Executive Director Heather Davis came to The Telling Room from Austin, TX, where she co-founded a youth writing center called Austin Bat Cave and served as the senior grant writer for a nonprofit, arts education organization. Heather holds a BA from St. John's College, and an MA from Goddard College, where she designed an individualized program that combined coursework on youth development, arts education, and creative writing with her experiences as a writing teacher in Harlem.
Director of Publications Molly McGrath is a writer and editor, and she integrates the techniques of both trades when teaching our students, and in the past at Waynflete School in Portland where she was also a college counselor, and at schools in Boston and Cambridge. Pink Eraser, an editorial consulting venture, keeps Molly busy, too. Molly has an MFA in creative nonfiction, and lives in Brunswick, with her husband and two young sons.
Andrew Griswold is The Telling Room's Director of Communications. He has taught and mentored middle and high school students in Maine, California, and Washington, DC, since graduating from Davidson College. He holds an MA from Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English. Andrew is an avid music fan and critic, an appreciator of good design, and a grammar nut. He lives in Portland with his wife, his two young sons, and their labradoodle, Hazel.
Patricia Hagge is The Telling Room’s Writer in Residence. She earned an MFA from USM’s Stonecoast program and put it right to work at The Telling Room in 2006. Since then, she has done everything from paint tables, to edit stories, to move a telephone wire spool out of a boat for The Telling Room, but her favorite thing to do is help students find the stories they have to tell. Much to our benefit, Patty was also a social worker for many years.
A native of Brunswick, Maine, Molly Haley is Director of Multimedia and Community Outreach. She's a graduate of the University of Maine - Orono where she received her Bachelor's in Spanish. She moved to Portland to study radio storytelling at The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Molly has taught theater to kids here in Maine, and has worked with orphans and the elderly in Honduras. She loves to travel, meet people and hear their stories.
Emily Baer is a writer and artist from Brunswick Maine. She graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington with a degree in English and Studio Art and is excited to join The Telling Room as the VISTA Development Assistant. Emily has a background in teaching and a passion for community building through the arts. She believes in the power of words, the transformative nature of stories and – above all else – the importance of play.
Hakim Kodi is The Telling Room's Multilingual Programs Assistant. He teaches field trips and workshops while working to extend and enhance The Telling Room's ELL programing. He received a BA in International and Global Studies and a minor in French from UMaine Farmington this past spring. In the summer of 2012, he spent a summer in France conducting an individual study of french farming culture while attending the University du Mans. Hakim is originally from Sudan but has lived in Maine for the past eleven years. He speaks three languages: Arabic, French and English.
David Caron was born and raised in Central Maine where he never dreamed beyond the boundaries of small pastoral towns. After attending the University of Maine at Farmington and receiving his BA in English, a good bit of luck saw him on his first transatlantic flight (his first flight ever) to France, where he taught ESL at the Université du Maine. Spurred on by his expat peers, he then attended the University of York in England. He is interning at The Telling Room this year and imagines that one day he might call himself a writer.
A native Mainer, intern Eliza Stinneford graduated from Keene State College in 2010 with a degree in journalism and has been living in Portland for the past two years. “A year after moving to Portland, I found the Telling Room-or rather it found me. Through a long chain of friend of a friend of a friend connections, I’d heard about the Telling Room and decided it was at least worth checking out. I attended a volunteer orientation and never wanted to leave. So I didn’t.