1 | Coco Eco Magazine

1

By admin on September 21, 2009

Amber Williams

Contributing Writer
Amber Williams discovered her passion for the environment not too long ago. When attaining her Bachelors of Science degree in Design at the University of California in Davis, she quickly learned the importance and the impact we all have on maintaining a healthy world for humans, animals, and the earth itself. The university’s design program focused on teaching future designers all aspects of green design and emphasized the importance of an interior designers role in this quest. Since she graduated in 2006, she has dedicated her career to eco-friendly interior design and architecture. Now, with over 3 years of experience in the design industry, she has worked on numerous green interior design and architecture projects for firms that are geared toward solving sustainability and eco-friendly issues from start to finish. Amber plans on furthering her knowledge and experience for the many years to come.

Ann LaGoy

Contributing Writer
Ann Margarette LaGoy, is owner of Sound Earth, LLC, an established Home Assistance Cleaning Service, and residential and commercial cleaning service, founded when she moved to the Hudson Valley in 1996. Prompted by an acute reaction to chloromine gas while cleaning in 1999, Ann developed a line of 100% natural, cruelty-free cleaning products, and is currently New York State’s only manufacturer of such products. Ann continues to research contents and effects of chemical cleaners on humans, animals and the environment. Ann also speaks and writes on this topic to increase public awareness. In 2003, Ann sold Home Assistance Cleaning Service to focus on Sound Earth, LLC and community activism.

Ann has worked since 1998 as an environmentalist and activist in the Hudson Valley focusing on community education and individual participation in the democratic process at the local, state, and federal levels of government. In 2001 Ann co-established Fishkill Ridge Community Heritage and has since served as its president. Fishkill Ridge Community Heritage is a community-based organization dedicated to meeting the challenge of change, growth, and conservation within the Hudson Valley.

Ann was appointed to the Town of Fishkill’s Environmental Board in 2007, which is currently working on the Hudson Valley Green Trail, “greening programs” for the Town of Fishkill, and serving as a resource to the community.

Prior to moving to the Hudson Valley, Ann worked in the health care field both while attending and upon graduation from SUNY Oswego. Ann holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and in Sociology.

Apple Levy

Contributing Writer
Apple Levy, Contributing Writer
As a financial controller for companies such as iPayment Inc & eBrandSecure, Apple Levy is new to the green space but has always had the love & respect for our planet. She learned to love the Internet from her husband & found this to be a great outlet for her passions. She has helped develop structures for several website projects such as BennyUrquidez.com, HiringArchitects.com & AppleDots.com, an eco friendly image & layout site. TheGreenGirls.com was created after being inspired by girls of all ages asking the question, “How can I live a greener life?” www.thegreengirls.com

Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune

Contributing Writer
Christina “The Beer Chick” Perozzi and Hallie Beaune are Los Angeles based beer sommeliers, consultants and authors. They wrote the book The Naked Pint: An Unadulterated Guide to Craft Beer (The Penguin Group, NY) which will be published in November 2009. Their goal is to bring beer to its rightful place in the modern dining experience and they live by the motto: Beer is Good. www.thenakedpint.com and www.beerforchicks.com

Darren Moore

Contributing Writer
Darren Moore is the Co-Host of the TV show, Alter Eco, on Discovery’s Planet Green. He is also a world traveler and resident of major regions of Europe, India, Asia and Asia Pacific, where he was a student and practitioner of various health sciences. Darren is an athlete, cyclist and adventurer, and a professional Architectural Designer / General Contractor and Founder of ECOVATIONS Lifestyle Inc, Consultancy company. Darren is also with the IREO (UN International renewable Energy Org) Technologies Commission and on the Advisory Board for TrashforTeaching.org

Fiona Crawford

Contributing Writer
Fiona Crawford is a freelance writer who divides her time equally between writing about the environment, football (soccer), and social entrepreneurship. She is heartened daily by people’s efforts to help the environment, believes strongly that, given the opportunity, people will make the right choices and that the media now, more than ever before, is tasked with the responsibility of disseminating the good news and possibilities of environmental change. She is heading to Japan, London, and Milan in September to write about social entrepreneurship projects such as the Homeless World Cup and may just check out the fashion too.

