The Mormon Women Project is made possible by the generously volunteered time of these contributors. If you are interested in contributing to the Mormon Women Project yourself, please click here.

Cassandra Arnell, interview producer and legal counsel

An attorney in her former life, Cassandra Arnell is now a full-time mother to her adorable baby girl.  She has a BS in Accounting from Southern Utah University and a JD from the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law.  She grew up in the church and loves that her path Home is tangled with that of so many wonderful people.  She plays tennis, enjoys strategy games and laying in the grass, and (to her own surprise) has recently taken up cooking and knitting.  A native of Grantsville, Utah, Cassandra has lived in London, England, Washington, DC and now resides in blustery Chicago, IL with her husband and sweet little girl.

Rachael Decker Bailey, interview producer

Rachael Decker Bailey has a BA and MA in English from Brigham Young University. Currently, she teaches part-time at Purdue University, where her husband is finishing his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and they are both getting a serious education in parenting from their three children. She blogs here [http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/] about her life as a mother, organic gardener, aspiring vegetarian chef, and wannabe competitive runner. In idle moments, she daydreams about opening a cafe where she will bake crusty artisan breads and her husband will operate the panini press.

Barbara Christiansen, interview producer

A native of Denver, Barbara Christiansen lives in Washington D.C. with her husband of 7 years. She has a BA in English from Brigham Young University, an MBA from Oxford, and a Masters in Education from Harvard.  She has worked as a strategy consultant for most of her career, both in the corporate and nonprofit sectors. She is obsessed with books and loves to travel.

Amy Doxey, interview producer

Amy Doxey grew up a member of the LDS faith in Denver, Colorado. After graduating from Brigham Young University-Hawaii with a BA in International Studies, Amy has returned to Denver overseeing the marketing efforts for an international ski magazine. When she’s not in the mountains, traveling with her husband or blogging at www.notesbyamy.blogspot.com, Amy enjoys writing for The Mormon Women Project and Latter-Day Woman magazine.

Louise Elder, interview producer

Louise Elder spent her childhood moving all over the English coast and countryside. She grew up in the Church after both sets of grandparents joined in the 1950s and 60s in England and raised Louise’s parents in the gospel. She moved to London when she was 18 to study Drama and English and she achieved Gold Medal Standard with the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). After school, Louise stayed in London for another ten years, working as an Executive Assistant in a number of different industries including hospitality, retail and headhunting. Her favorite position was working for the manager of a five star London hotel, who had special responsibilities for VIPs and celebrities. Her tasks, among others, included unpacking Kevin Spacey’s luggage; placating a grumpy George Lucas; and organizing Joan Collins’ hen party in advance of her fifth marriage!

Louise married her Irish husband Jonathon in 2005, and she has a 16 month old daughter, Adelaide. She now lives in the English countryside where she serves as Enrichment Counsellor in her ward’s Relief Society Presidency and trains for her first women-only triathlon this summer, held not too far from Windsor Castle.

Rosalyn Eves, interview producer

Rosalyn Collings Eves grew up mostly in Montana and Utah; she has a BA in English from BYU and an MA and PhD in English from Penn State, where she also met her husband of seven years. Prior to finishing her BA, she served a mission in the Hungary, Budapest mission. She is currently a mostly-stay-at-home mother to two children (a four-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter), and teaches the occasional English composition class at a local university. In her free time, she likes to watch movies with her husband, read, write, hike, and (sometimes) run.

Melissa Hardy, interview producer

Melissa earned a Journalism degree from Brigham Young University and later worked as a television producer and public relations professional in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is now a homemaker and mother of three.

After making the transition from full-time professional to stay-at-home mom, Melissa learned to love the adventures of raising young children but knew she needed a meaningful avenue for expressing her interests. While debating how to best spend sparse free time, Melissa was introduced to Mormon Women Project where she now enjoys volunteering as a writer/producer.  She’s convinced this is the ideal outlet that blends her love for journalism, faith and family.

Krisanne Hastings, interview producer

Krisanne Hastings hails from the delicious drizzle of Portland, Oregon. She has a BA in Art History from BYU and an MA in Art History from the University of York, England. Her colorful and dynamic spiritual history includes her conversion to the Church at the age of eleven as well as family members who are Jewish, Catholic, Buddhist, and Agnostic.  She is addicted to design blogs, is an incurable Anglophile, and just returned to the States after teaching art to 40 kindergartners in Seoul, South Korea. She is devoted to supporting and empowering women within and without the Church.

Nollie Haws, interview producer

Nollie Dockum Haws grew up in Eastern Washington. She graduated from Utah State University with a BA in Journalism and a minor in Spanish, then went on to earn a master’s degree in Mass Communication from Arizona State University.  Before taking on more demanding clients (two young children) she worked in the public relations field. When allowed enough sleep, she dreams of writing for The Wall Street Journal or inheriting Katie Couric’s chair someday.

Nollie currently lives in Columbus, OH with her husband and children.  She loves reading, travel, exercise, movies, good conversation, and chocolate.

Neylan McBaine, founder and editor

Neylan McBaine grew up a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) in New York City and attended Yale University. She has been published in Newsweek, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Segullah, Meridian Magazine, PowerofMoms.com and BustedHalo.com. She is the author of a collection of personal essays — How to Be a Twenty-First Century Pioneer Woman (2008) — and she writes regular columns for Patheos.com, a premier religious information portal.

