Generation X Discussion Group

Melinda Wenner Bradley is a child of the 80s, farmgirl at heart, former latchkey kid, and current member of West Chester Meeting (PhYM). After a 20-year teaching career in Friends schools, she turned her vocational focus to religious education, and her ministry weaves together interests in children’s spiritual lives, program development, and support for families and teachers in faith communities and schools. As a storyteller, writer, and advocate for children and families, Melinda encourages Friends to shift religious formation away from scholastic models and toward experiential, belonging-focused ways of being with children and inviting them into spiritual community with all ages. Melinda serves as the Director of Communications and Training for Faith & Play Stories. She lives in PA with her family that includes a teen, two young adults, four hens, and a Gen X spouse who has supported her travel in the ministry across the globe.

Lori Piñeiro Sinitzky (she) is a Quaker, educator, and big-picture (over)thinker who’s been designing and facilitating Quaker and antiracism programs for over 20 years. With experience in Friends schools classrooms, as a First Day School teacher, workshop facilitator, and Quaker organization employee, Lori seeks to accompany Friends through understanding how racism and other kinds of bias are woven through North American Quaker practices. She works to help Friends develop ways to identify and interrupt harmful behaviors and practices in their Quaker community. Lori brings her identity as a white multiethnic, multicultural, cis-gender woman into her work. She lives with the privileges of a white woman but is enriched by her experiences as the child of a Puerto Rican mother and a Jewish father who is a survivor of the Holocaust in Europe. Lori has a BFA in Painting from Moore College of Art and Design and a certificate in K-5 education. She is a member of Green Street Meeting in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and lives in Philadelphia with her two children on the unceded land of the Lenni Lenape people.

Ron Hogan joined Friends Publishing in April 2020, shortly after making the leap to full membership at Flushing Meeting in Queens (New York). In previous professional iterations, he has been a web publisher, bookstore clerk, copywriter for Amazon, publishing industry analyst, and most recently an acquiring editor for a startup press. In addition to maintaining the Friends Publishing social media accounts and email newsletters, and curating the Quaker.org website, Ron writes the occasional book review and feature essay. He also publishes his own newsletter at ronhogan.substack.com for people interested in developing their writing practice, which led to his most recent book, Our Endless and Proper Work (Belt Publishing).

Windy Cooler, assistant clerk of Sandy Spring (MD) Meeting, describes herself as a practical theologian, public minister, good Quaker pirate, and cultural worker. She has been an embraced public minister since 2018, traveling widely among Friends with a concern for communities in crisis and Quaker family life. She is currently the convener of Testimonies to Mercy, a seven-part traveling retreat series on the future of Quakerism, as well as Life and Power, a discernment project on abuse. Along with her spouse, she is co-editor of Friends Journal’s News section. Windy is the Pendle Hill 2020 Cadbury Scholar, a 2022 fellow of the interfaith NGO Odyssey Impact, and a current doctoral candidate at Lancaster Theological Seminary. She holds a master of divinity from Earlham School of Religion.