Margot Carmichael Lester

Verbal Tycoon

Margot Carmichael Lester currently divides her time between journalism and consulting. A reporter for both print and web, Margot possesses a solid understanding of writing that works. She is a regular contributor to The Los Angeles Business Journal, Multifamily Executive magazine, Monster.com and Match.com, among others. Margot has provided editorial services and strategic communication counsel to clients including Golden Corral, GlaxoSmithKline, Progress Energy, SciQuest and Citysearch. She is a certified instructor for the FastTrac entrepreneurial training program and is a veteran presenter of writing, public relations and corporate operations workshops. Margot is the author of The Real Life Guide to Starting Your Career and The Real Life Guide to Life After College. Prior to starting The Word Factory, Margot was director of marketing at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and public affairs coordinator at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.

Steve Peha’s unique combination of skills and experience — as an educator, writer, technology consultant and software developer — allow him to view content creation and training in an innovative and original way that improves performance quickly. Since 1995, Steve has given more than 300 workshops across the United States and Canada as president of Teaching That Makes Sense, an education reform and consulting company. He is frequently quoted by the press in articles on education and training. Steve is the author of The Effective Learning Series, a bi-weekly column on research-based best practice teaching techniques for The Seattle Times, which won the 2001 Innovators in Education Award from the Newspaper Association of America. His first book, Be A Writer:A Young Person’s Guide to the Writing Life, will be published in 2006.