Main Street Moxie Thorunn Kristjansdottir and Mary B. O'Neill

 Pano believes that we earn moxie through putting in the work and paying the price, not instant gratification. As a lover of the outdoors and wild places, he finds opportunities to cultivate moxie and apply the lessons of nature to his life and the lives of those he encounters through his work, teaching, and volunteer commitments.
Pano is the director of Emergency Management and Environmental Health and Safety Programs for Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT, where he oversaw the University’s successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He teaches in the University’s Department of Biology and the Kathwari Honors Program and is the faculty advisor to the WCSU Adventure Club. If that’s not enough, he’s a volunteer firefighter for the Woodbury Volunteer Fire Department, a certified EMT, a steadfastly loyal Liverpool FC fan, and a bread baker. He has been an instructor at the Connecticut Fire Academy and the Technology Management program at Central Connecticut State University.


Pano’s understanding of risk and how to assess and manage it provides a foundation for moving through the world with less worry and more empowerment. He observes that nothing we do in life is 100 percent risk-free–our job is to identify risk, minimize it, and understand that there are some parts of life we can’t plan for or control. 


His time outdoors allows him to hurl expletives into the ruthless ascents of the trail, literal and figurative. But by immersing in forests and canyons, he finds the confidence to know that whatever life throws at him, he has the inner resources and moxie to get through it.

This episode of Main Street Moxie is proudly sponsored by Elyse Harney Real Estate and Kindred Property Care.


Resources
Emergency Management – Western Connecticut State University
Get Help | Emergency Preparedness | Red Cross
Ready.gov
Emergency Preparedness and Response | CDC
Community Safety Resources - National Safety Council (nsc.org)



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Simon Critchley's curiosity is on steroids, and that curiosity, love of learning, and genuine interest in other people fuel his moxie. In this episode, we explore with Simon the role of philosophy in creating moxie. He shares his wisdom on how we have more in common than we think and how forming alliances and relationships based on those commonalities allows us to learn from others rather than judge them. 
He explains that to philosophize is to take time and resist busyness. It’s about looking up and taking in the spaciousness around us with openness and without judgment. Cultivating a curious mindset is worthwhile work; putting down our tech and forming connections is imperative to our humanity.


Simon is the Hans Jonas Professor at The New School in New York City, where he teaches philosophy. 


He writes prolifically on a wide range of topics. His books include Very Little…Almost Nothing (1997), Infinitely Demanding (2007), The Book of Dead Philosophers (2009), and The Faith of the Faithless (2012). Simon has also written a novella, Memory Theatre (2015), a book-length essay, Notes on Suicide (2020), and studies of David Bowie, Football, and Apply-Degger (Onassis, 2020). More recent books are Tragedy, The Greeks and Us (Pantheon, 2019), and Bald (Yale, 2021). 


Simon was the series moderator of ‘The Stone,’ a philosophy column in The New York Times, and co-editor of three volumes connected to the series, most recently Question Everything (2022). 


He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Onassis Foundation and also 50 percent of an obscure musical combo called Critchley & Simmons. A book called Mysticism will be published by The New York Review of Books in 2024.


An ardent lover of the Beautiful Game, Simon is a dedicated fan of Liverpool FC.

This episode of Main Street Moxie is proudly sponsored by Elyse Harney Real Estate and Kindred Property Care.



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Janine has been flexing her moxie muscle throughout her life. In every phase of her career, she has identified her strengths and pursued roles that would build on them. Her path has been a moxie mix of serendipity and strategy and an openness to embrace the opportunities presented to her. Janine also sees connections between people and the organizations she serves throughout her impressive public relations and marketing career. Through her creativity and vision of what’s possible, she creates synergy.
Janine has held a succession of positions in marketing/public relations and development, including Press Officer of Harrods (in London); Executive Vice President, Head of Corporate Communications, and a member of the Operating Committee of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising; founder and President of Saatchi & Saatchi Public Relations; and founder and CEO of her own eponymous marketing public relations agency specializing in luxury goods, healthcare and not-for-profit. Her clients included Kiehl’s, Shiseido Cosmetics, The Platinum Guild, The Capital Grille, Time Inc., Johnson & Johnson, McNeil Consumer Products, Mayo Clinic and the Weizmann Institute of Science.


Having sold her public relations agency and “retired,” Janine and her husband relocated from New York City to Miami.  She now serves on the Board of Trustees of Miami City Ballet and does pro bono marketing consulting for PAMM and Baptist Health. She is a member of the Century Association, Cosmopolitan Club, Economics Club of New York, Penn Club of New York City and, with her husband, Fisher Island Club and Yale Club of New York City.


This episode of Main Street Moxie is proudly sponsored by Elyse Harney Real Estate and Kindred Property Care.



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Chef Faye Hess has the winning recipe for moxie. She mixes love, joy, curiosity, fearlessness, resilience, and gratitude to produce a moxie souffle that won’t collapse. In this episode, Faye explores how she came to her love affair with food and how cooking for herself and others has been a foundation for her happiness and growth. She embraces failure as an opportunity to learn and forges into the unknown with incremental steps and lots of reflection.
Faye currently cooks for private clients and runs residential cooking programs in Italy, Spain, France, and soon, Sicily. In her past careers, she prepared food in the film and television industry and co-founded several restaurants, including LIC Brick and 51st Bakery and Cafe. She also wrote and produced a radio show called “In the Kitchen” hosted on New York City’s WBAI radio station, and was a contestant on Chopped. 

Besides cooking, she loves writing and has authored blogs and screenplays, taking ballroom dancing lessons, and living and traveling abroad. Her recent experience with breast cancer caused her to embrace life on a deeper level, seeking out adventures and people that feed her spirit. 


This episode of Main Street Moxie is proudly sponsored by Kindred Property Care and North East Ford.

Resources
Faye Food website



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Michael oozes moxie and uses his passion for the stage to help others cultivate their own. He believes educating people of all ages in the theater arts is empowering, cathartic, and fosters empathy—and moxie.
He loves drama—on the stage. And he loves the community that surrounds it. He has found his bliss at this intersection of community and theater and derives energy and inspiration from the constant collaboration the theater requires and being known to those who surround him. 


Michael is the Associate Artistic Director and Director of Education of the Sharon Playhouse in Sharon, CT. He first performed on the stage of the Playhouse when he was 10 years old, and it brings him immense joy to now be a member of the staff. He wears many hats at the Playhouse, including teacher, director, actor, and playwright. Directing credits at the Playhouse include Pride and Prejudice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Elf, Jr., Frozen, Jr., and Marie Antoinette, starring Lauren Ambrose. For the 2023 summer season, Michael will be directing the mainstage production of Oliver.


His performance credits at the Sharon Playhouse include Tony Whitcomb in Shear Madness (Broadway World CT Award - Best Performer in a Play, Berkie Nominee - Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play) Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast, Mordred in Camelot, and Bobby in A Chorus Line.


As Director of Education, Michael has initiated in-school performing arts residencies at Indian Mountain School, Sharon Center School, and Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS) and partnered with Project SAGE. Michael co-created and directed the play #BraveSpace, which premiered at New York University's Forum on Ethnodrama. 


Michael has conducted masterclasses and delivered speeches nationwide, most notably as a keynote speaker for The Educational Theatre Association's  Theater In Our Schools Initiative. In 2022, he was his high school alma mater's commencement speaker.

This episode is proudly sponsored by Kindred Property Care and North East Ford.
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For Kelley, moxie involves seeing the gaps and finding ways to fill them. She strategically uses her considerable skills to create something that adds value and beauty to the world. Then she goes for it, bringing others along to develop collaborations and community.
When Kelley moved to the Berkshires over 20 years ago, she decided the area needed a film festival. A huge film fan since childhood, thanks to her parents, she set out to bring her vision to life. At her kitchen table, she sketched out the plan. She spoke with other film festival organizers and attended a handful of film festivals to make her vision a reality.


She set to work, combing the local community and persuading people and organizations to step up and partner with her. Step up they did–contributing time and talent, resources, and venues, and the Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) was born in 2006. 


Now in its 17th year, BIFF is a staple of the Berkshire-area cultural season. It has expanded to other film and cultural events in partnership with other organizations throughout the year. The Festival showcases independent films from around the world and creates a space for independent filmmakers and film fans to experience the visual medium and forge creative relationships. The 2023 season boasts over 75 narrative and documentary features and short films to a growing audience of over 4,000. 


Kelley began her career as a press manager at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. While living internationally, she was an art museum docent; owned an art gallery in Frankfurt, Germany; consulted with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra; and launched herself as a professional photographer in Hong Kong. 


She has won numerous awards, including the She's Got Moxie! Award (Berkshire Festival of Women in the Arts); Berkshire Trendsetter (1Berkshire); 25 Most Influential People (Berkshire Magazine). BIFF has also garnered recognition as one of the Top Ten Events in Massachusetts (Best of New England, Yankee Magazine, multiple years); one of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World (MovieMaker Magazine). 


She is an active community member and has served on various boards and committees, including Jacob's Pillow, Tanglewood, Shakespeare and Company, IS183, Austen Riggs, and Construct, Inc.



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