HE EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
If you have questions, we have answers. We’ve gathered experts whose advice, wisdom and counsel will help guide the direction of the magazine and website. Our board includes doctors, educators, counselors, nonprofit executives, subject experts and community leaders.
If you are interested in joining our Advisory Board, Click Here to request information(Tricia’s email).
(alphabetical order)
Head shot: https://www.drbeckloff.com/counselors
Dean Beckloff, PhD, LPC-S
Pediatric and Family Therapist
Dr. Beckloff currently maintains an active counseling practice in
Dallas, specializing in family counseling and parenting, working with children with emotional or behavioral issues, as well as children with ADD, Asperger’s Disorder, and others.
A Licensed Professional Counselor, Dr. Beckloff has worked extensively in individual and group therapy for children. Dr. Beckloff also specializes in filial play therapy treatment – a therapeutic approach to helping children through the use of play, with the parent as the person working with the child.
Dr. Beckloff has provided wise counsel to Good Life readers for over a decade. Put his name in the search bar to read any of his articles on a wide variety of topics.
Bianca Davis
Chief Executive Officer, New Friends New Life
Head shot: https://www.newfriendsnewlife.org/who-we-are
Since 2021, Bianca Davis has served as CEO of New Friends New Life (NFNL), a leading nonprofit agency in Dallas, Texas that restores and empowers women and girls
who have been trafficked or exploited.
Bianca has a combined 23 years of experience in healthcare communications and social services. Prior to joining NFNL, she served as senior director of fund and community development for
Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support, a local domestic violence recovery agency, after serving as communications manager for Medical City Dallas Hospital where she spent nine years leading
community engagement, internal campaigns, and shaping the organizational culture.
Bianca holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, and a master’s degree in organizational communication from Dallas Baptist University.
Bianca has twice been named to D CEO’s Dallas 500 List of the Most Powerful and Influential Business Leaders in DFW, is a 2024 Dallas Business Journal Women in Business honoree and was named a 2024 Living Legend by Verna’s HELP Foundation. In 2023, she became a Presidential Leadership Scholar. Bianca was also named 2022 Woman of the Year for the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club and an Unstoppable Woman by NBC5-DFW. In 2021, she graduated from the Dallas FBI Citizens Academy.
Head shot: https://www.brooklyn.edu/faculty-staff/tanni-haas/
Tanni Haas, Ph.D.
Professor at the City University of New York – Brooklyn College
Tanni Haas holds the Leonard & Claire Tow Professorship and is a Full Professor in the Department of Speech Communication Arts and Sciences at the City University of New York, Brooklyn College. He received a Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1999, a Master’s degree from Stirling University in 1993, and a Bachelor’s degree from Copenhagen Business School in 1992.
He has written five books and many short stories which have appeared in a variety of publications and have been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Greek, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish.
He is most excited about his recent middle-grade novel: “Journey to Justice: The Adventures of Spider and Ruby.” He has written extensively for Good Life for over 7 years. Put his name in the search bar to read any of his articles on a wide variety of topics.
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Head shot https://www.granthalliburton.org/board
Vanita Halliburton
Co-founder and Chairman Emeritus
Grant Halliburton Foundation
The Grant Halliburton Foundation was started in 2006 in honor of Ms. Haliburton’s teenage son, Grant, who died by suicide, by Vanita, along with Grant’s father Alan and sister Amy.
“When Grant died, my mom knew there must be other families struggling to connect the dots and find help for their loved ones,” Amy said. “She became a passionate changemaker for youth mental health and suicide prevention, learning all she could, breaking down stigma through education, conversation and collaboration, and helping every family she could. She is a true hero in our community, turning our family’s tragedy into a purposeful mission to keep more young people healthy and here.”
She its founding, the foundation has developed a mental health education initiative, training more than 350,000 students, educators, parents and professionals; established Coffee Days peer support groups for mothers and female caretakers of teens and young adults with mental health challenges; created a searchable database of more than 900 mental health providers and resources and created the Here for Texas Mental Health Navigation Line.
Head shot https://taylorhooton.org/leadership/
Don Hooton, Jr.
President
The Taylor Hooton Foundation
Don serves as President of the Taylor Hooton Foundation and leads the effort to drive their education programs into high schools, middle schools and universities across the United States, Canada and Latin America. He also helps ensure that the nonprofits’ messages are current and relevant to today’s youth and their adult influencers.
He, along with his father, cofounded the charity in 2004 just one year after the loss of his brother, Taylor. He is committed to eradicating Appearance and Performance Enhancing Substance use among teens and young adults while serving as a spokesperson and role model as we fight this dangerous issue.
Don has become one the most sought after speakers in North America on the subject of Appearance and Performance Enhancing Substances use by youth.
The Taylor Hooton Foundation (THF) was formed in 2004 in memory of Taylor E. Hooton, a 17-year old high school student from Plano, TX. Taylor took his own life on July 15, 2003 as a result of using anabolic steroids.
Today, the THF is the leader in educating youth and adult influencers on the dangers of anabolic steroids, human growth hormone (HGH), dietary supplements, and other Appearance and Performance Enhancing Substances.
(photo https://collin.academicworks.com/donors/cary-and-trudy-israel
Dr. Cary A. Israel
Consultant, Strategic Advisor, Former College President
Dr. Cary Israel is a prominent higher education leader, best known as the long-serving president of Collin College (1999–2014) in Texas, where he led significant expansion, including growing enrollment to 52,000 students and adding over 1 million square feet of facilities. In response to the crises-level need for classroom K-12 teachers, CCCC was the first community college in the State to gain approval for their teacher certification
program and received a $689,347 grant from the U.S. Department of Education for their “Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to use Technology” (PT3) program.
