Michelle Joyner
Michelle Joyner is an actor/writer/director who is returning to the Berkshires after leaving as a child. She leads The Long Table, a women’s writing group and along with her husband Robert Egan, is creating RAMSDELL, an Artist’s compound and retreat in Great Barrington. But first, heat. And a kitchen. Hopefully followed by baby goats wearing pj’s.
Mickey Friedman
A founding member of redcrownews.com, and former filmmaker, Mickey Friedman is the author of “A Red Family,” published by the University of Illinois Press. He is almost finished with a novel, “Danger Times Two.” Addicted to iced lattes, he can often be found pretending to write at Fuel GB. And while under the influence of caffeine, he has been known to travel as far as Price Chopper to the north and Big Y to the south.
Mitchell Gurfield
Mitch Gurfield is a sociologist and writer who began his teaching career at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. He has written two books on Brazil and recently completed a play titled "Drowning in America" and a short story called “A la Mode.” He was a civil rights worker in Mississippi and was a cofounder of Berkshire Greens, a local organization that dealt with environmental and social justice issues.
Mohammed Adawulai
Mohammed Adawulai is the founder of the non-profit organization The Other Project, based in Hamburg, Germany. He attended Mount Everett as an exchange student in 2009 and is a graduate of Simon’s Rock. He holds an MSc. In Politics, Economics, and Philosophy.
Mona Kanin
After a short but formative stint as a children’s librarian at the Boston Public Library, Mona Kanin was a filmmaker for over 25 years. She became a producer via writing. Particularly drawn to the creative challenges of short form in all media, and the marriage between pictures and words, Kanin is now writing children’s picture book texts and poetry for adults. Kanin and her husband, the actor Henry Strozier, make their homes in North Egremont and Brooklyn.
Monica Bossinger
A freelance copywriter and journalist, Monica Bossinger grew up in Litchfield County, and settled an hour north in the Berkshires by way of Hawaii, California, Colorado, Tennesee, New Jersey, and Maine.
Nicholas Dayal
Nicholas Dayal is a local writer and actor who currently lives in Stockbridge. He graduated from UMass Boston with distinctions in sociology, English and economics. He is best known for his work on the local web-series “I Miss Yesterday,” which can be found on YouTube.
Nichole Dupont
Nichole Dupont is a freelance writer and editor. Her work has appeared in Newsday, the Take Magazine, Huffington Post, Berkshire Magazine, Rural Intelligence, and other publications. She lives in Sheffield with her two teenage children.
Nick Diller
For 38 years Nick Diller was the morning host of WSBS Radio in Great Barrington, and then a cameraman for CTSB Television. When not behind the microphone or camera, Nick pursues his true passions: Weather watching, using weather records of Great Barrington dating back to 1965. He's been brewing beer since 1994. He's a master at barbecuing and grilling and often teaches others how to grill. And he makes various types of barbecue sauces under his Griller Diller label. (He grows his own hops for brewing) and being the nanny (Manny) of his granddaughter.
Oliver Antunes
Born and raised in New England, Oliver Antunes grew up in the Berkshire Hills.A graduate of the New England Culinary Institute in Burlington, Vt., he worked locally for several years at Bistro Rouge in West Stockbridge and Wheatleigh Hotel and Restaurant in Lenox. He then moved to France to pursue his culinary career, working in Lyon and Paris,for chefs such as Alain Ducasse and Yannick Aléno. When he moved back to the U.S. in 2013, he set his sights on Napa Valley, where he worked as a Sous Chef at The Restaurant at Meadowood in St-Helena, Calif. In 2018 Oliver returned to Bistro Rouge as Executive Chef, where he had the opportunity to cook his own food and meet many local farmers and purveyors. His food is rooted in European technique but draws inspiration from around the world. He loves evoking common childhood memories through his food as well as playing with the very diverse culinary world of New England and beyond. Spending his formative culinary years in numerous fine-dining establishments, he learned early on to strive for innovation while maintaining certain traditions to provide his guests with an unforgettable dining experience.
Pam Jacobs
Pam Jacobs is a marketing and communications professional in the architecture and construction industry working with design studio Clark Green + Bek in Great Barrington and New York City.
Pamela Pescosolido
Pamela Pescosolido is the owner of The Bookloft in Great Barrington, as well as an avid reader and hobby-chef.
