The Story Collider

Micaela Blei, PhD, is a  storyteller, educator and narrative researcher based in Brooklyn. A  two-time Moth GrandSLAM winner, former Director of Education at The  Moth, and former third grade teacher, Micaela has spent the last 8 years  studying, facilitating, and practicing personal narrative performance.  Her dissertation research at NYU’s Steinhardt School focused on the role  of storytelling in the identity formation of K-12 educators, and  she has given keynotes and research talks on storytelling and empathy at  conferences and universities nationwide. She’s an adjunct professor at  NYU, the story editor for acclaimed podcast Family Ghosts, and  has held fellowships with the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at  Yale; UCLA’s Center for Scholars and Storytellers; and Skidmore’s MDOCS  Storytellers’ Institute. Find out more and reach out at micaelablei.com.

Vicki Eastus is a lawyer, teacher, improviser and storyteller. A native Texan, Vicki declared herself a feminist at age 10 and started her long career as an advocate for women. She has been a campus advocate on sexual harassment issues, a lawyer for the largest group of women to ever successfully sue the government for sex discrimination, and a Title IX Coordinator. Vicki earned her B.A. in Russian literature, focusing on Russian formalist criticism and the distinction between plot and story. She carried those concepts into her legal career, bending traditional legal writing rules to make her clients’ stories more compelling. Now a professor at New York Law School, she integrates storytelling and improvisational techniques into her classes on legal analysis and advocacy. She has given presentations at national and international legal conferences on using storytelling and improvisation to teach legal analysis and to help law students find their legal voices.

Dr. Maria Mercedes Franco is Associate Professor and Chair of Mathematics and Computer Science at Queensborough Community College –CUNY. She has a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Cornell University. She also holds a M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Cornell University and a B.S. in Mathematics from Universidad del Valle (Cali, Colombia). Dr. Franco is a very committed educator, who for nearly 30 years has taught college and high school students at institutions in Colombia, Puerto Rico, and the United States. From giving lectures to organizing workshops to collaborating in undergraduate research programs, Dr. Franco is actively involved in activities that seek to increase the number of women and minorities in STEM disciplines, increase public understanding of and appreciation for mathematics & STEM, and address issues relevant to social justice. She is involved in many  efforts to address issues of underrepresentation are channeled by Dr. Franco through participation in activities linked to the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) and the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans (SACNAS). Dr. Franco is the (founding) advisor of Queensborough’s SACNAS chapter.

Tracy Rowland is a 3-time Moth StorySLAM champion who first appeared on the Story Collider stage in 2011, with a tale that tangentially had to do with monkeys. She’s also part of the producing and hosting team behind The Liar Show, a long-running NYC institution.  Tracy works days as a writer and video editor, where her promos and shorts have appeared on NBC, Cartoon Network, and Al Jazeera America. She won a local Emmy in 2010, but her mom still thinks it was the regular kind.

Paula Croxson is a neuroscientist, science communicator, musician and open water swimmer. She received an M.A. from the University of Cambridge and a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford before moving to New York to run a neuroscience lab. She is now Associate Director for Public Programs at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute. She is also the flautist in alternative rock band Marlowe Grey and nerdy rock band Pavlov’s Dogz. The swimming is apparently for “fun”. She is @paulacroxson and [email protected].