StoryCorps » About » Our Team

Executive Team

Heather Burke, Manager of Development

Heather comes to StoryCorps from a career in publishing. After graduating from Wesleyan University with a degree in English, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a writer and editor for the Library of Congress. Returning to her hometown of New York City and settling in her adopted borough of Brooklyn, she continued in book publishing until departing for StoryCorps to further pursue her love of great stories—spoken as well as written. Development Staff Bios

Donna Galeno, Director of StoryCorps

Donna Galeno worked for twenty years at the American Red Cross in Greater New York, managing their Homeless Services Department. Her work focused on two major areas: the creation, development and management of nationally-recognized models of service for homeless families, and the shaping of public policy and awareness related to housing and homelessness throughout the United States. She has served in leadership positions on numerous boards, coalitions and committees focused on issues of housing, homelessness, and hunger. Subsequent to the tragic events of September 11th, Donna functioned as the American National Red Cross’ first Administrator in charge of creating and implementing the Red Cross’ Long-Term Recovery Program.

Dave Isay, Founder and Executive Director

Dave Isay is the founder of StoryCorps and its parent company Sound Portraits Productions. Over the past two decades his radio documentary work has won nearly every award in broadcasting, including five Peabody Awards, two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, the Edward R. Murrow award, and two Livingston Awards for young journalists. Dave has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship (1994), a MacArthur Fellowship (2000), and a United States Artists Fellowship (2006). He is the author (or co-author) of four books based on Sound Portraits radio stories including: Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago (Scribner, 1997), Flophouse (Random House, 2000), and the first-ever StoryCorps book, Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project (The Penguin Press, 2007).

Matt Ozug, Deputy Director of StoryCorps

Since first joining Sound Portraits as a production intern in 2002, Matt Ozug has worked on and produced a variety of pieces including "Parents at an Execution," which won a 2004 Thurgood Marshall Award from the Death Penalty Information Center. Matt has been with StoryCorps since its conception, becoming MobileBooth Manager in April 2004. Previously, he worked as a freelance producer for Maine Public Radio and as a researcher at Blackside Inc./California Newsreel. He was named a Fall 2006 Fellow at Johns Hopkins’ International Reporting Project, where he reported on HIV and refugee resettlement issues in Cambodia. Matt graduated from Harvard College and also studied at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine.

Tara Mia Paone, Chief Operating Officer

Tara Paone comes from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, a nonprofit arts organization focused on revitalizing Lower Manhattan by promoting cultural and art events and providing grants to artists and nonprofit arts organizations throughout Manhattan. Tara joined LMCC in August 2005 as Managing Director, after serving a ten-year stint as the Budget Director for Coconino County in Flagstaff, Arizona. A native New Yorker, Tara’s background is in local and state government with considerable experience in financial planning and management as well as economic development planning. Prior to Arizona, Tara worked at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, the City of New York, and Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. Inc. Tara has a M.P.A. from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University and a B.A. in international relations from Mount Holyoke College. Operations Staff Bios


Senior Leadership

Michael Garofalo, Senior Producer, Production

Michael Garofalo fell for New York’s panoply of voices while teaching English as a Second Language, Literacy, and Writing in schools throughout the city. He was a StoryCorps intern and facilitator before joining Production in 2004. Michael also makes music using radios — among other things — as a member of the electro-acoustic duo Latitude/Longitude. He is a Transmission Artist with the non- profit arts organization free103point9. Production Staff Bios

Lisa Janicki, Assistant Director, Operations

Lisa is a former StoryCorps Facilitator and MobileBooth intern who, prior to joining StoryCorps, was a commercial film/video producer, a video editor, and Associate Director of 911 Media Arts Center in Seattle, Washington. Lisa studied English and Anthropology at Middlebury College, and documentary at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. She is currently working on her M.A. in Arts Administration at Columbia University.

Chris Novak, Director, Marketing & Communications

Chris comes to StoryCorps from ClearAgenda, a consultancy she co-founded to help nonprofits clarify their message, raise their visibility, increase their funding, and better achieve their missions. Her work has produced dramatic results for clients such as Yale University, StoryCorps, and the Center for Reproductive Rights. Prior to ClearAgenda, Chris pioneered integrated marketing at major agencies such as Ogilvy and FCB, where her work won every industry award for creativity and effectiveness. As a SVP, Client Service Director, she led national and global communications for corporate clients such as AT&T, Merck, Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay. Chris has an MBA from Harvard and a B.A. in History of Art from Yale. Marketing & Communications Staff Bios

