Who We Are

At Creative Narrations, we see stories as an essential resource to bring about change for marginalized populations. We believe that the process of storytelling can lead to self-discovery, strengthening relationships, and building power. Founded in 2001, our mission is to support organizations with a wide range of multimedia tools to document the voices and images of change.

Co-Directors

• Natasha Freidus is the founder and co-director of Creative Narrations. Before entering the media field, Natasha worked as an adult educator and organizer for eight years. It was through community building work that she developed her interest in the role of storytelling as a tool for social change. Natasha has conducted workshops in multimedia storytelling for diverse groups throughout the country. She has also studied and worked in a range of communities including the U.S./Mexican border, the Dominican Republic, Thailand, and spent 2006-7 on a Fulbright Fellowship in Tarragona, Spain. Natasha earned her Masters degree in Urban Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she was community media coordinator and a course instructor at The Center for Reflective Community Practice from 2001 to 2003. She believes that if she can learn how to connect a video camera to a computer, anyone can.
• Jennifer Nowicki-Clark joined Creative Narrations as a co-director in 2007 after many years of fruitful collaborations. Jennifer worked as an instructor, program coordinator and technology trainer in adult education since 2000. Currently based in Oakland, California, she received her BA in Sociology from Boston College and her Masters degree in Linguistics from the University of Arizona. She has taught digital storytelling to a wide variety of groups, including university students in China in 2007. Jen has also coordinated the production of several program documentaries, including We Are Adult Education and Refugee Journeys in Tucson, Arizona. She enjoys printmaking, photography and cooking spicy food.

Associates

• Sean Effel collaborates with Creative Narrations on digital storytelling trainings, video production, and web development. He serves as the associate director at Cambridge Community Television, senior open source psychotherapist of Drupaltherapy, and director of a local four square league. When he is not narrating something creatively, he takes long walks on the beach and likes ice cream.
• Julie Mallozzi is a documentary filmmaker based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her films explore the interactions between cultures thrown together by history, and between politics and personal stories. Her debut film, Once Removed, premiered at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, won awards at numerous festivals, and aired on public television. It tells the story of meeting her mother's family in China and learning about their involvement in China's complicated political history. She recently completed Monkey Dance, a coming-of age story about three Cambodian-American teens navigating the confusing landscape of urban adolescence. She also produces educational and outreach films for community organizations.
• Vanessa Pabon is the acting director of Telling Our Lives Digitally (T.O.L.D.) in the North End community of Springfield, MA. With a background in web design and technology, Vanessa recently left her position as youth director at the North End Youth Center to launch the first community digital storytelling center in the country. When she isn't working on her own web design business, Vanessa can be found salsa-dancing throughout the Northeast corridor.
• JaModi Robinson worked in conjuction with various organizations throughout Boston over the several years before moving to Los Angeles in 2006. His goal is to create programs to link creativity and technology through learning within the city and beyond. JaModi teaches digital storytelling with Creative Narrations,and with his own production and training company, Digital Expressions. His work with digital storytelling stresses needs for individual expression and personal growth.
• Josh Schachter is a photographer, visual storyteller, educator, and community activist who has worked for organizations throughout the U.S. to document issues from urban revitalization to food security. His images have been published internationally in books, magazines, newspapers, films and web sites, in venues ranging from the New York Times to the Navajo Times. Josh earned a master's degree in environment management at the Yale School of Forestry and Environment Studies, where he explored how urban youth could use photography to share their own lives and perspectives. Over the past decade he has taught documentary photography to youth, teachers, neighborhood groups, and nonprofit organizations in places ranging from New Delhi to Nigeria. Since 2005 he has developed a passion for digital storytelling and has facilitated digital storytelling workshops in the US and abroad. 
• Seth Schromen-Wawrin is an urban planner, cartographer, and community organizer in Seattle, WA. He helps communities tell stories and build a sense of community through interactive map-making. Additionally, he is involved with multimodal transportation advocacy and education at the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and previously Feet First. Seth is data and outreach manager for Creative Narrations' project Mapping Our Voices for Equality in King County, Washington.
• Evan Goldberg has worked with digital video since the early days of QuickTime in 1994.  His background includes work in education, technology training, and video post-production.  Evan has taught digital storytelling to a variety of groups, including train-the-trainer workshops.  He has a BA in Creative Writing and has found that digital storytelling is an ideal combination of his interests in writing, teaching, and technology.  Evan works as an IT supervisor for Pima College Adult Education, an adult literacy program in Tucson, Arizona.  

• Antoinette Angulo is a public health practitioner and activist in Seattle, WA.  She is experienced in developing, implementing, and evaluating media strategies such as radio novelas, liberation theatre, photovoice, and digital storytelling with diverse populations for health promotion and advocacy.  Antoinette earned her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Washington and studied health policy as an undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley.   She is passionate about community building for health and is committed to addressing social inequities through leadership, capacity building, advocacy, and health promotion and research.

• Laura J. Revels is a Tlingit from Southeast Alaska and has been involved with Tribal organizations for 20+ years, with the last 10 years in Tribal Health.  She currently works with Alaska, Washington, Montana and South Dakota Tribes to develop cancer education/outreach materials using traditional stories and art, as well as provide cancer education and community outreach training.  Before she became involved with cancer education, she worked with Alaska Native Tribes developing health promotion/disease prevention programs and materials.  She is passionate about how health education is communicated, especially for the Native People, and continually explores new ways to use traditional methods, such as storytelling, to relay wellness and prevention education.

Affiliated Organizations

• Creative Narrations is certified as an official Women's Owned Business with WBENC.
• The Center for Digital Storytelling is an international not-for-profit community arts organization rooted in the craft of personal storytelling.
• MassImpact (IMproving People’s Access to Computer and Technology) represents a vision for maximizing the benefits and usefulness of information technology and related media.
• Stories for Change is an online meeting place for community digital storytelling facilitators and advocates.