Book 101 Review

Dorothy Ward
Author
In 1983, I read a newspaper article about an elderly woman who claimed to have been a colonel in Pancho Villa’s army during the Mexican Revolution. Fascinated by the idea of a woman warrior in the Mexican Revolution, I began reading about the conflict and the various roles women inhabited during the revolution. Years later, I started writing my novel LIGHT, WHICH IMPRESSES. I completed three chapters with a female soldadera/soldier as the main character, but I set my manuscript aside when I assumed a new administrative position at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Once I retired from UTEP, almost ten years later, I resumed writing the book; however, I realized during the hiatus that I could not write honestly from the perspective of a Mexican woman fighting in her country’s revolution. Though the soldadera/soldier remained a major character in the novel, the protagonist role shifted to a female photographer—Sarah—living in the border city of El Paso, Texas, during the Mexican Revolution. A strong, unconventional female protagonist, Sarah must grapple with the political and social unrest of her time.
The novel is historical fiction that depicts the Mexican Revolution’s impact on lives along the Border, especially in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas, during the period of 1910-1916. Yet the topics addressed in the novel are still at the forefront of today’s news: tensions at the U.S.-Mexico border, smuggling and sedition; immigration, internment, and deportation; racism, racial profiling, and racially-charged riots.
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Valerie Carter
Founder of RRT Ministries | Global Advocate for Survivors of Trafficking & Trauma | Christ-Centered Trauma & Identity Healing | Voice for the Profoundly Broken.
I am the founder and director of RRT Ministries, a global Christ-centered ministry serving survivors of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, and complex trauma. I walk directly with those emerging from exploitation, PTSD, and profound trauma into healing, stability, and restored purpose.
This mission is deeply personal because I, too, have walked the journey from victim to survivor to overcomer. My transformation came through encounter, surrender, and the healing power of Jesus Christ. As a child and new believer, I experienced a life-altering heaven encounter that marked my identity and anchored what I now understand as an Isaiah 61 mandate to bind up the brokenhearted and proclaim freedom to captives.
Years later, I faced intense battles with fear and anxiety. What once tried to silence me became the ground where I experienced powerful deliverance. I know the torment of fear. I know the weight of anxiety. And I know the freedom that comes when Jesus breaks its grip. That personal victory fuels the authority and compassion I carry today.
For more than twenty years, I have led trauma-informed, biblically grounded healing initiatives and developed The Great Exchange framework, rooted in Isaiah 61. It teaches that through Christ, beauty replaces ashes, peace replaces fear, identity replaces shame, and purpose replaces despair. I bridge theology and trauma science, combining spiritual truth with practical pathways for long-term emotional and spiritual restoration.
Beyond rescue, I build am building a sustainable restoration through workforce development and social enterprise, creating economic pathways that move survivors from crisis to stability to leadership on both a national and global scale. I believe rescue without restoration is incomplete.
Alongside this mission, I am also a wife and mother. My husband served for 30 years as a first responder and is now retired, and our family life has been shaped by the courage, sacrifice, and service that calling requires. Living in that world deepened my understanding of trauma, resilience, and the quiet strength required to stand in difficult places while continuing to serve others.
In addition to leading a global ministry, I homeschooled my children for sixteen years while building programs and serving on the frontline. That season shaped my leadership deeply. It strengthened my ability to teach, develop curriculum, cultivate identity, manage high responsibility, and build sustainable systems that nurture growth over time. It formed both the mother and the leader in me.
What makes my voice unique is that I bridge frontline experience, heaven encounter, personal deliverance, biblical authority, trauma-informed care, leadership development, and long-term family formation. I speak to both the wounded and the leaders who serve them. Audiences leave knowing that healing is possible, identity can be restored, and no story is too shattered for redemption.
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Matt Ward
Founder of New Atenism an organization dedicated to uniting reason and religion. Author of "New Atenism A Reason Evolved Religion
After 40 years in the professional audio industry, Matt Ward reinvented himself as a philosopher and founder of a new religion for the modern age.
He calls it New Atenism: a Reason-Evolved Religion.
Beginning with Spinoza’s idea that God and Nature are one and the same — all that exists, revealed through reason — Ward weaves philosophy, science, psychology, and history into a practical vision for the age of knowledge.
His central claim is simple but radical: reason is the true source of human progress. It has extended lifespans, reduced suffering, expanded rights, and lifted billions from poverty. And its greatest power lies not in individual genius, but in collective refinement — the shared process of questioning, criticism, and improvement that builds reliable knowledge.
If progress is the blessing, reason is the spirit behind it.
New Atenism offers a way to keep the community, purpose, and aspiration of religion — without requiring belief in the supernatural.
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Emilia Smith
Founder and CEO of Evolve Ventures Technologies LLC, and host of the Evolve Ventures
Emilia’s journey into business and human optimization didn’t start in a boardroom. It started with adversity.
After experiencing chronic traumatic memory loss from ages 4 to 25, she made a decision early in life to see her neurodivergence not as a limitation, but as a strength. That choice shaped everything that followed.
Today, Emilia is the Founder and CEO of Evolve Ventures Technologies LLC and host of Evolve Ventures, a Top 200 global podcast focused on growth, leadership, and human optimization.
A serial entrepreneur since age 6, she has built and operated across startups, publicly traded companies, and nonprofits in industries ranging from neuroscience and biotechnology to real estate, aviation, and technology. Her work connects business performance with human behavior, helping leaders operate at a higher level.
As a neurodivergent leader and mental health advocate, Emilia helps entrepreneurs, executives, and teams build emotional intelligence, resilience, and sustainable success by blending neuroleadership, mental health, and technology.
She holds a background in International Business, Finance, and Developmental Psychology, and is currently pursuing her PsyD in Psychoneuroimmunology, with certifications in Trauma Recovery Coaching and Internal Family Systems.
Outside of work, she is a proud dog mom, nature lover, and someone who actively practices the growth she teaches every day.

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Andrea Gash
You Don't Bounce Back-You Rebuild Forward
Andrea Gash is a speaker, facilitator, career coach, and author who helps people navigate grief, identity shifts, and the moments when life doesn’t go as planned. She blends lived experience with practical tools to help individuals make sense of disruption and move forward with clarity and intention.
Andrea is the creator of the five-step Momentum Method, a framework that helps people name what broke, reconnect with who they are now, and rebuild a life that actually fits. Known as an Activation Speaker, she doesn’t just inspire reflection—she equips people to turn insight into action.

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