Girl Meets Voice, Inc. is a public voice laboratory offering transformative thought partnership to writers, leaders, and experts desiring a greater say in the marketplace of ideas. We provide access to public voice possibility by helping lift barriers–internal and external–to a deeper influence in print, in person, and online.
Initially focused on women’s voices, in early 2017 Girl Meets Voice broadened its focus to help raise the volume on lesser-heard voices overall.
We’re passionate about helping highly motivated people with expertise further develop their writing, platform, presence, and impact. Whether you’re at the beginning of this journey or far along, we look forward to the possibility of supporting you.
MEET DEBORAH, YOUR COACH-IN-CHIEF
Deborah Siegel-Acevedo, PhD ACC established GIRL MEETS VOICE to help lift the voices of those with needed messages and the desire to be heard. She brings to this work a background in narrative studies and a special interest in amplifying women’s voices in public spaces. After more than a decade as a content consultant for social enterprise and nonprofit organizations in New York City, where she co-founded the global network She Writes and helped expand The OpEd Project, Deborah trained with CTI and became a certified coach through the International Coach Federation. She has coached nonprofit leaders, experts, writers, and some of the nation’s most innovative thinkers, helping those with powerful insights put their best public selves forward in the service of their brightest ideas.
Mentor, champion, and guide, Deborah herself is a TEDx speaker and an author (Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild / Palgrave Macmillan; Only Child / Harmony/Random House). Her writing has been featured in venues including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, CNN.com, Harvard Business Review, The Forward, Kveller, Slate, The Huffington Post, The American Prospect, Ms., More, and Psychology Today, in multiple anthologies, and on Chicago’s live lit stages. National media appearances include The Today Show, Good Morning America Radio, and The Wendy Williams Experience. A dynamic speaker with a personal approach, Deborah has delivered keynotes and taught workshops nationwide.
During the pandemic, she founded Bold Voice Collaborative, a collective dedicated to transforming lives through expression through online courses and consulting. She earlier founded the group blog Girl w/Pen (housed at The Society Pages, a publishing endeavor supported by W.W. Norton), and co-founded the webjournal The Scholar & Feminist Online (housed at Barnard College).
Deborah received her doctorate in Literary Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has been Adjunct Faculty at DePaul University, where she also coordinated the public humanities fellowship HumanitiesX. She has been a Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University for many years. Locally, she has been a guest instructor at StoryStudio Chicago, Piven Theatre Workshop, and at Ragdale, where she has been the recipient of multiple writing residencies. She lives in Chicagoland with her husband and their twins.
Visit Deborah’s author website at www.deborahsiegelphd.com.
- Writer, TEDx speaker, thought partner, and coach
- PhD in English and American Literature
- Author of two books, two blogs, two kids
- Expert on gender, politics, and the unfinished business of “feminism” across generations
- Started out specializing in helping more women’s voices get heard
- Work widely featured, including on The Today Show and in The New York Times
- Keynote speaker at campuses and conferences nationwide
- Associate Certified Coach and member of International Coach Federation
The Download:
You’ll find here a downloadable bio and selected list of organizations Deborah has worked with, in pdf form.
MEET SHAWNA, YOUR PUBLIC SPEAKING & PERFORMANCE COACH
Shawna Franks is a professional actor as well as a public speaking and acting coach. Her method is rooted in an organic process, drawing from an alchemy of techniques gleaned during her many years of acting and vocal coaching for the theatre. She currently works with TEDx speakers, live lit performers, and both seasoned and first-time keynoters and presenters, helping speakers show up, reveal what’s inside them, and put it all on the stage. Through a powerful process involving Intention, Emotional Truth, Breath, Effective Speaking, and Memorization, Shawna guides clients to deliver some of the most confident, powerful, authentic public speaking and storytelling of their lives.
Shawna’s acting credentials include the leading role in Grand Concourse at Steppenwolf Theatre. A graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, where she began her acting career, Shawna originated the role of Dottie in Killer Joe by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tracy Letts. She performed this role at The Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, The Bush Theatre in London, and The Vaudeville Theatre on London’s West End and has also appeared in various productions in Dublin, Los Angeles and New York City. Shawna is the founding Artistic Director of Space 55 Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona, where she was awarded Best Actress in Phoenix New Times “Best Of” for the role of Elena in Uncle Vanya. Space 55 Theatre won Phoenix New Times, “Best Of” Best Black Box Theatre the same year. She was awarded the Phoenix New Times “Big Brain Award” for Best Performing Arts Collective and, in 2010, she was named Phoenix New Times Top 100 Creatives List (Top 4). Shawna was nominated for The Governor’s Arts Award in Phoenix.
She lives in Chicagoland with her two sons Jackson and Samson.
