April Arfaras

Dr. April Arfaras is an award winning writer and extensively published author. She worked in public relations and development for formidable academic and nonprofit organizations, served as a media spokesperson, and spearheaded meaningful humanitarian campaigns. She is also a teacher, playwright, actor, singer, songwriter and producer. She holds a Doctorate in Education from University of New England in Transformative Leadership. Her dissertation was published in 2018, "Mothers' Stories: How Family and Community Influences Affect Generations of Literacy Challenges." April writes in multiple genres for children, adult, society, academic, and family audiences.

On Valentine's Day, April launched a new label, "Golden Calliope Media," and published her first adult book -- "Golden Hummingbird: Love at Last: A Self-Help Memoir for Single Women." It features more than fifty scholarly sources of relationship research, celebrities' love experiences, popular movies and music, classic literature, and humor, to help readers navigate the chaotic dating world and find love.

For children's edutainment, Dr. Arfaras established "Zany Zebra Interactive" musical plays, events, and books for creative children including two book series: "Zany Zebra Collection" and "Zany Zebra Classics Collection." In the Classic Collection fine artist Annie Howard provides the colorful, hand painted illustrations. All Zany Zebra books showcase the animal kingdom, language, literature, fantasy, leadership, poetry, spelling, science, geography, music, biology, ecology, theater, mathematics, history, and the social sciences. This year, Zany Zebra Collection published a lifetime compilation of 48 original stories, "Rhyme Time Tales and other Shenanigans."

Dr. Arfaras comes from a Greek-American family of spongers and sea merchants from Tarpon Springs, Florida with ancestral ties to the province of Arfara(s), Greece. Her earlier education includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communications and a Master’s in Organizational Management. She helped put the education channel on the air in Tampa Bay while producing a weekly educational television series. She also helped develop the second largest Hospice in the country, established numerous speakers’ bureaus and charitable foundations while writing grants. She raised over a hundred-million for philanthropic causes.

April began an Ambassador’s program for University of the Potomac, a private university in Washington DC; innovative STEM education programs for the Idea Zone at the Museum of Science and Industry; a charter school consortium for top performing “A” schools; and a national health education outreach campaign for a biomedical research institute. She has collaborated with NASA, Kodak, CBS News, Disney, Good Morning America, Sky and Telescope Magazine, the National Hospice Organization, the National Weather Service, MTV, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Citrus Council. Arfaras currently resides in the greater Knoxville,Tennessee area, and has worked and resided in Tampa Bay, D.C., and New York.