Ragen Chastain
Conference Chair

After a successful thirteen year career in operations and business organization consulting, Ragen Chastain is proud to be one of the owners of Cloud Nine Staffing. Cloud Nine is a local, women-owned, boutique staffing agency in Austin, TX with a practice limited exclusively to office personnel (customer service, call center, administrative assistants, bookkeepers, accountants). They provide a broad spectrum of services including direct hire, temp, temp to hire, and long-term employee leasing. You can find them at www.CloudNineStaffing.com.

Not wanting to leave those who need organization help in the lurch, Ragen has published her first book, "The Renegade Organizer's Easy Guide to Paper Management", which can be found at www.RenegadeOrganizer.com. She continues to publish and speak on the topic of organization as well as taking on select consulting clients.

Michelle Burns, BSN, RMT, MTI

Michelle Burns, is the founder of Advanced Holistic Healing Arts. Michelle has been in the medical and healing profession for over 30 years, with degrees from University of Maryland and Everglades University. She has taught many different subjects for nurses and massage therapists, as well as the public. Michelle’s practice currently centers on medical massage, teaching and health/wellness consulting and coaching.

Michelle founded Advanced Holistic Healing Arts to fulfill a need to bring holistic healers together in community, to enhance knowledge and provide experience in order to promote the well-being of ourselves and others.

Michelle supports the empowerment of women to find their voices and has worked with many teachers to develop tools to support this. In addition to leading women’s groups and teaching classes, she is active in developing new ways of supporting the women of the community.

Niki Doering, RMT

A business owner & entrepreneur for over 25 years, Niki’s long time passion has been in the PR field. Since her education is primarily in Holistic Health, the authors, leaders & events she has promoted & organized for tend to focus on those who offer support to increase well-being. Some of the people Niki has worked with include Brian Tracy, Dr. David Simon of the Chopra Center, Reinhard Flatischler with the TaKeTiNa Institute and best-selling author, Melody Beattie. Her most recent success was helping to promote the Wudang Monks from China for a weeklong series of workshops & performances in Austin this past summer.

When Niki is not involved in PR, she offers professional organizing assistance that is customized & tailored to meet each client’s needs. Her goal is to boost personal productivity and maximize efficiency. Numerous years of experience underlie her desire for bringing order and harmony so that knowledge and life can be experienced with grace and ease.

Sherry Scott , MLA

A lifelong commitment to learning has led Sherry to find new ways to share her knowledge through her organization Resource Connection. She produces events and training on a wide range of topics embracing personal growth, rhythm and sound, and self-knowledge. Sherry helps others learn and integrate experience by introducing them to whole body learning processes. Providing innovative ways for people to internalize challenging topics is her goal.

Sherry's studies have led her to a wide range of experiences including:

• becoming a licensed presenter of Drumming Away Stress® with Stress Solutions owned by Robert Lawrence Friedman, author of The Healing Power of the Drum
• training as a presenter of Createams(TM) with Anne Durrum Robinson
• learning team facilitation with Corder - Thompson & Associates
• learning drum circle facilitation with Paulo Mattioli
• creating two video works -
  • Numinous , an experiential look into a rhythm induced trance state
  • Journey Into Rhythm , a documentary on spiritual and healing practices using rhythm which has been presented at various symposiums and conferences
• studying sound healing with Ubaka Hill and Susan Lincoln