Cheryl Russell
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Cheryl Russell is a "philosopher" who, in addition to her career in marketing communications, has shared her insights as a motivational speaker and writer for over 25 years. From 1983-1987, she frequently appeared as a guest on the television show, There is a Way, hosted by Dale Batesole. She was interviewed regularly on KIEV radio and continues as a keynote speaker throughout southern California and beyond.
A native of southern California, she traveled solo around the world in 1980-81. Realizing this experience was more than a geographical journey, she wrote The Art of Traveling, An Inspirational Guidebook and Reflections of My World-A Wash 'N Where Story to capture the magnificent memories and insights of her travels. She is currently updating her "wash 'n where" story to include a 10,000 mile road trip throughout the western United States in 2006 and what it was like to live at El Morro Village (Crystal Cove State Park) for the last 10 months before the state of California forced residents to vacate the land in favor of a public campground.
Following four years as an elementary school teacher (3rd and 5th grades), she wrote two instructional resource books for teachers-A Classroom Management Program published by Lee Canter and Associates (1991) and Discovering the World of Color published by Teacher Created Materials (1992). She is also the creative director for several videos including Children and Television Violence, a documentary she wrote, produced and directed for an ABC-TV affiliate.
In 1995, Cheryl began writing a newsletter, StarHeart Express-a quarterly publication that "speeds light and love your way." In 2001, she self-published her favorite story of all time, The Story of the StarHearts. To further impr its simple and powerful message, she has developed gift items such as StarHeart stones, pins, and caps to remind people about the power of positive thinking. She conducts Camp StarHeart for children as well as an adult version based upon her own love for the camp experiences she never got to have as a child. She has other creative ways of promoting her book through StarHeart birthday parties and even as a fund raising event for non-profit organizations.
Her greatest love is writing and telling stories. It is Cheryl's belief that stories give each of us a voice to be heard because stories share the human experience, explore cultural values and tap into our imagination in the most creative ways. Using The Story of the StarHearts as an example, Cheryl promotes the art of story writing to schools and libraries as the Story Coach for Kids. She combines simple writing techniques with a good dose of fun inspiring children of all ages to write their stories. Her specialty is poetic verse and in a matter of minutes children are sharing their 4-line poems with each other. In her mind the possibilities are endless. It is her dream that children will hear sooner rather than later that everyone has the potential to write, share their stories and even publish them! She works with teachers to advise them about print on demand publishers and other resources for publishing a book featuring a collection of stories or poems from a classroom of students.