Members of the Month - November 2008

Ladies Lotto Los Angeles
Naomi Robbins

Naomi Robbins was born and raised in Los Angeles. Her early schooling was arduous due to dyslexia and a speech impediment. After lots of hard work she moved out of the special needs programs and was accepted to Los Angeles County High School For The Arts (LACHSA). Her learning disabilities, although still a challenge, were now far more surmountable in a supportive and artistic environment.

While in high school she became a political activist and was part of The October 22nd Coalition To Stop Police Brutality and The Black Star Collective. LACHSA inspired and motivated her to stay in the arts. She received a BFA from the School Of The Art Institute of Chicago where she had an interdisciplinary art education with a focus in photography. She has shown in several galleries in the United States and abroad.

While employed at some of the top professional photography labs in Los Angeles, Naomi did work for established artists and institutions including; John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger, Eleanor Antin, Uta Barth, Tim Street-Porter and The William Eggleston Foundation. Currently, she works as a freelance photographer and digital retoucher. She is also a pro-Domme and fetish model -- interested in the visual limits and boundaries within the BDSM community.

Naomi's political activist and community outreach work has continued with KillRadio (short for Kill Corporate Radio), a Los Angeles based Internet-radio station, founded in 2000. Run solely by the KillRadio collective - a group of activists, journalists, and DJ's – it is a strictly not-for-profit, non-commercial organization, which uses media production and distribution as a tool for promoting social and economic justice to challenge the corporate domination of the world's airwaves. She continues to be a key figure in keeping the station operating especially during the country's recent financial hard times. She is also working on helping to keep rescued teenage prostitutes off the streets of Los Angeles.

Under the name "Angel Baby," Naomi hosts two weekly Internet-radio shows: "Lost In Paradise" at KillRadio and "Between The Sheets" at Luxuria Music. Also, she does an occasional third show broadcast from Dub Lab. Her dyslexia will occasionally cause her to mispronounce a word but far less often then it has in the past. Her podcast page , contains archives of these shows. You can also find her at myspace.com/naomirobbins.

Ladies Lotto Chicago

Ronnie Dickerson

By day Ronnie Dickerson is a media and advertising executive. She’s worked with clients such as Morgan Stanley, Nintendo, Toyota and Taco Bell. Outside of her 9-5 Ronnie is the Founder and Chief Chica of ChicaGoGetter.com, a site that serves as a destination for news commentary and other information for women. The site launched in 2007 and is primarily geared towards women in Chicago and the greater Midwest. However, ChicaGoGetter does have a large number of readers from New York and California.

Outside of blogging Ronnie regularly takes on projects as an independent marketing consultant and has a special place in her heart for small businesses targeted to ethnic minorities and women.

Ronnie lives by the quote, “Your life is the manifestation of your dream; it is an art. And you can change your life anytime if you aren't enjoying the dream. Dream masters create a masterpiece of life; they control the dream by making choices.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

Ladies Lotto New York

Samantha Edwards

As Founder and Creative Director of NYC creative agency GIFTD (pronounced gifted), it's easy to see where Samantha Edwards' ability to understand brands and create successful campaigns originates. Born and raised in Manchester, England, Samantha moved to New York City in 2002 and credits her "hit the ground running attitude" to her success.

"At 18, I was studying for my degree at the University of Salford, and had seen a lot of what I thought was badly designed work around the town center, I decided to contact the company that did the majority of the work and brazenly told them that I thought I could do a better job and I'd work unpaid for one month to prove it." Ballsy yes, but it worked. She used a similar strategy when she came to New York City and has never looked back.

Samantha founded GIFTD (Graphical Intelligence Forward Thinking Design) in 1999 and the company has continued to thrive and grow. Her most recent projects include the album artwork, creative direction and subsequent collateral design for Devin The Dude, branding for New York City's lifestyle management company Luxury Attaché and the store design for ATC MIA (in collaboration with her partner Wes Henstock at Confid3ntial).

ATC originally approached GIFTD to create their logo and marketing collateral, but after being blown away by Samantha's brand strategy and understanding of the street-wear market they hired her to design their store interior. Says Samantha on the store design; "I had no idea where to start - but knew in my head what it should look like. I was tired of the wood paneled or ultra minimal modern store interiors and figured that it was about time Miami experienced a concept store."

Always eager to try new things, Samantha hopes to expand GIFTD and its client base and is already working on new and exciting projects for 2009.

Ladies Lotto Seattle

Myisha Chambers

While earning a bachelors degree in Urban Studies at San Francisco State University, Myisha became a community liaison and began working with the residents of a low income, high-rise housing project. It was this experience that sparked a passion in her to take part in the implementation of change and neighborhood revitalization.

Armed with a Masters in Public Affairs from the Evans School at the University of Washington, she went on to develop affordable housing and consulted with community based organizations, government and public agencies. Currently, she works for a member of the Seattle City Council; overseeing the Housing and Economic Development Committee.

Over the years she's found that her interests lay in a variety of areas; therefore, she continues to collaborate with those who serve the public and share her sense of community. Myisha loves to ponder complex situations and uses a combination of creativity and expertise to actualize effective solutions to everyday challenges.

Myisha's not just about business. When she has time she throws in a little pleasure. She loves a good dinner party, happy hour and finding thrifty deals.