Jo Massaro
Founder and CEO.
Jo is a motivational speaker writer and author.
Her dream started in October 2020, when she connected with thirty-one children’s authors. She asked them to share a video of their children’s book and give away a copy. This was available on Facebook.
Inspired by this dream, she started a nonprofit that aims to improve literacy skills and build a community that can make a difference.
She worked while living in New York as a Paralegal for ten years.
She co-founded, along with her husband, a nonprofit working in the area of HIV/AIDS for fifteen years.
She created the Yahweh Sisterhood Book Club for fifteen years interviewing Christian authors.
Look for her new podcast, “In The Midst of the Journey,” debuting in the fall of 2024.
She loves to read, fish, write, cook with her husband, Dominick, a professional chef, and spend time with family and friends. She is a mother to five children and six incredible grandchildren. She lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana with her husband, Dominick.
Kim Autrey
Secretary and Treasurer
Kim Autrey is a retired post-secondary education instructor. With over ten years of experience, Kim has assisted students of all ages in pursuing their educational goals through strengthening their composition and communication skills. A strong believer in the power of knowledge and learning, Kim continues to help others through her freelance editing business. Kim is inspired daily by her husband and family. In her free time, she can be found snuggled up with her two cats and reading an intriguing book.
Dara A. Lehner
Board Member
Dara A. Lehner is a published writer photographer, owner, and editor of Pen and Pearls Publishing. She has an innate
curiosity, a love of nature, and a passion for literacy. All have afforded many varied opportunities to author stories
of both fiction and nonfiction.
Dara is a life-long learner. She believes everyone has fascinating life stories and is honored to share them through her work both in print and photography.
Her background includes teaching English, reading, and writing to impoverished and underserved fourth-grade through college-age students in public, charter, and private
schools in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Books and
literacy have always held a special place in Dara’s life.
She has developed youth after-school programs,
volunteers at adult literacy centers; and is active in her church with programs benefiting young and old alike.
Dara has served in leadership positions on various Board of Directors for the development of a school, and other educational and non-profit projects.
Jessica Diaz
Board Member
Catalina Young
Board Member
Valerie Juillerat
Advisory Board
Valerie Juillerat, founder of Lessons of the Heart Ministries, is an author, artist and speaker. She has been published in the books, Anchor in the Storm and Refreshed by God’s Mercy and is currently writing her memoir, Finding Hope When Storms Don’t Cease. Valerie is also the co-owner Quest Investments and EPCO Accounting & Tax Services, Inc. where she is a tax specialist (AFSP). Valerie speaks at churches and venues sharing her testimony of how she found hope through the loss of her business, her home and her sons to drugs and alcohol. Valerie is the proud mother of two sons and resides at the lake in Indiana.