Staff

Media Inquiries: contact info@vibrantnation.com

Stephen Reily entrepreneur, marketing expert, author and active blogger, is the founder and CEO of VibrantNation.com, the leading online community for Baby Boomer women – the place where they connect and support each other on issues unique to life after 50.

Stephen launched VibrantNation.com after researching the lack of media geared towards women 50+. As a marketing professional, he built IMC Licensing, a brand licensing agency that has represented major companies like Kraft Foods, S.C. Johnson, Wrigley, and Abbott Labs, and dozens of iconic brands like Dole, Valvoline, Philosophy, Milk-Bone, and TABASCO.

Stephen is a respected author, speaker, and expert on topics related to the Boomer woman demographic. He writes frequently for MediaPost and brandchannel.com, has published articles in BRANDWEEK, and is the co-author (with Carol Orsborn, Ph.D.) of Vibrant Nation: What Boomer Women 50+ Know, Think, Do & Buy. In addition, he consults regularly with companies seeking to better understand the Boomer woman, including Brown-Forman, Campbell Soup, and General Motors. He has been a featured speaker at leading industry events including the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show, Book Expo America, M2W® – The Marketing to Women Conference, and the American Society for Aging (ASA). In 2011, Stephen was chosen as the best speaker by brand marketing and agency executives who attended M2W® and was awarded the event’s annual “You Take the Cake Award.”

According to Stephen, who was also inspired by a very vibrant grandmother and mother, “Once you recognize the strength of individual women at this stage of life, you recognize the strength of all women at this stage of life. I’ve always known women over 50 could do anything, which is why I couldn’t understand why the marketplace ignored them – and why I started Vibrant Nation.”

Stephen graduated from Yale College, summa cum laude, and from Stanford Law School, after which he clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife and three children.

Contact Stephen at info@vibrantnation.com

Caroline Roberts Heine, Chief of Staff, Office of the CEO
Caroline joins Vibrant Nation with 15+ years of management experience, focusing largely in the nonprofit sector working in the areas of business and strategic planning, business development, relationship management, communications and marketing, and operations. Before joining Vibrant Nation, Caroline served as president & CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Kentuckiana, an out-of-schooltime organization operating three Clubs in Louisville and Southern Indiana and serving 1,700 disadvantaged youth per year. Prior to her time with the Boys & Girls Clubs, Caroline served as chief operating officer for GivingNet, a national nonprofit organization focused on developing strategies, products, and services for the community foundation field.

Caroline earned a B.A. in Political Science with honors from Butler University and an M.B.A. from the Kenan-Flager Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was named to the Beta Gamma Sigma honorary society.

She lives with her husband (and high school sweetheart), Tim, their two college-age children (when they are home from school), and the world’s most lovable golden retriever, Henry.

Vibrant role model: “My sister-in-law’s mother, Marg Campisano. At the age of 70, Marg is still working in her dental practice, practicing Bikram Yoga, starting to run again after having to take a several-year hiatus due to an injury, cooking for and entertaining her extended family on a regular basis, wearing 3-inch wedge heels, and being actively involved in the lives of her grandchildren, who call her by her first name. Did I mention she looks fabulous to boot?”

Cara Reynolds, Editorial Manager
Cara has been a writer and editor for such innovative media companies as Lucasfilm, Creative Publications, Classroom Connect, and CNET (now CBS Interactive). Most recently, she worked as multimedia editor for TechRepublic.

She received her M.A. in English from the University of California at Irvine and her B.A. from the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines.

Online, Cara enjoys following technology, media, environment, education, travel, and pet news. Offline, she lives in New Albany, Indiana, with her husband and their spoiled miniature rabbits, Indy and Tyler.

Vibrant role models: “My grandmother, Encarnacion Evangelista, who ran a successful family business well into her 80s and encouraged all her children and grandchildren to pursue accomplishment and self-expression. My friends Sue Rostoni and Dyane Mohr, vibrant, caring Boomer women with a finely tuned inner compass for ‘the things that matter’ and who never stop growing and embracing new adventures. And the women of VN, too many to list here. On any given day I’m usually enthralled with a different member from the one I was in love with the day before. It’s hard not to fall in love with VNers – they’re just so darn smart.”

Beth Blakely, Community Manager
Writing, editing, and publishing have always been at the core of Beth’s career. She fell in love with writing as an editor for the college newspaper at the University of Louisville, where she earned a B.A. in Communication. She immersed herself in creativity when she served on the marketing team at the Kentucky Center for the Arts, and then she taught software classes for New Horizons Computer Learning Center.

Bitten by the technology bug, Beth moved on to spend nearly eight years writing, editing, and engaging members for TechRepublic. Most recently, she served as the company’s product manager, developing features for the site and moderating its forums. She joined the Vibrant Nation staff because the lure of learning from the site’s colorful membership was simply too much to bear. Beth manages our blog circle of nearly 200 mid-life Vibrant Women bloggers as well as a team of staff writers, including Faye Darnell, Loraine Lawson, and Veronica Combs.

Beth lives with her vibrant ten-year-old daughter, a chihuahua named Jiffy and a puggle named Jay. If she’s awake, she’s online, and participates in a number of social networking sites.

Vibrant role model: Her mother, Sarah Metcalf, whose integrity, work ethic, and artistry have served as inspiration. Sarah’s quilts, green thumb, and sweet honesty have her “sewn up” as Beth’s nomination for Mother of the Year, every year.

VN Editors
VN Editors are the editorial staff of Vibrant Nation, who manage and publish all Vibrant Nation content and contributors. Formerly, the editorial staff was represented by Susan Lee Ward, a composite created and managed by the Vibrant Nation staff to represent themselves and the Vibrant Woman. Since VibrantNation.com is about its community and not any one person, and much of our published work is curated from our conversations originated by our members, we thought it would be best to have the community and our writers represented by a single face and name. Susan Lee Ward was managed by the all-woman Vibrant Nation editorial team: Cara Reynolds, Beth Blakely and several staff writers who work for them. We have never hidden anything about who Susan Lee Ward is or is not.

Over time, some community members have expressed discomfort with the presence of a character in our community who is not a real person. We created Susan Lee Ward early in our site’s history as part of our effort to make VN authentic for all Vibrant Women, but now it seems like the right decision to credit the articles compiled and written by our staff to our editorial team: “VN Editors.” All of our current editors and staff writers are listed above on our staff page.