My Best Mistake was a theme suggested to us by Don Cohen, one of our first Storytellers and later also one of our photographers. We loved it and had a wonderfully diverse set of stories with Don as the expert speaker. This show also featured our first guest host, Chris Hess. Prior to this show, Regie O’Hare Gibson had been our celebrated host every night, a very hard act to follow. Except for the different hairstyles (see above and any other show), it was hard to tell them apart. Chris has the extraordinary distinction of being the only human being to have been a host, a singer, and a storyteller at Voices. Should he ever become an usher, he would win the coveted quatro-fecta and become one of the favorites for most valuable player.
Don Cohen
Expert Speaker
Don Cohen has been a member of First Parish since 1980. A writer and editor, he worked for NASA for nine years, editing a magazine for the agency. Recently, several of Don’s plays have been read as part of the Monroe Saturday Nights program, and he has received a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Playwriting Fellowship. Some of his stories have been collected as Pilgrims of Mortality, available from Amazon.
Rip Jackson
Storyteller
Rip Jackson is a conductor, singer, composer and keyboardist. Passionate about jazz, early music, classical, world, and folk music, and musical theater, Rip specialized in dance and choreography at a performing arts high school in Atlanta, and then studied music history, piano, harpsichord, and organ at Florida State, Emory, and Case Western Reserve. He teaches voice and keyboard, has directed large productions of Broadway shows, and is the Director of Music and Organist at First Parish in Lexington.
Maura Redmond
Storyteller
Maura Redmond sustained a traumatic brain injury when she was 18 years old, in 1980. She lives at Douglas House on Oakland Street. Maura has held several different jobs in the food service industry. She currently volunteers at Arlington Food Link. She is often at Starbucks with her two loves: word search puzzles and coffee. Her greatest assets are her quick wit and her desire to help others.
Children’s Choir and Soloists
Singers
Rebecca O’Brien
Storyteller
Rebecca O’Brien grew up in the tiny farming village of Ames, Oklahoma, where she spent hours every day outdoors playing with her four siblings and dreaming of a career in law. She first practiced law with a top-tier international law firm in Boston and now is a partner at O’Brien Cavanagh Ivanova LLP in Lexington. She is a member of First Parish and enjoys gardening, bike riding, and traveling with her husband and two children.
Jim Poage
Storyteller
Jim Poage, after a “best mistake” at Stanford, obtained a PhD from Harvard and then developed aviation concepts at Volpe Center and as a consultant. Realizing work must appeal emotionally and rationally to be adopted, he published with his daughter Jenn Poage, Flair: Design Your Daily Work, Products, and Services to Energize Customers, Colleagues, and Audiences. A longtime member of First Parish, Jim continues advocating being an emotional energizer through his speaking, writing, and newsletter Be Heard!
Marsha Fox
Storyteller
Marsha Fox is a 15 year Lexington resident and member of First Parish. She has a PhD in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona, and is a Principal Scientist and Vice President of Operations at Spectral Sciences Inc., a small business in Burlington MA that conducts research and development in remote sensing and imaging. Marsha and her son Aidan, a Junior at Lexington High School, are avid hikers, campers, and travelers.
Jay Kaufman
Storyteller
After 24 years in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Jay Kaufman has launched a new nonprofit organization to enhance leadership in the public square, providing workshops, coaching and mentorships for community activists and public servants. Earlier, Jay founded an association of eighteen Boston-area colleges and universities, offering interdisciplinary environmental courses and hosting public forums to bring academics, government officials and advocates together. But, before any of these 3 career paths, there was a seminal false start.
