About The Writing Den

Jill Higson has held senior roles in integrated media sales and marketing for over 20 years in New York City and Los Angeles. She managed content, audience, and financial growth for the digital divisions of Reuters, Condé Nast, MTV, and E!. Currently she is the Chief Curator of a boutique artist representative firm, The Art Arsenal. Jill and her partner, Christian Michaels founded The Writing Den in 2017. She is an active and long time member of arts organizations including National Arts Club, Soho House, The High Line, and Whitney Museum of American Art. She holds a BA, Communications from the University of Washington. For fun, Jill enjoys theater, global travel, a good book, and pilates.

Psychology studies and a long career in commercial photography have led Christian Michaels into a never-ending discovery of how humans interact with light, motion and media. 

The interactive nature of his creativity has extended into formats that include an internet radio station and the Writing Den. Christian and  Jill Higson founded The Writing Den in 2017. He also supports local non-profit organizations including KPBS, and Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego, and Museum of Photographic Arts. He holds a BA in Psychology from Wake Forest University. Christian spends his spare time traveling, studying music and comedy, and getting through his latest home improvement project.

Lamar Rutherford currently works as a business broker for Exit Consulting Group, helping owners exit their businesses. She previously taught entrepreneurship for the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego for eight years. She has also founded, operated, and sold three businesses of her own.  Additionally, she has done brand management marketing for Nestle, Disney, and Orient-Express, (now called Belmond) and has been on the management teams for three Internet start-ups. She earned her CPA working for Arthur Andersen & Company, did her undergraduate at the University of Washington, and MBA at the Tuck School at Dartmouth College. For fun, Lamar enjoys polo, yoga, theater, and traveling. She is also a published fiction author. Her debut novel is CodeY, available on Amazon.

Richard Karlson is the President of Real Life Skills, a San Diego based non-profit that he co-founded with James Robins in 2014. The organization teaches proven life enhancing concepts, including the power of thinking and understanding life choices for those seeking a better life; the homeless in transition, at risk youth, and prison inmates scheduled for early release. 

Richard's long time commitment to the homeless in San Diego began with active interactions with homeless on the streets. This lead to personal involvement and support at Presbyterian Urban Ministries, Ladle Steering Committee of First Presbyterian Church, and the formation of Real Life Skills. 

He had a successful 40 year career as a financial professional working in Los Angles and San Diego for companies that included Steelcase, Anderson Desk, Abbey Rents, and Arthur Anderson. 

Richard holds a BS from University of California, Los Angeles. He resides in downtown San Diego with his wife Susie Zlaket and enjoys golf and travels.

Lyssa Melonakos' introduction to poverty and community development work came when she served for a year in ministry in a riverside neighborhood in Honduras, Central America. Lyssa has since worked with youth in the foster care and juvenile court systems, and those in unstable housing conditions, with homeless ministry at San Diego's First Presbyterian Church Ladle Fellowship, where she developed street medicine and mentoring programs, and enabled The Writing Den to begin. Lyssa is a highly respected expert about the complexities of homelessness, which led to her current position as the Homeless Outreach Coordinator for Downtown San Diego Partnership. She holds a BA from University of California, San Diego. In her spare time, Lyssa enjoys coffee shops, reading, and jamming on guitar with friends.