Ana María Figueroa was born and raised in Puerto Rico. Ana migrated with  her mother and sister to the United States when her mother was  recruited to work at a hospital in New York City.  Ana began her journey with Long Island Head Start in 2006, and since has  held many positions within the agency. Ana found her true passion when  she was afforded the position of Family Advocate in 2007. In this  position Ana provided support and guidance to the Head Start families in  the community, following the mission statement of the agency and the  Head Start philosophy.  As the Director of Parent & Community Engagement Ana is responsible  for overseeing the Parent Involvement Department of Long Island Head  Start. In this position she works closely with parents on the different  levels of commitment and empowerment. Ana does not see this as her job  but her calling. Ana believes that lending a hand and encouraging  parents she meets can make a difference. Ana completed the Family  Development Credential in 2008. She also graduated from the Parent  Leadership Initiative Program in 2012. In 2016, Ana became a facilitator  for the Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors Parent Curriculum and conducts  the classes for the parents with enrolled children at Long Island Head  Start. On, 2017 while attending a Fathers and Families Coalition of  America Professional Development Conference she attended the facilitator  class for the Nurturing Fathers Program Curriculum in which she now  provides the classes.  In 2013, Ana was afforded the opportunity of becoming part of the New  York State Head Start Association Board and has been a member since. In  2017, Ana was nominated and elected as Vice-President of the New York  State Head Start Association and remains in the position today. Working  under the Head Start program Ana came across the Herstory Writers  Workshops Program and became passionate about the work they conduct and  when asked to be part of the board gladly accepted.  Ana’s commitment to providing a strong and steady foundation for the  children, families, and communities continues and looks forward to  making a difference in the families she meets along the way.

Johnny Madrid is a fractional CFO with a background in capital markets  and investment research. He builds finance systems and board-ready  reporting for growing companies and nonprofits. Most recently, Johnny  served as the Finance and Admin Director at EarthCorps, managing a $5M budget, overseeing $6M in investment assets, and supporting  environmental work that sequesters 120M pounds of CO₂ annually.  Previously, he held CFO leadership roles with early-stage companies  across sustainable consumer products, AI-enabled wellness, and AI water  quality. He raised and managed $1.65M in aggregate and helped position one company for acquisition. Johnny has also managed accounting and  finance operations for a major New York City social services nonprofit  with a $100M budget. Earlier, he conducted investment research at a  $2.8B AUM firm and served as a U.S. Treasury Financial Agent monitoring  $657M in Treasury assets. He began his career in the Structured Equity  Group at Goldman Sachs. Johnny earned his BA with Honors from Stanford  University and was a Truman Scholar. Outside of client work, he follows  impact investing trends and enjoys running, meditation, salsa dancing,  and cooking.

Joe is connected to Herstory through the late (great!) Amy Hagedorn, president of the Hagedorn Foundation. He managed day-to-day operations for 8 years, until the foundation closed its doors in 2017.  Working with the Outreach Coordinator, Joselo Lucero, was the most humbling experience and he continues to share his story. Shortly after Hagedorn, Joe was selected to serve as a Graduate Scholar in the NYS  Assembly Fellowship Program, while pursuing a master’s degree in Urban Studies at Queens College, which he earned in 2019. Joe researched early education policy and legislation on NYC’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten program and Mayoral Control of NYC Schools. Originally from Orange County, NY, he’s spent the last 10 years living in Astoria, Queens, with his indefatigable partner, Sarah. He’s collaborating with Herstory’s social media team to develop a campaign to increase outreach efforts, and to share as widely as possible Herstory’s compassionate writers, stories and publications. When not  online, Joe enjoys riding his bike and engaging in local politics in Astoria.

Sharelle Allen is a community builder, facilitator, and project  management professional with more than 20 years of experience in the  nonprofit sector. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Medgar Evers  College and is pursuing a master’s degree in Project Management at  Northeastern University. She is the founder of Breathe, Heal, Serve,  where she leads circles and workshops that foster meaningful connection  and reflection across diverse communities. Sharelle has experience  working with youth, families, nonprofits, and organizations, and is  passionate about creating spaces where voices are honored and stories  are shared. She is honored to serve on the Board of Directors of  Herstory and to support its mission of empowering individuals from all  walks of life through writing and self-expression.

Jennifer Isik is a seven-year educator with an undergraduate degree in  English Secondary Education from Hofstra University, a Master's Degree in Teaching English as a Second Language from Adelphi University, and a  Certificate in School Administration and Leadership from Long Island  University.  Laurel is currently a tenured teacher at East Rockaway Jr./Sr. High School where she teaches a range of English classes including AP Seminar  and Academic Intervention Services. In her free time, Jennifer is an  avid reader and writer.

