r(E)volutionary Woman

Elizabeth Becker is an award-winning American author and journalist best known for her work in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Her singular coverage of Cambodia under Pol Pot is the basis of the French feature film “Rendezvous Avec Pol Pot” (Meeting With Pol Pot in English) that opened in Cannes and has received multiple awards.

She began reporting in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. Since then she has covered international affairs for five decades including as a New York Times correspondent, the Senior Foreign Editor at National Public Radio and Washington Post correspondent. She was part of the Times’ team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of 9/11. She won two DuPont Columbia awards for NPR coverage of the Rwanda genocide and South Africa’s first democratic election. She has reported from all continents, including posts in Phnom Penh and Paris.

She is the author of five books including YOU DON’T BELONG HERE: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War (2021) which tells the hidden story of women who covered the Vietnam War. A best seller, it has been praised as a masterwork. The book received Harvard’s Goldsmith Award, the Sperber book Prize and was named the military book of the year by Foreign Affairs.

Her 2013 book “OVERBOOKED: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism,” also a best seller was an Amazon book of the year and was hailed by Arthur Former as “required reading” about the future of global tourism.

In 2019 Conde Nast Traveler named Becker one of the people who has changed how the world travels because of her book and one of the most powerful women in the travel world for emphasizing a conservationist ethic in tourism.

She is the author of the now classic “WHEN THE WAR WAS OVER: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge, “ originally published in 1986, won a Robert F. Kennedy award. The movies “Rendezvous Avec Pol Pot” and “Bophana” by acclaimed Cambodian director Rithy Panh were based on this book.

In 2015 she testified as an expert witness at the international war crimes tribunal of the senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

She was a fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, holds a degree from the University of Washington and studied language at the Kendriya Hindi Sansthaan in Agra, India. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the board of the Oxfam America Advocacy Fund.

To learn more about Elizabeth Becker:
Website: https://elizabethbecker.com/
IG: ehb47
Author of:
YOU DON’T BELONG HERE: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War
OVERBOOKED: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism
WHEN THE WAR WAS OVER: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution

Karen describes herself as a ‘history hound.’ History has fascinated her since she was a child,
and she has always been obsessed with uncovering the truth hidden between the pages of history books. Behind every date and every significant event in history, there is a catalog of untold stories, and she’s always been passionate about digging them up and understanding the people behind the events. Themes of social justice, gender equality, and race equality infuse every aspect of her work.

As a woman, Karen is passionate about discovering and sharing the injustices faced by women
throughout history. She wants to empower women and girls to change the future and strive for
absolute parity between the sexes. Her work is dedicated to sharing lesser-told stories to show
the world that strong women have always been, and always will be, crucial to the future of the world.

Karen was born in Hong Kong but grew up in Hawaii. She was raised by a single mother whose
strength and resilience fed into her passion for uncovering the stories of strong women
throughout history. Karen loves reading and enjoys indulging in her book addiction. In addition
to writing or having her nose in a book, Karen is also a professional chef and nutritionist and is
continuing her education in Anthropology.

To learn more about Karen Wang Diggs:
IG @herstoryinhx
FB https://www.facebook.com/herstoryinhistorynow
TikTok: herstoryinhx5
Website and to order her book: https://www.herstoryinhistory.com/

Janet Collard is a dance performing artist, choreographer and movement director originally from the San Francisco Bay Area.

As a professional contemporary dancer, Janet has performed for many companies and choreographers including AXIS Dance Company, Nancy Karp and Dancers, Gerald Casel Dance and Katie Faulkner’s little seismic dance company.

As a choreographer, she has worked with Korsa Musical Theater Company, Shotgun Players,
Berkeley Playhouse, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Throckmorton Theater and others.

In 2018, she premiered her dance theater solo show Performing Valeska based on the life of avant-garde actor and dancer Valeska Gert. In 2019 she toured this production to different festivals across the country and was artist in residence at the University
of Rochester in New York.

She recently completed an MA in Dance Philosophy and History at Roehampton
University in London. While in the UK she presented her dissertation and performed a lecture on dance reconstruction and dance reenactment at the Theater, Dance and Performance Conference at the University of Leeds (remotely). She also participated in a living history performance at the Old Operating Theater in London.

