Presenters' Bios

Learn more about our Conference presenters by reading their bios below.

Lillian Savoie, Keynote Speaker

Lillian Savoie is the author of Fill Your Soul, a book written to awaken your spirit and elevate your spiritual journey.

In Fill Your Soul, Lillian gracefully shares stories of her own self-discovery and unravels how she has learned to trade doing things the traditional, patriarchal way for finding joy and abundance, the feminine way!

Her Soul Mission as a Reiki Master and Intuitive Coach is to inspire women to connect with, embrace and heal their feminine side to attract the love and abundance they desire.

Today, she finds the most joy in helping women find the courage to make meaningful, positive changes in their lives by living according to their spirt.

To accomplish this, Lillian provides individual coaching sessions, intuitive readings, group retreats and has her own healing products including energy-infused healing sprays and crystal mediation masks.

In her work, Lillian shares how to use your intuition to create your best life through learning to manifest abundance. Once learned, this way of living becomes natural as you practice a new, intuitive dance with the Universe.

Opening your awareness and living in your true feminine energy brings you the life you really want, a life that fills your soul.

She is the owner of Awaken Change and lives in Mandeville with her lovely Husband, five children, two dogs, a cat and a hamster. She loves to travel, bike ride, garden and create fun memories with her family and friends.

Tarah Keech, Master Life Coach

Tarah Keech is a Master Life Coach, a burnout prevention and recovery expert, and has a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and a resume of Fortune 500 consulting.

No, she can’t read your mind but she does know how your thoughts work and can help you see them and then use them so you can level up your life personally and professionally.

Basically, she’s a combination of strategist, mentor, and bestie. Except she gives you better advice than your friends do and she teaches you how your brain works so you can take informed action that creates real change for the rest of your life.

If you’re hungry for a transformation professionally or personally and ready to live in alignment with your purpose and joy, Tarah’s your coach.

Visit Tarah's website for more information.

Celeste Kelly, Empowerment Coach

Celeste Kelly is an Empowerment Coach for Spiritual Women, Workshop Leader and the Founder of She Clan, LLC.

Her spiritual path catalyzed years ago when she left a successful corporate career and began working with a friend who led spiritual journeys to Native American sacred lands. For over 20 years Celeste has studied and taught various healing modalities, wisdom traditions and self-development techniques. She is an I Shine® Certified Facilitator for Powerful Girl Within® and Discover Your Inner Star®, a certified yoga teacher through Next Generation Yoga® for 8-13 year olds, and an Energy Medicine Practitioner and Wisdom Keeper trained in the Peruvian Q’ero tradition.

Helping women cultivate more joy, freedom and peace is her passion. Celeste does this by teaching women how to activate and embody their divine connection, so they are living from a place of deep knowing, authenticity and power. She supports women to open to possibilities, deepen their spiritual practice, embody their feminine wisdom, and create the life of their dreams.

Celeste lives in New Orleans and is an adventurer at heart and Mom who experiences great joy spending time with family, playing in nature, enjoying community and being with animals.

Visit Celeste's website for more information.

Rebecca Kronlage, ERYT-500, Yoga Alliance Certified, Professional Level Certified

Rebecca Kronlage has been a student of mindfulness, meditation and yoga for over three decades. Her teaching is deeply rooted in Buddhism and the Kripalu Yoga Center tradition where she lived as a resident and senior teacher. As an ovarian cancer survivor, she brings a deep sense of awe, love and respect for yoga and mindfulness as a healing practice that has saved her life. She has lead women’s international travel adventures and now resides on the Gulf Coast in Mississippi where she co-founded Treehouse Yoga Studio.

Visit Rebecca's website for more information.

Renee Ridgley, MSW, LMSW

Renee Ridgley, MSW, LMSW, currently works as a Case Manager/Traditional Coordinator for YouthBuild Bogalusa, a program of Northshore Technical Community College since 2018 in addition to working with K. Hill and Associates Mental Health as a therapist.

Renee received her Bachelor of Science degree in Child and Family Studies from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and her Masters of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Texas at Arlington. Renee started her career in Dallas, Texas working with those affected by HIV/AIDS. She has served on many boards advocating for the rights of those under-served in our communities.

