Behind the Voices

We asked each of our narrators and the studio director to share a little bit about themselves. Soon we'll be adding photos and some of their favorite audio clips. 

Studio Director

Robert Pierson
I have had the privilege of directing the Clive W. Lacy Recording Studio since August 2008. Previously I managed the recording studio for MAB Community Service. I enjoy the challenge of expanding Perkins' custom recording services in addition to overseeing our traditional program of producing high quality books for the National Library Service, which is part of the Library of Congress. I am delighted to be collaborating with a team of wonderful volunteer narrators, editors, reviewers, and office assistants. I also enjoy narrating magazines and special projects whenever I can find the time to do so.

Digital Recording Specialist

Todd Smith
I joined the studio team in January 2010. A primary part of my job is converting the nearly 1,000 titles previously produced for cassette into the new digital format. I also master newly completed recordings to the digital cartridge format.  I have a bachelor's degree in Contemporary Writing and Production from the Berklee College of Music and a degree in Communications from the University of Miami.  I am thrilled to be working with all the great folks who are volunteering in the Studio.  

Volunteer Narrators

Mark Angney
I grew up in Boston but skipped acquiring the accent. I taught secondary English in Concord for four decades and now enjoy tutoring, freelance writing, consulting for The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, and reading aloud. Things I do not like include: television, the Kindle, Michael Savage, full-page Macy's ads, and pink Sox caps (particularly worn backwards). My brother attended Perkins.

Barbara Atwood
I come into the recording studio once a week. Most often I work as an editor, picking up corrections that the reviewer has found and typing them up for the narrator to re-read, or making corrections in the sound file when that is possible. For instance, deleting awkward silences or twice-read sentences are easy edits. Sometimes I narrate magazines. I originally came to Perkins as a volunteer narrator years ago. Much later I became studio manager. Now I am back to being a volunteer: all the fun without the responsibility.

Linda Cohn
I am a retired elementary school teacher who moved to the Boston area from the Midwest after college and has lived here ever since. My husband and I live in Arlington. A friend introduced me to the Recording Studio when I was looking for a volunteer opportunity after I retired. I love reading aloud, and I find this work very satisfying because it's obviously filling a need.

John Deming
Since I decided to volunteer as a narrator for Perkins in 1991, I've recorded over 30 books, including children's books, detective novels, sports biographies, and mysteries. I've loved these 18 years! I like recording children's books best, because they usually take just one session, and because as a teacher my favorite thing is reading to kids!

Ann Eldridge
I was born and grew up in New York City, and first came to the Boston area in 1953 as a freshman at Radcliffe College. During eight happy years in Cambridge I was married, had the first two of my four children, and completed a master’s degree. Life took me to the Capital District of upstate New York for almost forty years, but in 2001 I married a Harvard classmate and came back to live in Cambridge. Over the years I have been involved in a variety of volunteer activities, some political and others focused on community needs. I’ve enjoyed acting since my high school and college days as well. Recording books for the blind at Perkins fits in with these interests, as it serves a special community and gives expression to my thespian urge.

Caroline Evans
My aunt, Ethel Evans, taught in the Perkins Lower School for the entire first half of the 20th century. As a child, I would visit her at Perkins where I played kickball with her young blind students. They outplayed me! As a grownup, I lived in Newton and taught at Brookline High School for thirty-eight years. I have been a Studio volunteer for about twenty years. Now that I am retired and live full-time on Martha's Vineyard, I still look forward to "crossing the pond" for recording sessions on campus.

By the way, Steve Rothstein, President of Perkins, was a serious, talented, productive sixteen-year-old in my honor physics class a "few" years ago. The adjectives still apply!

Lois Fontana
Pre-retirement, I was an Investment Research Analyst. Research is in my blood; I love to discover how things (and people) were “back then”. My passion for discovery and love of photography dovetail into my principal interest of preserving and recording our heritage through photography. I enjoy sharing these interests by enthusiastically narrating books that portray people’s lives and historical events.

