Valerie Knight, PhD, has taught CUNY psychology courses on site at District 1199 for 16 years. Her play, Drawing Close, explores care relationships with children and the connection between art and care.

Susan Naomi Bernstein is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Queens College and Baruch College/CUNY. Her play, After the Haboob, It explores the challenges of learning information when a loved one suddenly takes ill or becomes injured.

Naomi Zauderer has served as the Associate Executive Director of the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY since 2008. In an interview with Dolores Urena, an Adjunct Lecturer at New York City College of Technology/CUNY and a graduate student in City College/CUNY’s MA in the Study of the Americas, she describes the challenges in caring for her 84-year-old mother with Alzheimer’s, the ways she finds support, and the value of caregivers connecting to create a sense of community.

Monica Ortiz-Suloway is an Adjunct Lecturer at The City College of New York Center for Worker Education/CUNY. In an interview with Dolores Urena, an Adjunct Lecturer at New York City College of Technology/CUNY and a graduate student in City College/CUNY’s MA in the Study of the Americas, she describes the challenges of caring for her 85-year-old mother while teaching at CUNY and going to school.

Mimi Gisolfi D’Aponte is Professor Emerita of Theatre at the CUNY Graduate Center and at Baruch College/CUNY. Her play, Celebrating Nello D’Aponte, explores the relationships between family and paid caregivers and the various professionals involved at the end of life and pays beautiful tribute to these folks as well as her late husband, Nello.

Magda Azucena Doyle is on the Adjunct Faculty at Hunter College/CUNY, Fordham University, University of Georgia, and Columbus State University. Her play, Sunshine, is set in a hospital Intensive Care Unit and explores the challenges family caregivers face in communicating with medical professionals about their own needs and that of their family members.

John Reid Currie is the director of the Center for Student Accessibility at New York City College of Technology/CUNY and a caregiver for his 92-year-old mother. He explores the stress that the caregiving relationship can place on family members and their relationships to others in his short play, Reading the Quran on 911, and in an oral history interview with Chuyao He, a graduate student in City College/CUNY’s MA in the Study of the Americas.