Pamela Sandler
Pamela Sandler has worked diligently as an architect for more than 30 years—while raising three sons—to build her Stockbridge, Mass.-based firm from the ground up. It has been her dream, quite literally, to be an architect in a tight-knit community, and to know her clients (and their children and families) when she walks down the street. In addition to her life as a mother and business owner, Pam serves on many boards and committees, including the Historic Preservation Commission in Stockbridge, as well as Autism Connections and the Berkshire Autism initiative, the American Institute of Architects, and others. At the heart of her many commitments is to be a mentor and supporter to young people in the Berkshire community. Pam holds a Master of Architecture from Tulane University School of Architecture in New Orleans and completed the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business course in 2017. She is a registered architect in three states, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
Pastor John Nelson
The Rev. Dr. John A. Nelson has served congregations in Conn., Mass., and N.Y. where hospitality has been and continues to be a cornerstone of his ministry. He has also been active in local and national groups working for economic justice and promoting peaceful solutions to poverty and abuse. While in seminary, he worked as a carpenter, a typesetter, and a chaplain in a program serving persons with HIV disease. After his studies he moved to Guatemala to join the International Team of Witness for Peace, a movement committed to nonviolence and to changing US policies that contribute to economic imbalance and social inequality. He is fluent in Spanish and has acted as a translator in various settings. During a four-month sabbatical in 2014, John spent a good portion of the time taking cooking classes in Norway, Sicily, Greece, and NYC where he honed the culinary skills his mother taught all of his siblings and learned to prepare foods that his ancestors would have enjoyed. In addition to being an adventurous cook, he loves photography, opera, poetry, writing, word play of all kinds, and the theater (he developed skills as a lighting and scenic designer and director in college and summer stock). He is a proud stepfather to two adult daughters. A native of Syracuse, N.Y., he attended Middlebury College, Union Theological Seminary (NYC), and Chicago Theological Seminary.
Patrick White
Patraick White is a member of the Stockbridge Select Board.
Paul Breunich
Paul E. Breunich is President and Chief Executive Officer of William Pitt and Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty.
Paul Ivory
Paul Ivory is chair of the Great Barrington Historical Commission and is the longtime executive director, now retired, of Chesterwood, the summer estate of architect Daniel Chester French.
Paul Kleinwald
Roots music has been a lifelong passion for Paul Kleinwald. He studied the 5-string banjo and has recorded an album called “From the Hills.”. He also played on Arlo Guthrie’s cowboy tunes album called “Son of the Wind.” His band, the Northeast String Band (with Rick Tiven, Anson Olds and Robert Langdon) hosted the Northeast Folk Festival show on WAMC. He was an extra in “Alice’s Restaurant,” the original movie, and was the tour driver for the Hunger Mountain Boys.
Paul Lippmann
Psychologist, psychotherapist, psychoanalyst practicing in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Living in Stockbridge since 1961. Father of John Lippmann and Eve Jennings. Husband of Frances Lippmann. Founder of Stockbridge Dream Society. Founder and board member of the Western Massachusetts and Albany Association for Psychoanalytic Psychology. Past president of the William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Society. Affiliate Faculty: Austen Riggs Center. Member: International Association for the Study of Dreams. Author of dozens of papers on Dreams and author of Nocturnes: On Listening to Dreams, Analytic Press, 2000.
Pedro Pachano
Pedro Pachano is an architect and a member of the Great Barrington Planning Board.
Peggy Daniel
Peggy Daniel, the author of Tanglewood A Group Memoir published by Amadeus Press, is an award-winning producer and director specializing in classical music programming for Public Television, Sony Classical, Columbia Artists Management and the Bravo cable network. Her credits include documentaries on Philip Glass, the opening of the Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, Frederica von Stade at La Scala, the Leonard Bernstein/Michael Tilson Thomas concert celebrating the one hundredth birthday of Igor Stravinsky, and many others. She has been a Tanglewood aficionado since she was eighteen and worked at the Tanglewood Music Center on the fiftieth anniversary production of Peter Grimes. She lives in New York City and the Berkshires.
Peter Dillon
A graduate of Bowdoin College, Peter Dillon has been superintendent of the Berkshire Hills Regional School District since July, 2009. Prior to coming to Berkshire Hills, he had been Executive Director of Policy for the New York City Department of Education. He received his masters degree in international Education from Harvard University and his doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University.
Peter J. Most
Peter J. Most is a member of the California, New York, and Massachusetts bars, practicing complex business litigation. He has been living with his family in Great Barrington since 2018, practicing law remotely.
Peter Taylor
Peter Taylor, a resident of Great Barrington, is the former president of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. With a 30-year career in philanthropy, nonprofit management, and higher education, Taylor now runs Anchor Point Consulting. This nonprofit and philanthropic advisory firm offers training, technical assistance, and planning support to nonprofits, donors, and foundations. You can reach him at peter@anchorpointconsulting.net.
Phil Holland
Phil Holland is a writer from Pownal, Vermont. He’s the author of books on Vermont history, including "A Guide to the Battle of Bennington and the Bennington Monument." He is a contributor to the Berkshire Edge Magazine.
Philip Goldberg
Philip Goldberg is the author of numerous books, including "This is Next Year" (a novel); "The Intuitive Edge"; "American Veda; The Life of Yogananda"; and "Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times". He also coauthored or ghosted several other books, including "Get Out of Your Own Way" and "The Best That I Can Be", the autobiography of Rafer Johnson. A public speaker and cohost of the Spirit Matters podcast, he and his wife, acupuncturist Lori Deutsch, recently moved to Great Barrington.
Philip Timpane
Phil Timpane is a lifelong resident of the Berkshires, growing up in Pittsfield and Stockbridge. He moved to Great Barrington with his wife and three children in 1989, where he works as a building contractor and designs and builds new poems. His work has appeared in the Atlanta Review, The Cortland Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Upstreet, among other online and print literary journals.
Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman
Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman, founder of Rimon Resource Center for Jewish Spirituality, is currently serving as the Rabbi for the Rutland Jewish Center in Vermont.
Rabbi Jennifer Rudin
Rabbi Jennifer Rudin is the Rabbi of Congregation Ahavath Sholom in Great Barrington, where she began serving as Interim Rabbi in 2024. She is the founding rabbi of Simcha-Services and Congregation Derech HaShalom, a Progressive Jewish community without walls in Metro West Boston. Passionate about meaningful and inclusive Judaism, she honors diverse religious practices and supports individual Jewish journeys. During the pandemic, her love for cooking flourished as she hosted weekly "Cooking with the Rabbi" Zoom sessions.
Rabbi Joy Levitt
Joy Levitt is the Executive Director at The Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. Prior to coming to the JCC, she served as a congregational rabbi on Long Island and in New Jersey for twenty years. She earned a Bachelor's degree from Barnard College, followed by a Master's degree from New York University, and a rabbinical degree from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Most recently, she founded the Jewish Journey Project, an initiative designed to revolutionize Jewish education for children. As a lay leader, she serves on the boards of Avodah: The Jewish Corps for Service and The Shefa School, a new Jewish community day school for children with language-based learning disabilities. Joy is married to Michael Strassfeld, also a rabbi, with whom she co-authored A Night of Questions: a Passover Haggadah and together, they have five children.
Rachel Moriarty
Rachel Moriarty is the coordinator of BerkShares Local Currency and director of operations at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics. Born and raised in the Berkshires, her knowledge of the area allows her to work to increase circulation of BerkShares locally and engage the community around the opportunities for economic resiliency in Berkshire County. Rachel received her B.S. in sustainable food and farming from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Prior to working at the Schumacher Center, she worked for Berkshire Grown and Greenagers.
Rachel Portnoy
Chez Nous Bistro reflects the combined vision of the chef-and-pastry chef, husband-and-wife team of Franck Tessier and Rachel Portnoy. Soon entering their 12th year as Chez Nous, this duo worked and met in the world of French fine dining in New York and London, and moved to Lee with the idea of opening a truly casual, high-quality restaurant focused on real ingredients, prepared simply and with skill, without the trappings of fine dining. Since it’s all about the food at Chez Nous, the right ingredients are critical: local, seasonal, sustainable – not for the sake of it, but for the clear difference in quality these products bring. The menu changes with each season and French bistro classics blend appealingly with vegetarian and gluten-free dishes. Truly nourishing foods – highlighting unique and delicious ingredients such as the rare ancient Einkorn grain, heirloom beans, locally produced cheeses and meats, and lots of fresh vegetables – are offered in full or half-portion options so there’s plenty of room to taste some very special homemade desserts.
Rachel Siegel
Writing: HBO Women in Comedy short film prize finalist for Boston Women in Comedy festival 2017; Rachel wrote and performed sold out one-woman show Special, co-produced with WAM Theatre, March 2016; So Sing Already (London’s New End Theatre). Acting: Special; Can You Hear Me Baby? (WAM/BFWW); Motherhood Out Loud, 2014; Amish Project (Stageworks Hudson); Enchanted April (Shakespeare & Co.); Kerfol (Shakespeare & Co); Under Milkwood (WTF, Best Performance 2003 The Advocate); Threepenny Opera (WTF); Zorba!, Miss Julie (BTG). Trained at RADA. Her short comedy films and sketches can be seen at Funnycryhappy.net
Randy Weinstein
A former special ed teacher, Randy was an administrator at a residential treatment center in the Berkshires for many years. In 1997, he established North Star Rare Books and the Museum of Civil Rights Pioneers, which was designated the nonprofit W.E.B. Du Bois Center in 2006. Randy has published works on Black history, including "Against the Tide: Commentaries on a Collection of African Americana", with a foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Together with co-chair Gwendolyn VanSant, Randy helped to establish the town-appointed W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Committee in 2018.
Rebecca Gold
Rebecca Gold lives and works in Great Barrington. Her children attend schools in the Berkshire Hills School District.
Rene Wood
Rene Wood is chair of the Sheffield (Mass.) Board of Selectmen.
Rich DiMaggio
Rich DiMaggio spent 25 years as an attorney and financial advocate in New York. Along with being a best-selling author (twice), he has been featured on CBS Evening News, Money Talk Radio, WTEN, WABC NY, KTMS Santa Barbara, Money Talk Radio,and has been quoted in Kiplingers, Business Week and others. He is also a five star- rated speaker for Law Line. Today, Rich is the founder and Editor in Chief of didyouweekend.com, where he gets to enjoy theater, the arts, museums and all the culture and adventure of the great Northeast. He is also a prolific traveler, has sailed through hurricanes, tornadoes, was struck by lightening and survived (true!), climbed dozens of mountains and as he will clearly state: “It's a big world, and I'm just getting started.” Rich beat Melanoma ("the toughest battle of my life") and was crippled with Rheumatoid Arthritis, now in remission ("The most painful battle of my life.").
