staff

Taro Alexander, Founder and Director, is an accomplished performer, teacher, and director who has stuttered since the age of five. His artistic impulses were encouraged by his parents at an early age and his interest in contributing to social change was influenced greatly by the work of his father, the late Bobby Alexander, who founded the legendary Living Stage Theatre Company in Washington, DC. Taro graduated from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and went on to be cast in his first professional role at the age of nineteen in the National Tour of Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers. After years of building a successful performing career, including four years in the cast of the Off-Broadway smash STOMP and appearances on NBC's Law & Order, Taro decided that it was time to realize his lifelong dream of utilizing art to transform the lives of people who stutter. He founded Our Time in the Fall of 2001. Mr. Alexander has been widely recognized for his work with people who stutter and has led workshops, master classes, and performances around the world from Dublin to Montreal to Glasgow to Chicago to San Francisco to New Orleans. In March 2002, he was honored by the National Council on Communicative Disorders at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, where he received the Charles Van Riper Award. In July 2005, he gave the keynote address at the National Association of Young People Who Stutter (Friends) Conference in Cleveland. Taro and Our Time have been featured on NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams, NPR's All Things Considered, The Today Show, WNBC, as well as in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Washington Post. He would like to thank the young people of Our Time for their courage and trust. He is honored to be married to the amazing Leigh Pennebaker. They are the proud parents of two sons.

Everett Bradley, Musical Director, is a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter, producer, actor, dancer and has shared his multi-flavored art with New York City and the States, for over 16 years. He has done everything from touring and performing, in and out of the studio, with musical giants like Bobby McFerrin, Jon Bon Jovi, Quincy Jones, Carly Simon, and recently Hall and Oates, to being the first American to lead the British percussive sensation STOMP. Mr. Bradley topped the charts in Europe with his dance classic "I Luv U Baby." He is the co-writer, co-arranger, and star of the hit musical "SWING," which won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Musical and also received a Grammy nomination for best Broadway Cast Recording. Everett's first full-length CD, "AS IT EVER IS," received rave reviews from both Billboard and People magazines. His latest completion, an original holiday CD entitled "TOY," is a joyous, funky collection of new Christmas tunes. This self-produced album features duets with Richie Sambora (guitarist with the Jon Bon Jovi Band), song siren Ann Hampton Callaway, and trumpet great Chris Botti. Mr. Bradley is currently working on his one man musical, "EV/OLUTION", a theatrical piece that is scored and multi-tracked with his voice and body.

Noah Cornman, Managing Director, joins Our Time after having worked the last decade helping to build and shape Sh-K-Boom and Ghostlight Records, the award-winning record label and production company. By working in close partnership with Broadway’s top producers, as well as working side-by-side with the new generation of theater artists to integrate them into the popular culture at-large, Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records has emerged as the leading force in cast and solo albums in the musical theatre world. Prior to entering the music business, Cornman worked in Los Angeles as the director of marketing and publicity for start-up film distributor Plaza Entertainment and the Family Universal Network, as well as working in the long form development department for the USA Networks. In 1999, fueled by the revolution of the Internet and the music industry, and the evolution of the new wave of musical theatre, Cornman joined forces with Kurt Deutsch and his wife, actress Sherie Rene Scott, in the role of Vice President, to help launch their newly-founded company Sh-K-Boom with the mission of bringing passionate, fresh artists and their music to a whole new audience. The Ghostlight imprint was created in 2004 to serve the ever-expanding mission of the label to include Original Cast Recordings. Beyond the recorded music business, the company’s production company has expanded rapidly as Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight developed, with its roster of artists and composers, new musicals, musical films, and an ongoing series of live concerts which Cornman was integral in producing. Since its inception, Cornman has helped Sh-K-Boom/ Ghostlight Records produce and release over 100 albums, he has produced dozens of live concert events with hundreds of performers, and he has been honored with Drama Desk Awards (for Ghostlight Records for dedication to the preservation of musical theatre through cast albums, and for his role producing the Stagedoor Canteen free concerts for Ground Zero workers), as well as a Grammy Award (for Best Show Album for In The Heights) along with seven Grammy Award nominations. Cornman received his B.A. from Columbia University.

Carl Danielsen, Associate Musical Director, has worked as an actor in NYC doing The Big Voice: God or Merman? at the Actor's Temple; Trolls at the Actors Playhouse; Picon Pie at DR2; and Edgar in King Lear at the Hudson Guild Theatre. Regionally Carl has done A Marvellous Party at Northlight Theatre near Chicago, for which he won a Jeff Award; Cole! for San Jose Rep, Marines Memorial and as part of the LACLO season, winning two Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle awards (one for acting, the other for musical directing) and a Dramalogue award; 2 Pianos, 4 Hands at Arizona Theatre Co, Coconut Grove, Seattle Rep and 13 other regional theatres. Other favorite roles include Homer in Morning's At Seven for the Caldwell Theatre; World Goes 'Round at TheatreWorks in California where he won his second BATCC award as supporting actor; Taming of the Shrew and Oh, Kay! for the SF Shakespeare Festival, winning a third BATTC award for supporting actor; Oedipus Rex at the Denver Theatre Center (where he met Taro Alexander in 1996); A Dream Play at Cleveland Playhouse; Room Service at Barrington Stage; John Adams in 1776, Barnum in Barnum and Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast for Woodminster Amphitheatre in CA; Don in Singing in the Rain and Bobby in Crazy for You at Shenandoah University; I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change at Florida Studio Theatre, and last but not least, a flying Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol for North Shore Music Theatre near Boston. Carl trained for 2 years at the Webber Douglas Academy of Drama, in London after receiving a BA in music from the University of California, Berkeley. Carl studied composition with Edwin Dugger and Larry Delinger and is currently a member of the advanced Music Theatre workshop at BMI for which he was honored with the Jerry Harrington Award.