Heidi Pettit

Contributing Writer
Heidi Pettit is a founding partner of Vie PR & Showroom, a unique agency specializing in public relations and marketing for sustainable lifestyle companies and brands with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The agency and showroom offers communications, sales support and celebrity placement to fashion, beauty, home and design clients. At Vie PR & Showroom, Heidi specializes in brand development, celebrity placement and event planning. She has garnered significant media coverage for her clients in outlets that include Lucky, InStyle, WWD, Daily Candy, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, LA Magazine, 944, Forbes, San Francisco Chronicle, Footwear News, The View, ABC 7, Fox News, NBC 11, CNN and The Today Show, to name a few. In addition to public relations, Heidi serves on the Global Green Committee and the Board of the Innovative Fashion Council, and acts in a fundraising and media advisory capacity for fashion organizations and environmental charities. www.viepr.com

Helen Dailey

Contributing Writer
Originally from the UK but now living in Hong Kong, freelance writer Helen Dalley spends most of her time avoiding the city’s glitzy malls to seek out independent eco friendly brands. She writes for CNN, Travel + Leisure, Tatler and for in-flight magazines for Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Dragonair.

Nicole Landers

Contributing Writer
Nicole Landers is considered to be one of Los Angeles ’ premier eco authorities. Over the last five years, Nicole has devoted her skills in the eco marketing & PR industry to aid the environmental community in changing locally to affect globally. Nicole remains committed to being apart of the solution and has immersed herself in learning and passing on knowledge about all that aids the population in having a more sustainable and healthier living planet.

Nicole and her work has been successfully recognized by media coverage on ABC News, E! Access Hollywood, E! Online, The Tyra Banks Show, Ellen, The Insider, US Weekly, Reuters, Yahoo, Good Magazine, Yogi Times, Whole Life Times, Tree Hugger, EcoRazzi, In Touch, Angeleno, LA Confidential, DHlovelife.com, lime.com – amongst many others.

Today she is working as an Eco- Sustainability Consultant and is Co- Founder of an Eco Consulting and Materials/Systems firm, eConnect Group located in Venice California. eConnect’s mission is to encourage and enable clients to make positive changes in the environment and provide guidance in “going green” throughout any aspect of life, whether it be building and remodeling, events and production, or average day-to-day life.

Current clients include; the award winning documentary film, FUEL, Discovery Network/Planet Green’s Battle Ground Earth starring Tommy Lee & Ludicrous and a new series called Eco Fabulous Life with Keenen Ivory Wayans, Nickelodeon Animation Studios, as well as high-end residential clientele and commercial accounts. Nicole has a recent accreditation from ‘Energy Star’ Home Performance Course for the State of California and eConnect is a current national member of the United
States Green Building Council (USGBC).

Nicole is an Advisory Board member of Sustainable Business Council Los Angeles & Opportunity Green- a sustainable business conference as well as on the LA Committee for Global Green USA.

Nicole resides in Venice Beach with her fiancé and partner in eConnect Group, Kevin Krohner.

Patience Lacy Smith

Contributing Writer
Growing up in a small, friendly neighborhood in England where, when she wasn’t at school, Patience was either riding or playing tennis. An almost picture-perfect childhood. She’s one of those people who never quite knew what she wanted to be when she grew up, and remembers going for an interview for a secretarial position when she was eighteen and when asked if she could do shorthand, replied “no, but I can scribble fast”. That’s one way of getting a job – and she did! More by luck than judgment, Patience has stumbled into various fabulous career paths that took her to Germany (she didn’t speak a word of German but that didn’t seem to matter!), Hong Kong (the best job of her life) and to her favorite country, America. She is blessed with two extra-ordinary daughters and three beyond-words beautiful grandchildren. She trained as an Interior Designer and gave it a whirl for about ten years but now favors writing – mostly articles – and like everyone else, there’s a novel waiting in the wings!

Sarah Shewey

Contributing Writer
As the owner of Pink Cloud Events and a Contributing Writer for Coco Eco Magazine, Sarah Shewey has been featured as a green event and wedding expert on National Public Radio, Treehugger, and with Adrian Grenier on the Discovery Channel’s Planet Green, and interviewed by the Associated Press, Vogue, and dozens more lifestyle media publications for her unique and responsibly fun experiences shared with people all over the world. Past Pink Cloud events include an NBC/Universal is Green After-party, the first eco-luxury bridal salon, the Suh-tahn runway show presentation at Mercedes-Benz LA Fashion Week, the Green Lifestyle Area of the Abbot Kinney Festival, and numerous private parties for Hollywood’s A-list celebrities and green business executives. www.pinkcloudevents.com

Shannon Flaherty

Contributing Writer
Shannon Flaherty is a writer and communications consultant who loves the ocean, the jungle and playing piano. With a background in corporate responsibility and nonprofit communications – having worked closely with organizations such as NRDC, Global Green USA, Sierra Club and Ecology Project International, Shannon holds a masters degree from the UCLA School of Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree in Biological and Environmental Sciences. Her writing about nature, arts and culture has appeared in Fader, VenusZine, LA Record, The Sierra Club’s Green Life, and on her blog, The Wild, The Innocent. Wanna make friends, check her out at www.shannonflaherty.com

Susan Jones

Contributing Writer
Susan Jones has spent her entire career in media from television to print and everything in between. Most recently during her tenure as the Associate Publisher for a bridal publication, she branched out into both styling and writing where she found her spark once again. Motivated to be inspired by her work, Susan stepped out relatively ‘green’ to the green movement but has been expanding her understanding and learning new ways to be compassionate to the environment.

