Randy Bernard is a freelance writer and editor who specializes in translating complex financial topics into terms that the average investor can understand. A former editor of Aspen Magazine" in Aspen, Colorado, he writes and edits the shareholder newsletter for a family of socially responsible mutual funds, writes and edits content for the fund family's Web site, and writes executive correspondence for the family's annual reports.

Eric Goldscheider has been a freelance reporter for three years writing for a variety of publications including The New York Times, The Boston Globe and the Philadelphia Inquirer. His specialties are education, politics, business and human-interest stories. Before freelancing, he was based in Nairobi, Kenya for three years as the academic director of a study abroad program. Eric holds a masters degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts and a BA from Friends World College where he spent his senior year traveling in Europe and writing about Green parties. He speaks German fluently.

Ned Hamson, senior editor of the Journal for Quality and Participation and co-author of After Atlantis: Working, Managing and Leading in Turbulent Times. Ned has worked with all of the leading thinkers and leader of the quality and teamwork worlds over the past 12 years. Well versed in the art of making things run well, Ned focuses much of his efforts on ways to build innovation and élan into the ongoing work of organizations.

Rosalind McLymont: Former managing editor of The Journal of Commerce, Rosalind McLymont handles research projects, writes and edits content for A - Z International Associates. She runs McLymont, Kunda & Co. with her husband, Fritz-Earle St. Elmo Mclymont -- former director of the Port Authority of New York's export consultancy. Together they manage the trade needs of a wide variety of prominent clients, handling everything from regulations to hands-on import/export of product such as coffee, sneakers and cigars. The company is now based in Jamaica with offices in Valley Cottage, N.Y.

Jayne Pearl, a business writer, editor and speaker, is author of Kids and Money: Giving Them the Savvy to Succeed Financially (Bloomberg Press, 1999), which was nominated for the Publishers Marketing Association's Benjamin Frankin best parenting book award. She began her career at Forbes magazine, enjoyed a stint as editor of a daily business news show on public radio, worked as editor of Tom ("In Search of Excellence") Peters' newsletter, and helped launch Family Business magazine. She is also a regular commentator on PRI's Marketplace Radio, a columnist for Mutual Funds magazine and family money expert at Oxygen.com.

Anthony Vlamis is the author of the recently released Business the YAHOO! Way (Capstone 2000) and has over 25 years experience in business, professional, technical, and reference book publishing at Simon & Shuster, Prentice-Hall, AMACOM Books, and Van Nostrand Reinhold. As co-founder of Alexander Publishing he edited and marketed the newsletter Secrets & Strategies for Office Professionals. As a packager and literary agent, he provides customized business and technology information products for clients in commerce, industry, and association environments. He is the author of Office Professionals’ Desk Reference (Macmillan) and Smart Leadership published by the American Management Association. He can be reached at intellagent@worldnet.att.net.

Jeanne Yocum is president of Tuscarora Communications, Ltd., a 15-year-old firm that provides public relations and ghostwriting services. She ghostwrites books, book proposals, articles, newsletters, speeches, and Web sites. Her newest book is New Product Launch: 10 Proven Strategies, co-authored with the head of a major Boston PR firm. Jeanne has developed and implemented public relations campaigns for clients in higher education, commercial and residential real estate, retailing, health care, financial and legal services, manufacturing, management consulting, and banking, among others. She also serves as a writing coach, helping people move their important writing projects forward.

    Technical Support

Seth Rothberg is the proprietor of /home/industries, a web design and computer consulting company. He designs, builds, and maintains web sites for the Emily Dickinson Homestead, the Mead Art Musuem at Amherst College, and the Jones Library. He teaches courses in HTML at the Western Massachusets Regional Library. Seth has been working with A-Z International Associates since 1997.

    Financial Advice/Support

Julia Shively manages A-Z International's accounting services. She is a freelance bookkeeper based in Leverett, Mass. who specializes in small business financial management. Julia also provides financial management services.

    Video/Streaming Web Production

Stewart Cheifet is president and CEO of SCP, Inc., a company involved in the creation, distribution and sale of technology related programming for television, video, radio, and the Internet. He is the producer of two weekly series for PBS – “Computer Chronicles” and “Internet Café.” These programs are also carried internationally by NBC and USIA. Stewart counts major Silicon Valley companies among his clients for corporate video work.

   Public Relations/Marketing/Design

Janice Beetle Scaife and Rachel Simpson of Beetle Press, a Northampton business that offers writing, editing, public relations, and graphic design services. It is run by Janice Beetle Scaife and Rachel Simpson Lindsey, both former journalists in the Pioneer Valley for many years.

Radwell Design + Communications, a Northampton-based business in operation since 1986, offers a variety of services from strategic planning and marketing consulting to the design and production of corporate identity, multimedia and print collateral materials. Laura Radwell, founder of the firm, has more than 20 years of experience serving diverse clients in industries which include plastic, metal, textile and apparel manufacturing, environmental engineering, healthcare, and education. Business consultants, non-profits, attorneys and staffing organizations have also employed the services of the firm.

