Barney Shapiro is a second generation Washingtonian who has worked for the City Council, built houses, been a landlord, and currently owns and runs the largest waste and recycling company within the District of Columbia.

Harold Sharlin is a born again Jew.  He lays tefillin every morning.  He is a former university professor.

Rabbi Hannah Goldstein has been the Assistant Rabbi at Temple SInai since 2013. She received her rabbinic ordination at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in New York in 2013. She completed a Masters in Religious Education at HUC-JIR in the spring of 2011. Hannah grew up in Andover, Massachusetts and studied English and Politics as an undergraduate at Brandeis University. She was Co-President of the HUC-JIR Rabbinical School student body and has been engaged in social justice work through her engagement with HUC's soup kitchen, the American Jewish World Service and the Religious Action Center.

Joseph Price is a storyteller, playwright, and producer. His SpeakeasyDC credits include The Sin Show, Sucker for Love, and more than a dozen appearances on the 2nd Tuesday stage. He specializes in story structure and mixed media and many of his personal works focus on integrating performance and technology.  His one-man show, Operating System, blended first-person storytelling with raw data and e-Geaux (beta) , incorporated live audience Facebook profiles into "social media improv" that was featured on NPR's All Things Considered.

Katy Barrett discovered Speakeasy DC two years ago at My So Called Jewish Life, and has been hooked ever since.  She has performed several times, and loves being a part of this amazing community.

Storyteller and actor, Kevin Boggs has coached hundreds of individuals  since becoming part of the SpeakeasyDC  faculty in 2008. He "comes by storytelling naturally" since he grew up in Jonesborough, TN, the home of the National Storytelling Festival.  His solo show -- & Afterwards -- was a popular and critical success at the 2013 Capital Fringe Festival and he brings a sensibility to his teaching that helps each person tap into what will resonate most deeply with their audience.

L.Y. Marlow is an award-winning author and empowerment advocate whose life journey took her from a legacy of domestic violence to the opulence of corporate America; and now to a life devoted to Saving Promise--a national domestic violence prevention organization that's inspired by her family's story, and a little girl named Promise.
 

Ober slings stories for a living as a public radio producer in the District. But generally those stories are about other people's exploits, not hers.

Suzette Tanen originally hails from Toronto Canada. In addition to being a wife and mom, she is a retired English teacher, so telling stories to a semi-interested audience is not new to her.

Amy Saidman, Artistic Executive Director of SpeakeasyDC, has been the driving force behind the growth of storytelling as a performance genre in Washington, DC and regionally. Called DC's "matriarch of storytelling", she's been running SpeakeasyDC's programs, telling stories, hosting, inventing new ways to present storytelling, building relationships with other local arts and culture groups, and spreading the gospel since 2001. She began coaching and teaching storytelling in 2006 and, along with the SEDC teaching staff, has developed a curriculum and pedagogy for teaching the art of storytelling that includes more than five different classes at different levels and customized trainings for corporate, government, and nonprofit clients.