Currently, Renee is a BLS/CPR instructor, Certified Active Parent Educator, Mental Health First Aider, Acquired Training in Suicide Prevention (ASIST), and a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW). She has been a guest speaker for many organizations, educating on a variety of parenting topics, cultural diversity, and self-care. Renee is engaged to be married this year and is the mother of one son, Kendrick who is 10 years old. A native of New Orleans, Renee loves everything New Orleans – especially festivals and live music.

Rosalie Torres, New Orleans Green Founder, Artist

In 2011, I founded New Orleans Green as an outlet to creatively express my love of nature and materials reuse. My work is offered as a statement against 19th and 20th-century materialism and consumption -- transforming what we have purchased and then rejected, cast off, thrown away -- into new expressions of beauty, interest, and use.

My jewelry and home decor pieces reflect elements of nature and focus on how individual components relate to each other to invoke both harmony and intrigue. New Orleans, Greenhouse, and patio plants, are from my nursery or otherwise locally grown and situated in antique, vintage, or repurposed pots using composted soil and rainwater. Every aspect of the business is designed to minimize its carbon footprint (recycled paper products for packing and printing, recycled plastic for plant liners, e.g.).

In a former career, I conducted research studies to understand and improve educational and social service programs, and I can't help but feel that my approach to that work is echoed in what I do now. I sought to understand the existing circumstances of these programs to help the implementers make them better for the future. I'm passionate about using only existing materials to create something new and different. On social, environmental, and political levels -- owning, understanding, and reconciling our past is the best way forward!

Visit Rosalie's website for more information.

Asiyah DeGruy, LCSW

Asiyah is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Registered Yoga Teacher. She has practiced in the mental health and wellness field for 18 years at varying capacities. She has worked with the severely and chronically mentally ill with adults as well as with children. She currently works as a psychotherapist at Acadian Care in Slidell.

Her passion is assisting her clients and yoga students in discovering and learning more about their personal wellness needs and developing and implementing an individualized wellness plan for themselves at their own pace and supporting them through it.

Asiyah has been a yoga student for at least 10 years and received her yoga teacher registration with Jai Bhakti Yoga Foundation in 2020 specializing in adaptive yoga practices. She also received her certification in Therapeutic Yoga in 2020. Since completing her trainings she has worked as a meditation and yoga teacher with Blue Arrow Yoga, Sukha Yoga Slidell and has offered classes in various settings. She currently works as a part time teacher with Yeah Yoga primarily at Covenant House in New Orleans.

Asiyah's purpose is to bring health, wellness and acceptance to different spaces with different people, hopefully exposing as many people as possible to the idea of prioritizing their personal overall health.

In addition, Asiyah is a mother of three young adults with her oldest currently deployed with the Army National Guard. She also has a three year old canine child named Bolt. Asiyah's mantra, "Walk in your own light."

Gina Pausina Cherry, Motivational Speaker

Gina Pausina Cherry, a breast cancer survivor knows first-hand that for those impacted by cancer, the journey is much longer than 31 days. Combining her passion for all things dance and exercise with her understanding of how important the bond of shared experience is when it comes to trauma, Gina is starting a dance team— the Bionic Babes: Dancers of Hope— exclusively for women who know first-hand how cancer changes your life.

Life happens! Overcoming setbacks with positive thinking and focusing your energy on passion projects.

Visit Gina's website for more information.

Michelle Sierra, PT, CAPP, IF, Cert.DN
Clinical Executive Director & Women's Health Director

Michelle is a founding therapist and owner of Dynamic Physical therapy. She graduated from LSU Medical School of Allied Health in 1995. She opened the Westbank clinic in 2000, seven years later she opened the Covington clinic. Michelle is certified in treating Women’s Health and pelvic floor dysfunction, TMJ and vestibular conditions, aquatics, functional capacity evaluation, and return to work programs.

Michelle has specialty training in Pelvic Health with Herman and Wallace beginning in 1996 when she assisted in the development of the Woman’s Health Program at a large teaching hospital in New Orleans. Her training continued through the APTA’s Section on Women’s Health CAPP certification in obstetric health, women’s and men’s pelvic health and is fellowship trained with ISSWSH focusing on Women’s Sexual Health.

