About Us

Co-founder and Editor, Stephanie Nichols

Prior to co-founding Saving Stories, Stephanie had a twenty-year career in Unitarian Universalist ministry. As a parish minister she found the process of reflecting on a life to be invariably meaningful. People are funny or wise or impulsive or methodical. They may have quirky interests or a love of simple pleasures, or they may at times be tough or abrasive. Each story or anecdote is instructive in some way, and of inestimable value to future generations. As a personal historian, Stephanie draws on her background in ministry as she invites narrators to reflect on the meaning of their lives (or the life of a relative or friend). She loves the process of listening deeply and asking questions, seeking to bring out stories, observations, and insights. She can serve as an author, co-author, or editor, or simply a coach to help a memoir or milestone project come to completion. Stephanie has been privileged to inherit several memoirs and a large genealogical notebook from her own forebears; these heirlooms help her to understand the circumstances, decisions, and personalities that shaped her particular family. She takes great satisfaction in helping people to create a legacy to pass on to family and friends.


Co-founder and Designer, Chris Wisniewski

Chris has a background in art, design, web programming and sociology. After receiving her degree in American Studies, Chris worked in the field of International Education and later founded her own web design company, BackRow Design, where she continues to play a role as principal designer.

On the side, she has been quietly doing research, asking questions and recording interviews with her extended family about their memories of the past. This work has been rounded out with many hours of research at the National Archives researching census records, ship manifests, naturalization, and alien registration records. She is well versed in locating church records of baptisms, marriage and deaths from the LDS archives as well as a variety of other resources. All of these sources were combined in a book of oral history from her father's family. Currently she's working on her mother's side of the family. In spring of 2009, she traveled to Kobyłczyna, Poland to visit the village where her maternal grandmother was born (the photo to the right, is taken where her grandmother's house once stood). While she is passionate about preserving her own family's history, Chris also feels privileged to be able to help others preserve their own stories to share with family and friends. She enjoys finding ways to embrace the unique personality of each indiviual, family, or organization in the design and layout of their books.