About Our Morning Seminar Speakers

Jim Thibault, Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and Accredited Wealth Management Advisor (AWMA), serves a wide range of clients throughout Litchfield County and the nation.  He is the managing partner of Barron Financial Group, LLP, a Registered Investment Advisor firm based in Torrington, CT.  His firm specializes in wealth management, portfolio strategy and financial advising.

Committed to providing financial education, Jim regularly conducts financial seminars and writes two widely distributed periodicals – the Financially Speaking newsletter and a quarterly market update.   He supports the local community as the Chairperson of the Investment Committee for the Community Foundation of Northwest Connecticut and as a commissioner of Torrington’s Economic Development Committee.  Jim also sits on the scholarship committee for the annual Dick’s Restaurant Scholarship.

Jim’s educational background includes an MBA in Finance from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hartford.  He resides in Torrington with his wife Sandra and two rescue dogs, Simon and Edy.

Harriet Grayson, President of 5 Star Seminars, a web-based seminar company, offers a wide range of Webinars and teleseminars on grant writing and event planning.  She is an established author and presenter on the subject of grant writing.  Ms. Grayson has worked in the private, public and non-profit worlds writing winning grants.  She has successfully obtained foundation and corporate grants, state government grants as well as federal government grants. 

Ms. Grayson holds a Masters in Urban Planning from New York University and a Masters of Arts degree from the University of Denver. 

She resides in Westerly, RI with her husband. 

Michele Bredice Craemer is the founder of power pack presentations, a company that offers publications and seminars relating to motivation, health and fitness.
Speaking engagements include keynote addresses for Charlotte Hungerford Hospital’s Women Health Event and Litchfield County Women Network’s Daughters Day Event; as well as workshops for Bentley University’s Women’s Leadership Institute Career Advancement Conference.

Michele’s new inspirational book, “Girls Sweat!”, demonstrates how powerful workouts and the road to success have a lot in common. She is also the author of 2 children’s picture books.

She received a degree in Human Development from Boston College and a Masters Degree in Health Science from Springfield College

Stacey Battat, a graduate of the University of Florida department of Journalism, co-founded KIWI Publishing with her husband, in 2005.  Her background as a broadcast journalist and community educator always offered her the opportunity to connect in meaningful ways to people and their stories and backgrounds.

Stacey has just released the fifth & sixth editions in the new book series:  Thin Threads:  Real Stories of Life -Changing Moments; Teacher & Mentor (edition); Grief & Recovery (edition.) Thin Thread stories teach us how to seize life’s opportunities and turn them into realities.