Suzanne McGee is a public relations consultant with a solid background in media and analyst outreach, event and conference planning, and trade association member services. Her clients in the high tech, energy, wireless software and tourism industries have in appeared in publications such as Archaeology Magazine, Boston Globe, Boston Business Journal, Computer Graphics World, eCFO, eWeek, Field Force Automation and USA Today. McGee has planned, promoted and supported events and tradeshows in Boston, Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto, Canada. Recently, she publicized an Egyptian tourism event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the opening of the Massachusetts Golf Museum in Norton, MA.

Rob Nissen of Nissen Public Relations has been a publicist for the last ten years. He is the founder of Nissen Public Relations, L.L.C., a full-service book publicity company which specializes in all nonfiction categories with an emphasis on all areas of business, politics, and biography. He has worked at several major publishing houses including Times Books/Random House, Addison-Wesley, and John Wiley & Sons where he promoted numerous titles and authors such as Gordon Bethune, CEO of Continental Airlines, John C. Bogle, Founder of Vanguard, James Unruh, CEO of Unisys, and Marlin Fitzwater, former Press Secretary for President Reagan and President Bush.

Nancy Shulman is principal of Shulman Research and Sales which provides market research, marketing and sales assistance to businesses in multiple disciplines. Her clients include companies in software development, health care, technology organization, fitness equipment and Hidden Tech. Prior to operating Shulman Research and Sales, Nancy worked in the high tech industry in marketing and sales for Data General Corporation, Quantrex, Interface Group, Tally Systems and Wave Systems. Many of the clients she worked with and sold to included a number of Fortune 500 companies and government departments: Johnson & Johnson, REBI, FDIC, Department of Transportation, DOD, Honeywell, Nations Bank, Akamai, Digital Island, Fortune City. An experienced commercial real estate broker and real estate developer, Nancy developed a 275-acre parcel into a premier neighborhood in southern NH. In addition, she brought Applebees, Lindt Chocolates, Strawberries and other nationally known chains to southwestern NH. Nancy earned a BA from Brandeis University, an MBA from University of Massachusetts, and an MS in Internet Strategy Management from Marlboro College.

Jonathon Podolsky is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Summa Cum Laude.  He was a sales leader at MassLive, a regional news web portal for Western, Massachusetts.  He has started two non-profit organizations, is a member of the core group of the Community for Integrated Learning and Action.  Mr. Podolsky is the owner of Northampton Marketing, a marketing firm located in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Jeanne Yocum is president of Tuscarora Communications, Ltd., a 15-year-old firm that provides public relations and ghostwriting services. She ghostwrites books, book proposals, articles, newsletters, speeches, and Web sites. Her newest book is New Product Launch: 10 Proven Strategies, co-authored with the head of a major Boston PR firm. Jeanne has developed and implemented public relations campaigns for clients in higher education, commercial and residential real estate, retailing, health care, financial and legal services, manufacturing, management consulting, and banking, among others. She also serves as a writing coach, helping people move their important writing projects forward.  

   Fundraising and Development

Polly Pruneau, a seasoned development professional with more than 15 years experience in non-profit, corporate and academic venues, is the principal of Emerging Light Enterprises. She is a researcher and grants writer with successes on both regional and national levels. Polly creates collateral and strategizes for capital campaigns, planned giving, annual fund and major gifts, and develops and implements stewardship programs. She helped position a major community foundation to be more effective. Polly has additional experience in video, running special events, public relations, community relations, health care educational program development, and marketing collateral including direct mail and business-to-business. She has extensive journalism experience writing for a daily newspaper and being editor of a corporate newsletter which she transitioned to the Web.

Lewis C. Rudolph is a visionary business strategist and community building practitioner with United Ways and other non- profit organizations in the United States. Mr. Rudolph has a keen interest in exploring the dynamic intersection of building social capital and promoting economic development with emerging entrepreneurial networks and Internet-based affinity groups such as the Hidden Tech organization headquartered in western Massachusetts.

He served as CEO of three United Ways in  Maine, Minnesota, and Massachusetts, and senior planner in United Way Community Services in Metropolitan Detroit. Mr. Rudolph was vice president of community building at United Way of America (UWA) in Alexandria, VA, where he developed a two-year, community-building fellowship program for top leaders of 22 of the largest United Ways at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. At UWA, Mr. Rudolph led his team to develop Compass 2.0, a community assessment manual that fuses the use of geographic mapping indicators of with capacity-building approaches. Earlier in his career,  Mr. Rudolph put his community organizing and group facilitation skills to the test in the aftermath of the Detroit Riots, working with the late Fr. William Cunningham and Eleanor Josaitis at Focus:HOPE, the nation's largest civil rights organization. One of his school community projects was recognized by President Jimmy Carter as a model of multicultural conflict resolution, reminiscent of the Camp David Accords.