About us.
Melissa Wiginton
Melissa Wiginton, co-founder of The Austin Story Project, cannot help but tell a story. She currently serves as Vice President for Strategic Engagement and Partnerships at Austin Seminary. One of her deepest joys is helping people find and live the story of their own lives within God’s movement of healing and reconciling all creation.
Austin Seminary
Austin Seminary is home to the Austin Story Project. Located at significant societal and geographical borderlands in Austin, Texas, the Seminary fosters an environment of cross-cultural learning, understanding, and development. Grounded in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition, Austin Seminary prepares adaptive, imaginative Christian leaders who bridge divides, inspire faith, and make an impact where God calls them.
Mark Yaconelli
Mark Yaconelli, co-founder of The Austin Story Project and founder of The Hearth nonprofit. Mark is the author of Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us, a book that testifies to his abiding trust in people, their stories, and the liberative work of God within our lived experience.
The Hearth
The Hearth trusts in the power of personal stories to heal, connect, enrich, and mobilize communities for good. A nonprofit based in Oregon, it serves as the principal partner in The Austin Story Project. We have developed a variety of tested, transformative, accessible, community-based storytelling methods. Each year we lead numerous workshops, retreats, and public events for community builders, educators, faith leaders, nonprofit staff, and activists across the United States and United Kingdom. We are committed to transforming residents into neighbors, enemies into friends, and towns into communities. Ultimately, we believe that gathering to share stories is one of the deepest, transformative, sacred, and most pleasurable activities we do as human beings.