Heather Pasmore has been a Professional Registered Nurse since 1984.  Since June 2020 she has been a Healthcare Service ConsuItant to the  Medical Service Bureau Division of the Suffolk County Department of  Social Services.   She reentered health care as a result of the critical need for  Registered Nurses and a call to fill the gap caused by the high rate of  attrition during the COVID 19 pandemic. During the 30 years prior to 2016 she dedicated herself to community  health nursing with the Visiting Nurse Association of Brooklyn now known  as VNR, then The Visiting Nurse Service of New York. Her heart has  always been devoted to promoting health and wellness. It was as a result  of this drive that she was able to help many patients through past  pandemics (such as the AIDS crisis in the 80's) manage highly technical  treatments at home. Education in health management helps clients to see  themselves as their own advocate and moves them toward wellness. Her years in health care introduced her to another crushing crisis,  which was the lack of financial literacy and preparedness in minority  communities. It was then that she decided to also become a licensed  financial professional. Since 2016, she has been able to help not only  individuals but also families and businesses to establish long term care  protection, and engage in financial planning and legacy gifting. These  two callings coexist because financial and health needs will be with us  for as long as we live. The process never stops, so she will continue to  help families be protected and have their financial needs addressed. Her introduction to Herstory has helped her develop a framework to  continue writing her own personal story which she hopes will be  publication-ready in early Spring 2022.

Eileen M. Ryan is an associate attorney at Vallely Law, PLLC. Her area  of concentration is real estate law.  Eileen, a graduate of Saint John’s University, School of Law, represents  mortgage lenders, mortgage servicers and credit unions in loan  originations, asset purchases, and title claim litigation. She also  represents sellers and purchasers in residential, commercial,  condominium and cooperative unit transactions.  She is a proud Board Member of Herstory Writer’s Network, and the  Suffolk County Women’s Bar Association.

Jacqueline “Jacqui” Thomas is an educator dedicated to social  organization and transformation of challenged schools.  Jaqueline Thomas is an independent contractor with Hempstead Union Free  School District at Hempstead High School, she has a successful record of  accomplishment with consistent superior rating, commendations, merit  compensation, awards, and honors as a highly qualified educator and the  art of teaching. Thomas is an experienced Instructional Coach and  Professional Development Facilitator. She holds a Master of Science Degree in Educational  Administration/Supervision and has served in leadership capacity for  nearly twenty years. Her commitment to advocate for reluctant learners  has led her to serve in numerous deprived rural and urban communities  across the nation. She is a former employee of Johns Hopkins University  School of Education, Talent Development Secondary. Also a performing artist, Jacqui uses her passion for the arts and  educational reform as a means of creating and nurturing a safe  social-emotional culture and climate that intentionally directs students  on a clear college and career pathway. Jacqui is driven by her  philosophy that, “We assume all students are at‐promise rather than  at‐risk, with each student uniquely gifted and talented”.

There has never been a time when Herstory’s founder and artistic director Erika Duncan wasn’t doing what she could to give voice to  stories that might not otherwise have been heard. Her early novels, A Wreath of Pale White Roses and Those Giants: Let them Rise, look at  those who are trying to break out of silence and fear, while her portraits of writers (written when she was a contributing editor for  Book Forum and collected in Unless Soul Clap its Hands: Portraits and Passages) touch on whatever brought each into voice.  This search is picked up in her front page series for the New York Times Long Island Weekly, where for four years her portraits of Long Island  writers, artists and musicians, thinkers, dreamers and doers appeared  every month. She has published numerous articles in various journals and anthologies, among them explorations of mother/daughter and sister relationships, the art of effective listening and works about teaching writing. Click here for some of Erika’s articles, which appeared in  various psychoanalytic and educational venues.  By the time she was 30, she was pioneering new ways to teach writing that would leave no one behind, based on her belief that there is no such thing as a person who cannot write – that if one can find a way to skip over the differences in educational backgrounds and opportunities that so often set us apart though designing a new set of tools, we would all be much richer. This led to numerous experiments in what caused  blocks and breakthroughs, including a five-year period of work at New York University where she took 11 classes and six student teachers into a new way of personalizing the long research paper. This project ranged  into experiments with parallels between the ways students approached  writing and mathematical thinking, culminating in a Ford-funded project that took this work to some of Brooklyn’s most troubled high schools.  At the same time, with five other writers living in New York City, she  started theWoman’s Salon, an alternative literary network to give  audience support and serious critical attention to the works of writers who were not yet known. You can read the archives here. Over a 10-year  period, this Salon brought in up to 200 women a month to listen to such  then-beginning writers as Dorothy Dinnerstein, Olga Broumas, Susan Griffin, Blanche Weisen Cook and becoming in many ways the seed for what  Herstory is today. While raising her three daughters, Rachel, Gwynne  and Jane, she worked with projects such as the Rural Education Program in Orland, Maine, and a workshop for quadriplegic writers at Goldwater  Hospital. Her work always had an active connection to healing, which she  never formally studied, but which came as a natural legacy from her  therapist mother. Those who have supported Herstory’s work have often remarked that while  there are many charismatic teachers, few are able to codify their  approach. The first volume of Erika’s manual, Paper Stranger: Shaping  Stories in Community, creates a vibrant window on that approach. While  continuing to train Herstory facilitators to take our work into an  ever-increasing variety of venues, she is working on an expanded volume,  even as she is completing her own memoir, Dreamer in the Play Yard: The Therapist’s Daughter.