Gail Straub is the author of seven books including the best-selling Empowerment, co-authored with her husband David Gershon and translated into fourteen languages, the critically acclaimed The Rhythm of Compassion; her feminist memoir, Returning to My Mother’s House; the fairy tale Réveil …and The Old One at the Edge of the World, and most recently her award-winning nature writing The Ashokan Way, and Solace and Sanctuary in collaboration with the artist Kate McGloughlin. Gail’s books have garnered three Nautilus Silver Medal Awards as well as three Foreword Review Book Awards. Her articles and essays have appeared in various publications including the Chronogram, Foreword Magazine, Huffington Post, Spirituality and Health, Wayfarer, and In Context.
 
Along with being a writer, Gail Straub co-founded the Empowerment Institute in 1981 and is considered a visionary pioneer in the field of empowerment.  One of the world’s leading authorities on women’s empowerment, she co-founded IMAGINE: A Global Initiative for the Empowerment of Women to help women heal from violence, build strong lives, and contribute to their community. IMAGINE initiatives have taken root throughout Africa, India, and the Middle East where they have impacted over half a million lives. Gail’s white paper entitled “The Missing Piece in the Empowerment Equation” is considered a seminal contribution to the field of human agency. She has contributed to various anthologies on women’s empowerment including Enlightened Power: How Women Are Transforming the Practice of Leadership. Gail has been a consultant to many organizations furthering women’s empowerment including the Chinese Women’s Federation, the Russian American Initiative, Women for Women International, World Pulse, and the Omega Women’s Leadership Center.
 
Taking her empowerment work global early in her career, Gail served as the co-founder for the First Earth Run, a historic planet wide initiative cosponsored by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and ABC Television in 1986, during the height of the cold war. As a torch of peace was passed around the world, 25 million people in sixty-two countries participated and the relay garnered recognition from forty-five heads of state. The event raised several million dollars for UNICEF that was distributed to the neediest children in the world.
 
 Actively engaged with the vibrant artistic community in her home in the Hudson River Valley, Gail has been involved with the Woodstock Bookfest since its inception in 2010, offered her series Books, Spirituality, and Consciousness under the auspices of Woodstock’s iconic independent bookstore The Golden Notebook, and interviewed spiritual luminaries such as authors Stephen Cope, Eve Ensler, Priscilla Gilman, Elizabeth Lesser, Mark Matousek, and Joan Borysenko. One of Gail’s greatest joys is working in collaboration with other Hudson Valley artists, musicians, writers, painters, and poets including Kate McGloughlin, Steve Gorn, Baird Hersey, Amy Fradon, Nina Shengold, Lissa Kiernan, Susanna Ronner, and the late Carol Zaloom.
 
 For over forty years Gail has lived with her husband David Gershon in their small A-frame perched on the edge of the Ashokan Reservoir and the Catskill Mountain Watershed in the Hudson River Valley in New York.