An award-winning expert on institutional storytelling, Thaler Pekar guides visionary leaders in building and sustaining cultures of excellent communication. For 20 years, she and her team at Thaler Pekar & Partners have advised leaders on strengthening alignment and influence through speaking, listening, narrative, and story. Working across sectors — for clients including Johnson & Johnson, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Food Banks Canada — Thaler delivers her four trademarked communication processes; produces multiplatform media; and develops oral histories and story collections. Recognized by both the BBC and the Smithsonian Institution as one of the world’s leading experts in applied narrative, Thaler has delivered keynote speeches on five continents to thousands of people. Her influential work on the ethics of working with story, participatory narrative, and story elicitation is featured in seven books.

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Known for coaching executives in high-level pitching, presenting, and negotiating skills, Jay is leading our creativity efforts, facilitating our How to Develop & Deliver a TED-Style Talk workshop, and designing our Pitch Academies. He is a proud founding member of one of New York’s first “long-form” improvisation troupes, Centralia (named after a Pennsylvania town with a underground coal fire that has been burning since 1962).

Tom oversees technical services, communicating with crews throughout the world and ensuring consistency of quality. He has worked on many documentary features, including An Inconvenient Truth and My Architect, and has traveled the world to record Not My Life (on human slavery) and A Closer Walk (on AIDS). Tom says he became a soundman “to mic people and turn knobs in the pursuit of spreading knowledge.”

Rachel is an award-winning brand and business development leader with extensive experience in strategy and client service for top-tier agencies in NYC and SF. Known for employing the voice of the customer to create straightforward solutions to complex challenges, Rachel has driven impactful results for clients including Microsoft, American Express, TIAA, Eli Lilly, and Jaguar Cars.  She also pioneered Ogilvy’s long-standing partnership and program with PS123 through PENCIL. Prior to her marketing career, Rachel worked as a counselor in a group home and classroom for SED youth where she experienced firsthand the transformative power of listening and being heard.

A native of Inglewood, Calif., Gabrielle Horton is a storyteller and cultural organizer whose work explores the rich legacy of Black care traditions. She is the creator of NATAL, the award-winning series about having a baby (or not) while Black. As an independent producer, Gabrielle has worked with teams at Audible, the California African American Museum, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, NPR, and Issa Rae’s Raedio. A dog parent of one and a pistachio ice cream aficionado, Gabrielle is a member of NEW INC, the New Museum’s program for people working at the intersection of art, design, and technology. She studied history at Spelman College and holds a master’s in public policy from the University of Michigan.

River manages Thaler Pekar & Partners’ calendar of digital content, from social media to email newsletters to website production. Born and raised in Farmington Falls, Maine and a graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, River has a background in journalism, public affairs, and partnerships. Always an English major at heart, she is passionate about storytelling and insists that listening is the most important place to start.