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Joe founded the Center for Digital Storytelling (formerly the San Francisco Digital Media Center) in 1994, with wife Nina Mullen and colleague Dana Atchley. Together they developed a unique computer training and arts program that today is known as the Standard Digital Storytelling Workshop. This process grew out of Joe's long running collaboration with Dana on the solo theatrical multimedia work, Next Exit. Since then, Joe has traveled the world to spread the practice of digital storytelling and has authored and produced curricula in many contexts, including the Digital Storytelling Cookbook, the principle manual for the workshop process, and Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community. Born
and raised in Texas, Joe has been active in the Bay Area arts community
for the last twenty-five years as an arts activist, producer, administrator,
teacher, writer, and director. In 1986, he co-founded Life On The Water,
a successful non-profit production company that offered a broad array
of programs serving San Francisco's diverse communities. Joe has produced
over 500 shows, ranging from theatrical runs, single performances, special
events, citywide festivals, subscriptionseries, conferences, and digital
story screenings. Prior to his career in the arts, Joe was trained as
a community organizer and assisted in numerous local, statewide, and
national public policy campaigns on issues of social justice and economic
equity. He has a B.A. in Theater and Political Science from the University
of California at Berkeley. 
Emily
Paulos Emily
is a practicing visual artist who grew up in a large family in Iowa.
She received a BFA in painting and printmaking and completed her M.A.
in Art Education at the University of Iowa, with an emphasis on narrative
and technology. Her thesis took the form of a website entitled The
Mom Project, which examines issues of family narrative and the use
of technology in the art classroom. In addition to her experience assisting
University of Iowa faculty and student teachers with the development
of multimedia and Electronic Portfolios, Emily taught high school art
for five years, specializing in web design, video production, and photography.
Before joining the Center in 2002, she also spent time working abroad,
volunteering as an art teacher in Japan and pursuing photography and
printmaking in Italy and Sweden.  Amy Hill Silence Speaks/Special Projects Director Amy
is a storyteller, documentary filmmaker, and public health consultant
who was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her ten-year
involvement in coordinating community-based public health and community
development projects in California and nationally led her in 1999 to
co-found Silence Speaks,
an international digital storytelling initiative offering a safe, supportive
environment for telling and sharing stories that all too often remain
unspoken. She continues to lead this and other global health and human
rights-related projects at the Center. Prior to coming on board as a
full time staff member in 2005, she co-produced and edited a series
of educational documentaries about HIV and AIDS in Ethiopia. Amy has
a B.A. in British & American Literature from Scripps College and
an M.A. in Education/Gender Studies from Stanford University. 
Daniel
Weinshenker Daniel
has been telling stories and teaching others to tell stories for more
than ten years. After leaving the San Francisco Bay Area, where he was
born and raised, he taught creative writing for three years while working
on his M.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Daniel then spent the next few years in marketing and advertising, helping
companies deliver their messages. Although he's not a therapist, his
mother is. (Doesn’t that count for something?) In 2003, Daniel
opened the Center’s first Regional Office, based in Denver, Colorado.
He specializes in developing projects that explore the impact of digital
storytelling for youth and within the health sector, and has also done
considerable work with local museums and radio/television broadcasters.
In collaboration with the University of Colorado, Daniel developed the
first accredited certificate course in digital
storytelling facilitation. 
Andrea
Spagat Andrea
was raised by her bilingual/bicultural family in both Argentina and
the United States. Before joining the Center’s staff in 2006,
she worked for twelve years as an educator in a variety of settings,
including a jail GED project in Wisconsin, a training program for rural
schoolteachers in Bolivia, and, most recently, a substance abuse prevention
initiative for youth in San Francisco. From 1999 to 2001, she was a
Violence Prevention Academic Fellow with the California Wellness Foundation,
focusing on aftercare services for youth exiting detention facilities.
In addition to leading numerous bilingual (English-Spanish) digital
storytelling workshops with youth and members of immigrant communities,
Andrea developed the Center’s Workshop
for Educators, which tailors digital storytelling for K-12 classroom
use. She has a M.S. in Adult Education. 
