Barbara Adler, M.A., works in private practice as a healer, facilitating a return to wholeness on physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels. Training for this has included a M.A. in Counseling Psychology (Lesley University), programs in Integrated Kabbalistic Healing (A Society of Souls) and Energy Healing (Barbara Brennan School of Healing), and certification as a Qigong instructor (Energy Arts). She also has served in leadership positions in non-profit organizations, especially in the arts, and initially used her educational background in finance as a portfolio analyst for Merrill Lynch. Later she combined her business experience with interests in cooking and crafts through a mail order business pairing specialty foods and handcrafted objects.   

Melinda Franceschini, D.V.M., Ph.D., is a veterinarian, conservation biologist, Asian bodywork therapist (dipl. NCCAOM) and internal arts instructor. She recently completed a Ph.D. in biology at Tufts University with a dissertation on stress, wildlife health and conservation. Melinda has worked for and with many non-profit organizations over the years as a community and environmental activist, educator, fundraiser, teacher, wildlife veterinarian, scientist and researcher. She has studied eastern spiritual, energetic and healing practices and holds several instructor certifications in Qigong and Tai Chi. She is a licensed and practicing massage therapist with a focus on acupressure shiatsu and Qigong tui na. She teaches weekly Qigong and other internal arts classes at Brookline Tai Chi, where she also serves on the board of directors, and she played a primary role in the organization’s recent transition from a for-profit, single-owner business to a community-based, non-profit organization, Water Way Arts. She combines her background in science, medicine, activism, healing and energy practices, with a deep connection to Spirit and love of nature. 

Edith Griffin is a certified reiki master with a longstanding interest in human spirituality, the natural world, and the healing power of cosmic love. Her other interests include foreign travel, cultural diversity and languages, writing, art and handcrafts, and gardening. She took a year off from college in the late 1960s and lived with a family in London, attending the Heatherly School of Art. She is an amateur carpenter and lives in a house she designed herself. Before becoming a reiki practitioner, she was a free-lance editor for about twenty years. Her work included consulting, writing, and editing technical papers for corporate and graduate school clients, among them the Unit for Housing and Urbanization at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, and the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT. She first became aware of her strong ability to channel healing energy in 1996, when she unexpectedly and spontaneously began to experience waves of energy passing through her hands during a women’s healing workshop.  She received her formal training at the Dovestar Institute in Hooksett, New Hampshire.

Alice W. Hall grew up outside Cleveland, Ohio, and majored in science in college. She received a Masters in Library Science from the University of Chicago and, among other library jobs, was a Science Librarian at MIT until retirement a few years ago. She has been a photographer for much of her life and, among other things, had a show with a friend of photographs and interviews of women who lived on Martha’s Vineyard. She is now the volunteer librarian at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University and loves dealing with books on photography. She has a growing interest in Buddhism and is hugely grateful to the Women’s Well for widening her involvement with women’s spirituality and art. 

Anita P. Hoffer, Ph.D., Ed.D., worked at Harvard Medical School for over twenty-five years, where she served as an Associate Professor and Director of Research in Urology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. She subsequently worked in the bio-pharmaceutical industry on women's health projects and as a consultant to hospitals and biomedical companies engaged in clinical trials and technology transfer. Anita is a sexuality educator, lecturer and researcher who leads workshops that address older women's sexual concerns and sexual literacy; she teaches health care providers about the special needs of this population; she educates lay audiences on female sexuality and aging; and she does sexual coaching. Her degrees are in reproductive biology, sexology, and sexuality education. Her work is based on her belief that healthy sexuality is a life force and an important component of every human being's personality and well-being through the life cycle. She is a Planned Parenthood volunteer and a member of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists, the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, the Society for Sex Therapy and Research and the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals; she is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Consortium on Sexuality and Aging at Widener University.

Jane LeCompte, Ph.D., is a writer and communications professional with almost thirty years experience in shaping written and electronic communications. She has taught literature and writing at the university level, edited investment research at Goldman, Sachs & Company, and headed the corporate communications department at publisher Houghton Mifflin. The skills she brings to the Women's Well include communications strategy and planning and group facilitation. A student of shamanism, Jane has been learning from/journeying with the drum for more than twenty years. Her fiction focuses on women negotiating the pitfalls of culture, and on how ancient mythic patterns manifest in our lives. Her novel Moon Passage was praised by reviewers across the United States; her latest book, Sistren, came out in 2006. For more information about her writing, see here.

Clarissa Sawyer, Ed.D., partners with individuals, groups, and organizations at critical junctures so they can access their wisdom and take collaborative, engaged action. Her work combines story analytics, reflective practice, and an understanding of subtle energies from her training in Reiki and flower essences. Her doctorate is from Harvard University, where she focused on women’s leadership and studied with feminist psychologists Carol Gilligan and Annie Rogers.