Managing Director Hanne Weedon comes to TLAN with 20 years of leadership and program development experience in not-for-profit and government-funded organizations. A longtime community, arts and social justice advocate, her work with the TLA Network brings together her passion for community organizing, and using the arts as a vehicle for social transformation. Hanne's appreciation for, understanding of and dedication to building representative, inclusive and diverse communities is a core aspect in all her work.

Board of Directors

TLA Network is governed by a board of directors, the membership of which is arrived upon semi-annually. As a board, we come together as equals, all drawing on our gifts and working with our challenges cooperatively to forward the mission of the Network. The board convenes by video conference regularly and in person at the annual meeting.

Board Members & Committee Chairs for 2021-2022 are Liz Burke (chair), Jade Eby (conference chair), Wendy Thompson & Joanna Tebbs Young (certification & education committees), Brenda Magnetti (membership),  Beth Turner, Jenn Minotti, and Lesley Dobis (treasurer), with ex-officio member Hanne Weedon. 

Elizabeth Burke is a poet, interdisciplinary educator, and writing coach passionate about narrative and arts-based approaches to personal and social transformation. She works with adult students, working-class identified groups, university faculty, LGBTQIA+ communities, women living with the aftermath of sexual assault and harassment, feminist activists, and poets/writers of all kinds. She serves as TLAN's Board Chair.

Lesley Dobis: Writing stories about my dad lead me to my current work as a financial educator and coach.  Being a massage therapist for the last 20 years taught me the importance of money management to survive in any entrepreneurial profession.  In my spare time, I blog, share stories, and raise chickens on my Fabulous Farmette in northern New York state. Lesley works with us on finances and budgeting.

Jade Eby is certified Trauma Recovery Book Coach and published author who specializes inempowering trauma survivors to work on their recovery and stop the cycle of intergenerational trauma through the use of expressive arts. She runs an experimental workshop & community called Writing Fiction to Heal and loves being involved in organizations like TLA Network. 

Empathy.  It’s a powerful experience to understand someone else’s condition from their point of view Brenda Magnetti has built a strong industry reputation for being one of the best brand experience planning experts to amplify the role of empathy in changing buyer behavior. She spent her most recent years developing award winning digital marketing and commerce strategies for Beltone, Glanbia Sports Nutrition, Michelin, Wrigley, J&J, Unilever and Mondelez International. As a life-long learning advocate, Brenda just finished advanced marketing strategy, analytics and technology certification from Northwestern.  And she recently earned her Brain-Based Coaching credentials from the NeuroLeadership Institute on her path toward ICF certification and her consulting practice.  These additional expertise areas amplify Brenda’s commitment to the power of words and her focus on Right Livelihood in both corporate and non-profit settings. Brenda heads our membership campaign.

For the past 25 years, Jen Minotti has dedicated her professional life toward working for the betterment of society. Since 2015, Jen has been a Writer-in-Residence at Suffolk University's Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights in Boston, MA, where she has had the privilege of listening to thousands of women’s stories. For 17 years prior, Jen worked at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC)—a global non-profit working to improve education, health, and economic opportunities worldwide—in a variety of technology, research, writing, and leadership roles. Founder of the Women’s Writing Circle and the Journal of Expressive Writing, Jen also co-created The World's Very First Gratitude Parade and helped establish Gratitude Day in the City of Cambridge, MA. Jen's own writing can be found in numerous refereed journals and literary publications.

Wendy Thompson, MFA is an arts educator and freelance writer in the Pacific Northwest. A self-proclaimed ARTivist, she employs all the arts to facilitate transformation and healing. Her TLA workshops support a variety of communities including LGBTQ+, faith groups, folks in recovery, and children of immigrants facing deportation.In addition to the TLAN board of directors, she also serves on the TLA Education Committee

Beth Turner is an Emmy-award winning television journalist who loves words and the power they carry to encourage, empower and equip all of us. She is a professional expressive writing facilitator and healing storyteller who hosts workshops, retreats, conferences because she sees over and over the transformative power of words. Beth is an author, published poet, wife, and mom to three boys, an adorable mutt named Squirt, a rabbit named Esther, and a few wayward backyard chickens.  She is a TLA board member, a POW conference presenter, and an overall hands-in-the-air-fist-bump-sold-out believer in the transformative power of language! Beth works on our podcasts.

Joanna Tebbs Young MA, MFA is author of the award-winning biography of Vermont historian, Lilian Baker Carlisle, and has both a memoir and personal essay collection in the works. She holds a BA in History from Castleton University, and an MA in Transformative Language Arts and MFA in Creative Nonfiction, both from Goddard College. A writing coach since 2009 and trained through the Center for Journal Therapy, Joanna is also a facilitator for Vermont Humanities Council and teaches online for the Transformative Language Arts Network. Historical articles written during her time as columnist and feature writer for the Rutland Reader can be found here.