Elizabeth H. Cottrell

Elizabeth's circuitous career has taken her from published leprosy researcher to stay-at-home mother, to community activist and trailblazer serving on nonprofit and corporate boards. In 2016, she was elected the first female board chairperson of First Bank/First National Corporation its 100+ year history, and she is still one of the few female board chairs in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Elizabeth is a freelance writer/editor and blogger at Heartspoken.com and author of the award-winning HEARTSPOKEN: How to Write Notes that Connect, Comfort, Encourage, and Inspire published in 2022 by Koehler Books.

Above all, she is a connector and encourager whose writing explores the four essential connections of the Heartspoken Life: with God, with Self, with Others, and with Nature. Her expertise and passion for note writing in her book came at just the right time to touch a pandemic world desperately in search of connection. What better way to connect when we're forced to stay apart physically than to write and send a heartspoken note? Elizabeth is the right person at the right time to help readers find their own heartspoken voice and learn to harness this powerful tool for nurturing their most precious relationships.