She currently lives in Northern California and continues to create choreography and teach movement for artists as well as Pilates and Gyrotonic.

To learn more about Janet Collard:
Website: www.janetcollard.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f4CYHMGTlI

Simona Rinfreschi is a children’s picture book and fantasy author whose heart-led stories weave gentle magic with emotional truth. With a background as a librarian, early childhood educator, and ESL teacher, she draws on a rich tapestry of life experiences to create stories that help children and adults feel seen, safe, and unconditionally loved.
Born in Italy and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, Simona now lives in a sun-drenched town on Spain’s Costa Blanca. Her early years were shaped by adversity, and books became her refuge—a safe place that inspired her lifelong dream of becoming an author. After decades of living with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and mental health challenges, she began writing in earnest following a transformative move to Spain and significant changes to her lifestyle.
Simona writes under the imprint Solthira Press, a name that reflects her passion for unity, love, and quiet enchantment. Her debut picture book, Good Pixie, Bad Pixie, is scheduled for publication in mid-2025 and was inspired by the birth of her first grandchild. She also has a bedtime story and a new adult fantasy trilogy currently in the editing phase.
Her monthly newsletter, Letters from the Enchanted Hearth, invites readers into her creative world with reflections, behind-the-scenes musings, heart prompts, and moments of gentle connection.
Through her work, Simona hopes to challenge harmful labels, encourage kindness, and nurture emotional healing in readers of all ages. Her guiding mantra is:
“Be gentle with yourself and generous with your magic.”

To learn more about Simona Rinfreschi:
Website: simonarinfreschi.com
Instagram: @simonarinfreschi

Lola Akinmade Åkerström is an award-winning visual storyteller, international bestselling author, and travel entrepreneur. She has dispatched from over 80+ countries and her work has been featured in National Geographic, New York Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, BBC, CNN, Travel Channel, Travel + Leisure, Lonely Planet, Forbes, and many more. She has collaborated with commercial brands such as Dove, Getty Images, Mercedes Benz, Intrepid Travel, Electrolux, ASUS, and National Geographic Channel, to name a few.

As a storyteller, Lola was featured on Condé Nast Traveler’s Women Who Travel Power List. She was named one of the Most Influential Women in Travel by Travel Pulse, a 2022 Hasselblad Heroine and Bill Muster Travel Photographer of the Year. She was also honoured with a MIPAD 100 (Most Influential People of African Descent) Award within media and culture and a Newsweek Future of Travel Storytelling Award. 

Her book, Due North, received the Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Best Travel Book, and she is also the author of international bestselling “LAGOM: The Swedish Secret of Living Well” available in over 15 foreign language editions.  Her internationally-acclaimed novel, “In Every Mirror She’s Black”, was a Good Morning America (GMA) Buzz Pick, Apple Editors’ Pick, Amazon Editors’ Pick,  Independent UK “Best Thought-provoking Story”, and was shortlisted for the Bad Form Review Book of the Year. Her novel, EVERYTHING IS NOT ENOUGH, is an NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literature, Jennette McCurdy Book Club Pick, a Washington Post, Sunday Times, and Amazon Editors’ Pick, amongst others. Her latest novel, BITTER HONEY, was published in May 2025.

As an entrepreneur, she runs Stockholm-based creative storytelling agency Geotraveler Media and online academy, Geotraveler Media Academy, which runs photography experiences around the world and is dedicated to visual storytelling and helping the next generation of travel storytellers put the heart back into the craft.

To learn more about Lola Akinmade Akerström:

Links – Media Kit  |  Portfolio

Director, Geotraveler Media

Social – LinkedIn | Instagram

Dr. Rebecca Whittington is the Online safety editor for Reach Plc, the UK’s largest commercial news publisher. She was appointed to the role, which was the first of its kind established in the UK, to protect journalists from online harassment and harm. Rebecca also writes about online threats, campaigns for the online safety of women in journalism, and sits on the advisory committee for Women in Journalism and the employers subcommittee of the National Committee for the Safety of Journalists.

To learn more about Dr. Rebecca Whittington:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccalucywhittington/