Carmelina Read is Italian. She speaks Italian with her 4 children, is a coffee and gelato connoisseur, plays the accordion (occasionally in full costume!), and dreams about Rome, Tuscany and Amalfi. She is an ex-lawyer who has been at Chatswood Presbyterian Church with her husband Jeff for the past 10 years. She hates running, but does it anyway. She loves studying the Bible with women, and can't wait to open up Genesis with thousands of women at wkc 09 to share the great news that the snake-crusher has come and conquered!
Claire Smith lives in a musical house, with husband Rob and son Nathanael, both rockers from way back. Her background is in nursing, specifically oncology and pallative care. Now that she has finished what seems like a hundred years of post-graduate studies in the New Testament, she is again enjoying reading, drawing, holidaying and just plain sitting. She is really looking forward to wkc 09 to share her excitement about the God who is for us and knows what we need, and whose creation of gendered relationships is absolutely for our good.
Alli Street is the women's pastor at St Alban's Multicultural Bible Ministry in Rooty Hill. She drinks green tea because she thinks it is good for her. She loves her family and friends, and enjoys spending time with them. Some of her downtime is spent daydreaming about exotic overseas locations, and trying to work out how to make those dreams a reality. In the meantime, she is trilled to be with us at wkc 09, and wants us to know, even before we hear her speak, that everything (as in, absolutely EVERYTHING!) begins with God and his powerful word.
Melinda Tankard Reist is a Canberra author, researcher and commentator, with a special interest in issues affecting women. She is a Director of Women's Forum Australia (WFA), an independent women's think tank. Editor of WFA's magazine-style research paper Faking It : The Female Image in Young Women's Magazines, Melinda is also working on a new book about girls and popular culture. Hear her speak on a hot button topic on the optional Sunday morning session.