Charlotte, NC - Laurie Smithwick
Laurie Smithwick, one of the co-founders of Kirtsy, was a bona fide tomboy who didn’t voluntarily wear a skirt until she was in the 7th grade. Now she has lovely twin redhead daughters who wear nothing but skirts and dresses. That’s called irony. Laurie occasionally blogs at Upside Up (where there is no dress code), and in her free time she and her clever husband run LEAP Design, a can-do graphic design studio in North Carolina. She likes collecting good things, telling good stories, being amazed, and jumping into cold water without feeling it first. She does not like to brag. Nonetheless she is very proud of having been nominated for a Grammy award in 1998. She didn’t win, but she got to wear an awesome purple velvet dress that made her feel real girly.
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Denver, CO - Gabrielle Blair
Gabrielle Blair is a designer, mother of five, and founder of Kirtsy who also goes by Design Mom and keeps a popular blog by the same name. Design Mom was named a top parenting blog by The Wall Street Journal, Martha Stewart Living and Real Simple Magazine and Gabrielle’s name recently made the list of Nielsen’s 50 Power Moms. She loves really good ideas and pretty paper products, and spends a part of each day investigating, writing about, and giving away all things well-designed. Formerly an art director in New York, she continues to design for a variety of clients and do ridiculous amounts of laundry. She currently lives in Colorado with her super-cool husband, Ben and their super-cute kids: Ralph, Maude, Olive, Oscar, and Betty.
Denver, CO - Gwen Bell
Gwen Bell is, first and foremost, a teacher. She loves sharing what she has learned. In October, 2008 she was named one of the 50 most powerful women in social media, primarily because of her love of sharing what she knows with others. She started her career journey in Japan where she taught English to elementary school kids. Her combined love of teaching and living in Japan led to the formation of her first business, a yoga studio (now in its fourth year). She loves speaking about finding balance in life, online and off-, as she did on a panel at Blogher 2008. She loves sharing stories, which is why she fell in love with Kirtsy and the Kirtsy Chicks in July 2007. She’s a partner at Kirtsy with a lot of goals, the most important of which, to her, is sharing. Sharing stories, how-to, tips, and resources. If you have a question, please always feel free to ask (at a conference, on the site, on Twitter or Get Satisfaction). She’s here and ready to help you. She also loves hedgehogs. And can live out of a carry-on bag for a month (ask her how). She’s married to a very handsome software developer she met on Twitter, Joel Longtine.
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Houston, TX - Laura Mayes
Laura Mayes is yet another co-founder of Kirtsy. She is also a former VP at an ad agency, where she wrote for a variety of Fortune 500 companies and metaphoric rock stars. A lover of great finds, bargains, and design, she writes for a variety of new-fangled blogs, review sites, and publications including The Queso and Cool Mom Picks. In her 128 hours of weekly spare time, she enjoys hanging with her brilliant husband, chasing their energetic son around the house, and destroying food for dinner parties. She also really digs enchiladas and Elvis and would be extremely happy to talk to you at any given moment about the benefits of New York, British music, design magazines, and carbs.
Houston, TX - Monica Danna
Monica Danna is a Marketing & Public Relations Consultant who specializes in New Media strategies for businesses. Monica has spent much of her career in the Energy industry as a software marketing specialist, most recently serving as the Social Media Manager for Halliburton and its various subsidiaries. Focusing her consultancy, co.lab, on Social Media and Public Relations Strategies, Monica uses tools such as blogging, Facebook, and Twitter to add new media tactics to traditional marketing methods to acheive the optimal maketing mix for a client. She enjoys playing an active role in the Houston arts community and is a freelance writer for various print and online publications. You can find her blogging at www.cosmopolitician.net or Twittering away as @cosmopolitician.
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Little Rock, AR - Kyran Pittman
Kyran Pittman is an essayist and poet who accidentally started a blog and can’t put it out. Her online musings about family life, identity and culture have translated to a career in print: she is a Contributing Editor to Good Housekeeping magazine, and is currently writing a memoir, Ring of Fire, to be published by Riverhead (Penguin). She remains a passionate citizen of social media. You can find her online at www.notestoself.us or as kyranp on twitter. And also on Kirtsy, where she is the Mind, Body, Spirit editor.
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Salt Lake City - Liz Stanley
Born and raised a New Yorker, Liz met a Utahan in Manhattan and fell in love. After finishing her Master’s Degree at Columbia University, they spent three wonderful years in Hoboken, NJ while Liz was a school counselor at one of the country’s most prestigious high schools. Then ended up moving to Salt Lake City, Utah. They have a beautiful boy named Henry (aka Baby Hank) who they love to pieces. Liz blogs about beautiful things and creations at Say Yes to Hoboken, and sells vintage baby clothes on etsy at Baby Hank Vintage. In their free time, her outdoors enthusiast husband and Liz love to travel and backpack through the West’s mountains and deserts.
