1. IRIS RUTH PASTOR
Biography
Ask most people about the “3 Rs” and their response will most likely be reading, writing and
arithmetic. But when it comes to author, blogger, speaker and podcaster Iris Ruth Pastor – a self-admitted
“book collector, coffee lover and sunshine seeker” – those three cornerstones are real, relevant and relatable.
LET ME TELL YOU A STORY
Drawn to writing as a child when she first scribbled stories in her journal, Pastor continued to hone her
craft while at college. Shortly after receiving a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications and Sociology from
the University of South Florida, she started a family, and writing continued to provide her with a much-needed
creative outlet as the mother of five active boys. But it wasn’t until she began writing “Incidentally, Iris” – a
weekly column in Cincinnati Kids, a parenting magazine that she founded in the mid-1980s – that she was able
to share her reflections about everyday life with a much larger audience.
Written in an authentic and approachable style, Pastor’s slice-of-life newspaper column shared her
daily musings as a busy wife and mother. Her thoughts, challenges and victories resonated profoundly with
young mothers, bringing up topics that they had thought about themselves and discussing them in a warm,
relatable and transparent manner. Pastor’s unique ability to engage and connect with her readers caused
“Incidentally, Iris” to be picked up by The American Israelite and the Jewish Press (both of which continue to
run her columns to this day) as well as other newspapers across the country. In 1996, she published a book of
her early columns, Slices, Bites and Other Facts of Life, and launched a motivational speaking career.
STORYTELLING IN THE DIGITAL AGE
In 2013, Pastor founded Ladies, Ink, utilizing her writing, public speaking and podcasting to empower
mid-life women to be their very best selves by “Preserving Their Bloom.” Two years later, Pastor decided to
share her musings in a new interactive format that lent itself ideally to her easy, breezy style: a weekly blog.
The self-professed “aging Baby Boomer” gained entrée into Huffington Post’s much coveted stable of writers,
and six months after her first story aired was recognized as one of their “Must Read Bloggers of 2015.” She
also publishes a weekly newsletter that encourages her readers to take control of their lives, with empathy.
Pastor’s nine-week series, Shedding the Secret: My Life as a Bulimic, debuted on the Huffington Post in
January 2016, sharing excerpts from her soon-to-be-released book, Tales of a Bulimic Baby Boomer. As with
everything she has published over the past three decades, Pastor once again has bared her soul in the hope of,
more than incidentally, inspiring and helping others struggling with their own personal demons.