Specialty: Multicultural Stories & At-Risk Youth Mentoring/Telling
Lorna MacDonald Czarnota is an award-winning storyteller and author, delighting audiences in schools, libraries, festivals and conferences throughout the United States, Canada, and Ireland with traditional and original stories since 1985. She holds a Bachelor in Creative Studies for Young Children, a Masters in Special Education, and certification in Trauma Counseling. She is the founder and executive director of Crossroads Story Center, Inc., a not-for-profit for reaching at-risk youth through story. Her healing story work is recognized in national and international storytelling communities. She has run programs for abused women and their children, and is currently the resident storyteller for Compass House Runaway Shelter since 1995, and TRY House. Lorna was resident storyteller for Hopevale Incorporated for over nine years. Her work also includes communities in disaster with a goal for rebuilding community focus and insight. She worked with educators of young children and the community at-large in Blacksburg, Virginia following the shootings on the Virginia Tech campus. Among her many publications are three new books about using story with at-risk youth; Dancing at the Crossroads: Stories and Activities for At-Risk Youth Programming Dancing at the Crossroads: A Guide for Caregivers in At-Risk Programs; Stories and Activities Dancing at the Crossroads: A Guide for Practitioners in At-Risk Youth Programming. Lorna was named “A Woman Who Moves the City” in 2017 by Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Western New York.