Diverse advisory Council

Laurel Roe Morris is a native of New Hampshire, educated at Wells College, the University of North Carolina at

Chapel Hill, and UNCC. 

She retired as Director of the

Gaston County Public Library after devoting 35 years to public service. 

Laurel is very active in the Gastonia Rotary Club and currently serves as an Assistant Governor for Rotary District 7680. She is also a Board Member of the

Gaston Literacy Council and the Dream Center Academy, and she spent over 20 years as a Girl Scout volunteer. 

Her hobbies include travel, sewing, and reading, and she also enjoys assisting with local theater productions.

Stacey Flores is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Sociology. Flores holds a bachelor’s degree in English, a master’s degree in higher and postsecondary education, and a master’s in counseling. She has taught classes in sociology, college readiness, and family and cultural diversity classes. Stacey’s passion is to help guide individuals with their major life transitions and to provide them with the tools to be successful in their new roles.

Stacey loves learning and has continued to add to her toolkit. She has been trained in Classical Feng Shui and BaZi (Four Pillars of Destiny) and I-Ching Divination. Stacey studied with Master Jen Stone of the Raymond Lo School of Feng Shui and Destiny (Hong Kong).  

First-generation Filipino-American born and raised in the Bay Area, who loves to travel and learn something new every day.  After 15 years of working in the legal field, he took a sabbatical to discover what nourishes his soul in Spain.  

When he returned to the US, he began working as an administrator at tech companies that led down to path to Chief of Staff at Gooder Foods, Inc. a company whose values of making, being and doing "GOODER" align with his own. Together they inspire joy, celebrate uniqueness, and underscore community efforts to serve those in need.

 https://www.goodles.com/My LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardtfoster/
 

Robert enjoys connecting with people and the world around him. He is also passionate about service to others and believes in the law of reciprocity. Kellogg has a background in retail management, where he spent the first 25 years of his working career managing different retail establishments. 

Robert is currently employed with a local Healthcare company, where he

works to connect individuals experiencing homelessness to vital service, especially healthcare. He also has a long history of community building and engagement that includes advocacy within marginalized communities, mental health initiatives, affordable housing and economic opportunities for all.

Robert currently serves on the Gastonia City Council where he enjoys serving the community and being a voice of reason. Kellogg was elected to the city council in the fall of 2015 and is currently serving his third term

after being re-elected in November of 2021. Councilman Kellogg moved here from upstate NY over twenty years ago and is proud to call Gastonia his home.

Service ( in addition to Gastonia City Council )

• Chairman Central City Revitalization & Housing Committee

• Chairman Intergovernmental Relations & Economic Development Committee

• Member of the Arts, Transportation & Utilities Committees

• Gaston-Lincoln-Cleveland Metropolitan Planning Organization Board

Honors And Awards

• Retail Customer Excellence in Customer Service Awards

• Healthy Gaston VIP Award

• Co-Chair International Overdose Awareness Day Remembrance

• Appointed to NC Housing Finance Partnership Board

• Gaston County Intergovernmental & Interagency Task Force on Homelessness

• Gaston County Homelessness Prevention Committee

• Recognized by Governor Cooper and Attorney general Stein for work on the opioid crisis

• Gaston County COVID Task Force

• Kintegra Health Leadership Program

Grace Sahouria Redman is a Palestinian American Entrepreneur who has owned and managed one of the most successful staffing firms in the Bay Area the last 24 years. She is also a Success Coach, Motivational Speaker, Best Selling Author of Can I Live!? Dare to go From F*cked up to Fabulous. Grace works with woman to help them boost their confidence, achieve their goals, and increase their prosperity mindset. As a result, they create the fabulous life they have been dreaming of and inspire other woman to do the same!

On a personal level, she has faced many adversities and life challenges. These have helped her develop a keen sense of empathy and understand others’ pain. She is intuitive, and has an approachable personality, making it easy for clients to feel comfortable with their vulnerability. She believes in inspiring people to dig deep and push beyond mediocrity, and feels creativity is paramount to designing goals and plans tailored to each client. She is a visionary and has a wide range of methods in her toolkit to do this.

