Leadership

Michelle Rafter is a Portland, Oregon, ghostwriter and editor who helps CEOs, management consulting firms, and business and community leaders sharpen their perspectives and position themselves as subject matter experts. Rafter regularly collaborates with global, multi-author teams to craft fresh insights based on surveys, research, client work, and lived experiences. She works as a developmental editor, copyeditor, and book coach with business leaders, and has collaborated on multiple books on management, work, and HR. Rafter previously did content marketing strategy and editing work for such brands as AAA, American Express, and Great Place to Work. As an award-winning business and technology journalist, she covered the intersection of technology and work, business, and transportation topics for multiple national publications. Rafter is ASJA’s publications committee chair and represents ASJA on the committee for the Andy Awards, which recognize outstanding nonfiction book collaborations.

A former TV and radio reporter, Cari Shane has worked as a fulltime freelance journalist and content writer for nearly a decade. A Manhattan native, she lives carless (that’s carless, not careless) in the nation’s capital and writes for a wide variety of publications including AARP, Fast Company, Fodor’s, Scientific American and Smithsonian. She has previous board experience with multiple organizations and currently volunteers as an editor with Street Sense Media, a nonprofit that produces journalism to elevate the voices of those experiencing homelessness in DC. Cari  joined ASJA in 2017 and served as co-chair of Client Connections in 2022 and 2023; she will chair the event again in 2024. Cari is looking forward to helping ASJA “get back on strong footing so it can increase membership and continue providing great programming.”

A freelance journalist and content writer, Kim Kobersmith writes about philanthropy, arts + culture, and the outdoors, often from a rural or Appalachia perspective. Her work appears in the Bitter Southerner, National Parks Traveler, and the Daily Yonder. Kim joined ASJA as an associate member in 2022 and soon qualified as a professional member. As co-chair of ASJA’s Membership Engagement committee, she advocates for and act as a liaison to associate members.

Richard Eisenberg is a freelance writer and editor and co-host of the Friends Talk Money podcast. He is co-chair of ASJA’s Awards program and Client Connections program. He was formerly Managing Editor of Next Avenue and editor of the site’s Money & Policy and Work & Purpose channels and a writer there. He also freelances for Kiplinger, AARP, the Stanford Center on Longevity Magazine and People. He was formerly Executive Editor of Money, Front Page Finance Editor of Yahoo! and Money Editor/Special Projects Director at Good Housekeeping. He is author of How to Avoid a Midlife Financial Crisis and The Money Book of Personal Finance. He graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and lives in New Jersey.

Bannan is an experienced journalist, content writer, editor, moderator, and script writer. She covers a wide variety of topics including technology, health, personal finance, human resources, and marketing, among others. Her work has appeared in publications such as the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, Parents, Time, WebMD, and Marie Claire.

Robin Colucci is the owner of World Changing Books. The company works with top-tier experts and helps them from idea to and through publication. Steps include: identify a clear, salable concept for the client’s book; create a book proposal, and pitch it to top literary agents in Robin’s network, and assist with writing the book (either through coaching or working with a ghostwriter on her team.) Colucci also provides guidance and counsel as authors move through the publishing process. Her editorial role includes strategic book coaching, technical editing, book proposal preparation, and rarely, ghostwriting.

Merlisa Lawrence Corbett is a Central Florida-based independent journalist and author who writes about sports, home and garden, and real estate. She is the author of the book, Serena Williams: Tennis Champion, Sports Legend, and Cultural Heroine.

A former tennis columnist for Bleacher Report and reporter for Sports Illustrated, Lawrence Corbett wrote the foreword for Arthur Ashe Jr’s. A Hard Road To Glory: A History Of The African American Athlete: Track and Field. She covered sports for the Tampa Bay Times, Tampa Tribune, and Pittsburgh Press.

Her work has also appeared in The Guardian, Essence, AARP, Black Enterprise, HGTV.com, Apartment Therapy, Capitol File, TennisView, First and Pen, and AJC.com (Atlanta Journal-Constitution). www.merlisa.com

Charmaine Seitz is a writer, designer, and analyst who reported for almost 20 years in the Palestinian town of Ramallah, writing about the peak years of the Oslo negotiations process from 1993 – 2012. She has been published in the Economist, Janes intelligence Digest, The Nation, In These Times, MERIP, San Francisco Chronicle, and other publications. She was a founding editor for the acclaimed joint Israel and Palestinian web zine Bitterlemons and edited the journal Jerusalem Quarterly, published by the Institute for Palestine Studies. She also ran a breaking news service for the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center. She currently lives in Pennsylvania where she manages a communications consulting company, Seitz Communications, that serves the international humanitarian aid and development sector. Her company produces writing, editing, design, and grant proposals for non-profit organizations, focusing on gender equality, child rights, refugees and displacement, and conflict situations.

Lisa A. Crayton is the author of 20 books and co-author of seven others. Her credits include Only Light Can Do That: 60 Days of MLK – Devotions for Kids, a finalist in the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association’s 2025 Christian Book Awards. She also provides manuscript development services (including ghostwriting, collaborative writing, developmental editing, and sensitivity reading) to book publishers, independent authors, and other clients. An award-winning freelance article writer, Lisa writes for children and adults and has written a variety of material, including executive bios, articles, columns, features, and profiles for mainstream and Christian markets. From 2020 to 2025, she served as one of two regional advisors of the 600+-member Maryland/Delaware/West Virginia chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, an international nonprofit with over 20,000 members globally. The Co-Chair of the ASJA DEAI committee, Lisa earned her MFA in Creative Writing from National University and her dual BS in public relations and journalism from Utica College (now Utica University).