Melvin Reeves, Manager, the Griot Initiative

For nearly twenty-five years, Melvin Reeves held leadership positions within the American Red Cross. In 1985, he created and managed the social services department for a ninety-unit motel converted into temporary housing for single, homeless mothers with children. He then served as the Director of HELP I, a 200-unit emergency housing program for homeless families, before becoming the Director of Disaster Services for the American Red Cross in Greater New York. In addition to managing the Red Cross response to TWA Flight 800 and numerous other disasters, he also created the statewide disaster response plan for the Red Cross in New York. In 2001, he was working with the Bay Area Red Cross when he was urged to return to New York City because of September 11th. He subsequently created and managed the social services department for the organization’s long-term recovery program for September 11th clients, serving more than 10,000 individuals in fifty states and sixty-five other countries. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he designed a long-term recovery plan for the American National Red Cross. Melvin graduated from Harvard College in 1979 with a B.A. in psychology and social relations. Griot Staff Bios

Dalton Rooney, Webmaster

Dalton comes to StoryCorps from the Corporation for Supportive Housing, where he was Director of Information Technology for five years. He is currently finishing up his B.A. in art with a concentration in photography at Brooklyn College. Dalton’s photographs can be seen online at www.daltonrooney.com.

Chris Shutzer, Manager, Human Resources

Chris Shutzer joined the StoryCorps Team in the Winter of 2008 after working as the Employee Relations Specialist for the 92nd Street Y, and Assistant Program Manager for Lehman Brothers’ Investment Management Division. A history major from Harvard College, Chris wrote his thesis on School Shootings and the Media, and he spent a large amount of his free time singing for the Harvard Callbacks. Chris’ interest in Human Resources stems from his love of all types of people and helping those in need. In addition to his interests in Human Resources, Chris enjoys cooking,  running, and golfing. 

Adam Wilson, Manager, Community Outreach

Adam Wilson joins the StoryCorps senior team after almost ten years of union and community organizing, most recently as the Managing Director of the Prewitt Organizing Fund (POF).  Before POF, he worked for UNITE! and the Offshore Mariners United in campaigns around the United States. Until Hurricane Katrina, Adam lived in New Orleans and was a member of Community Labor United and the Frederick Douglas Coalition, a multi-racial, multi-generational organization committed to social change through Story Circles.  A recent arrival to Brooklyn, Adam is proud to join the Outreach team and contribute to the realization of the StoryCorps mission. He is originally from Wisconsin, and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. Community Outreach Staff Bios

Chad Wolbrink, Controller

Chad Wolbrink joined the StoryCorps team in May 2007 after working as the Associate Director of Finance & Administration for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC). Prior to LMCC, he worked at Inspiration Corporation in Chicago as the Director of Operations. Chad holds a B.A. in French and English, an obvious precursor to a career in nonprofit management, as it accentuates his love of structure and analysis. Chad is an avid fan of nonprofit organizations and cycling, and has been involved in numerous charity rides. A native of a small farm on the plains of South Dakota, Chad’s fondness for broadcast stories developed as a kid while milking cows and listening to Paul Harvey and other public radio programs.

Nick Yulman, Manager, Facilities & Archive

Nick Yulman grew up in Philadelphia, and studied English and studio art at Wesleyan University. Starting at StoryCorps as a Facilitator, he spent four months on the Mobile Tour, traveling between Chicago and Gulfport, Mississippi, before returning to Brooklyn to join the Facilities & Archive team. Nick’s long-standing interest in sound also finds an outlet in his creative work involving musical automata. Facilities & Archive Staff Bios

Community Outreach Staff

Mitra Bonshahi, Coordinator, Memory Loss Initiative

Mitra Bonshahi developed an ear for listening while working at a 24 hour diner in her hometown of Chicago.  She grew to appreciate the colorful stories she heard from the local patrons, which led her to become a Facilitator for StoryCorps in 2006.  Upon witnessing a moving conversation between a husband and his wife who had Alzheimer’s, she understood the importance of capturing fading memories and celebrating the present lives of people.  After her run as a Facilitator, she was inspired to become a coordinator for the Memory Loss Initiative where her natural affinity for the elderly and their stories continues to flourish. 

Rachel Daniell, Coordinator, Outreach

Rachel Daniell has pursued her love of independent media by creating databases, spreadsheets, and online resources for such organizations as AK Press, The New Press, Seven Stories, Downtown Community TV, and Berkeley Community Media. She was part of the collectively-run nonprofit technology organization Media Jumpstart/May First and has been involved with Paper Tiger TV, Bluestockings Women’s Bookstore, Blackout Books, and the microradio movement. She is currently pursuing an M.A. in liberal studies with a concentration in international studies at CUNY Graduate Center.

