STAFF AND BOARD

Jill Pollack • Board Chair

Jill founded StoryStudio Chicago in 2003 and focused on growing the creative writing school, as well as bringing together Chicago’s literary and publishing communities.

Her life’s work has been giving voice to as many stories as possible and raising up as many storytellers as possible. To expand opportunities and reach more people, Jill created Stories Matter Foundation in 2019. Today, she is the Foundation’s Board Chair.

Deborah Walters • Treasurer

Deborah Walters works as the Executive Vice President and the CFO of EXP. Visit her Linked in page.

Rodney Jordan • Board Member

Rodney Jordan is a results-driven, transformative and dynamic leader with 20+ years experience living and working across multiple geographies as a senior executive with experience in communications, public relations, corporate & social responsibility, strategy, administration, human resources, and community engagement for notable Fortune 500 companies (B2B, B2C, franchisee/franchisor) and nonprofit organizations.

Rodney currently serves as Global Chief Operating Officer for Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) – a global charity that creates, finds, and supports programs which directly improve the health and well-being of children and their families across 260 chapters in more than 60 countries and regions. 

Rodney is also responsible for Program development as part of the Board of Trustees’ Program Management Committee and oversees Enterprise Risk Management in partnership with the Audit Committee.

Rodney holds a BA in English Literature from Morehouse College, an MS in Technical and Professional Communication from Southern Polytechnic State University, and an MS in the History and Sociology of Science and Technology from Georgia Tech. He is also a certified Professional of Human Resources (PHR), completed Columbia Business School’s Private Equity and Venture Capital Business Excellence program, and is a graduate of the LEAD Atlanta Class of 2010 and the 2021 National Urban League of Chicago Impact Program.

Andre Smith • Board Member

Andre Smith is a transactions lawyer where he advises on various contractual matters

Andre is originally from Indiana and, after attending law school in New York, moved to Chicago to pursue law and be closer to where he grew up.

Because of a lifelong interest in reading and foreign language learning, he is excited to work with Stories Matter Foundation to better achieve its goal and mission of supporting people and communities in communicating narratives they want to share. 

Linsey Maughan • Board Member

Linsey Maughan is a writer and serves as director of public affairs for the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services. Her work has been published by Marie Claire, Coveteur, HuffPost, Brevity, The Rumpus, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn, among other outlets, and she is the recipient of writers’ grants from the City of Chicago and the Illinois Arts Council.

Linsey began her career as a newspaper reporter in rural America before transitioning to nonprofit communications and administration, and has taught creative writing and women’s studies courses at the University of Florida and the Illinois Institute of Technology. She co-founded the UN Women USA Chicago Chapter, where she served as president, and now serves as a fundraising co-chair on the Board of Directors of Stories Matter Foundation.

Linsey holds a BA in English from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Florida, and a Master of Public Administration from University of Illinois Chicago. She is at work on a memoir.

Randy Romano • Board Member

Randy Romano is a fiction writer and has been a full-time real estate agent with Baird and Warner Real Estate in Chicago since 2015.

He holds a BA in English from Queens College/CUNY, where he received the Silverstein-Peiser Award for Fiction, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Florida, where he received a Rawlings Fellowship. He has been an artist-in-residence at Ragdale Foundation and his fiction has most recently appeared in Armstrong Literary and Blankey Gravity Magazine.

He has been a volunteer at StoryStudio Chicago since 2020 and has participated in their Novel in a Year, Short Story Collection in a Year and StoryBoard programs.

Matthew Singer • Board Member

Matt Singer is a civil rights and employment lawyer in Chicago. In 2021, he founded his own law firm, which focuses on representing employees facing discrimination, retaliation, or harassment in the workplace. Matt’s professional passion is helping his clients tell their stories in pursuit of justice.

