Allison McGill is the founder of Lazarus (weareLazarus.org). She has over 21 years of experience working with those experiencing homelessness. She is also co-owner of Lola and Pear Publishing (lolaandpear.com) which publishes children’s books. She was named one of the Today Show’s Hero Moms of 2021. She lives in Washington DC with her husband and 4 kids. 

As the author of 2 books (The Adventures of Duke, the Therapy Dog and Mommy Didn't Say That...) she loves the process of storytelling and the nuance and complexity of getting the thoughts in one's mind to come alive on a page. 

I was a Top Writer on the Q&A website Quora for two consecutive years, where I primarily wrote exhaustive deep-dives into the academic literature for public outreach; some of my work appeared in the Huffington Post and Forbes. I currently work as a software engineer, and am working on my first fiction novel about the impact of AI advances on media discourse. As an ex-researcher in the physical sciences, I share the values of the scientific community in the thoughtful pursuit of truth, and believe that storytelling gives fact meaning.  

Carissa Cassiel has been writing very honestly about her life on Facebook for several years now. Last year, at the age of 37, when taking an extra curricular class in college, she accidentally fell madly in love with fiction writing and found that the creative talent she'd always lacked even in arts and music, she made up for in writing. She also has creative talent in cooking and photography - but nothing gives her as much joy and discovering a twisted, deeply emotional story as it pours out of her. She lives a deeply authentic, transparent, and highly public life and values honesty very highly. She has a 5 year old son and hopes to have more children soon. 

Hello, I’m Jesse and I am a researcher in cognitive science and artificial intelligence, an information manager in healthtech R&D, and a first-gen & nontraditional student. I established the Cognition Futures and Society-Ethics-Tech research teams at Orthogonal Research and Education Lab, where I am an assistant scientist. I also founded JOPRO to help support and mentor innovative & interdisciplinary projects.

To further comprehension and convey knowledge, both creation of stories themselves and literacy of the trajectories of narratives that have shaped the space where stories develop are crucial; I examine this in my own studies of embodied intelligence and cybernetics, but also directly in everyday life. I feel it is essential to prepare as many minds and hearts as possible to understand and engage the challenges of our moment in history, and believe it starts with enabling comprehension of one’s self amongst the context of personal situations and their affordances, and the broader societal forces at play. 

Hi, my name is Madison and I am a community member in Washington, DC! I currently work as a researcher while I pursue my PhD in public policy at George Washington University. I am committed to honesty and storytelling because the words we use to describe our world and the people around us have immense power - shared narratives impact how we are socialized to interact with people who are different from us and can transform the reality of marginalized people, for better or worse.

Cat Chang is a product researcher and creative living in Naarm on unceded Wurundjeri country (Melbourne, Australia). She's passionate about using research to design experiences that make people feel safe and empowered to connect and communicate their feelings. Outside of work, you can find her cooking, reading, or going on really long walks.