Veronica Ordaz, Senior Outreach Coordinator, New York City Community-Based Outreach

A Guatemalan and native New Yorker, Veronica has worked directly with people in various settings—from translating for non-English speakers in New York City courtrooms to teaching pre-schoolers to rock-climb. She has knocked on doors informing people about environmental and public health issues in New York, instructed high-school students in creating and running after-school programs for children, and more. She put all these experiences to use as a StoryCorps Facilitator from 2005–2006 and maintains her love of people and stories.

Dina Zempsky, Senior Outreach Coordinator, Memory Loss Initiative

Dina has a twenty-year employment history with social service programs in the fields of industry and aging. She holds a B.F.A. from Syracuse University and an M.S.W. from Columbia University. Prior to coming to StoryCorps, she was the Director of Partnership for Eldercare, an eldercare case management program at the New York City Department for the Aging. She currently has a private practice in geriatric care management. At StoryCorps, she is thrilled to blend her passions for the arts and human services.

Development Staff 

Matt Herman, Coordinator

Matt Herman earned a B.A. in American studies from Columbia University, where he also managed WKCR (89.9 FM) for two years. Before joining StoryCorps, Matt was the publicist of the Vision Festival, New York’s premier avant-garde jazz concert series. He hails from Katonah, New York, with a slight Vermont infusion.

Door-to-Door and StoryBooth Staff

Ruby Sheets, Coordinator

Ruby Sheets began as a Production Assistant for Sound Portraits Productions before leaving for a three-year hiatus to serve as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Guadalajara. While in Mexico, she earned a Master’s Degree in Communications. She then returned to StoryCorps to become the Outreach Coordinator on the Griot Initiative and is now the Coordinator in the StoryBooth and Door-To-Door Department.  Before StoryCorps, she created stories in sound in Minnesota (KRLX and KBEM) and New York City (WNYC and the Sonic Memorial Project). She remains grateful for the experience she had at Carleton College, where she earned her B.A. and served as a Trustee.

Facilitator Staff

Jennifer Goya, Senior Coordinator

Originally from Kalihi in Honolulu, Hawaii, Jennifer Goya specialized in video oral history at Hampshire College. She facilitated workshops on creating family history web pages for Holyoke Family Links and created experimental oral history videos for Olelo Community Television. Jennifer is proud to work with the participants that make up StoryCorps.

Tracy Harford, Coordinator

Tracy Harford joins StoryCorps from a varied background as an editor, photo editor and consultant for media outlets including Essence Communications, BET, Urban Box Office and Awakening Dance Productions. As Managing Editor of Harlem Overheard, a youth-produced newspaper for the Harlem Children’s Zone, she had the opportunity to work with brilliant youth and artists and observe the building of a tremendous vision. Prior to StoryCorps, Tracy worked in Goldman Sachs & Co. Tracy is currently an undergraduate at Columbia University. Facilitator Staff Bios

Facilities & Archive Staff

Talya Cooper, Coordinator

Talya Cooper grew up in Ohio and New Jersey and earned her B.A. in anthropology at Barnard College. Currently finishing a Master’s degree in library and information science at Pratt Institute, she has worked at a number of New York City’s finest academic libraries, archives, and video stores. She has also served as a staff member at several local independent radio stations, including WBAR at Barnard and Washington Heights Free Radio.  

Michael Dougherty, Coordinator

Mike Dougherty moved to New York from Herndon, Virginia, to study music technology and journalism at New York University. Before joining the team at StoryCorps, he spent two years working at New York University’s Avery Fisher Center for Music and Media and interning at various local publications. He is now a contributing writer for the Brooklyn-based L Magazine.

Desiree Leary, Coordinator

Desiree has developed a fondness for archives and collections over the past several years.  Previously she managed the archiving department for a photo-retouching studio, restored and cataloged video, and worked with various collections of art and rare books.  Currently Desiree enjoys caring for all of the stories that come to StoryCorps (among her other Facilities and Archive duties).  She holds a BFA in Studio Art from Alfred University, is working towards a MLIS at Rutgers with a concentration in digital libraries, has dabbled in architecture, and wishes she could master speaking Mandarin.  She currently lives in Brooklyn with her dog Leela.

Finance and Administration Staff 

Ihsan Muhammad, Coordinator, Human Resources

Ihsan Muhammad is an artist and media eductor. Prior to joining Storycorps she created her own series of hip-hop education youth workshops that were conducted in sixteen New York City public schools. She is co-chair and national spokesperson of UrbanMentor, a youth development commercial brand and is a lifelong poet, singer, and songwriter. She has just published her first book of poetry entitled "Break and Heal". You can read or listen to her work on her website www.ihsanm.com.

