traffic. His influences include everything from old school rock icons such as Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead to country legends such as Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, to current roots and country greats such as Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson to hip hop aartists such as Wu Tang Clan, Childish Gambino, and more as well as soul legends like James Brown, Muddy Waters, and the Meters. His songwriting is personal, vivid, and often contains a message or a story within a structured rhythm. You can learn more about Jack Wright via facebook and instagram.

Antony John is the award-winning author of several books for middle grade and young adult readers, including Mascot, Five Flavors of Dumb, and the Elemental trilogy. He was born in England and raised on a balanced diet of fish and chips and bizarre British comedies. To annoy his parents, he decided to pursue a career in classical music. He graduated from Oxford University and received his Ph.D. in composition from Duke University. After teaching at Duke and the University of South Carolina, he became a stay-at-home dad and began writing books—the only other job besides composing that allows him to wear sweatpants all day. He lives in St. Louis with his family. Visit him online at www.antonyjohn.net.

Ron A. Austin holds an MFA from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and is a 2016 Regional Arts Commission Fellow. “Avery Colt Is a Snake, a Thief, a Liar,” his first collection of linked stories, won the 2017 Nilsen Prize. The book will be released in fall of 2019. Austin’s short stories have been placed or are forthcoming in Pleiades, Story Quarterly, Ninth Letter, Black Warrior Review and other journals. As co-director of the River Styx Reading Series he works to share local and national literary talent. He, his partner Jennie, and son Elijah live in St. Louis with a whippet named Carmen.

Kasey Perkins, who teaches under Kasey Grady, is a professor, freelance editor, and writer who completed her MFA in poetry from the University of Missouri – St. Louis in 2014. She is the recipient of the 2014 Margaret Leong Children’s Poetry Prize and received her MA in English at Truman State University in Kirksville, MO, where she was both a frequent performer and organizer in the poetry slam community. Her chapbook, When the Dead Get Mail, is forthcoming through Finishing Line Press in 2019.

Overall, her poetry and poetry book reviews have appeared in the Chattahoochee Review, Chariton Review, Digital Americana, Green Hills Literary Lantern, the Wisconsin Review, the Oracle, Lumina, and many more. She currently teaches first year writing and foodways courses at Washington University in St. Louis.

Her scholarly interests include memoirs, food writing, writing pedagogy, and pop culture adaptations of classic literature. When not engrossed in the world of reading and writing, she loves to cook, entertain, watch bad television, and spend time with her husband, daughter, and two rescue dogs.

https://kaseyperkins.com

Alex delivers your daily dose of relevant news in pop culture, style, music, and sports as an Emmy-nominated multimedia journalist for NBC's premiere entertainment news program, Access Hollywood. In addition to regularly appearing on Access Hollywood and Access Hollywood Live, Alex serves a diverse audience of more than 2 million followers across all Access Hollywood social media platforms-- writing, producing, and reporting on camera.

Prior to joining the Access Hollywood team, Alex worked as an editorial producer and news anchor for Complex News, the online convergence culture hub of Complex Magazine. With an audience of over 1 million YouTube subscribers and over 50 million monthly viewers, she created content that was entertaining, informative, and up-to-date for her worldwide fans.

After internships with KSDK NewsChannel 5 and The Tavis Smiley Show on PBS, Alex moved to Los Angeles in 2014 and got her start in entertainment journalism as a reporter and producer for BlackTree Media. BlackTree is one of the longest-running, leading creators of online urban entertainment content and lifestyle information. Its content has received more than a half billion views on 17 distribution platforms, and can be found in over 11,000 retail locations. Alex served as the original host of BlackTree on TV, the outlet's inaugural primetime entertainment show airing 5 nights/week on the Soul of the South Network, which reached millions of homes in markets including Chicago and NYC.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Alex believes in Midwest manners, good BBQ, and Cardinals baseball. She attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, ranked as one of the Top 15 colleges in the country. Alex graduated with a bachelor's degree in "Media & Society," a program that she designed herself in order to pursue more in-depth coursework in media, business, and performance. While in college she perfected her multitasking skills by working with the school's television station, performing as a 4-year SEC cheerleader, and serving as a peer mentor. Alex is now actively involved in her church, loves to travel, and has become a stage mom for her pug, Busy.

Ethel Canady is a product of the St. Louis Public School District and the State of Missouri foster care system. She spent much of her teenage years in foster care as a resident of Marian Hall Emergency and Marian Hall Girls Home which is now Good Shepherd Children and Family Services located in University City, St. Louis. She is currently looking to give back to the community by sharing her story and experiences while she was in the foster care system and how she overcame the struggles that came thereafter.

Being a product of the foster care system, Ethel understands firsthand the day to day challenges that youth in foster care face and would like to lend her voice by sharing her past experiences. At times Ethel’s experiences with foster care were filled with many of the familiarities that respective agencies have worked to eliminate, such as having multiple case workers in a short span of time. She explains the hardships of her uninformed emancipation experience that left her on her own with very few resources at the age of eighteen.

