Telling stories is at the core of Mark Travis Rivera’s purpose in life. He is an award-winning creative entrepreneur and the CEO of The Professional Storyteller, where he embraces the power of story to create a more inclusive world. Rivera’s bylines include The Bergen Record, Herald News, The Star-Ledger, Fox News Latino, and The Huffington Post. He was also a contributing author in the anthology, Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic (PM Press, 2022), edited by Adrian Shanker. His debut collection, Drafts: An Imperfect Collection of Writing, was published in August 2017. As a stubborn 17-year-old, Rivera founded marked dance project, becoming the youngest person in the United States to create and lead an integrated dance company for disabled & non-disabled dancers. Inspired by his desire to dance as a person with cerebral palsy, he would go on to help disabled and non-disabled dancers alike find their voice as artists. As a Puerto Rican queer man, he was also one of just a handful of artistic directors of color in the disability dance field in the United States. As an independent disabled choreographer, Mark is determined to build a bridge between the main dance field and disability dance. More recently, Mark was selected to participate in Ballet Hispanico’s Instituto Coreográfico program, becoming the first physically disabled Latinx choreographer to do the Instituto. As a speaker, he has addressed audiences at various institutions of higher learning, including Harvard, MIT, Rutgers, and NYU. As a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant and facilitator, he has spoken to corporate audiences virtually in the UK, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, Israel, China, and India, just to name a few. His TEDx Talk, “Embracing Yourself, Embracing Your Potential,” was a smash in 2014 at Bergen Community College. A first-generation high school & college graduate, Rivera earned his bachelor’s degree in women’s & gender studies with a minor in public relations from William Paterson University. In 2013, he was honored with the Campus Pride National Voice & Action Award for his work with the LGBTQ community. More recently, he won the Audre Lorde Award for Social Justice from John Jay College and the Lavender Legacy Award from William Paterson. He is a member of the WE CREATE SPACE global collective of LGBTQ+ leaders, & a speaker for River + Green Speakers Bureau. He is also a Senior Consultant for Unlock Creative. He is a proud tio to 5 nieces & 2 nephews based in Atlanta.