Deborah Siegel-Acevedo, PhD is a writing coach and a serial creator of initiatives bridging education, writing, and community. She established GIRL MEETS VOICE to help lift the voices of those with needed messages and the desire to be heard.

Mentor, champion, and guide, Deborah herself is an author (Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild, Palgrave Macmillan; Only Child, Harmony/Random House) and a TEDx speaker as well as a TEDx coach. She has written in a variety of nonfiction genres and published in a range of venues including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, CNN.com, Harvard Business Review, The Forward, Kveller, Slate, The Huffington Post, The American Prospect, Ms., More, Psychology Today, TriQuarterly, and Midstory Magazine. National media appearances include The Today Show, Good Morning America Radio, and The Wendy Williams Experience. A dynamic speaker with a personal approach, Deborah has delivered keynotes and taught workshops nationwide. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University.

Highly skilled at translating complex ideas in compelling ways for general audiences, Deborah’s experience spans academic, nonprofit, and corporate arenas. She began her career in nonprofit communications, then worked as a content consultant for social enterprises in New York City. There, she co-founded the global online network She Writes (now 35,000 strong) and helped expand The OpEd Project, where she taught opinion writing and other forms of thought leadership as a Senior Facilitator and Fellowship Director.

Seeking to deepen her skills supporting clients one-on-one, Deborah trained with the Co-Active Training Institute and became a certified coach through the International Coach Federation, developing a niche as a writing and thought leadership coach. She has since coached philanthropists and founders of nonprofits, college presidents and deans, as well as new and established nonfiction writers of all sorts.

Deborah received her doctorate in Literary Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has been an Adjunct Faculty member at DePaul University, where she also coordinated the Mellon-funded public humanities fellowship HumanitiesX. She has been a guest instructor at the Northwestern Summer Writers’ Conference, StoryStudio Chicago, and Piven Theatre Workshop. The recipient of multiple writing residencies at Ragdale, she now serves on their curatorial committee for applicants in creative nonfiction.

She lives in Chicagoland with her husband and their twins.

Visit Deborah’s author website at www.deborahsiegelphd.com.