The idea for The Whole Truth Booth was born a few days after the 2016 Election in a text conversation between two long-time friends.
Maribeth & Nina met more than 15 years ago while both launching their careers in New York City. They've been there for each other through all types of ups and downs in their lives - marriages, children, divorce, international travel, illness, road trips, and many many laughs. They even ran a marathon together.
When the election didn't go how they had hoped, they leaned on each other. They wondered why the country seems so divided. Why everything feels like US vs THEM. And why we have such a hard time listening to each other.
They came up with the idea of a platform (both physical and virtual) where people living in America, from all walks of life could share their own, personal truth. Feel heard. Listen directly to others talk about their hopes, fears, dreams.
Nina & Maribeth took to the streets in DC for Inauguration and the Women's March in Washington DC to hear and record all sides of the story. Yes, they heard about politics, but they also heard about people's lives, families, hopes, dreams, and fears.
The women-in-tech duo recognized that the power of storytelling is not singular to politics. The Whole Truth Booth provides a simple, quick, and creative way to gather stories and collect content from the people whose truths matter most: your community.
Nina Sharma has dedicated her career to working for causes that empower others. She spent 15 years working in nonprofit institutional fundraising and partnership development, at such places as the New York Public Library, Carnegie Hall, Yale University, and the Ad Council. After getting her Masters of Public Administration from the NYU Wagner School of Public Service, she worked for Dr. Jeffrey Sachs’ Millennium Villages Project, a proof-of-concept model to eradicate extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2012, she moved to Denver where she worked for various nonprofits, launched her own consultancy, and is now the Managing Director of Project X-ITE at the University of Denver. She was one of the original founders of +Acumen, is a graduate of Impact Denver, serves on the Alumni Council of Hamilton College and the Alumni Advisory Council of the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation, and is a board member at Global Dental Relief.
Maribeth Romslo is a director, producer, and storyteller. Her feature film Dragonfly premiered at the Los Angeles Women's International Film Festival and was selected for "Best of the Fest" at the 2016 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival. In 2015, she produced a feature-length documentary, Our Journey Home, about how home shapes us, with the Emmy-award team at Stillmotion and celebrity narrator singer-songwriter Jewel. She was a finalist for the Sundance New Voices Lab with her project, The Last Job, an episodic story set in the 1970s about a Midwestern lady mob boss. She recently wrapped production on a short film, Amelia, about a polio-stricken girl in 1937 who hears Amelia Earhart's distress calls on her shortwave radio. A Loyola University Chicago graduate, Maribeth spent her early career as an award-winning professional photographer and magazine editor before transitioning to film. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two children. You can find much of her new work at www.maribethromslo.com.