2010 Presenter Bios

program schedule | full descriptions | keynote | performance! | presenter bios

Adrienne Hill left Portland, Oregon for a small town in Ohio three years ago in order to become obscenely overeducated.  When she's not drowning in books, she enjoys hanging out with her small cadre of queer fat friends and placing fat-positive bookmarks in the diet books at the local fundamentalist-owned bookstore.

Alicia Wilson is a multiracial fat femme fashionista and former Canadian smut peddler who is dedicated to making the world a sexier place. She is currently looking for the work in womens’, trans’, and LGBT health care and advocacy. Right now Alicia is baking cookies and making a mess in San Francisco. If you’d like to hire and/or bake cookies with Alicia, write her at ajw5@sfu.ca.

alysia angel is a high femme living out of suitcases, visiting your town, loving your queers. she is a poet, working on four or five great masterpieces at a time or nothing at all. alysia is grown up punk and a keen thrifter who believes all of the vintage clothes in her closet should be neatly placed in roy g biv order.

Amanda Piasecki has been teaching medical-self advocacy to body outlaws for ten years. She's been alive, kicking, and executing crazy healthcare hijinx since age 18, when she was diagnosed with rare cancer.

Andie Lyons is the author of the "Already Too Much; Never Enough" zine series, examining body politics, relationships and food politics. Andie is also a pseudo-academic (finishing her masters degree in theology in June 2010), a somewhat closeted bel canto singer, and a self styled revolutionary pedagogue.

'becca w. is a former NOLOSE board member, independent voter and organizer, civil servant, data geek, and zaftig queer postmodern Marxist radical welfare advocate. And people say she's got a great laugh.

Bevin Branlandingham is the Host and Producer of FemmeCast: The Queer Fat Femme Podcast Guide to Life. She is a flamboyant femmecee, writer, drag king, burlesque and comedy performer. She is Co-Head Madam of the Femme Family, the New York Chapter of the Femme Mafia, on the steering committee for the Fat and Queer conference and the media committee for the Femme Conference. In 2008 Bevin received a Commendation from the Mayor of Jersey City for her work with the LGBT community. Her writing has been published in numerous periodicals and she has performed throughout North America. Her mission is to make the world a safe place for people to love themselves, regardless of their marginalizations. Her website (including blog, calendar of events and workshops) is found at QueerFatFemme.Com.

Bianca D.M. Wilson, Ph.D., is a community psychologist currently working as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at California State University , Long Beach . Prior to this post, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California , San Francisco Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Lesbian Health and Research Center. Her research focuses on the relationships between culture, oppression, and sexual health among African American same-gender loving people.

Charlotte 'The Beefer' Cooper is based in London, UK, and is currently a Government of Ireland Ph.D scholar at the University of Limerick, courtesy of the Irish Social Sciences Platform, where she's writing a thesis about fat activism. Charlotte started out as a zine-maker and she continues to publish and be active in various punk and third wave feminist DIY-culture projects, on- and offline. She published Fat and Proud: The Politics of Size (1998) and a novel, Cherry (2002), which was busted for obscenity by Canada Customs and was voted Best Book in Diva's Lesbian Excellence Awards. Charlotte has worked as a journalist, her writing has been published in many other magazines, zines and anthologies, and now she's invading academic life. Charlotte has her own gang, The Chubsters, she lectures and facilitates workshops around fat stuff and is a trained psychotherapist. She is not at all straight. She makes miniscule films and blogs about fat activism and Fat Studies at www.obesitytimebomb.blogspot.com.

Chelsey Lichtman is the co-founder of the Toronto based fat activist and performance duo Fat Femme Mafia, now called Big Appetite!

Dana Rosenberg is a queer Jewish femme health teacher, who has been promoting healthy at every size, feminism and positive sexuality to youth  for the last fifteen years in the Bay Area. She is currently a school counselor, administrator, and health educator at a small K-8 independent school. Additionally she is the hip mama of a sassy-pants eight and a half year old boy, who keeps her busy, and laughing.

Deb Burgard, PhD: Deb is a clinical psychologist, creator of the BodyPositive.com and ShowMeTheData websites, coauthor of Great Shape: The First fitness Guide for Large Women, and columnist for the Health at Every Size Journal. She does research on the ways that everyday people across the weight spectrum integrate sustainable, self-nurturing practices into their lives.

