My Mommy Is a Candidate

Larissa Martinez has close to two decades of experience working as a political strategist. Mari Martinez Zinser is a teaching artist specializing in program design. Together they’ve written My Mommy Is a Candidate, combining Larissa’s campaign knowledge and Mari’s experience teaching young children.

They wanted to write My Mommy Is a Candidate to help moms explain their candidacy to their kids. Campaigns can be confusing for little ones, so Mari and Larissa work to connect these new experiences to children’s’ development. They make connections between what makes a good candidate and the traits the kids themselves are developing, closing the gap between the adult world of campaigning and children’s daily lives.

My Mommy Is a Candidate showcases women as leaders and involves all members of the family in campaign life in a way kids can understand. Candidates, teachers, school board members, and more have offered praise for the book, which fills a longstanding gap for many families. Larisa and Mari plan on working through many more professions as their children’s book series takes shape.

For more information about Mari and Larissa or My Mommy Is a Candidate, visit https://www.lmpublishers.com/

The Giving Garden

Sandi Frost Steensma is the founder of Kennari Consulting, one of the largest full-service fundraising consulting firms in Michigan. Kennari Consulting is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year and currently serves around 100 organizations annually. Sandi has over 30 years of experience with public service and fundraising, and she works with clients in all stages of the fundraising cycle. Her clients benefit from her experience, and her new book, The Giving Garden, can put that knowledge in your hands, too.

The Giving Garden is Sandi’s first book, and she wanted to write something directed toward people who work with nonprofit organizations and other fundraising causes. The book focuses on practical fundraising practices that are simple to implement and quickly show a return on investment, guiding readers through the process of turning a first-time donor into a major giver. She uses the imagery of master gardeners cultivating specific flowers and the careful work put into giving them exactly what they need to grow.

Sandi believes that donors should be treated as unique individuals and her book offers insight into how fundraisers can actually approach them that way – something she doesn’t think is done often enough. This sort of personalized engagement can have incredible impact on the communities served. The Giving Garden will help fundraisers focus on relationship-based fundraising as they rediscover the joy of raising money for the organizations they love.

To learn more about The Giving Garden or Kennari Consulting, please visit kennariconsulting.com

Giving Collectively, Granting Strategically, Growing a Greater Greenville: The Story of Greenville Women Giving

Founded in 2006, Greenville Women Giving (GWG) is a philanthropic organization made up of over 500 people. They serve Greenville County in South Carolina and believe that women, when informed about philanthropy needs in their community, can make a real difference. Their mission is to work collectively to identify and fund nonprofit organizations in the areas of arts, education, environment, health, and human services.

GWG takes a holistic view of the community with an eye toward funding and accomplishing together what few people could do on their own. Women can become members by donating $1,200 per year for three years. $1,000 goes immediately into the current year’s fund, and $200 helps to defray their program and operational costs. GWG offers educational opportunities throughout the year so women can learn about community needs and opportunities and the organizations that are attempting to address them.

When looking for projects that have the potential for high impact and significant positive change in the community, GWG looks broadly through many different areas for grants. They want to strengthen the community through the arts, promote lifelong learning, improve the overall health and natural environment of the community, and address inequalities within the community. Over the years they have secured more than 120 grants to help them pursue these goals, and they passed $6 million in grants in 2019.

Giving Collectively, Granting Strategically, Growing a Greater Greenville: The Story of Greenville Women Giving looks at 15 years of growth and community service. To learn more about Greenville Women Giving, make a donation, or inquire about membership, visit https://www.greenvillewomengiving.org/

Teton Valley Ranch Camp

Teton Valley Ranch Camp (TVRC) was established in 1939 to provide unique, challenging, and fun western and backcountry experiences to campers. It is located on 2,300 acres of land, bordered on all sides by National Forest and other state and federal lands. When campers head out on the trails, they follow in the footsteps of cowboys and cowgirls who have worked the land for generations and have the chance to catch sight of deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, and moose.

TVRC offers five levels of programming from 11-year-old Yearlings to 16-year-old Trail Blazers, encouraging progressive attendance as campers’ skill advance. Campers can focus on specific areas of interest including backpacking, horseback riding, and fly fishing. Some of the camp’s core values include stewardship, lifelong friendship, and having both the strength to lead and the faith to follow.

The TVRC Education Foundation, formed 61 years after the camp was established, seeks to provide educational excellence in camp programming in an enriching western environment. They took over the Camp when the founding family was ready to pass it on, locating a new ranch and developing the land to serve campers for generations to come. The Camp offers two-week and four-week sessions and will welcome over 300 campers this summer.

TVRC continues to provide a journey of discovery for every camper, allowing a space for traditions, growth, and a chance to be connected to the self and the wilderness that they adventure in. To celebrate the Camp’s 80th anniversary, the TVRC Education Foundation published a book looking back on decades of Camp history.

