Contributing Writers

Rick Bamford writes with an avid interest in philosophy, science and history.  He enjoys photography and reading in his spare time. He lives in New Jersey and spends a lot of time in New York City. He has an MBA and works in the insurance industry. He is a Secular Humanist with interests in various philosophies such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Stoicism.

J. Ash Bowie is a psychotherapist residing in the California Bay Area. Ash was raised as a Unitarian Universalist and later explored Hermeticism and Paganism before becoming a secular humanist and worldview naturalist. He is the founder of the Sacred River Project at sacredriver.org, a project committed to developing a naturalistic program that aims to promote lives of meaning, fulfillment, and joy.

Annika Garratt Annika Garratt is an artist, photographer, and writer; born and living in the United Kingdom. Annika studied National Diploma Fine Art at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth, giving her the advantage of exploring a diversity of media and techniques such as sculpture, textiles, photography, and painting. Annika then went on to a BA in Illustration, attracted in particular to the Fairytale & Folklore project offered by Southampton Solent. The Illustration course taught her how to speak in symbols and tell stories through images. Annika loves studying the layers of symbolism in fairytales, folklore and mythology. Her work has appeared in festivals, exhibitions, magazines, book covers, and many other projects. Annika maintains a blog and website of her work at www.annikagarratt.co.uk.

Jennifer Hancock is author of, The Humanist Approach to Happiness: Practical Wisdom, Jen Hancock’s Handy Humanism Handbook, and The Humanist Approach to Happiness: Life Skills Course. She writes a freelance column about Humanism for the Bradenton Herald newspaper and publishes the Happiness through Humanism blog and podcast. She is also a speaker, specializing in Humanism, ethics, morality, and what motivates us to be better humans. Jennifer Hancock describes herself as unique in that she is one of the few people in America who was actually raised according to Humanist principles. Her upbringing gives her a distinctive approach to the promotion of Humanism. This has led people like bio-ethicist and author Torben Riise, Ph.D. to claim that she is “one of the finest minds in Humanism” today.

Rick Heller facilitates the Humanist Mindfulness Group, which is sponsored by the Humanist Community at Harvard University. His writing has appeared in Buddhadharma, Free Inquiry, UUWorld, Tikkun, the Boston Globe, and Lowell Sun. He is the creator of Seeing the Roses, which presents videos showing how mindfulness can help us deal with behaviors that drive climate change.

Ted Meissner has been a meditator since the early 90′s, with training in both the Zen and Theravada traditions as well as more contemporary teaching methods.  He is the Executive Director of the Secular Buddhist Association, and host of the SBA’s official podcast, The Secular Buddhist.  Ted’s background in skepticism, science, and critical thinking informs his examination of the evolution of contemplative practice in modern culture, and he is a regular panelist on interfaith discussions regarding the complex issues facing our global society.

B.T. Newberg is an author, editor, teacher, and husband.  Since 2000, he has been practicing meditation and ritual from a naturalistic perspective.  After leaving the Lutheranism of his raising, he experimented with Agnosticism, Buddhism, Contemporary Paganism, and Spiritual Humanism.  He now edits a community blog for naturalistic spirituality called Humanistic Paganism, and sells his ebooks at GoodReads.  Professionally, he teaches English as a Second Language.  After growing up in Minnesota, and living in England, Malaysia, and Japan, B. T. Newberg currently resides in South Korea with his wife and cat.

Daniel Strain is the Executive Director of the Spiritual Naturalist Society.  Rev. Strain is a Humanist minister, speaker, and writer on the topics of ethics, spirituality, and ancient philosophy. He is the founder of the Humanist Contemplative concept and group, which has since helped inspire a similar group at Harvard University. He is former president of the Humanists of Houston, founder of the Houston Freethought Alliance, and has served in various committees of the American Humanist Association. He writes for the Houston Chronicle Belief page and his work has appeared nationally in other magazines, newsletters, and journals.