Elaine Gale is a storyteller, performer, writer, journalist, professor, writing coach, dissertation coach, trainer, speaker, group facilitator, and freelance corporate storyteller and communication consultant. She is a Full Professor of Communication Studies and Journalism at California State University, Sacramento, and the part-time Writing Center Director for Antioch University's Graduate School in Leadership and Change.She was an award-winning religion reporter for the Los Angeles Times and worked as an advice columnist and pop culture reporter for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. She worked for the Boston Phoenix and the Utne Reader and was a writer for national magazines, including Entertainment Weekly, Good Housekeeping, W, Variety, Stuff Magazine, Cosmopolitan, etc. She has written and performed an award-winning solo show called ONE GOOD EGG which had a world premiere in 2017 in Santa Barbara, was then performed all over California and at United Solo Theatre Festival in New York City in 2018. Elaine's told stories in the following series: The Moth, Strong Words, Tell It!, It's Funny Now, the NonFiction Show, Precious Moments with Aunt Brandee, Rant & Rave, Stranger than Fiction, Revealed, Riveted, Gorgeous Stories, The Rapp Saloon, TrueStory, U-Nite, Nectar, and over five years in the Santa Barbara performance troupe called ANIMA. Specialties: Creating community, generating and crafting good writing, and building relationships. Discovering, developing and amplifying people's voices. Creating possibility and happiness in people's lives by bringing forth their authentic selves through their voice on the page and the stage.She holds a doctorate in Human Communication from the University of Denver and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Antioch University, Los Angeles. Her undergraduate degree was a BA in English and Religion from Boston University. She has also studied at Oxford University (St. Catherine's College), and at Grenoble University in Grenoble, France.She created the Silverlake Trash Club in 2020 and led the group for two years. They picked up over 1,500 bags and buckets of trash in her neighborhood. She served on the Beautification Committee for Los Angeles and volunteered her time in panels and workshops about how to start a trash pick-up club. She created and developed "U-Nite" at the Crocker Art Museum, a faculty arts showcase that has been going strong for over ten years, that brings together two prominent Sacramento educational institutions for a blockbuster night of creativity, education and celebration of the arts.