In addition to her work with the Mormon Women Project, is an associate creative director at Bonneville Communications, responsible for the Mormon.org national video campaign. Neylan blogs regularly at neylanmcbaine.com. She lives with her husband and three young daughters.

Melissa McQuarrie, copy editor

Melissa McQuarrie lives in Provo, Utah (which she never pictured herself doing) with her husband and four children. She grew up in Australia; her family moved to the States when she was 16. She attended BYU and earned a BA and an MA in English. Between her BA and her MA, she served a mission in Arequipa, Peru. She met her husband on a blind date when she was just finishing up her MA. She took her oral exams 6 weeks before giving birth to her first child. She has two daughters and two sons; her oldest daughter is a junior at BYU and her youngest (also a daughter) is in 6th grade, so she currently has children in elementary school, junior high, high school, and college! She is a prose editor for Segullah and she loves to read, cook, and take long walks.

Marintha Miles, interview producer

Marintha Miles grew up in Utah, the eldest of twelve children. She now resides in Northern California with her husband and four children. She spends her days playing Candyland and making cookies, and finagling time to write. She is part of the Segullah staff.

Shelah Miner, interview producer

Shelah Mastny Miner was raised in Connecticut, where she and her family joined the LDS church when she was 14. After enduring four years as the only Mormon in her high school (besides her brother) she eagerly headed west to BYU, where she met her future husband, Ed, at freshman orientation. They got married the day after she graduated, and spent the next decade moving around the country to chase Ed’s dream of becoming a cardiologist, while filling up the seats in the back of their minivan. During those years, Shelah completed an MA in American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, taught English to middle school and college students, and changed a lot of diapers.

Shelah and Ed now live in Salt Lake City with their four children. Shelah tries to squeeze out the most of her days, running in the predawn hours, reading while waiting in the carpool lane, and blogging about her life experiences here, here, and here. She also works as Segullah’s Features Editor and is a student in BYU’s MFA in Creative Writing program.

Shelah’s photo by Justin Hackworth.

Lydia Defranchi, interview producer
I am a college student majoring in Broadcast Journalism, with an unofficial minor I like to call “whatever sounds interesting.” I was born and raised in France, then trekked out to Utah for college. Because my father is French and my mother is American, I grew up speaking both languages and have lived in both countries–I like to say I got the best of two worlds. Journalism has also enriched my life in ways I never expected. I plan on continuing to be involved in communications forever, even though I have no idea what shape that work will take. I met my husband on the Ballroom Dance Company at BYU, and someday in the not-too-distant future, we will have children and I will continue to record our family history together–when we’re not busy finger-painting with the kids or dancing around the kitchen.

Annette Bay Pimentel, interview producer
Annette Bay Pimentel has a BA in English literature from University of California, Berkeley and an MA from Brandeis University. She is the stay-at-home mother of six children. Her youngest child is now in kindergarten, leaving her with chunks of writing time rather than scattered snippets. She and her husband have moved their family fourteen times in their 27 years of marriage, demonstrating either their keen spirit of adventure or their short attention span. One of the happiest byproducts of all the moves is the fascinating people, including many amazing Mormon women, they have met. Currently they live in Sarajevo, Bosnia. She writes for children and also sometimes blogs about living abroad with children at saturdaymorningkhartoum.blogspot.com.

Elizabeth Pinborough, interview producer

Elizabeth Pinborough is a BYU alumna and will complete her master’s degree in religion and literature at Yale in December. Art is her greatest love, and she spends her happiest hours drawing, painting, photographing, and writing creatively. Women’s history captivates her, and she comes from a line of strong, faithful women. One day she hopes to teach in some capacity.

Allison Pond, interview producer

Allison moved around quite a bit growing up, living in 16 houses by the age of 16 and attending kindergarten and first grade in Mexico City. She completed high school in Littleton, Colorado, and still thinks of Colorado as home. Allison received a BA in Journalism from Brigham Young University and a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from Georgetown University. She has lived in Russia several times as a teacher, a missionary and a fugitive from cubicle life. Allison loves good novels, staying up late and extra sharp cheddar cheese.

Allison is an editorial writer and columnist for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah. She previously worked on public opinion surveys about religion and politics at the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC.

Deila Taylor, interview producer

Deila Taylor grew up in Southern California,  received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Occidental College with graduate work at USC in pharmacology and nutrition. She is a Mormon, a mom to four sons and a daughter, two daughters-in-law, one son-in-law, wife and business partner to her husband in their alternative energy business of waste gasification, grandma to two little girls and an aspiring writer. She writes in her field of nutrition for Livestrong.com, her life in Eve Out of the Garden, and her home school blog. Deila enjoys promoting the uniqueness and individuality of Mormon women as they contribute to life’s many journeys.

Lyndsey Payzant Wells, interview producer

Lyndsey Payzant Wells is a writer, public relations consultant, mother, dessert fanatic and Mormon who grew up in sunny southern California. Now a resident of Utah thanks to her husband’s grad school, she tries to keep busy and warm. Lyndsey has worked in the communications field in New York City, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City and is currently attempting her most challenging project yet: learning to raise children. She spends her days blogging about fun paper products at The Stationery Place, freelancing, sewing, reading and – her favorite job – playing with her baby boy.

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