Meg Hart, Director of Programming, has worked with Our Time as an intern/volunteer since 2004, a camp counselor since Camp Our Time's first year, and became a staff member in September 2011.  Her stage debut was as a pink dolphin in Our Time's "Booyahland" in 2006.  Since then, she has worked backstage crew for nearly every Our Time performance, occasionally still making cameo appearances.  Meg studied Communication and Italian as an undergrad at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development before joining the New York City Teaching Fellows in 2007.  She has been teaching Special Education at high schools in the South Bronx for the past 5 years and earned her Masters Degree in Secondary Special Education from City University of New York, Hunter College in 2009.  Her teaching philosphy involves establishing a safe, supportive environment in which young people are engaged in challenging, project-based learning that showcases their skills and helps to develop new ones.  She strongly believes that excitement, enthusiasm, and positivity are contagious, and that all people can reach high expectations that you hold for them with a true belief in their abilities and the adequate support to get them there.

Caryn Herring, MS CF-SLP, Speech-Language Pathologist & Programming Associate, has worked with Our Time as an intern/volunteer since the summer of 2008, and became a staff member in August, 2011.  Caryn is a person who stutters and a speech-language pathologist.  She graduated from Purdue University with a Masters of Science in Speech-Language Pathology in 2011.  While there, she was a research assistant studying stuttering and other communication disorders.  She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Pittsburgh in 2005, graduating summa cum laude.  Caryn is a member of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association, the National Stuttering Association, and Friends - The Association For Young People Who Stutter.  She has also presented at the National Stuttering Association's annual conferences, the Friends annual conferences, the Pennsylvania's Speech-Language and Hearing Association's annual conference, the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, Purdue University, and Long Island University.  Caryn has co-hosted the Stutter Talk podcast "B-Team" since July, 2010 and was also featured on the MTV documentary, "True Life - I Stutter."  Caryn currently co-leads the National Stuttering Association's Brooklyn, NY chapter, and previously led National Stuttering Association local chapters in Indiana and Pittsburgh.

Eva Peskin, Administrative & Development Associate, comes to Our Time after having been an administrative and production assistant for theater in venues across New York. She also performs, writes and directs theater and music, and her work has been seen at (le) Poisson Rouge, Incubator Arts Project, Launchpad Brooklyn, PS122, Dixon Place, Roulette, and most recently at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. An avid traveler, Eva has spent time working with performing artists in South America, Europe, and West Africa. Eva graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College where she was a Centennial Scholar and music major. In addition to her professional pursuits, Eva harbors passions for paleontology, philosophy, new media, puzzles, yoga and cooking.

Michelle Summers, Camp Our Time Associate Director, is responsible for the day-to-day camp operations, and has been with Camp Our Time since its inception.  Ms. Summers has over 12 years of experience in camping, including 8 years at Camp Matoaka as the Theatre Arts Director, Day Trips Coordinator, and Transportation Director.  She spent two years, respectively,  at the Marywood Summer Music Camp and the Electric City Theatre as Technical Director.  She is skilled in stagecraft, passionate about the arts, and dedicated to the idea that theatre can be a profound force in the lives of young people.  Her resume spotlights a star-spangled listing of work with accomplished directors, on popular plays from musicals to dramas to comedies.  She has chosen to focus her attention mainly on the management and backstage of productions, although did trod the boards once as a child, in Julius Caesar under the direction of Sir Richard Harris.  Moreover, as an English and communications educator in the Dunmore School District, Dunmore, PA, she takes a wide-angle view of education, incorporating theatre and writing into all of her classes. Michelle received her B.A. degree cum laude in Theatre with a minor in Art and a concentration in sculpture from Marywood University, Scranton, PA in 2000. Subsequently, she returned to earn her education certification.  In October 2010, Michelle was honored by her alumni and received the Recent Graduate Award.  Currently she is pursing an M.S. in Arts Administration at Drexel University and hopes to continue fulfilling the roles of educating, enriching, supporting, and serving the children of Camp Our Time, and the youth of a new generation.

Justin Wynn, Director of Development and Marketing, joined the Our Time administrative staff in May of 2008 after working for two years in New York City as a corporate legal assistant, specializing in environmental law research. Prior to his work experience in New York, Mr. Wynn worked as a drama and English teacher for two years in Tokyo, Japan, where he also directed and performed in original plays. Mr. Wynn graduated Magna Cum Laude / Phi Beta Kappa from Colgate University in 2004 with a Bachelor's of Arts degree in International Relations and Japanese. He is thrilled to work with Our Time where he can witness the power of art truly changing lives. He thanks all of Our Time's supporters for their compassion, dedication, and generosity, and looks forward to seeing this wonderful organization grow and prosper.