"The company was built on the premise that acting in a socially responsible manner, with integrity and honesty, leads to personal success and a thriving community."

Participant Biographies and Project Descriptions

Sue Diaz
Sue is a nationally recognized journalist, having recently been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Her publishing credits include hundreds of essays and articles in regional and national publications such as Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, Family Circle, San Diego Union Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Christian Science Monitor. Sue holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in English and has taught High School English and Adult School. She is a frequent on-air essayist for National Public Radio, having won the “Year’s Best Radio Diaries” award three years in a row. After her son returned from two tours in Iraq, Sue wrote a series of columns for the Christian Science Monitor about his experiences. These essays won Sue her Pulitzer Prize nomination, and her son’s experiences prompted her to seek an avenue in which to help service men and women returning from the Iraq/Afghanistan wars.

Sue connected with the San Diego Veteran’s Center and developed writing workshops “to provide a positive, creative outlet for the energy, angst, and stress that are part of the day-to-day lives of those who’ve come back from places like Iraq or Afghanistan.” Based on empirical research regarding the therapeutic effect of writing about important personal experiences, Sue, through her workshops, plans to provide returning veterans an environment and creative process for expression, affirmation, and ultimately healing. At the close of each eight-week session, Sue plans to compile a collection of the participant’s favorite stories into homemade books, which each group member will receive.