Michelle is a member of SIWSH, Southern Institute for Women’s Sexual Health. Michelle enjoys practicing and mentoring Physical Therapists with specializations in musculoskeletal disorders of the spine and extremities, as well as pelvic pain and dysfunction.

Currently her practice offers treatment to address all components of pelvic health focusing on pelvic pain, bowel and bladder dysfunction, pregnancy and post-partum, post-surgery, post-cancer, aging, and sexual dysfunction across the lifespan.

Michelle is on the advisory board for LSUHSC in New Orleans. In her spare time, she enjoys travel and adventure with her husband Steve, founding therapist and owner of Dynamic.

Visit Dynamic Physical Therapy's website to learn more.

Patricia Stout, MSW, LCSW-BACS
Women's Center for Healing & Transformation, Founder
Breath of Life Counseling, LLC

Patricia Stout, MSW, LCSW-BACS, lives in San Antonio, Texas since 2021 and practices holistic social work dedicated to wellness, emotional intelligence and consciousness-raising with individuals, families, groups, and communities. She does this through virtual psychotherapy, along with workshops, meditation classes, retreats, facilitating life-long learning, and serving on the Leadership Council of the Women’s Center for Healing & Transformation.

Patricia received her MSW at FSU Tallahassee, Summa Cum Laude, 1989, licensed since 1991. Her professional foundation is in counseling, addiction treatment, and relational therapy. Post-graduate intensive experiential training includes 900 hours and certification with the Eupsychia Institute for Well-Being, certified in Psycho-Spiritual Integration and Integrative Breathwork; Transformations Therapeutic Breathwork Training Level III, and Conscious Connected Breathing through the School for Spiritual Psychology.

Patricia has continued her holistic experience in healing circles and through yoga and bodywork, indigenous teachings and practices, Labyrinth facilitation and other forms of walking meditation, chanting and sacred song, dance. and drumming, couples’ enrichment, home-birthing, Longevity Therapy, Community-Building and other modalities for personal transformation toward a more loving and conscious world.

In regards to the Labyrinth, she deeply appreciates her opportunities to practice walking meditation with Thich Nhat Hanh and the beloved Plum Village community, as well as with Jack Kornfield and Lauren Artress. She has facilitated Labyrinth walks in a variety of settings since 1996, often with friend and colleague Carolyn Burns, LMFT.

It is her dream to create loving community and to deepen women's spiritual and personal growth, in order to increase individual empowerment, collective awakening, and a more compassionate approach to living on the planet.

Carolyn Burns, LMFT
Pre-Conference Labyrinth co-host

Carolyn brings the centeredness of her mindfulness practice to the experience of walking the labyrinth – a personal journey of our inner walk. As a relationship therapist, Carolyn sees health cultivated through community engagement.

As we play, create and acknowledge with others, we grow our understanding of ourselves and others.

Carolyn will be offering a group on healing from Anxiety, in June, at the Women’s Center for Healing & Transformation.

Inquire at info@womenscenterforhealing.org or call Carolyn at 985-705-3395.

Lisa Sigsworth, RN, CHPN, CHI

Lisa's education and experience is with a focus on: Grief and Loss, Death and Dying, Terminal Illness; Anxiety, Depression and PTSD; Advanced Meditation; Soul and Core Retrieval and Wellness; Addictive Disorders; Goal resetting and reframing; Transitional Detachment and Life Coaching.

Lisa is a Louisiana Tech graduate. She studied hypnosis at Alpha University with Conrad Adams, and at the International Federation of Hypnosis in Palo Alto, California under Shelley Stockwell- Nicholas. She has trained in Dharmsala and Bir, India with the Tibetan monks on mindfulness meditation, End of Life and contemplative practice of the ancient Tibetan wisdom traditions. She has worked in the public, non-profit and private sectors for the past 25 years in the field of hospice, home care, rehab and hypnosis. Lisa is also a Minister and officiates weddings.

Lisa is the author of the book Crossing Over: Your Guide to Dying with Dignity. She travels the United States speaking and training the public, student and professional employees on End of Life care, Life Coaching, Hypnosis, Ethics and Pain Management.

Visit Lisa's website for more information.