To learn more about TVRC, please visit https://www.tvrcamp.org/

The 3 CEOs: The Three Most Important Roles Entrepreneurial Financial Advisors Play

Travis Chaney is the CEO of Dynamic Directions, an award-winning coaching and consulting team specializing in building better lives and practices for financial advisors. He has coached clients to places on the Barron’s Top 1,200 Financial Advisors list, the Barron’s Top 100 Female Advisor list, and Forbes list of Best-In-State Wealth Advisors. As a speaker, Travis has delivered presentations to companies like Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., Coldwell Banker, Woodmen of the World, Financial Planning Association, and Kentucky Wesleyan College.

The 3 CEOs: The Three Most Important Roles Entrepreneurial Financial Advisors Play is Travis’ second book. He challenges readers to assume the three essential roles of entrepreneurial leadership to take their businesses to new heights: Chief Executive Officer, Cultural Excellence Officer, and Client Experience Officer. The 3 CEOs model helps entrepreneurs build a framework of personal principles and beliefs, translate those beliefs into a company culture based on their values, and position their businesses to provide a client experience that can’t be matched.

Travis wrote The 3 CEOs not just to help people position their businesses for success, but also to help them become better spouses, parents, friends, and people. He stands by the argument that an extraordinary life is something we get by looking inward first. For many who have gone through this process, it's been the greatest adventure imaginable.

The 3 CEOS will be available May 13. To learn more about Travis Chaney, visit https://dynamicdirections-d2.com/team/travis-chaney/

Adventures with Divot and Swish in the Ozark Mountains: The Superpower of Confidence

Beth Brown, PhD, created her characters Divot and Swish to explore education and positive youth developments through sports. Divot, a golf ball, loves meeting new people. Swish, a basketball net, is a bit shy, but loves basketball and trying new sports. Together they travel the world, making new friends, exploring new cultures, and gaining new superpowers through playing sports.

For their first book, Divot and Swish adventure in Costa Rica and meet Sammy the Surfer. They’ve never gone surfing before, so they’re nervous as they follow Sammy’s lead. They learn to paddle, balance, and stand on the boards, but will Divot and Swish find the courage they need to surf with the fish?

In their second outing, Divot and Swish go to the Ozark Mountains for a week at a sports camp. They meet McKenna the Mountain Biker who invites them on an exciting biking adventure. Divot feels nervous about biking, and Swish is unsure of himself when he needs to speak out loud. Together they work to unlock the real-world superpower of confidence.

Beth has a PhD in sport psychology from the University of Kansas and a life-long love of sports, starting when she picked up a basketball when she was only 2. She’s not only an author but also a golf coach, an educational program developer, and founder of the coaching and consulting agency Team Aureus.

Divot and Swish go on adventures inspired by Beth’s real-life experiences with sports, friends, and cultures. The pair teaches kids about new physical activities while traveling around the world and making friends in places like Costa Rica, the Ozark Mountains, Hawaii, Switzerland, and Australia. Through these adventures they develop real-life superpowers like courage, confidence, resilience, teamwork, and loyalty – superpowers young readers can develop, too.

The pair takes kids on beautifully illustrated adventures into new worlds praised by parents, teachers, and kids. Beth is available for book reading adventures both virtual and in-person with customized art or physical activities for each classroom.

To learn more about Divot and Swish, visit https://adventureswithdivotandswish.com/

Camps Leelanau and Kohahna: Preserving and Promoting 100 Years of History, Tradition, and Healing

Just north of Glen Arbor, on Port Oneida Road, Camps Leelanau and Kohahna have greeted campers for over a century. Founded in 1921 as a healing response to an international pandemic, the camps have matured into rich summer experiences for young Christian Scientists and varied off-season programming, focused on outdoor education and personal development.

Since 1988, the Camps have been located on Pyramid Point, surrounded by the natural beaty of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. They have been thoroughly refurbished and modernized, but the beauty of the original Camps has also been preserved. While the Camps have expanded beyond one family’s vision of a better way to educate and raise young men and women of God, Camps Leelanau and Kohahna continue to uphold this mission in the twenty-first century.

Counselors at both Camps encourage campers to excel in familiar activities and try new ones, whether those take place on the trail, the lake, or the stage. Their goal is to bring out the most in their campers and to love, support, and challenge them along the way. Summer camp sessions range from 2 to 7 weeks, and other programming is offered throughout the year.

Camps Leelanau and Kohahna: Preserving and Promoting 100 Years of History, Tradition, and Healing follows the Camps from their genesis under siblings Skipper Beals and Maude Beals Turner, to their defining years, memories of the mid-twentieth century, changes and transitions during the turbulent 1960s, their move to their current home, and hopes for the future.

To learn more about Camps Leelanau and Kohahna, visit https://leelanau-kohahna.org/

Introduction to Health Care Facilities Management

The American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) is the largest association devoted to professionals who design, build, maintain, and operate hospitals and other health care facilities. Their over 12,500 members include health care facility managers, engineers, architects, designers, constructors, infection control specialists, and more. ASHE is a trusted resource for education, regulatory guidance, networking, advocacy representation, and professional development.

