Tara O’Toole-Conn was a social sciences and art major at Rutgers University in New Jersey and Florida International University. She began her career as a legal assistant with several prestigious Pittsburgh- and Philadelphia-based law firms. She is a former painter, ceramist, and sculptor. She takes pleasure in many music genres, theater, reading, and journaling. She has an ongoing passion for human and spiritual development; she is an Usui Reiki Master and a Pilates enthusiast.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Tara now resides in Louisville, Kentucky. She is the widow and former caregiver for her beloved husband, Peter D. Conn. Although she had no former expertise in caregiving or the field of spiritual communications, it was the human, compromised suffering her husband remained in for years preceding his transition that brought her to the pages of Our Grand Journey of Self-Exploration. Her immense gratitude goes to Peter for their spiritual and human experiences of the past decade as they journeyed a life through illness.

Peter D. Conn

Peter D. Conn was born in New York City in 1943 and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. After attending the University of Louisville in the early 1960s, he became managing editor of The Jefferson Reporter, a family-owned suburban weekly newspaper. Then in 1970, Peter became the youngest member of the Kentucky House of Representatives when he was elected as a Democrat; he campaigned for openness in government during his two-year term. In 1972, Peter founded and managed daily newspapers in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He returned to Louisville in 1974 to work as Editorial Commentator on Louisville’s WHAS Radio and Television Stations where his “Prose and Conn” programs won two “Looie” awards for best broadcast commentaries.

From 1975 – 1977, Peter was appointed Executive Assistant to Governor of Kentucky responsible for program development within State Government. From 1977 – 1979, he served as Secretary, Kentucky Cabinet for Human Resources where he helped start some of the first statewide comprehensive medical programs for the mentally disabled and emotionally disturbed.

For the next 24 years, as a writer, Peter owned and operated Careco, Inc., a Miami-based firm that provided strategic and business planning services for public and private sector clients such as Fortune 500 companies, state agencies in Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia, and, the United States Department of State (Cuban-Haitian Task Force).

Peter was an avid scuba diver, underwater photographer, boater and licensed pilot. In 2003, Peter Conn retired and moved back to Louisville, his final resting place where he died in November 2013.