The 'ittle Bear Team
Who Are Behind the Books???
We believe in the power of teamwork and we have a great team enabling all that we do!
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Our core team and Ambassadors are listed below.
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Would you like to be a part of our team? Let's chat!
'ittle Bear
The Bear Behind the Stories
‘Ittle Bear came to the Wills family around 1990. She was found in a small store in the small town of Nashville, IN, USA by Katy Wills.
The exact story on how she came to be Sarah’s is remembered and told in different ways, but she first joined Sarah in her travel and study abroad summer 1990 in St. Brieuc, France with the Indiana University Honors Program in Foreign Languages.
Together with Sarah, she traveled to many countries (at least 31 and counting) and looks forward to many more adventures.
She can’t wait to share her stories with you!
Sarah Wills Carlsson
Author and the Big Person
Sarah had a love of travel and interest in different countries and languages from her earliest years. Whether it was traversing the United States by car, or taking the train across Canada, she loved going to new places and experiencing new things.
Her interest in languages, combined with engineering studies(BSEE, Northwestern University) and engineering management (MS-MS&E, Stanford University), led her to a career in the global automotive industry.
Throughout her career, she has lived in Germany, Sweden, and the United States, has worked daily with more than 10 countries, and has traveled to more than 30. This interest and passion led her to be a cultural bridge in her work, and also train and develop others through her company, Nspir.
In addition to her training for adults, she wanted to introduce young children to the wonders of experiencing travel and other cultures, while giving them a toolset that they could develop and work with as they grew up.
Katy Wills
Illustrator and Giver of 'ittle Bear
Katy Wills has had a great imagination and talent for drawing ever since she was a young child. She also has always had a tremendous sense of adventure, ready to take off to climb a mountain, guide a river, or venture to places unknown.
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She and Sarah have talked for years about how fun it would be to write books about what the little bear that she gave Sarah would do if she could go off on adventures of her own, and managed to squeeze out the time to bring 'ittle Bear to life.
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She has studied at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis and University of Tennessee, and advanced in IT to her current role as Application Development Manager - Sales and Operations at Badger Infrastructure Systems. Throughout her career, she has loved working with her customers, suppliers, and developers around the world and has been recognized for this by her employers.
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Katy is a master of managing all things, including working full-time, renovating a house, and illustrating 'ittle Bear books.
Valerie
Banks Amster
Editor
Valerie is thrilled to be part of ‘ittle Bear’s team!
She met Sarah in college at Northwestern University, where she earned her Bachelors degree in journalism and Masters degree in education. Since then, Valerie has spent more years than she will divulge in the classroom teaching Spanish and journalism, and writing and editing for local and national magazines.
Her most recent endeavor is Horse Tales, in which she writes the life lessons her equines have taught her into childrens songs, and manages the production of the accompanying childrens books and music videos.
She hopes that her miniature therapy horse, Lola, will someday get to meet ‘ittle Bear in person!
Photo by Jordan Koepke Photography
Jennifer Royall Anderson
Book Designer
Jennifer Royall Anderson is a graphic designer and singer, living in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA with her husband and teenage daughter. She is thrilled to be involved in the 'ittle Bear project as the book designer. Since she was a child, she has always lived a life in two genres of art: Visual art and music. She earned a Bachelors degree in Music from Northwestern University, and both a Masters and Doctorate in Music from University of Maryland.
Jennifer’s excitement about designing the book, from a graphic designer’s perspective, is obvious. So. Much. FUN! But her singing experience is another reason. Her extensive training in opera and classical singing involves becoming familiar with many different languages, as well as characters and stories from many countries and time periods. This has inspired an interest in other cultures and traditions. So she is eager to journey with ‘ittle Bear and see what this cute little bear learns on her adventures.
When she isn’t designing for her wide variety of clients, Jennifer can be heard singing in opera productions around the DC metro area, including at the Kennedy Center, where she has sung as a chorister with the Washington National Opera for over 20 years.
Jennifer Burke
Marketing Consultant
Jennifer is so excited to be part of the adventures of 'ittle Bear!
She's a college pal and sister of the heart from days shared at Northwestern University where Jennifer got her B.S. in Communications. She has a Master's in Library + Information Science, years spent in both the marketing and library worlds, and is also the founding President behind the successful Library Marketing + Communications Conference.
But she spends most of her time now helping solopreneurs and small business owners to bring their experiences and expertise online, while demystifying marketing and tech via marketing coaching and teaching at Mighty Marketing Mojo.
Jennifer spent her high school years living abroad and traveling, so she greatly understands journeys, adventures, experiencing new places, and the power of learning about other cultures. She's excited to bring some of those same experiences to kids and parents through 'ittle Bear's stories.
Deema Hameed
Arabic Translator
Deema has a love for animals, nature, literature and to travel and experience new horizons, no matter if it is new places, cultures, or worlds. When she can’t pack her suitcase and travel, books are her gateway to adventure.
Deema’s love of literature led her to study Arabic literature at the University of Damascus in Syria, and then to an exciting career as a language examiner.