Tracy Hepler

Contributing Writer
Tracy Hepler is a Gen Y environmentalist and the Co-Founder of your daily thread. She has a degree from UC Santa Barbara in Anthropology and Communications. After living without a car and carrying all of her possessions on her back for 8 months during her world travels she learned the true meaning of the phrase “less is more.” After returning to the U.S. she was inspired to share that message as it relates to our planet. She is currently writing, speaking, and consulting on green living practices. She is a resident of Los Angeles and enjoys traveling, painting, cooking, documentaries and exploring everything the city has to offer. When she grows up she wants to host a show that focuses on sustainable eco-friendly travel. You can follow her adventures at yourdailythread.com.

Valerie Williams

Contributing Writer
Valerie Williams is an internationally published writer and
Photographer, and a Contributing Writer for Coco Eco Magazine. She is co-editor of the best-selling 1000 Extra/ Ordinary Objects and is editor of Canada’s hottest eco-website, www.greenmuze.com. She lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia with five chickens rescued from a battery hen facility.

Amy DuFault

Contributing Writer
Amy DuFault, currently the fashion editor of www.ecosalon.com has been writing about fashion and design for 10 years at such publications as Boston Magazine, Coastal Living and Bluefly.com as well as appearing on ABC’s Emmy award-winning Boston news magazine Chronicle and NBC’s “Style File” as a fashion expert.
When not falling in love and selling sustainably designed clothes at her “conscious clothing” boutique Shift, she can be found supporting green affordable housing and dreaming of the day when she’ll overcome stage fright enough to get up and sing with her husband’s band.

Deana Bracken

Contributing Writer
Deana, founder & CEO of Green with Glamour™ (www.greenwithglamour.com), the ultimate online “eco” boutique for fashion, home furnishings & gifts, LOVES living the good “green” life! Based in Los Angeles, she gave up a career producing television to focus full time on promoting the concept of environmentally-sound living with no sacrifice of style! In early 2007, after searching in vain for a chic shopping resource for all things sustainable, Deana fulfilled her desire for high style, hippie-free designs and launched GWG. In only a few short years, Deana has cultivated an incredible & exciting collection of unparalled “eco” goods and recently Green With Glamour was named by Time Magazine as one of their top 100 in Green Design.

Laurel House

Contributing Writer
Laurel House is a 31-year old born and bred Angeleno and self-proclaimed overachiever. She is a published author, nationally recognized magazine writer, luxury and healthy living spokesperson, and national and local morning television show expert. Raised, schooled, and socialized around LA’s elite, Laurel became close with the decision makers, leaders, and trend-setters of this city of angels. Her relationships helped get her foot in the door at CAA, AMG (Michael Ovitz’s previous company), SONY Television, and Much and House Public Relations. Her chutzpah got people to pay attention. And her talent proved she too would become a trend-setter. Laurel is the co-author of “The Gurus’ Guide to Serenity” (HarperCollins 2004)- a celebrity-soaked book on how the “stars” and their gurus de-stress, co-author of “Raise the Barre” (HarperCollins 2006), and co-author “Star-Quality: The Red Carpet Workout for the Celebrity Body of Your Dreams” (Wiley 2008). In addition to books, Laurel helped launch the national Fit Yoga Magazine as the West Coast Editor. She also became the Beauty Editor for Healing Lifestyles and Spas Magazine. More than her editorial roles, Laurel has written hundreds of articles about travel, spas, food, wine, fitness, beauty, fashion and trends printed in an array of publications including Elite Traveler, Elegant Bride, Destination Weddings and Honeymoons, Spa Magazine, Brentwood Magazine, Calabasas Magazine, First for Women, Men’s Journal, Women’s Health, Playboy, The Book LA, FHM, Vegetarian Times, Gayot.com, JW Marriott Magazine and LA Daily News. Along with writing, Laurel founded and launched GreenIQ.com – an online calculator that measures your combined carbon and environmental footprint, attracting hundreds of thousands of viewers every month. Her in-print expertise led to regular television morning show appearances including: the Today Show weekend, Soap Talk (Soap Network), Daily Buzz, Modern Girl’s Guide to Life (E!), KTLA Morning News, CBS, Fox, NBC, and ABC Morning News shows both locally and nationally. Well-known wellness and lifestyle companies have engaged her as their on-air and in-person spokesperson including Sony Entertainment, Guthy-Renker, Propel Water, Nature Made Vitamins, Danskin, and Olay beauty products. More than anything, Laurel is an advocate for a luxuriously balanced healthy lifestyle.