Website: www.daretoachieve.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grace.s.redman

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gracesredman/ 

I am a Pacific Islander American and the Founder of BAT Consulting LLC, a strategic advisory and consulting company that focuses on creating business plans, websites, supporting systems and training programs for organizations. I have a background in strategy, operations and business development with 15 years of leadership experience in the luxury appliance and construction industries. 

I have an MBA from Santa Clara University and lean into my relationship building, strategic planning and leadership skills to connect with others and articulate their vision throughout their organization.

I am a proud Dreamer! I started my career selling knock-off perfume out of a cardboard box, walking up and down the avenues of downtown San Mateo for hours every day. I soon landed a job as a receptionist and paved my way to the American Dream, getting an education, rising to executive leadership, buying a home and starting a blended family of my own.

As a minority woman in leadership, my goal is to open doors for other minorities to lead, and to help them navigate the cultural barriers that are both obvious, and not so obvious on their journey. I do this through seminars, workshops and

speaking engagements.

You can contact Brenda @ 

W W W . B A T C O N S U L T I N G . N E T

 Dr. Lisa Thompson is a Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Galactic Ambassador, and Intuitive Transformational Coach, specializing in Human Design and Past Life Regression. She supports and empowers women to intentionally design their best life by living from their yes, so they can embrace self-love, trust their intuition, and gracefully move forward through their fears to take inspired action to live a life they love. She is an Evolutionary Biologist who understands the embodiment of the ancient DNA within humans and guides them in the intergalactic realm.

Lisa is the best-selling author of “Connection to the Cosmos: Remembering Your Galactic Heritage and Embracing Your Oneness,” “Sacred Soul Love: Manifesting True Love and Happiness by Revealing and Healing Blockages and Limitations” and “Sacred Soul Spaces: Designing Your Personal Oasis.”

Lisa has a weekly podcast called Connection to the Cosmos with Dr. Lisa Thompson where she has out of this world conversations with extraordinary people. She has created eight Oracle Decks and designs intentional jewelry inspired by her passion of travel and nature. She loves teaching online classes and leads retreats in her home state of Hawaii. 

She also leads night sky watch UFO Tours on the Big Island of Hawaii. For more information, visit www.DrLisaJThompson.com.
 

 Song Bird Grand Mother is a Modern Day Medicine Woman and Shamanic Teacher. Born with an antenna tuned into the spiritual world and follows the ways of her ancestors who were Korean, Dine, and Toltec. 

Having the great privilege to study with great teachers and masters of her lineages, she is a bridge between East and West; Spirit and Material; ancient and modern. She facilitates private and group healing ceremonies to help alleviate suffering, find solutions to problems, cultivate kindness & compassion, clear negative forces, and gain more wisdom.

Her specialties include Ancestral Healing, Business Consultation, Relationship Counseling, Career growth, Psychic Mediumship, & Expansion.

Song Bird is also a scholar and has a BA in Psychology, and a Masters of Humanities in Ancient Philosophy and Religion.

With over 20 years in the healing arts, she has traveled the world sharing sacred messages and transformational healing.

songbirdgrandmother.com 

https://beacons.ai/songbirdgrandmother
 

Barbara is a British native and retired RN. She relocated to the USA in the early 1990s and lives in Amesbury, MA with her two adult sons.

She is a natural-born healer and channel to many ascended

masters, galactic energies, and dragons. Merlin has been her guide for almost 30 years after encountering him in the woodlands close to her home.

He fondly calls her “The Connector”.

Barbara encountered dragons for the first time in 2021, and since then has been affectionately known as “The East Coast Dragon Lady”, and more recently given the title Galactic Dragon Ambassador.

She is also a Mind Body Spirit practitioner and uses her reiki, polarity skills, and knowledge as a hands-on healer, and offers an array of services and has been featured on several podcasts and interviews, spreading the message of the Dragons and the New Golden Age.  She was a co-host and speaker at the first International Dragon Thunder Summit in July 2023.

East Coast Dragon Lady