Murray Nossel, PhD
Director, Co-founder
Storytelling is the common thread in Murray’s 25 years of professional experience as a teacher, trainer, and artist. Murray’s story
Murray began work as a corporate trainer in Zimbabwe in 1982, helping foster teamwork across racial lines in the country’s largest pharmaceutical company. He subsequently earned an MS in research psychology, where he specialized in Methods of Improving Creativity, and going on to train and practice as a clinical psychologist. On immigrating to the US in 1990, he earned a PhD in social work and anthropology from Columbia University. He has taught Life Histories and Narratives and serves on the faculty of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. He is also an Oscar® nominated documentary filmmaker. His films have won numerous awards and have been broadcast on HBO, PBS and the BBC. In addition, he is co-creator/performer in the internationally acclaimed storytelling performance, Two Men Talking, which has appeared on London’s West End and is currently Off-Broadway in New York.
Through Narativ Murray is delighted to bring, both to corporate and community settings, a unique ethnographic methodology aimed at creating listening environments and transforming individuals, teams, and the world through the simple, timeless, and universal art of storytelling.
Paul Browde, MD
Co-founder
Paul views individuals as the experts of their own life stories.
Paul is a psychiatrist and executive coach based in New York City. He is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at New York University and adjunct Professor in the Narrative Medicine Masters Program at Columbia University. With Murray Nossel, he is co-creator/performer in the internationally acclaimed storytelling performance, Two Men Talking.
A native of South Africa, Paul earned his doctorate from the Witwatersrand Medical School. In 1986 he moved to London to train at the Drama Studio, from which he graduated with distinction. In 1988 he moved to New York and completed a residency in psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He has also trained in Mind Body Medicine and Psychopharmacology; in Narrative Therapy with Michael White at the Dulwich Center in Australia; and at the Society for Ericksonian Psycotherapy and Hypnosis in New York.
Jerome Deroy
Chief Executive Officer
Jerome has led the growth of Narativ’s multi-faceted global training programs, using the Narativ methodology to solve problems he encountered working in finance and the arts. Jerome’s story
Jerome obtained a Masters in Business at the European School of Management in Paris. After studying in France, Spain and England, he joined the bank BNP Paribas in Hong Kong, where he was marketing manager from 1999 to 2003. Unbeknownst to his banking colleagues, he also worked nights as a DJ and co-produced two short films. These creative ventures sparked his passion for film, which he pursued in 2004 upon moving to New York City. Shortly after arriving in New York, Jerome met Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Murray Nossel, Ph.D, and became the production manager and distribution coordinator for his documentary films.
Jerome sees Narativ as an opportunity to combine his creative aspirations and business background, building a corporate structure and service lines to enhance diverse, supportive communities around the globe.
Carol Barash, PhD
Chief Strategy Officer, Director of Educational Programming
Carol discovered Narativ in 2008 as a way to help students and alumni at Macaulay Honors College tell their stories. Carol’s story
For over 20 years, across business, philanthropy and education, Carol has built teams, strategies and tools to launch and grow new ideas. After receiving a BA from Yale, an MA from University of Virginia, and a PhD from Princeton, Carol taught Literature, Women’s Studies and African and African-American Literature at University of Michigan and Rutgers. She served as Assistant Director of CETH, a humanities computing think tank, before starting Factor|i, a marketing boutique whose clients included Jaguar, Ernst & Young, NFL, Seventeen, and Princeton University. She served as VP – New Business Development for CommonHealth, a division of WPP Group, where she built new health care service lines. From 2007 – 2008 she was Director of Development and Communications for Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York. During that time, she also helped launch the Neve Shalom Encounters, bringing Israeli, Palestinian and American high school students together for shared learning around equality, pluralism, civic engagement and rule of law. Her publications include English Women’s Poetry 1649-1714 (Oxford University Press, 1997), An Olive Schreiner Reader (Pandora, 1987), poetry, fiction, journalism, and criticism. She is developing a new online community, DailyMetaphor.com.
She is using the Narativ methodology to complete a memoir, Eight Lights, and a collection of short stories, Ecstasies. She is responsible for Narativ’s online and educational service offerings.
Dan Milne
Director of Narativ, London
Dan has over 20 years experience leading storytelling and performance workshops in corporate and community settings.
Dan graduate from Cambridge University, trained as an actor, and worked extensively in theater, including the National Theatre, Young Vic and Royal Shakespeare Company. During this time Dan led diverse educational programs including Spatial Perception and Storytelling.
Dan works as a director, devising and creating projects as a freelance practitioner and for his own company The Space Project, combining his artistic projects with corporate coaching and development. He helps clients develop their awareness and skills in personal impact, influencing, body language, teamwork, and presentation, and he has run courses on leadership, risk-taking, creativity and innovation for management consultancies, financial services organizations, law firms, energy and pharmaceutical companies.
Since 2001 Dan has been the director of Two Men Talking. He sees extraordinary potential using the Narativ methodology to foster innovation and collaborative group processes.
Jane Nash
Director of Narativ, London
The foundation of all Jane’s work is her belief in the transformational power of story – mythic, archetypal and personal.
