Past Presenters
Hetty Mayer MacDowell grew up camping. Being in the Girl Scouts both as a scout and a leader plus traveling the country with her family set the stage for her love of the outdoors. Combined with her theater background she has found her niche as a priestess and teacher. Art and crafting is in her blood. Hetty also helps facilitate The Midwest Herb Fest and looks forward to this event every year. She is humbled and honored to be sitting on The Elder panel this year, and is excited to be learning and sharing from so many amazing women.
Lillian Erin Freeman was born in late winter of 1980. She graduated from High School in 1998 and chose to enter the professional world before continuing with her education. She held several different jobs before deciding to re-enter school in 2002 studying Criminal Justice with an additional focus on psychology. In 2005, she chose to take time off to address her own needs. She entered into therapy to address gender identity and began researching gender dysphoria on her own time. She was diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder and began transitioning to live her life as a woman full time. She is currently working as a textbooks supervisor at the Barnes & Noble @ IUPUI to help pay with the cost of her transition and support her wife, Pixi, who has been fully supportive and understanding of the process. They live together in Indianapolis, Indiana with their many fur children.
Kim Pennington, PhD in Paranormal Psychology, MBA, Master Herbalist, is an Aroma Therapist, Reiki Master, Comfort Touch Specialist, Bach Flower Specialist, Shamanic Practitioner, and Wise Woman.
Kim has been practicing and studying herbals and energy healing for over 25 years. Studying with Michael Moore, J. Digby Henry, Amber K, Kristin Madden, Sharon Knight, Dr. Connie Henry, and many others. Kim is prior Faculty, Board and Dean of Shamanic Studies and Healing Arts at Ardantane Pagan Learning Center, Jemez Springs, NM. Also a past presenter at Pantheacon, various Pagan Pride Days around the US, and a Co-Coordinator of Northern NV PPD, and Albuquerque PPD Publicity and Marketing. Kim spent the summer of 13 volunteering with the Buffalo Field Campaign in MT monitoring and protecting the last true herd of Bison in the United States. Owner of Sacred Circle Herbs & Energy
Jennifer Bartlett-Phelps has a BFA of Fine Art from Indiana University, and has been photographing people for over 10 years. She loves working with women specifically, and making them feel amazing about themselves. She is the owner of Alter Ego Imaging, an Indianapolis photography studio, where she specializes in Boudoir photography, or intimate portraits of women.
Rachel Torres is a certified massage therapist and birth doula loving, laughing, and living in Bloomington, Indiana. When she’s not working, spending time with her family, or going to school, she can most often be found with her nose in a book, writing in her journal, or binge-watching Netflix. She hopes to one day be a midwife and is very passionate about women’s health. She advocates for women of all ages to educate themselves and seek empowerment through making their own informed decisions about their bodies. "No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body.” –Margaret Sanger
Batya Weinbaum teaches Image of Women in Western Civilization, Myth and Modern Life, and Intro to Women's Studies online at SUNY Empire State College Center for Distance Learning. She has also been an exhibiting artist since the eighth grade, when she won Artist of the Week at Woodrow Wilson High School in Terre Haute, IN where she grew up. She went off to the east coast to become a liberal in 1970 and attended Hampshire College, where her first love was photography...and where she had her first one-woman show, of Mexican photographs. She then had a show of Latin American works in a Newbury St gallery in Boston, and was written up in the magazine Popular Photography. Her first photographs were published in the Boston women's magazine, Second Wave. She turned to batik, pen and water color, as well as acrylics in the eighties, and has exhibited and shown in Hawaii, VA, NY, Mass, Vt and Mexico. Her workshops on Painting from the Divine Feminine are quite popular and she is actively engaged with studying how women make art in the area of Mithila in India, where she leads tours. She is currently creating a women's art space called FemeniaSube on Isla Mukeres, MX, which is a community art project involved women from all over the world, including China, MX and Argentina, creating a channel for the Great Mother by an array of fertility goddesses from the Bronze Age made from tiles and found objects from the island. She has also made her own deck to do readings, by photographing mythic archetypes, art from around the world, and her own creations.
Lillian Erin Freeman was born in late winter of 1980. She graduated from High School in 1998 and chose to enter the professional world before continuing with her education. She held several different jobs before deciding to re-enter school in 2002 studying Criminal Justice with an additional focus on psychology. In 2005, she chose to take time off to address her own needs. She entered into therapy to address gender identity and began researching gender dysphoria on her own time. She was diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder and began transitioning to live her life as a woman full time. She is currently working as a textbooks supervisor at the Barnes & Noble @ IUPUI to help pay with the cost of her transition and support her wife, Pixi, who has been fully supportive and understanding of the process. They live together in Indianapolis, Indiana with their many fur children.
Kim Pennington, PhD in Paranormal Psychology, MBA, Master Herbalist, is an Aroma Therapist, Reiki Master, Comfort Touch Specialist, Bach Flower Specialist, Shamanic Practitioner, and Wise Woman.
Kim has been practicing and studying herbals and energy healing for over 25 years. Studying with Michael Moore, J. Digby Henry, Amber K, Kristin Madden, Sharon Knight, Dr. Connie Henry, and many others. Kim is prior Faculty, Board and Dean of Shamanic Studies and Healing Arts at Ardantane Pagan Learning Center, Jemez Springs, NM. Also a past presenter at Pantheacon, various Pagan Pride Days around the US, and a Co-Coordinator of Northern NV PPD, and Albuquerque PPD Publicity and Marketing. Kim spent the summer of 13 volunteering with the Buffalo Field Campaign in MT monitoring and protecting the last true herd of Bison in the United States. Owner of Sacred Circle Herbs & Energy
Jennifer Bartlett-Phelps has a BFA of Fine Art from Indiana University, and has been photographing people for over 10 years. She loves working with women specifically, and making them feel amazing about themselves. She is the owner of Alter Ego Imaging, an Indianapolis photography studio, where she specializes in Boudoir photography, or intimate portraits of women.
Rachel Torres is a certified massage therapist and birth doula loving, laughing, and living in Bloomington, Indiana. When she’s not working, spending time with her family, or going to school, she can most often be found with her nose in a book, writing in her journal, or binge-watching Netflix. She hopes to one day be a midwife and is very passionate about women’s health. She advocates for women of all ages to educate themselves and seek empowerment through making their own informed decisions about their bodies. "No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body.” –Margaret Sanger
Batya Weinbaum teaches Image of Women in Western Civilization, Myth and Modern Life, and Intro to Women's Studies online at SUNY Empire State College Center for Distance Learning. She has also been an exhibiting artist since the eighth grade, when she won Artist of the Week at Woodrow Wilson High School in Terre Haute, IN where she grew up. She went off to the east coast to become a liberal in 1970 and attended Hampshire College, where her first love was photography...and where she had her first one-woman show, of Mexican photographs. She then had a show of Latin American works in a Newbury St gallery in Boston, and was written up in the magazine Popular Photography. Her first photographs were published in the Boston women's magazine, Second Wave. She turned to batik, pen and water color, as well as acrylics in the eighties, and has exhibited and shown in Hawaii, VA, NY, Mass, Vt and Mexico. Her workshops on Painting from the Divine Feminine are quite popular and she is actively engaged with studying how women make art in the area of Mithila in India, where she leads tours. She is currently creating a women's art space called FemeniaSube on Isla Mukeres, MX, which is a community art project involved women from all over the world, including China, MX and Argentina, creating a channel for the Great Mother by an array of fertility goddesses from the Bronze Age made from tiles and found objects from the island. She has also made her own deck to do readings, by photographing mythic archetypes, art from around the world, and her own creations.