2009 Fourth Annual Authors' Luncheon

Authors

     Sybil Downing writes about strong women who go against the norm. Her novel, The Vote: A Novel, probes the American psyche of the World War I era through the eyes of young women as they battle for the cherished right to vote.

     Sybil is the award-winning, best-seller author of four acclaimed historical novels, a biography, and thirteen young adult and children’s books. The novels have appeared on the bestseller lists. Among her works are The Binding Oath, a look at the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado; Ladies of the Goldfield Stock Exchange, about women who start their own exchange during the last great gold strike; and Fire in the Hole set during the 1913 Colorado coal strikes and ensuing violence.

     A fourth-generation native of Colorado, Sybil attended schools in New York City and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Colorado. She is the great granddaughter of Colorado’s first congressman and U.S. Senator. Sybil has championed women’s rights, and her books reflect her lifelong passion for politics and love of the West.

     Sybil writes a monthly column for the Denver Post Book Review Section and has appeared on CSPAN and local talk shows. A former chair of the Colorado Center for the Book, dedicated to improving literacy and celebrating the book, she is also a frequent speaker at libraries and museums.

     Audrey Nelson, PhD, is an internationally recognized consultant and seminar leader, she has provided insights into communications in her book You Don’t Say: Navigating Non Verbal Communications Between the Sexes.She specializes in male-female communication, interpersonal skills, sexual harassment/ discrimination, cultural diversity and conflict management.

     Audrey’s professional background includes 10 years as a university professor in Communication and 20 years as a consultant and trainer for a wide range of government and Fortune 50 and 500 companies. She holds a B.A., M.A, and Ph.D. in Communication. She conducted post-doctoral work in Communication at Warnboroug College in Oxford, England.

     Audrey won the “Teaching Excellence” award at the University of Colorado-Boulder. She was designated “Woman of the Year” by the Business and Professional Women (BPW) and has served as president of the Organization for Research on Women and Communication. She has also been awarded a grant from the State of California Teaching and Learning Council for her excellence in teaching at San Diego University.

     Audrey’s presentation style and communication background contribute to a dynamic, interactive and informative learning experience.

 

     John Shors has been most fortunate to spend much of his life abroad. A Colorado College graduate, he studied creative writing and received a degree in English before pursing his dream of living in Asia. Fate brought him to Kyoto, Japan where he landed a job as an English teacher; a post he held for three years. John then backpacked across Asia, visiting ten countries over the course of the next few years. During that time, he climbed the Himalayas’ of Nepal and explored the monuments of India – learning much of what would later be folded into his novel Beneath a Marble Sky and later, Beside a Burning Sea.

     John became a newspaper reporter in his home state of Iowa upon his return to the United States. Within two years he won three statewide awards in journalism, including one for best investigative reporting. He and his wife moved to Colorado where he began a career as a public relations executive, working for clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies to local nonprofits.

     John and his wife Allison live in Boulder County with their two children Sophie and Jack.

Honorary Chair

     The Honorable Jean Dubofsky served as the event's Honorary Chair. Jean Dubofsky made Colorado history as the first woman appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court. It was called “good news for Colorado and good news for justice” by then Vice President Walter Mondale.

Her career, one of advocacy and action on behalf of women, the poor, and others excluded from equality in the political and legal process, includes serving as lead counsel in the successful challenge to the constitutional amendment preventing gays and lesbians from obtaining governmental redress for discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

     Jean moved to Colorado after serving as Mondale’s legislative assistant and began her distinctive, exemplary service in the legislative, executive and judicial arenas to eradicate long-held barriers to women in a state known for its male-dominated institutions, She has served the underserved, the law, and society in capacities traditionally denied to women and has opened doors for other women to enter.

     Jean was the first woman appointed Justice of Colorado Supreme Court and held the appointment until 1987. She then entered academia, as visiting professor at the University of Colorado Law School and adjunct professor in the Women’s Studies Department, the University of Colorado at Boulder.

     Justice Dubofsky received the Colorado Women’s Bar Association Mary Lathrop Trailblazer Award for “dedication to public service and public interest law” and the Boulder County Bar Association President’s Award of Merit. In 1993, she received the ACLU Carle Whitehead Memorial Award for “exceptional commitment and dedication to civil liberties and the State of Colorado.”

     Jean earned her A.B. from Stanford University and her LL.B from Harvard Law School.

Master of Ceremonies

     Clay Evans joined us for the fourth time as our Master of Ceremonies. Born in Denver, Clay Evans grew up in Boulder,  graduating from Boulder High in 1980. After a fling with college in New York City, he came back west to work as a cowboy for the next seven years, an experience he wrote about in his memoir, I See By Your Outfit: Becoming a Cowboy a Century Too Late.  He later graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and worked at newspapers in Santa Cruz and LA.

     After experiencing an “allergic reaction” to Southern California, he took a job at a newspaper in Santa Fe. Later he returned to Boulder and began to work for The Boulder Daily Camera. He is the author of a children’s book, The Winter Witch. Clay is presently working as a non-profit executive on behalf of animals. He is also a freelance writer.