Jane is from the UK and has been an actor, writer and theater maker for 30 years. She has performed in repertory theatres around Britain and at The National Theatre, the Young Vic, the London Bubble, the Gate and Wiltons Music Hall in London. She also has extensive television credits. With her husband, Dan Milne, she is the creator of theatre company No.63. Their work includes “Scary Fairy,” a solo piece performed by Jane; “Big Space,” a show performed by Jane and her then 15 year old daughter, Cecily, about space, time and mother-daughter relationships; and “Small Space,” a site specific piece for domestic kitchens about intimacy, with elements of personal storytelling performed by Jane and Dan Milne. “Small Space” has toured to kitchens in London and New York and at International Theatre Festivals. Jane has also been a consultant in communication skills for the past 11 years. She works in the corporate sector offering one-to-one coaching, group facilitation and role play, and also with private clients.
Jane is Director of Narativ London and brought the Narativ Personal Storytelling workshops to London in 2009.
Benaifer Bhadha
Narativ Trainer
Benaifer began her storytelling journey in the Munirka slums of Delhi, listening to the stories of women as they struggled to better their lives. Benaifer’s story
She earned her Masters Degree in International Affairs and Social Work from Columbia University and has worked as a clinical social worker, human rights activist, and community organizer. She has fostered the storytelling of pregnant teenagers in the Bronx, sex workers from South-East Asia, gay men facing discrimination from their own governments in Southern Africa, and transport workers fighting the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS in Kenya.
As a teacher in Narativ’s high school program, Benaifer continues this work by helping to create safe spaces where young people may find their voices and be inspired to listen, share, and connect to others through their stories.
Advisers
John Burt
John received a BA in theater and psychology from Hampshire College, and a MA in Expressive Arts Therapy from Lesley University. He is currently a senior academic fellow at the European Graduate School. He has been producing and directing theater-based projects for community development for over 30 years and been a practicing expressive arts therapist and coach for 25 years. John formed his own production company, River Barge Productions, in 1986 and became the seasonal producing artistic director of the Clayton Opera House in upstate New York, where he produced and commissioned four seasons of original music theater. In 1995, he became the executive producer of the Children of War Theater and Film Project under the artistic direction of Obie Award director, Lawrence Sacharow of River Arts Repertory and with Academy Award winning documentary film director, Barbara Kopple. In 1999, John co-founded Cambodian Living Arts with Cambodian genocide survivor and Reebok Human Rights Award recipient Arn Chorn-Pond. The PBS and Emmy nominated documentary The Flute Player tells the story of this work with the master musicians of Cambodia. Under John’s leadership, Cambodian Living Arts commissioned the new Khmer rock opera, Where Elephants Weep, for which he served as executive producer. He produced three workshops of the piece in New York, receiving a feature in the New York Times. Preview performances were mounted in Lowell, Massachusetts, one of the largest Cambodian communities in America, in 2007. John serves on the boards of Cambodian Living Arts, the Marion Institute, and Fresh Sound Foundation.
Robert Fitzpatrick
Former International Managing Director of Haunch Venison Gallery, responsible for creating a new exhibition space at Rockefeller Center and refining exhibitions in London, Berlin and Zurich, Bob currently serves as an independent consultant supporting innovative artists and arts and education organizations around the world. Voted one of Time Magazine’s 200 Americans most capable of assuming leadership in 1974, Bob has led a wide range of institutions through the dynamics of growth and change, serving as Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; Dean of the School of Arts at Columbia University; President and CEO of EuroDisney; and President of California Institute of the Arts. Bob began his career teaching French language and literature at the University of Maine, served as an elected member of the Baltimore City Council, and subsequently served as an advisor on presidential and senatorial campaigns. He served as Vice President of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee and Director of the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival, a program which he continued at the request of Mayor Tom Bradley, creating the Los Angeles Festival in 1985. Bob has served as a trustee of the American Center Foundation, Cunningham Dance Foundation, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, American Hospital of Paris, American Film Institute, Bennington College, American Cinématèque, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Society, and the Craft and Folk Art Museum. He is a former member of the Tony Awards Nominating Committee.
Steven Miller
Steve has worked in the international television and publishing businesses for over 25 years with a focus on children’s education and media. During the 1990s, as Group Vice President of International Television and Licensing at Children’s Television Workshop, he oversaw television production, research, sales and licensing activities outside of the United States, with a particular focus on the Sesame Street brand, a business with an annual retail value of over $400 million. From 2001 until 2006, as Vice President for Business Development and Strategic Planning at Disney Publishing Worldwide, he was responsible for developing and implementing growth strategies for Disney’s global publishing business in over 75 countries, with an annual retail value of $1.8 billion. In 2007, he moved his base of operation to Europe and established an international media consulting business. Prior to joining Children’s Television Workshop, Miller was an intellectual property attorney in New York working first in the firms of Hale Russell and Gray and Silverman, Shulman and Slotnick and then as Associate General Counsel of WNET/Channel 13, the nation’s largest public television station. Steve has served on the boards of The Hetrick-Martin Institute, Lambda Legal Defense and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, East Coast.