Ethel is a passionate inspirational speaker and works with youth within the community. She is confident that her testimony of hard work and perseverance will be encouraging to anyone facing adversity. Ethel believes that her personal story is one that others in foster care and those aging out can relate to.

Ethel attended Saint Louis Community College-Forest Park and later attended the University of Missouri-St. Louis. After several years, Ethel graduated in August 2014 with her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and a Minor in Sociology. She accomplished her goals while working full time and taking care of her family. Being the first of seven children to accomplish such a goal has been very rewarding and sometimes challenging for Ethel. With great determination and an awesome support system she was able to begin the career as a Long-Term Care Social Worker that she has always dreamed of. Ethel currently sits on the Board of Directors for Good Shepherd Children and Family Services as well as Beautyful Waves Board of Directors. Ethel recently began her journey as a business owner, as she has created Inspiring U LLC, as a resource to inspire and encourage others.

Nassim Benchaabane is a journalist with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he covers a wide array of issues from gun violence, policing and local government to abuse in the Catholic Church. As a reporter, he's chased tornados in the dark, sat on the top of The Gateway Arch and interviewed hundreds of people, from governors and celebrities to Ferguson activists and World War II veterans.

He came to the Post-Dispatch in 2016 after covering Mississippi state government with the Associated Press, where his stories were picked up by newspapers across the country. He has also worked for St. Louis Public Radio, The Wichita Eagle, and New Europe. He graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with degrees in journalism and music.

A proud son of immigrants, Nassim grew up in St. Louis but spent his summers in Algiers, Algeria, where he was born. Those experiences, and his identity as an Algerian-American, inform his reporting and writing. Nassim originally went to college to write music for films, and likes to pretend he knows how to play the saxophone and guitar. In his free time he enjoys traveling and reading books from around the world.

Email: nbenchaabane@post-dispatch.com

Website: https://www.stltoday.com/users/profile/nbenchaabane/

Twitter: @NassimBnchabane

Glynis Brooks is a Performing Artist with a host of experience in Theatre, Storytelling, Stand-up Comedy, Film, and Television. She is most noted for creating and performing a series of one-woman shows including “Harriet Tubman, An American Hero,” “America, Act One,” “Desperate Housewives of the Bible,” “Rappin,” on the history of Black Dialect and Rap Music, and “Remembering the Struggle,” on the history of Civil Rights in St. Louis which she created and performed for The Saint Louis History Museum. While residing in Los Angeles Glynis expanded her craft to film and television, worked as a Premiere Storyteller for Disneyland Entertainment, served as a Teaching Specialist and Resident Storyteller for Walden School, and made appearances as a Stand-Up Comic in various venues including Hollywood’s Comedy Store. Today Glynis is ecstatic to join the St. Louis Canvass Project’s Team as a Teaching Artist, and looks forward to growing to infinity and beyond with her students and colleagues!

At C.M. Carrillo Financial Advising, we are always here to help proactive individuals navigate the process of transforming their vision for their future into their reality. Whether you have significant assets to manage, or if you are just starting to accumulate wealth, we have the tools and resources to help meet your needs.

With a team of industry professionals, we offer guidance to our clients in order to help them reach their financial goals. We work diligently to establish mutually beneficial long-term relationships with each of our clients, and we feel it is very important to do this on a solid foundation of respect and trust.

In December of 2015, Christopher M. Carrillo founded C.M. Carrillo Financial Advising in Saint Louis, Missouri. The firm utilizes a business model that allows for a very well balanced approach to the overall financial planning process. This approach involves several levels of planning, including: Risk Management, Wealth Accumulation, and Wealth Preservation & Distribution.

The firm is able to assist individuals, couples, families, and/or business owners. It should also be noted that the firm has some absolutely phenomenal solutions when it comes to Succession Planning for business owners.

Furthermore, the firm's business model offers clients an enhanced level of flexibility, particularly on the investment side of the financial planning process. Since its founding, the firm has consistently offered clients the ability to invest with some very well regarded asset management firms, and over time, C.M. Carrillo Financial Advising has evolved into a bit of a boutique investment firm. This is in part due to the upgrading of certain investment platforms and also the introduction of some highly unique and innovative solutions specifically designed for College Planning.

http://www.cmcarrillofinancialadvising.com/

https://www.lifeartsinc.org/

LIFE Arts is an extension and outgrowth of the many experiences that have been granted to me over the years. Since the events of Ferguson in 2014, we have been dedicated to developing the youth of our community and providing them with a platform wherein they can fully express and develop their creative voice. We believe that the youth of today have a vital leadership role in helping to bring resolution to the current issues of our city and nation. We also believe and are committed to ensuring that the youth that reside within our immediate community, which we define as our reasonable radius of reach, or the 8 mile radius form the epicenter of Ferguson; ensure that they have all of the necessary resources, infrastructure and experiences in their community and accessible to them.

BRIAN OWENS | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR