The People and Company behind Round Table Storytelling Academy

At Round Table Companies (RTC), we have been specializing in storytelling since our incorporation in 2006 by coaching authors, packaging books, and creating event experiences. While we’ve been in the business of developing stories and inspiring audiences for years, we are now providing education services that guide you in telling your own stories, shining light on your own sense of vulnerability, and discovering your own authentic voice. Our clients have included Zappos, Magoosh, Microsoft, ADP, Marketo, Workday, and hundreds of others who have relied on our team to create a safe space for their vulnerability and growth. We are the creators of the RTC storytelling art wall experience, the Vulnerability is Sexy card game, and our documentary of the same name has won Addy and Hermes awards.


Corey Blake

Corey Blake is the founder of RTC, which he has been leading for 16 years. Prior to starting the company, Corey was an actor in Los Angeles. He starred in one of the 50 greatest Super Bowl commercials of all time and an infamous spot for Yard Fitness in addition to guest-starring on prime-time television shows and making appearances in films. He received his BFA in theatre from Millikin University, studied for 18 months at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, and is currently in his fourth year of the Advanced Leadership Program (ALP) at the Stagen Leadership Academy in Dallas. His work in storytelling has earned a Belding, a Bronze Lion, a London International Advertising Award, numerous Addy Awards, and 17 Independent Publishing Awards. Corey has been quoted and/or featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, Wired, and Barron’s.

Corey is a class facilitator for Unearth for businesses and for individuals, Uncover, and My Journey to Conscious Capitalism, and is the instructor for the Academy’s MY Powerful Purpose workshop, and the minicourses Vulnerability and Psychological Safety, Beyond Active Listening, and Asking Powerful Questions.

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Kelsey Schurer — Director of Stories and Learning

Original content for Academy courses was cocreated and led by Kelsey Schurer, who also leads our story coaching services for Academy participants and book writing clients (including a client with a forthcoming title from Chronicle Books). Kelsey received her master of fine arts in fiction from Virginia Tech, her bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Florida State, and she is a Douglas Anderson School of the Arts alum. Previously nominated for a Pushcart Prize, her honors include Winner of the Virginia Tech Poetry Prize presented by the Academy of American Poets, second-place recipient of the Emily Morrison Fiction Prize, winner of the Louis and Mart P. Hill Outstanding Thesis Award, and winner of the regional Scholastic Writing Award presented by Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. Her work has most recently appeared on poets.org and in Apalachee Review and her article “The Best Job Candidates are the Best Storytellers,” published by Harvard Business Review, has been shared more than 7,000 times on Facebook alone.

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Sunny DiMartino — Academy Branding Director

Sunny has been growing personally and professionally with RTC since 2009, packaging books and designing interior layouts, covers, and/or digital versions for 150+ books across all genres (business, memoirs, fiction, illustrated books, workbooks, and test prep books with complex math typesetting). With an eye for detail, she oversees the Academy’s visual design and the protection of our intellectual property, while ensuring the alignment of our core values throughout our operations. She has over 15 years of experience with Adobe InDesign and helped to pioneer RTC’s live art installations, providing structural design, creative direction, management, and onsite artistry.

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We also send our thanks to:

Genevieve Georget former facilitator of Unearth for businesses and individuals, Uncover, and Women and Story. Gen is the published author of Her Own Wild Winds (2016) and Solace: A Journal of Human Experience (2019), which was awarded 2020 Book of the Year for the Ottawa Faces Magazine awards. Gen’s writing and photography have been featured in publications such as The Good Mother Project, Oprah.com, Simplify Magazine, Her View from Home, and The Good Men Project. She is also the coauthor of Gathering around the Table with EarthKind CEO Kari Warberg Block. Gen has a bachelor of arts (BA) focusing on marketing and communications from the University of Ottawa / Université d'Ottawa.

Keli McNeill, RTC’s former director of operations, for her contributions to the education content within many of our courses. She received her BS degree in English literature education from Appalachian State University and spent seven years teaching in classrooms before joining RTC in 2014. ​​Keli worked alongside RTC’s editors to develop content for the ORP Library, which provides resources for families with children with intense special needs and has been instrumental in keeping RTC’s projects on schedule and on the money!

Christy Bui, a former rockstar RTC designer, for her work on the course content visuals and logos. Christy is a trained graphic designer and self-taught artist from Southern California. After graduating from UC Davis, she began freelancing for individuals and small businesses, often in the education field, such as test prep companies, college prep blogs, and continuing education software companies. She believes in not only designing the best work she could do, but also in delivering the heart, whether it’s through a polished book cover or a simple hand-lettered quote.