Gayle
Nicholls-Ali Gayle
is an award-winning fine arts photographer, documentarian, and digital
storytelling facilitator. Born in Barbados and raised there and in Brooklyn,
she attended Mt. Holyoke College and was Poet Laureate at Hunter College,
where she produced a series of poetry magazines and coordinated multimedia
poetry readings. The L.A. Host Committee of the 2000 Democratic National
Convention selected her photos for an exhibit called Faces of L.A. More
recently, Gayle has worked as a multimedia assistant teacher and web
designer at Pasadena City College. She has been on staff with the Center
since 2006, and focuses primarily on social justice oriented and youth
efforts. Gayle is currently pursuing a M.A. in Human Development, with
a focus on Storytelling as Art Therapy, at Pacific Oaks College. 
Stefani
Sese Stefani
began telling stories professionally in the late 1970s, as a founder
and member of the Teatro Nuestro Latino theater company, based in her
hometown of Washington, D.C. While attending George Washington University,
Stefani shifted her focus from theater to television production. She
worked as both an editor and a producer for more than fifteen years
prior to joining the Center’s staff in 2007, receiving awards
for a Travel Channel documentary about National Parks along the Colorado
River, a Discovery Channel production profiling youth who have survived
hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes, and several productions created
for the Discovery Global Education Partnership. A product of border
crossings, Stefani is Filipina, Russian, German, English, and Scottish.
She feels most comfortable straddling the boundaries of race, culture,
gender, and place.  Allison Myers Southwest Region Director Allison’s
background as an artist, graphic designer, educator, community builder,
and life-long appreciator of story have all served her in her work with
the Center. Before joining the staff, Allison taught ESL and Communication
courses in the Maricopa Community College System and coordinated study
abroad programs in the College’s International Education Department.
Prior to this work, she was part of a team that developed and facilitated
a Colorado-based international leadership and service-learning program
for young leaders from more than thirty countries. Allison holds a B.A.
in Literature and in Communication and a M.A. in Humanities and Intercultural
Communication from Vanderbilt University.  Theresa Perez Manager of Administration Telling stories through music and song is Theresa's passion. She earned B.A. in Music from the Berklee College of Music and has since been cultivating her craft and expression. Prior to coming on board at the Center, Theresa taught music in public schools, was a substitute teacher, freelanced as a graphic designer, and worked as a chef. She is currently producing her debut album, which will be released in the Spring of 2010. Check out her work here.  Jennifer
Nazzal Robert
Kershaw Rob
is a photographer, designer, and writer who has been facilitating digital
storytelling workshops in Canada since 2004. He began working on story
and photography projects with remote Northern communities in the Northwest
Territories in 2001. He is the author, co-editor, and co-designer of
four books: Exploring the Castle, Discovering the Backbone of the
World in Southwestern Alberta; Sáhtu Atlas: Maps and
Stories from the Sáhtu Settlement Area in Canada’s Northwest
Territories (nominated for The William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction
Polar Books in 2006); If Only We Had Known: The History of Port
Radium as Told by the Sahtúot’ine; and Field Guide
to the Birds of the Mackenzie Delta. Rob is a graduate of the University
of Calgary with a B.S. in Ecology and Communication Studies. 
Jennifer
Lafontaine Jennifer
joined the Center’s staff in 2008, through a partnership with
the Toronto Centre for Community Learning and Development. She originally
came to digital storytelling via the establishment of a community media
project at Toronto's Central Neighbourhood House. This project initially
assisted women in the community in creating black and white photography
exhibits on themes such as gender-based violence, work, and immigration;
the work has progressed into The
Story Project, a digital storytelling effort to support women’s
leadership through media and technology. Jennifer was born and raised
in Kelowna, British Columbia and moved east to Toronto to attend York
University, where she received a B.A. in Environmental Studies. She
has lived in Toronto ever since. |
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