Founder Jennifer Bright
Jennifer Bright is founding CEO of Bright Communications LLC. She is a publisher, editor, and writer with more than 25 years of publishing experience. Her team publishes 35 books a year, and together they have contributed to thousands of books, magazines, and newspaper articles.
Jennifer proudly served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army for four years, stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington. She then worked for seven years on staff at Rodale before launching her own editorial business, Bright Communications LLC in 2004.
Jennifer’s passion is helping authors bring their books to life, to in turn help readers live healthier, happier lives. She lives in Hellertown, Pennsylvania, with her fiancé. Together, they have four sons, three cats, two dogs, and one amazing life. She can be reached at jennifer@brightcommunications.net.
Rita Guthrie
Rita Guthrie, founder of Open Door Public Relations, has been involved in marketing, public relations, and creative business events since the early 90s. Back in the day, her colleagues nicknamed her the Idea Lady for being the go-to person for brainstorming clever PR and marketing ideas.
Open Door PR was established in 2005 with a focus on small business and start-ups. As a business-to-business consultant, Rita has helped thousands of clients increase their visibility and bottom line by seeing through the clutter and giving them what they really need.
She has a flair for making valuable connections for her clients by developing co-marketing partnerships with other businesses that deal with the same demographic. The Idea Lady helps the business owner explore a wide variety of tools to reach out, stay in touch, and arouse the curiosity of prospective clients. Her people learn to create a marketing calendar that reaches across all channels, getting the word out on their products or services by educating, entertaining, and engaging.
In addition to one-to-one consulting, Rita runs informal workshops called Coffee Talk throughout the year. These events are open to all. Each one has a specific public relations or marketing theme. Essentially, they are discussion-based networking events.
Rita Guthrie has a genuine love of connecting people and seeing small businesses grow and flourish.
A native of Brooklyn, she also lived Upstate New York and at the Jersey Shore before coming to the Lehigh Valley in 1987. Rita and her husband have three children and five grandchildren. She is a volunteer with TEDx Lehigh River, an active regular at 1 Million Cups, and serves on the Chancellor’s Advisory Council for LaunchBox Ladies at Penn State LV. She practices yoga and catches up on NPR podcasts during her daily walks. Rita can be reached at idealady@opendoorlv.com.
Robert Sayre
Rob, a native of Boulder, Colorado moved to the East Coast in 1982 to work at a small book publishing company and to the Lehigh Valley in 1988 to work at Rodale, Inc. as the business manager of its book division, with many great leaders and coworkers. He is now semi-retired, an active investor in real estate, and a volunteer as a master gardener with the Penn State Extension Service, and he has studied and practiced tai chi for 11 years. He and his wife, Sally, a retired public-school teacher, have three children and five of the best grandchildren ever. They are as busy as ever, but they love controlling their own schedule and traveling in their Lance RV Camper.
Terree O’Neill Oakwood
Terree O’Neill Oakwood is a professional photographer and entrepreneur. Twenty-eight years ago, she began The Moment Photography, creating studio and location lifestyle and branding portraits. Terree also enjoys dabbling in writing and has chronicled on Facebook the many life changes she has experienced in recent years. In so doing, she’s discovered her enjoyment of inspiring others through the stories of simple life happenings. Next on her list, she hopes to combine her photography and love of writing into a book that would help others notice the wonder all around us and grow from an open-hearted approach to living.