Celine Gabriel

Contributing Fashion Stylist
Celine Gabriel is the Director for Publicity and Press Relations for Make Up For Ever Paris and Maquillage Professionnel Academy for Makeup in the Philippines, and has been in the beauty industry for 8 years.

She is also a columnist for one of the country’s leading broadsheets (the Manila Standard), the name of her column being FASHION GLOBETROTTER, featuring fashion, beauty, travel, and lifestyle. In addition, Celine hosts a weekly breakfast TV show called “She-Ka” that tackles everything about women.

She loves fashion, travel, books, arts and culture, and believes that a green lifestyle is a responsibility and lifelong commitment. And it all starts with awareness. You are what you eat and you are what you wear!

Giorgia Severino

Contributing Fashion Stylist
Giorgia Severino is Coco Eco Magazine’s Contributing Fashion Stylist and an Italian freelance Fashion Stylist, currently based in Los Angeles and London. After gaining fashion styling and fashion media related degrees at London College of Fashion, Giorgia has gained her praise in fields as various as editorial, music, dance, and commercial styling. Giorgia is Contributing Fashion Editor for Cent Magazine, as well as having had her work displayed in major photographic exhibitions at the Wapping Gallery in London and the Mode Museum of Antwerp. Giorgia tends to avoid minimalism, and is dedicated to pour a luscious cascade of creative elements in any of the many projects she is constantly involved with.

Layne McGovern

Contributing Fashion Stylist
Layne was born in Boulder, CO and moved out to Los Angeles with her brother to pursue her fashion ambitions in 2002. She has had her in hand in the world of fashion from a very early age. Her mom would make her Christmas and Easter dresses every year, and as she got older they would design them together. As soon as she turned 16 she got a job in retail to really see what it was all about; and continues to dabble in it today.
In 2003 she attended the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising and received her associates in Merchandise Marketing.
For the past 2 years she has been working as a wardrobe stylist on different TV shows with LATV, NBC Universal, as well as photo shoots for designers like Trina Turk. She also styles people from the industry for premieres, and award shows. She is out observing people everyday learning about their styles, seeing trends that are adapted from the streets, as well as straight from the runway. If she had to use one word to describe her own personal style, it would include the word “vintage.” She almost always includes a piece of vintage somewhere in an outfit.
layne.mcgovern@gmail.com

Michele Llanos

Contributing Fashion Stylist
Michele Llanos was born into style and fashion. Her Argentine mother was voted one of the “Best Dressed Women” in Los Angeles during the 1970’s and even carried a special key to the Gucci store in Beverly Hills.
Throughout her illustrious career as a stylist and jewelry designer, Llanos understood the importance of mentors and close friendships. Relationships with Hollywood icon Lois Chiles and acclaimed costume designer Theadora Van Runkle led to collaborations on Mario Puzo’s “The Last Don” and “Goodbye Lover.” Llanos worked on countless commercials, PSA’s and sitcoms in Tinseltown, leveraging her deep understanding of great design, image-making and the power of couture.
But it was on a seminal trip to Pret-a-Porter in Paris that Llanos discovered a new mission and forged creative friendships that would change her life. She discovered a host of inspiring, committed artists and designers that produce garments with uncompromised ethics. She determined to devote her resources and knowledge to raising consumer awareness and promoting responsible purchasing power from her base in the world’s most influential media city.
Today, Llanos runs Vie Bungalow as a showcase for internationally acclaimed sustainable design and fashion. The Bungalow is the first agency for beautiful ethical apparel and fair traded accessories on the West Coast. She serves an elite roster of Hollywood stylists, editors and tastemakers.

Robin Garvick

Contributing Fashion Stylist
Robin Garvick has always been driven by style. From setting up make believe photo shoots in her playroom at a young age to dashing around the streets of New York City where friends had her on speed dial for fashion emergencies from what to wear on a date, a job interview or a wedding at City Hall. Her obsession with Vintage fashion and predicting the next trend led her studio apartment in the East Village to burst at it’s seams and she soon started to lend out clothing for friends that were involved in making independent films and staged readings. With mounding guilt and credit card debt to match, she began to research sustainable lines and eco friendly clothing to counteract the consumerism aspect of being a fashionista and investigate if her love of style could translate into something positive for her life, the lives of others and the world we live in. She has found that world through clients such as Adrian Grenier. Robin has just completed her first season as wardrobe supervisor on Planet Green’s Alter Eco where she was given the opportunity to get eco lines in Spanish Vogue with Angela Lindvall. She is honored to continue combining her love of couture and design, while maintaining a choice to stay green in the pages of Coco Eco Magazine.

Coco Eco Magazine

1