Then, her strong passion to give children tools to explore our amazing world led her to educational studies and inspired her to start her own pre-school in Damascus.
Her next step was to the United Nations, where Deema taught and then became a program leader on United Nation’s TV channel.
Language and culture are at the heart of everything Deema does. As her journey continued to Sweden, she has worked as an study supervisor, native language teacher, and Swedish and modern language teacher. To be able to translate and share stories with children has become one of her most enjoyable experiences.
Deema is so glad to be part of the ‘ittle Bear team, where there is a chance to learn new cultures and encounter exciting stories.
Ludmila Goureyeva
Ukrainian Translator
Mila's text is coming soon!
Mahtab Habibi
Persian Translator
Mahtab's text is coming soon!
Sabine Fülbier
German Translator
Sabine's text is coming soon!
Our Ambassadors
Just as countries have ambassadors to represent them, so does 'ittle Bear!
Our Ambassadors are volunteers who help us out because they believe in our work and 'ittle Bear's mission.
Would you like to join us and help spread understanding and compassion in the world?
Reach out to us today.
Connie Christensen
Columbia, SC, USA
Connie grew up with a love for travel and have continued that with my husband and children. She has a Master’s Degree in Counseling and has worked as an elementary school counselor, teacher, and special education aide. Collaborating on the ‘ittle Bear book combines her love and expertise of working with children and her passion for travel.
"If we can instill in a generation that embraces and celebrates cultural differences and diversity, our world will be a step closer towards peace within humanity. This book is an essential element towards that end."
Neil Amrhein
Seattle, WA, USA
Neil has known the “big person” behind ‘ittle Bear for many years, and is very excited to see her new project get off the ground! His family are some of 'ittle Bear’s biggest fans, and they can’t wait to see what adventures lie ahead!
“The passions behind the story, including love of travel and culture, hit close to home and make this a fantastic read. ‘Ittle Bear is really a book for all ages too, because her amazing superpowers of curiosity, compassion and courage are qualities that every person (big and small) can develop. You show ‘em ‘ittle Bear!”
Lanese Thomas
Columbia, SC, USA
Lanese Thomas has 24 years experience teaching 7-10 year olds in elementary schools in the United States. She has a masters degree and an education specialist degree in Early Childhood and is a National Board Certified Teacher. Her love of children and interests in education have been a central part of her life. Being involved with plans for the ‘Ittle Bear series of books and developing ways teachers can use them in their classrooms has been so exciting for her.
“Looking at life through the eyes of a child can be so enlightening. Helping children view their world and discover how we are all alike, yet different, is a valuable lesson for everyone.”
Traci Flynn
Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Traci Flynn has been a Speech-Language Pathologist for 25 years supporting children and their families to achieve their best. She has a master’s in Speech-Language Pathology and a PhD in Audiology. Her passion is to work with families to extend their children’s language through experience. This experience can be achieved through books. Books provide people the ability to travel without leaving their home. As HC Anderson said, “To travel is to live”. Travelling opens our minds to other worlds.
Traci has lived in six countries and acknowledges that you learn more about yourself the more you experience different cultures. Through learning about others, you learn more about yourself. I feel 'ittle Bear’s curiosity, courage and excitement of experiencing new cultures and opening her mind to see herself.
Charlotta Sandh
Kullavik, Sweden
Charlotta Sandh started her career in finance, but always had a love of languages and communicating across cultures. Born and raised in Sweden, she studied English, French, and Italian during school, did an exchange year in the Netherlands and studied Dutch, and worked as an Italian teacher. Together with her family, she moved to Switzerland and the United States for expatriate assignments. In Switzerland, she gained German working proficiency, volunteered, and managed her family . On returning to Sweden, she started teaching Swedish to students around the world, through her company Globatris, as well as working as an intercultural trainer and a substitute teacher for younger children. Charlotta loves to share her love of language, culture, and societal integration with others and is instrumental to the ‘ittle Bear team in editing and providing the pronunciation guides for Swedish editions. She has also brought our books to new schools and libraries, thanks to her efforts.
Anne Vandersteenhoven
Columbia, SC, USA
TBD
Cheryl Hewitt Austin
TBD
Our Partner Companies
We have some important companies we work with and want to give credit to them, as we couldn't do this without them!
ContextGlobal is our translator and editor for the Swedish language and the Spanish translator and editor for our country books. This Washington DC-based company has been a great support to us and our translation supplier of choice.
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We are collaborating with Lisa Tussey of Connected Course Designs to create homeschooling courses and unit studies that accompany our books. Lisa's considerable experience, whether it is through her years as a homeschooling parent, working in instructional design, or her master's degree in Instructional Systems from Indiana University, gives us confidence in the material we already have as well as in going beyond to help parents create high-quality homeschooling material with her Summit-First Framework.
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Candice is a book coach and former editor. She was instrumental to our decision to pursue the self-publishing track and launch our book. She was incredibly helpful to get us started and has a lot of free resources for potential authors via her webpage and podcast. I always refer people considering writing a book to book a session with Candice. We engage Candice for a review on our "almost-final" version so that we can benefit from her experience and insight.