Ken Bradstock has been a U.S. Marine, a deputy sheriff, and for many years, a hospice counselor. He is also the Clerk of Fancy Gap Friends meeting in Ararat, Virginia.
Alice Carlton is a writer and a member of Chapel Hill Friends Meeting in North Carolina. She has worked for many years as an Imago relationship therapist.
Jennifer Elam attends Swarthmore PA Friends Meeting where she is active on Worship and Ministry and especially enjoys her role in planning forums. ྭShe is retired now but served as a School Psychologist for over 30 years and spent the last 13 years in early intervention with preschoolers. ྭPresently she is spending time caring for her aging parents. Jennifer has written a Pendle Hill pamphlet called “Dancing with God,” then followed it with a book,ྭDancing with God through the Storm: Mysticism and Mental Illness. Jennifer leads many retreats in Arts & Spirituality and is working on a book related to that topic. She considers writing to be her deepest calling.
Chuck Fager is Editor of Quaker Theology. His most recent book is Some Quaker FAQs.
Mitchell Santine Gould earned masters degrees in physics and anatomy before it became quite clear he was not cut out to be a scientist, and was spending too much time in the Victorian era. His love for Dan Sumner years later focused those interests on Whitman’s poetry, with an intensity that deepened into an Opening, when Dan died in 1992. Mitch had encountered the longstanding problem of Whitman’s flirtations with Quakerism, which he eventually named “Walt Whitman’s Quaker Paradox.” During his Opening, he discovered his own native affinity with Friends, eventually serving on committees with Atlanta and Multnomah Meetings. He has contributed book reviews to Friends Journal. He has recently begun a book on Whitman, and makes a home in Portland, Oregon for his golden retriever Tor. He is also the proprietor of a bed and breakfast called PDXWheelhouse. His Sailor-Lover-Quaker model of Whitman’s life and testimonies can be found online at LeavesOfGrass.Org.
Phil Gulley is pastor at Fairfield Friends Meeting near Indianapolis. His most recent books are A Place Called Hope, and A Lesson In Hope, novels in his ongoing series about Sam Gardner, pastor of Hope Friends Meeting in some fictional place called Indiana.
Rebecca Kratz Mays is Director of the Dialogue Institute at Temple University in Philadelphia. Her essay is adapted from a presentation at the Interfaith & Quaker Studies session of the American Academy of Religion, November 2015.
Ted Taylor is Editor of Eugene (Oregon) Weekly. He describes himself as a “lapsed Quaker,” who is reconsidering his status after the experience recounted in his article about Peg Morton.
Dina Wills has been a Friend for thirty-one years, and for nine years has been a member of the Eugene Friends Meeting. She believes that Friends’ approach to living and to dying keeps her grounded, in a society that offers many challenges.