Israel previously served as president of Raritan Valley Community College in New Jersey, president of the Illinois Community College System, and president of Front Range Community College in Colorado. He was named the CEO of the year by the American Association of Community College Trustees for the Eastern Region and received the National Leadership Award from the National Council for Continuing Education and Training. Dr. Israel received a Bachelor of Arts degree with highest
honors from Michigan State University and Juris Doctorate from the University of Detroit Mercy Law School.
He is currently a consultant/strategic advisor, noted for his work on strategic, community, and corporate collaboration.
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Mercedes Korngut
Co-Founder, CEO, Smallbitsofhappiness.com | Producer/Co-host, Hack Your Happiness
Seventeen-year-old Mercedes Korngut and her sister Anatasia co-founded Small Bits of Happiness at ages 13 and 11, during COVID. She says, “We were both struggling to feel happy due to teenage hormones, friendship challenges, all the ups-and-downs of life, along with a global pandemic. The Canada-based company’s mission is to help people of all ages find small bits of happiness in everyday, build happy habits, and boost parent-child/teen connection. We strive to create a community of finding happiness in the small moments of everyday.”
Their mission is to inspire and empower young people to focus on the small and good moments that happen in daily life.
Today, Small Bits of Happiness has grown into a multi-platform happiness-wellness brand. Their products are in over 100 retailers and are used in 100+ schools. They also podcast , Hack Your Happiness, where they share tips for teens via interviews with iconic individuals.
Earle S. Lilly
Family Law Attorney Of Counsel, Author, and Lecturer
Throughout his five decades of practicing law in Houston, Texas, Earle S. Lilly became known as one of the top family lawyers in the U.S. and was selected to Super Lawyers for 2003, 2005 – 2022, the year he semi-retired. He was also named in the first, second and third editions of “Best Lawyers in America.”
He received his law degree from the University of Houston Law School in 1965, and practiced in state trial and appellate courts, and the Texas Supreme Court.
Mr. Lilly is the founding president of the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists, a past president of the Gulf Coast Family Law Specialists, and former fellow of the Family Law Section of the Houston Bar Association. He received a four-year appointment to the legislative wing of the Family Law Section of the Family Law Council of the State Bar. He also received a special appointment to the Advisory Commission in Family Law to the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
He is the co-founder of Lilly & Van Ness, LLP and together with his law partner John Van Ness and other associates, the firm has handled some of the largest, most complex, and prestigious family law cases in matters related to divorce, complex division of marital assets, child custody, parental relocations, pre and postnuptial agreements, post-divorce modifications, enforcements and mediations.
This particularly stellar gentleman is also known as “Dad” to Good Life 24-7 founder, Sheryl Lilly Pidgeon. He also has three sons, 7 grandchildren, and, as of 2025, one great -grandchild. At the age of 88 years young, Mr. Lilly is currently working on his first novel.
Richard Mover
Certified Coach, Speaker, Trainer, Actor, Director, and Producer
Residing in NYC, Richard Mover is an experienced Creative Performance Coach with a demonstrated history of working in the professional training & coaching industry for over 30 years. He is the founder of numerous companies including The Speakers Gym and Performance Transformance, and has designed and facilitated communication skills workshops for individuals and businesses including The John Maxwell Team, Meryl Lynch, Consolidated Capital Planners and the New York Bar Association to name a few. He is a highly skilled actor, director, musician and is also a produced playwright. Richard has a strong community and social services professional background as well.
He was a Caseworker for Barrier Free Living in NYC, a social services agency, that is still very near and dear to his heart.
He attended both Boston University and NYU’s theater programs, has acted in or directed dozens of plays and short films. As a director, Richard’s work has won awards and has consistently produced emotionally impactful performances, which is his trademark.
Through the combination of all of his unique and wide-ranging experience, perspective and focus, Richard has developed a set of “outside of the box” tools that help individuals find and funnel personal passion, achieve an authentic presence and make a truly resonant impact as communicators. He strives to bring out the best in everyone he works with a tailor-made creative approach and process that helps others realize and develop themselves fully through awareness, intention and accountability.
Dr. Susan Sugerman
Founder, Girls To Women Health & Wellness and Young Men’s Health
Dr. Susan Sugerman is the president and co-founder of Girls to Women Health and Wellness, a multidisciplinary medical practice in north Dallas dedicated to the physical and emotional needs of girls and young women ages 10-25. She is a graduate of Stanford University, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.
She did her residency training in Pediatrics in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship in Health Services Research at UCLA with an emphasis on confidentiality and access to care for adolescent and young adult women. Prior to opening Girls to Women, she worked for many years at Southern Methodist University, where she served as a staff physician in student health and coordinated educational and outreach programming.
She is Board Certified in Pediatrics and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She holds memberships in the Society for Adolescent Medicine and the North American Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology.
Dr. Sugerman speaks to parent and professional audiences on subjects such as parenting, adolescent development, dating safety, sexuality, nutrition and body image, bullying, and preparing for college. She is a recipient of the Gail Reese Award for Education from Planned Parenthood North Texas and the Women’s Mentorship Award from the Annual Women’s Symposium, Southern Methodist University.
“Being able to have someone with whom to communicate comfortably and accurately about sensitive subjects is crucial to successfully navigating through adolescence,” says Dr. Sugerman. She looks forward to helping young women maneuver this challenging and exciting stage of their development safely and with confidence.