Eileen is a fat Dianic witch who has an embodied relationship with Goddess. She loves to write poetry, dance, and create to express her spirituality. Her personal Goddess usually shows up as a crabby old woman with a size 10 boot ready to kick some ass.

Elana Dykewomon, a cultural worker and social justice activist since the 1970s, is the 2009 Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist award winner. Her 7th book, Risk (Bywater Books), is nominated for a  2010 Lammy for Lesbian Fiction. She gave the keynote speech at the first NOLOSE Conference. Check her out: www.dykewomon.org.

Galadriel Mozee is a writer, community educator, radical gardener, rain water collector, seamstress and is getting ready to buy the farm, literally, in a yet to be decided quaint country town with her sweetie Lisa and super dog jack. She is the founder of We Make the Path Consulting which offers Compassionate and progressive training, mentoring and support for businesses and nonprofits who strive to incorporate their beliefs into their practices, walk their talk and make their own path. She is currently developing an anti-bullying training for Portland area schools which she hopes to distribute nationally. She has worked within food justice movements for many years including most recently working for two and a half years with Sisters Of The Road, a nonprofit café working to end poverty and hunger through alternative monetary systems and the teachings of Nonviolence.

Geleni is a fat, queer, Latina/o transperson doing healing and activist work in Brooklyn, New York. Geleni is a past and current board member of NOLOSE.

Genne Murphy is a Philadelphia native, playwright, and arts educator. She is the co-founder, along with Kelli Dunham, of Queer Memoir, a NYC based salon for new work inspired by a monthly theme (QueerMemoir.com). She’s passionate about the intersection of the arts, social change, and community-building. Genne works for a Philadelphia-based arts education non-profit, and is involved with initiatives to expand new play development in her hometown.

Gina de Vries is a queer fat femme Paisan pervert, and a writer, performer, and activist with a long history doing political organizing in queer, trans, and sex worker communities. Gina's writing has appeared dozens of places, from the academic to the pornographic. She’s currently pursuing her MFA in Fiction Writing at San Francisco State University. Find out more at queershoulder.tumblr.com.

Hannah Martine is a middle-aged fat dyke of Appalachian extraction. Being her mother's only daughter awoke a lifelong passion in her for bigger, better lives for all girls and all women. She's been politically active in progressive causes since high school.  She loves words, music, textiles, and delicious sustainably grown food. By trade, she is a financial consultant who specializes in Socially Responsible Investing.

Jeanette Beal is an unrepentantly fat, blind, first-generation American, poor, hyper-educated, queer cyborg and not unpleased about it. Ze is co-editor and a contributor to Breath & Shadow, an online disability publication and has appeared on wordgathering and Fatshionista.

Jeanne Courtney, MFT, has a psychotherapy practice in San Francisco and the East Bay, specializing in codependency, depression, anxiety, and transitions, as well as body image from a HAES perspective.  She has been providing individual and couples therapy for over 20 years, primarily for women and the queer community. More information at www.FeministTherapyAssociates.com.

Jeanne Mayer Freebody is a Bay Area fat dyke who has been meditating and studying the Dharma since 1994. She's delighted to present this workshop with her pal, Max and looks forward to all our fat bellies rising and falling together.

Jen Cross is a queer femme incest survivor who's also a writer, a workshop facilitator and a performer. She believes in consensual, embodied lust at every size -- learn more at www.writingourselveswhole.org

Jessica Judd is co-Artistic Director of the Phat Fly Girls, Big Moves Bay Area's resident dance company for the curvaceous and confident, and is the former director of Big Moves Bay Area.  A long-time dancer, free-range fat-activist, and mother of two, she is well acquainted with fat panic.  She loves helping people find new ways to move, stretch, and generally be flabulous.

Joe is a queer, fat, white, Canadian transguy living in paradise in California. When not molding young minds in the classroom, he can be found walking dogs, playing basketball or shooting pool. Joe is also a NOLOSE board member.

Jonah Cohen is a zoftig queer femme. She is working on her MSW (Masters in Social Work) at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice. Jonah works at Belmont Center for Comprehensive Treatment and conducts psychotherapy and art groups for people with disordered eating and mood patterns.