Matt has been an active, enthusiastic member of the StoryStudio community since 2021, when he signed up for a fiction writing class and (unexpectedly) discovered his art form and art community. In the years since, Matt has completed StoryStudio’s Novel in a Year program, attended many other StoryStudio classes and events, and learned from some of the greatest writers alive within its (real or virtual) walls. He’s currently working on a novel.

Matt is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Michigan. He lives in Lincoln Park with his spouse and two children. 

Elizabeth Neukirch • Board Member

Elizabeth Neukirch is a Chicago-based writer and public relations executive. As the owner of Elizabeth Neukirch PR Consulting, she provides strategic PR/communications services to arts, nonprofit and mission-driven organizations, with a focus on high-impact storytelling. Prior to starting her consulting practice, Elizabeth was senior vice president of a Chicago PR firm, and worked in-house at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Goodman Theatre. She holds a BA from WashU, where she was a Howard Nemerov Writing Scholar, and serves on the Arts Leadership Council of Arts Alliance Illinois.

Elizabeth is currently working on her first novel, a speculative Greek American immigrant story woven with folktales and the history of a Greek revolutionary heroine. A Tin House Summer Workshop alumna, Elizabeth was awarded two individual artist grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and has been an artist-in-residence at Ragdale and Vermont Studio Center. Learn more at elizabethniarchosneukirch.com.

Beth Uznis Johnson • Board Member

Beth Uznis Johnson is the author of the novel Coming Clean (Regal House, 2024). Her short fiction and essays have been published in Story Quarterly, Mississippi Review, Massachusetts Review, Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere. She was the recipient of the McGinnis-Ritchie Award for her essay, “Your Friend/My Friend, Ted,” which was included in Best American Essays 2018, and an individual artist grant from the City of Chicago.

Beth is also a communications and marketing professional with a 25-year career that spans advertising, marketing management, program and event planning, internal communications, and publishing. She is the founder of Big Bold Words and offers consulting, editing, and writing support to businesses, healthcare organizations, and creative writers. She holds a B.A. in journalism from Michigan State, an M.S. in advertising from Syracuse, and an MFA in fiction from Queens University of Charlotte.

Beth relocated from suburban Detroit to West Town in 2023 and can’t get over the literary scene in Chicago.

Marlo Hines • Board Member

Marlo is a versatile senior leader and certified executive coach with deep expertise in corporate strategy and organizational development. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she majored in Psychology and Business Management & Human Resources. After several years in sales management, she completed her MBA at Harvard Business School and transitioned into management consulting. 

At Boston Consulting Group, she spent six years advising senior executives at Fortune 500 companies across multiple industries, focusing on go-to-market strategy and human capital management. Most recently, she served as VP, HR Business Partner in Capital One’s card division, leading a team to support domestic operations and international business units. She is currently concluding a creative sabbatical, during which she’s pursued her lifelong passion for writing fiction.

Marlo connected with Stories Matter Foundation several years ago, enrolling in multiple courses and workshops, including the Short Story Collection in a Year program, and has found a true home in this thriving writing community. Marlo lives in Chicago with her dog, Ollie, and is currently working on a short story collection.  

Michelle Falkoff • Board Member

Michelle Falkoff is the author of several novels for young adults, including Playlist for the Dead and How to Pack for the End of the World. Her short fiction, essays, and reviews have been published in ZYZZYVA, Salon.com, and The Harvard Review, among other places. She currently serves as the Associate Dean of Legal Writing and Instruction and Clinical Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, and she is working on another novel.
 

Vince Firpo • Board Member

Vince Firpo is a nonprofit professional with more than twenty years of experience in institutional advancement, fundraising, and community engagement. He served as the inaugural Vice President for Public Engagement at the Newberry Library, where he was instrumental in forming a partnership with StoryStudio Chicago that led to the creation of the popular Writers on Writing speaker series. He has also served as a jury member for The Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Book Award. As a board member of Stories Matter Foundation, Vince is proud to support an organization dedicated to building communities of storytellers trained to question, explore, celebrate, and change their worlds through the power of story.