Their handbook, Introduction to Health Care Facilities Management, is just one of the resources they offer. This in-depth, 130+ page introductory book provides an orientation to the dynamic field of health care facilities management. It includes anecdotes and tips from seasoned health-care professionals chosen specifically to be valuable to newcomers, engaging to experienced managers, and thought-provoking to other health care professionals. This handbook is valuable to health care workers at every level of their careers.

The first in a series, Introduction to Health Care Facilities Management should be seen as a framework for managers to pass down alongside unique information about their individual facilities. It covers how health care facilities management differs from other facilities management and gives readers insights on how to succeed in their roles. The appendix even offers a guide for what to do in the first 30 days on the job.

To learn more about ASHE or to purchase Introduction to Health Care Facilities Management, please visit https://www.ashe.org/hcfmseries/introduction-handbook

FAMA – Fire Apparatus Manufacturers’ Association: 75 Years of Advancement

The Fire Apparatus Manufacturers’ Association (FAMA) is a non-profit trade association devoted to providing tools and information to promote fire apparatus safety. They work for the manufacture and sale of safe and efficient fire trucks, fire apparatus, and fire equipment. FAMA has its roots at the end of WWII when the wartime bans on manufacturing non-military vehicles came to an end. The fire industry was still using pre-war technology and quickly realized how many advancements had been, and could still be, made for fire safety.

FAMA began as a small group of manufacturers but has grown to include hundreds of representatives from over 125 member companies throughout North America. The association is devoted to effective open communication and works closely with national and international organizations toward their shared goal of safety. 1986 FAMA President Earl Everhart says “FAMA is probably the only business and manufacturing group in the world where 60 or more competitors can sit down and share knowledge for the improvement of products instead of cutting one another to shreds.”

This cooperation and the advancements that have come from FAMA are documented in FAMA’s 75th Anniversary History Book. FAMA reached out to every living past president and several prominent leaders to interview them for the book, leaving no known record unexamined. The book is a collaborative effort that frames a historical overview of FAMA from its origins to current times.

To learn more about FAMA or to order a copy of their 75th anniversary book, please visit https://www.fama.org/book-orders-intro-page/

Stronger Together: 150 Years of Physician and Patient Advocacy

The Los Angeles County Medical Association entered its 150^th year as cultural frustrations reached a boiling point in the country. This was the same year a global epidemic put the spotlight on widespread health iniquities that persisted in Los Angeles County, the state of California, and the nation. LACMA therefore approached its anniversary book through this lens, choosing to acknowledge its past and celebrate its progress.

Stronger Together: 150 Years of Physician and Patient Advocacy illustrates the commonalities, struggles, and achievements of LACMA and its physicians. It provides both context and contextual elements so that the wrongs of the past are not repeated, bridges are built, all viewpoints are shared and respected, and progress continues to be made.

The book covers many topics over the course of a century and a half of history, including the 1918 flu pandemic, racism in medicine, xenophobia, food insecurity, access to clean air, and the organization’s massive response to the COVID-19 pandemic. LACMA’s contribution to diversity includes the first African American female president, the first Asian American female president, and a strong focus on how diversity is embraced and celebrated.

Since 1871, LACMA has been at the forefront of medicine in LA County. It continues to resolve the healthcare challenges of today, as well as address the healthcare and healthcare delivery problems of tomorrow. LACMA continues to stand by its solemn duty to preserve and protect the noble pursuit of healthcare delivery for physicians.

To learn more about LACMA and preview the book, visit https://www.lacmainteractive.com/lacma150

The 21st Century Man: Advice From 50 Top Doctors and Men's Health Experts so You Can Feel Great, Look Good and Have Better Sex

Dr. Judson Brandeis, an award-winning urologist and sexual medicine expert, clinical researcher, physician educator, clinician, and surgeon, has gathered over 50 doctors and experts to create a guidebook for every mid-life man. What does a successful and healthy life look like? How can men maximize their health to live their best lives? What changes does a man need in his lifelong journey to continue to develop and maintain health, strength, and vigor as he ages?

The 21st Century Man addresses the answers to these questions in a comprehensive guide. It is divided into focused sections on men’s physical, emotional, mental, and sexual health. This includes topics such as preventative maintenance, food and exercise, looking good, mental health, relationship skills, sexual healing, and leaving a legacy. The variety of topics invites readers to approach the book as they would a world-class buffet, starting with the most appealing chapters but not neglecting something new. As men age, they will find more chapters relevant to their life’s journey.

Dr. Brandeis has been a urologist for almost 25 years and has seen thousands of men as patients. He has seen men in all stages of life and aging, and uses that experience to focus on helping men to feel better, look better, and have better physical intimacy. The 21st Century Man uses these three areas as pillars to address aging in men, drawing on experts to explore topics that men might have only heard about in passing; might be embarrassed to ask about; or might be worried about but not know how to address with their doctors.

To learn more about Dr. Brandeis and his book, visit https://brandeismd.com/about/ or www.thetwentyfirstcenturyman.com