Interim Co-Chair


Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg PhD

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is the past poet laureate of Kansas, the founder of Transformative Language Arts, and the author or editor of over 20 books, most recently, The Magic Eye: A Story of Saving a Life and Place in the Age of Anxiety. A beloved workshop facilitator, coach, and consultant, she also offers collaborative projects: Brave Voice with Kelley Hunt, The Art of Facilitation with Joy Roulier Sawyer, and Big Picture retreats with Kathryn Lorenzen. Carynmirriamgoldberg.com

Co-Chair

Sharon Sperry

Sharon is the founder of Better Nature of Work (BNoW), where she partners with people to co-create regenerative, responsible, and meaningful ways of working. With a background in recruitment, HR business partnering, professional development, and leadership mentoring, she brings systems thinking and a passion for fairness, beauty, and sustainable structures. A certified professional coach and Six Sigma Green Belt, Sharon is drawn to TLAN for its commitment to community, connection, and co-creation. She lives in North Lake Tahoe with her partner and is writing her first book about a burned-out dragon reclaiming her fire within. betternatureofwork.com 

Board Member

Tasjha Dixon

Tasjha Dixon is a trauma-informed yoga teacher, social worker, and MFA candidate in Creative Writing at Naropa University. A disabled Army veteran and founder of Empowering KC with Tasjha, her interdisciplinary work integrates somatic healing, social justice, and creative expression. With over 20 years of experience in mental health and community-based care, her teaching and writing explore themes of identity, liberation, and resilience. Grounded in Buddhist practice and Black feminist thought, Tasjha centers the voices of marginalized communities, using writing, movement, and mindfulness as pathways to individual and collective transformation.


Board Member

Kiesa Kay

Kiesa Kay, BSJ, MA, RYT-200, poet and playwright, created a 12 part video series, Transforming Trauma through Creative Self Expression, for Survivor Space, a division of Zero Abuse Project. Her plays have been performed in seven states. Her works include a memoir, Tornado Alley; two educational anthologies; a novel; and three books of poetry. In 2025, she was inducted into the Gardner-Edgerton High School Alumni Hall of Fame. Her website is Kiesa Kay | Writing Workshops

Board Member

Andrea Leeb 

Andrea Leeb is a writer and survivor advocate from Venice Beach, California. She has an MFA from Bennington Writing Seminars, and her work has been published in numerous literary journals including Litro Magazine, the Potomac Review, Text, Power and Telling Magazine, and HerStry. Previously, Andrea worked as an attorney and as a registered nurse. Her memoir, Such a Pretty Picture will be published by She Writes Press/distributed by Simon & Schuster on Oct. 14, 2025. https://andrealeebauthor.com

Board Member

Greg Smith

BA English, Secondary Education Teaching Certification

As someone whose life has been deeply touched by numerous encounters with the Transformative Language Arts, he is honored to help further the mission of the TLA Network, having participated in Power of Words conferences, Brave Voice retreats, and writing classes offered by Turning Point. While he has always cherished and supported those whose creativity in various mediums such as the spoken, written, or sung word, and how they greatly enrich all our lives; he has recently begun to do so himself. First, by completing a memoir as part of his legacy to his family, and now, beginning to put together a memoir on his wife Diane's and their family's experience of their encounter with Diane's vascular dementia. Diane's initial involvement with all these TLA activities has opened the door for his participation here as well, for which he will remain forever grateful!

Please see the contact us page to get in touch. 

The TLA Network exists to support and promote individuals and organizations that use the spoken, written, or sung word as a tool for personal and community transformation.

The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in our offerings, organization, and aspirations. Words have the power to question, subvert, and transform limiting cultural narratives as well as reinforce entrenched stories and stereotypes. The TLA Network wants to make clear that we celebrate and uplift conversations across identity and difference, whether rooted in race, religion, social class, ethnicity, disability, health, gender, sexual orientation, age, military service, and other identities. 


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The Transformative Language Arts Network is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization

1741 Valley Forge Road, #175, Worcester, PA 19490 | tlan.coordinator@gmail.com

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