Meade Palidofsky, playwright, lyricist, director, and youth development specialist, is the founding Artistic Director of Storycatchers Theatre (the new name for Music Theatre Workshop) in Chicago. She was a 2010 Chicago Community Trust Experienced Leader Fellow and was a 2009 Exchange Artist between Columbia College Chicago and the Scotland Arts Council. Ms. Palidofsky’s work with girls in prison is the subject of a documentary, Girls on the Wall, that is currently featured at many festivals and on national Public Television.

She is a recipient of the Mercedes Mentor Award, as well as honors from the American Musical Theatre Festival, the John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Illinois Arts Council. Humankind, a Boston National Public Radio program, and This American Life (Chicago NPR) have featured her theater work with youth.

Ms. Palidofsky is also a member of the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee which honors excellence in Chicago theatre.