JODY DAY (1964) is the British founder of Gateway Women, the global support & advocacy network for childless women, founded in 2011. She’s the author of what many professionals consider to be the ‘go-to’ book on the topic, ‘Living the Life Unexpected: How to Find Hope, Meaning and a Fulfilling Future Without Children’ (PanMac 2016/2020). Chosen as one of the BBC’s 100 Women in 2013 & a UK Digital Woman of the Year in 2021, she’s a global thought leader on female involuntary childlessness, a psychotherapist, a 2017 and 2022 TEDx speaker, a founding and former board member at the UK Charity Ageing Without Children and a former Fellow in Social Innovation at Cambridge Judge Business School. Often referred to as the founder of the ‘childless movement’ she’s an Ambassador for World Childless Week and an Advisor at the New Legacy Institute, a global, intersectional, interdisciplinary policy institute and social justice platform for people without children where she is a co-ordinator for its Aging Justice Hub. After a lifetime in London, she now lives in West Cork, rural Ireland , where she’s completing a novel (featuring a childless heroine of course!) and nurturing her emerging Gateway Elderwomen project.
website: www.gateway-women.com direct email: jody@gateway-women.com linked-in: @jodyday twitter @gatewaywomen instagram @gatewaywomen & @apprenticecrone public facebook page www.facebook.com/GatewayWomenUK lightouse women private online community: www.gateway-women.com/community new legacy institute - professional social justice community on MightyNetworks Click here for Jody's one-page backgrounder & headshots.
SONIA SUMAN (UK) is the Community Manager for the Lighthouse Women Private Online Community (formerly known as the Gateway Women Online Community). Sonia’s professional background is in academia; she has a PhD in Renaissance Literature and has taught at both school and university level. Sonia also worked as part of the well-being team supporting undergraduates and postgraduates at a major British university. This also led her to study and train to teach mindfulness and self-compassion, which has been a huge part of her own healing journey too. She is passionate about community and became a Gateway Gatherings (now Lighthouse Women Gatherings) Host for the Worcestershire (UK) area in 2018, and realising the difference it made to her life having a local network of childless friends, she has gradually got more and more involved with GW to the point that she’s now an invaluable part of both the Gateway and Lighthouse Women teams. You can contact her directly at hello@lighthouse.community
MEET GATEWAY WOMEN'S LICENCED REIGNITE WEEKEND WORKSHOP FACILITATORS