Jukie Sunshine is a size-positive activist and performer who wants to charm the pants off of you. 

Kathleen LeBesco is Professor of Communication Arts and Distinguished Chair at Marymount Manhattan College.  She is author of Revolting Bodies?  The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity and co-editor of Bodies Out of Bounds:  Fatness and Transgression.

Kathryn Seabron: Always a crowd favorite, Kathryn Seabron aka Juicy D. Light has a B.A in Theatre Arts. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Rubenesque Burlesque featuring The Bodacious Bawdies, an ethnically diverse large size troupe with a focus on utilizing dance to range from joyful expression to activist acts.  Juicy danced with Heather MacAllister aka Reva Lucian in her groundbreaking troupe Big Burlesque; without her Juicy D. Light would not exist. Juicy's troupe is a mainstay with The Hubba Hubba revue and has danced in San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, and New York City.

Kay Hyatt, also known as Butch Husky from the Chubsters, is a fat activist from London, UK. She has collaborated on various activist events, zines and other creative projects, and will produce the Big Bum Jumble in London, Summer 2010. She has very neat handwriting and draws a good diagram.

Kelli Dunham (www.kellidunham.com) is an ex-nun, an award-winning stand up comic and the author of four books, How to Survive and Maybe Even Love Nursing School (FA Davis, 2004), How to Survive and Maybe Even Love Your Life as a Nurse (FA Davis, 2005) and The Boy’s Body Book: Everything You Need to Know for Growing Up YOU (Applesauce Press, 2007) and the Girl’s Body Book: Everything You Need to Know for Growing Up YOU (Applesauce Press, 2008) She is a contributor to numerous humorous anthologies including Love’s Funny That Way (Sterling Press, 2006), Squeaky Clean Comedy (Andrew McNeil Press, 2005), She’s So Funny (Andrew McNeil Press, 2004), Dangerous Families (Haworth Press, 2004), and Life’s a Stitch (Random House, 2002). Back in the day Kelli was a long time writer for Philadelphia’s Au Courant, and won two Vice Versa Awards for her humor column “Trippin’ Out” She has appeared on Penn & Teller’s Bullshit and the Discovery Channel.

Laurie is a college Professor at the Community College of Denver and Aurora and a Theatre Artist.  Her Performance background includes Burlesque, creating original theatre pieces, and a vast variety of experimental theatre work.

Leah H. is queer, fat, white and femme. She is a Unitarian Universalist minister who’s from a multi-religious (Jewish and UU) family.

Leah Strock is a Family Nurse Practitioner. She has been working in the field of HIV for 20 years. Her Masters thesis was done on the experiences of fat people seeking health care. She has been advocating for fat people in the health care system both personally and professionally since nursing school. She conducted a size sensitivity workshop for Health Care Professionals at a large health care center in New York (which she describes as the scariest experience in her life). Leah has never missed a NOLOSE conference and is a past board member.

Linda Bacon: Linda Bacon, PhD, is a nutrition professor and researcher and author of Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight.

Marilyn Wann has been a fat civil rights activist since the mid-90s. She has published a 'zine called FAT!SO?, a book of the same name, and recently got to write the intro for the Fat Studies Reader. Marilyn is proud to be a fulltime, free-range fat rebel.

Matilda St. John is a psychotherapist who has co-authored several pieces about the intersection of fat and popular culture. Her work has appeared in Bitch, the Health at Every Size Journal, and The Fat Studies Reader. She still lacks the intestinal fortitude to watch The Biggest Loser: Family Edition.

Max Airborne has been meditating for 3 years, and is excited to do it with other queer fatties.

Miasia is a formally trained, professional Middle Eastern Belly Dancer who has performed all over the US from DC to SF, as well as Canada, Turkey and Egypt. Miasia's goal as a teacher and performer is to continue opening the doorway of dance to include all bodies, sizes and abilities. Miasia has been black and fat all her life. She, however, didn't know it until she was 10. She has had 33 years of experience being a fat person of color, but only 23 being a conscious fat person of color. She's excited to explore that consciousness at NOLOSE.