Kathrina C. Proscia, Executive Assistant, Operations

Kathrina Proscia graduated with an A.O.S. in business/occupational studies from the Wood Tobe Coburn School, Manhattan and received her B.S. with a major in historical studies from Empire State College. Kathrina has held executive assistant positions at Ted Bates Advertising, Agrexco (USA) Ltd., SAGE Foods, and Sun World International. Kathrina was also a substitute teacher, co-founded and chaired her parish golf outing for eight years, and was president of the PTA. Kathrina and her husband of twenty-five years live in Queens with their two daughters. 

Marketing & Communications

Elaine Davenport, Senior Coordinator

Elaine Davenport came to StoryCorps as a facilitator in 2006. After a year of traveling across the country and listening to the inspirational stories of people from New York to Iowa to Georgia, she decided to dedicate herself full-time to helping spread the word about StoryCorps. Elaine was the first member of the new Marketing & Communications department, and she is thrilled to be applying her creativity, from years of art and architecture classes, and her organizational skills from working at various nonprofit companies, to increasing awareness of and participation in this phenomenal project.

Marisa Karplus, Coordinator

Marisa Karplus joined StoryCorps upon earning her Master’s degree in Media Studies from the New School where she focused on social marketing and media literacy. She worked as associate producer on the Academy Award-nominated documentary, Street Fight, which aired on PBS, and the film Dust to Dust: The Health Effects of 9/11, which aired on The Sundance Channel on the five-year anniversary of September 11th. Her enthusiasm for StoryCorps comes from her love of non-fiction storytelling, where she finds true life consistently proves to be more interesting, entertaining, and inspiring than fiction.

Katie McGowan, Senior Coordinator, Participant Relations

Katie McGowan’s interest in U.S. history and radio began at Smith College where she disc jockeyed for the college station WOZQ before receiving a B.A. in anthropology and government. She traveled between Kenya and Seattle, interning with United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, and consulting with New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Since February 2006, she has worked with StoryCorps participants, and currently coordinates the Inquiries, StoryKit, and Volunteer programs.

Mobile Staff

Eliza Bettinger, Senior Coordinator

Eliza Bettinger came to Sound Portraits as a production intern. She joined the fledging Mobile team in September 2004. Previously, she was a newspaper reporter whose beats included the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation and the U.S./Canadian border. She has a B.S. in biology from Cornell University, and hails from southern Jefferson County, New York.

Terry Scott, Senior Coordinator

Terry Scott is a media producer and consultant for independent artists and nonprofit arts organizations with more than ten years of experience in commercial, nonprofit management, marketing, and outreach. From 2001—2005 he was Director of Producer Services & Technology for National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC), a funding and resource organization for black programming on public television, where he worked with documentary producers to bring their films to fruition and served as chief strategist for outreach and marketing for NBPC’s nationally broadcast PBS films.

Production Staff

Lizzie Jacobs, Assistant Producer

Lizzie Jacobs hails from Chicago and got her start at StoryCorps as a production intern. Before StoryCorps, she was an editor in educational publishing and taught in various educational nonprofits, mostly with middle schoolers. Lizzie got her B.A. at Williams College and her MFA in Creative Writing at the New School. When not at StoryCorps, she writes essays and is currently working on a book of profiles of American eccentrics.

Nadia Reiman, Associate Producer

Nadia graduated from Kenyon College with a double major in International Studies and Spanish Literature. Before joining StoryCorps, she was the associate producer for the Washington-based Spanish language radio show Epicentro. She also reported and covered Latino issues in Congress. In addition to obsessing over the sound of sneakers hitting gravel, Nadia is an avid blogger, traveler, and an occasional DJ and translator. She hails from San Jose, Costa Rica.

Katie Simon, Producer

Before Katie joined StoryCorps in 2005, she worked as a development officer and reporter for WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM, and as a freelancer for NPR’s JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater. Prior to that she attended Kenyon College; she graduated with a degree in American Studies and Anthropology and was awarded a Henry G. Dalton Fellowship. Katie grew up in New Jersey and continues to reside on the Hudson’s west bank.

Vanara Taing, Production Assistant

Vanara Taing first joined StoryCorps as a Facilities and Archive Coordinator. In that role, she trained facilitators on sound recording and managed StoryBooths. Vanara has also published and produced documentaries on the Cambodian refugee experience. Her film, bloodlines, was selected for the 2006 Portland Documentary and eXperimental Film Festival. She holds a B.A. from Scripps College and an Ed.M. from Harvard University.