Yvonne Fuller
I have been narrating books for the Perkins School since 2006. I received a BA in Voice from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and have performed with the Pittsburgh Chamber Opera and Pittsburgh Symphony. Before moving to Boston, I lived in New York City, where I studied voice and saw as many operas and theater as my budget would allow. Since moving to Boston I have appeared as a soloist with the Brookline Chorus and currently sing with Chorus pro Musica. I live in Watertown and work for a software development company in Cambridge.

Karen Gallagher
Having grown up in Newton, very close to Perkins School, I was aware of the facility and the wonderful services it provided from a young age. When life afforded me the time, I knew that I would like to be part of the process.

Donna Golemme
I live in Foxborough and work for PBS Distribution, an affiliate of PBS and WGBH. My husband and I also co-own BeadCache, a beadstore in Mansfield, for which I recorded radio ads that elicited an enthusiastic response from our customers. This, along with my love for reading books to my sons, led me to the Braille & Talking Book Library. It has been a rewarding and fun outlet for me and my partner, Catz Le Blanc, ever since.

Sue Halliday
I am a professional musician and sometime freelance writer. I maintain a small voice studio and sing in two local choral groups, The Orpheus Singers and The Master Singers of Lexington. “My father, Gene Hamilton, was one of the so-called Broadcast Pioneers.  He, too, was a singer, and had a beautiful, mellifluous speaking voice.  As a child, I remember telling people that he ‘just talked’ for a living.  Over time I have come to realize how much more there is to the gig!” I am so happy to have found a place for myself at Perkins, and am hoping to find professional employment in the field of voice-over narration, as well.

Jim Kirckcaldy
I moved to Watertown in 2006 and knew immediately that I wanted to be part of the Perkins family. With an interest in voice-overs, volunteering as a narrator seemed like the ideal way to join in. I enjoy working with my partner, Jeff Ferrannini, each week as we struggle through difficult passages, laugh over mistakes, and enjoy the success of a well-recorded project.

Laura Koller
I am an avid reader and am thrilled that I can share my literary passion as a recording volunteer, which I have done since 2006. In the rest of my life, I am an academic administrator at MIT and an artist working in mixed media at my home in Lincoln.

Jean Sherman Kriedberg
A retired teacher living in Chelmsford with my husband, Ken, I was encouraged to do narration by my mother, a patron of Perkins' Talking Books. Inspired by the materials and literature available, along with the warmth, constant support, and appreciation of the recording studio staff, I feel grateful to have this rewarding opportunity to help the blind and visually impaired.

Catz LeBlanc
Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, my passions include: narration, team handball, travel, baking and whatever I can to make the world a better place - smiling, recycling, being funny... I have worked as a medical provider, project manager & developing a non-profit organization.  Reading has been significant throughout my life.  Bringing words to life is tremendously gratifying & totally fun, especially with my monitor, Donna Golemme - the ultimate WIN-WIN!

Bart Morse
I first started narrating at MAB Community Services and then volunteered at both MAB and Perkins. I started narrating when my mother, who had macular degeneration, said she would rather listen to me reading her mail than most of the narrators she heard on her tapes. I hope I've been able to convey the authors' meaning to my listeners – it is a real challenge to do it well, and that is my goal.

Amy Peters 
I moved to Boston with my husband and two teenaged children in the fall of 2007 from Telluride, Colorado, where, for ten years, I had a radio show called “Revel without a Pause” on KOTO FM on Thursday mornings.  I love to read and enjoy the opportunity to read aloud for Perkins.

Anne Quirk
I've been in the book business since I graduated from college as a history major and stumbled into a children's book publishing job in New York City. Since then I've worked for big publishers, including HarperCollins and Little, Brown, and small publishers, notably The Horn Book, a Boston-based journal about children's literature, and for myself, which is what I'm doing now. I started volunteering here in 2009 and live in nearby Belmont with my family.