Miss Kelli Jean Drinkwater is a Filmmaker, Plus sized model, Femmcee, Performer, Artist, Activist and Beauty Queen whose life and work is dressing up and showing off.  She is a founder of  the Fat Femme Front and Aquaporko! the Fat Femme Synchronized Swim Team. She currently lives in Sydney, Australia, where she is in production on a feature documentary "Fierce Fat Femmes" on the international body positivity movement. Everything she wears is at least three sizes to small and she wouldnt have it any other way.

Naima Lowe is a Fat, Queer, African-American artist and scholar currently living in Philadelphia, PA. Her creative work includes films, videos and performances that deal with collective memory, hidden histories, identity formation and love. She's been coming to NOLOSE since 2005 and loves the community with all her heart.

Nancy Thomas is a fat lesbian thespian and one of the founders of FAT LIP Reader's Theater.  She has been a non dieting fat woman since 1976 and is a fan of health at every size.  She was involved as a founder, writer and performer in FAT LIP from 1981 through 1993.

Natalie Boero is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at San Jose State University. She received her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 2006. Her first book, Fat Panic: Media, Medicine and Morals in the American Obesity Epidemic is forthcoming from Rutgers University Press and she is also a contributor to The Fat Studies Reader and a former member of the Padded Lilies. She is currently co-authoring a book on the creation of community on pro-anorexia websites with Dr. C.J. Pascoe. In her spare time she is the mom of three-year-old twins!

Nomy Lamm is a San Francisco-based writer, performer and musician. She first "came out" as a fat activist at age 17 when she wrote the ground-breaking zine "i'm so fucking beautiful," and her essay "It's a Big Fat Revolution," published in 1995 in Listen Up: Voices of the Next Feminist Generation, is now regularly used in Women's Studies classes. She has co-written a post-apocalyptic genderqueer rock opera ("The Transfused"), released two solo albums ("Anthem" and "Effigy") and toured with Sister Spit and The Sex Workers Art Show. She currently writes an advice column for Make/Shift magazine (makeshiftmag.com), performs with Sins Invalid (sinsinvalid.org), and is working on her first novel, The Best Part Comes After the End, as a grad student at SF State.

Sarah Doherty is a gigantic feminist/disability/critical race/trans/queer theory and praxis nerd, a once and (hopefully) future professional dyke, a lover of rainbows and glitter and pickles and chocolate, a bookworm and a crafty crafter, a community organizer in the making and a die-hard Julie Andrews fan. She's almost finished with her MSW in community work. Almost.

Sasha T. Goldberg is a nice Jewish Butch, and Jessica L. Giusti is a nice Italian Femme. STG is a Jewish scholar, educator, and community organizer who lives in Oakland and works as the Associate Director of Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture and Spirituality; JLG is a fifth-year Feminist Studies Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota focusing on the intersections of queer studies and fat studies, new media, and performance. When not engaging in highbrow theory or organizing for the Butch Voices and Femme Collective conferences, both enjoy old episodes of Roseanne, mid-century design, and Bruce Springsteen.

Sondra Solovay, Esther Rothblum, Deb Burgard, Elana Dykewomon, and Elena Escalera are authors of the Fat Studies Reader.

Stefanie is a feminist fat dyke and art historian. As a grad student, she hasn't had much time to make cool crafty stuff. The time to change that is now.

Susan Ericsson, Assistant Professor of Media at Concordia University Chicago, is a documentarian who examines the depiction of social justice in documentary films.

Tara Shuai is a biracial hapa high femme New Yorker by way of DC and Richmond, VA. She is a lover of fatshion, social justice, blogging, and living the bon vivant life on a dime. Tara has talking and blogging about fashion, race, and identity (among other things) for over 9 years.

Taylor is a fat, queer identified ftm and a recent transplant to oakland, ca. He is a professional sex educator with babeland and is passionate about creating a more sex positive world for all bodies.

Tiny and Petunia (a.k.a. Amanda and Devra) are demented US West Coast freaks who believe in fat queer solidarity, and in our spastic version of Solid Gold dancing as a minor revolutionary vehicle.

Zoe Femmetastica is a late 30s fat femme Siciliana. Based in Brooklyn, she is PhD candidate in sociology and holds a Master''s in disability studies. Her doctoral work explores late 20th century discourse around the "obesity epidemic." She is a board member of NOLOSE.