Jay Rose
I love story-telling and the human voice. I produce film/TV soundtracks (and have won a few awards in the process). I wanted to give back to the community, and Perkins is a world-class place for that. But this time I'm trying the other side of the mic, hopefully applying what I've learned from narrators I work with.

Tricia Rosenthal
Growing up in Lexington, I knew of Perkins and its outstanding reputation. When I returned to the area after many years away, I immediately thought of Perkins and of how I might help as a volunteer. Narration provides an outlet for my interest in literacy, pleasure in reading aloud, and desire to make a contribution. 

David Sheehan
I have been in the business of ideas for four decades, first as a teacher, then as an administrator and lawyer. In hopes of globally connecting people and ideas, I have worked on projects for schools, non-governmental organizations, and professional groups. Ready access to ideas rocks!

Nola Sheffer
I came to Perkins from MAB where I had been a reader for over six years. A resident of Acton and a retired educator, I learned of the opportunity to volunteer for the recording studio through a newspaper announcement. I greatly enjoy the variety of material to be read.

Polly Slavet
I live in Weston with my husband, Arnold. I retired a few years ago from being school nurse at the Gifford School in Weston. I have two married daughters (one in London and the other in Portland, Oregon) and two granddaughters, ages three and seven. In the 1980's I was a volunteer reader with high school students at Perkins for several years. From that time I have been very impressed with the work which is accomplished here. Recording books for Perkins is a wonderful pleasure for me, probably because I've always loved to read, and loved reading aloud to my children when they were young and now to my grandchildren.

Nancy Slavinsky
Since 1936, reading aloud to children and adults has been a joy for me. Work with books and people became my true vocation. Retiring after thirty years as a reference librarian at the Belmont Public Library, I volunteered as a narrator at the MAB Recording Studio from 2000-2008, then transferred to the Perkins Talking Books Studio in 2008. My interests include birds, books, gravestone studies, history, music, people, walking, and writing.

Mimi Svenning
This spring, I retired from my career as an elementary school librarian and moved from Watertown to Scituate, where I have lots of family. Coming back to Watertown every week for narration is an important link to my former life and bridge to the new one I am building. I feel privileged to be even just a small part of the amazing work Perkins does.

Leora Tec 
I have long been a lover of language, linguistics, books and theater. I enjoy reading aloud to my children especially Dr. Seuss, The Chronicles of Narnia and anything by Daniel Pinkwater. I began reading for RFBD in the spring of 2010 and for the Perkins BTBL in the fall of 2010. I am thrilled to be reading Defiance, a book written by her mother, Nechama Tec, as my first audio book. I love languages and have studied many. I completed the five level course at improvBoston and performed in an improv troupe called Bridging the Gap for which I also served as producer. Though I’ve only just begun reading at Perkins I am impressed with the warmth and friendliness of the staff and other volunteers and am glad to be making a small contribution to making books available to the blind and visually impaired.

Julia L. Terry
I worked and lived in many different places and always wanted to "settle down" and do something for my community. Perkins offered the ideal solution: I love to listen to books and my mother always said I had a good telephone voice. I really enjoy being at the studio and I like knowing that patrons are benefited by hearing the books.

Rob Todd
After retiring from working for thirty-five years in the home office operation of the life insurance business, I discovered volunteering as a narrator for those who are sight or learning impaired to be a satisfying retirement activity. My weekly reading sessions have continued at three different recording studios for over ten years, the most recent at Perkins. I am a resident of the town of Lincoln, where my other retirement activities include involvement with the town's Historical Society, Mass Aububon's Drumlin Farm, The Council on Aging, and, recently, tutoring for Literacy Unlimited.

Dan Wallace
I taught English, Philosophy, and Drama in high schools for twenty-three years before shifting my career to short-term psychotherapy. I have always been a reader and read many full-length volumes (mostly fantasy) aloud to my sons. I very much enjoy the variety and challenge of my work at Perkins: being an ambassador of authors.