Upstart Crow Hosts

William Miller chairs the advisory board of the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center and also serves as an advisor to the Watershed Lit center at George Mason University. He directed Mason’s creative writing program for more than two dozen years and taught in Mason’s English Department for more than thirty years. He formerly worked as a newspaper journalist and has published fiction as well as nonfiction. He assisted Jack Censer in developing On the Trail of the DC Sniper and Kris O’Shee in developing Our Last Blue Moon.

In 2020, my Washington Post Magazine story on an orphanage in Kenya was selected for The Best American Travel Writing (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). I’ve written for The Atlantic, The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, NationalGeographic.com, Smithsonian, Travel + Leisure, Departures, The Chicago Tribune, CityLab, McSweeney’s, Huffington Post, Thrive Global, and many more. I also write the “Everyday Heroes” column for The Saturday Evening Post. 

For 15 years, I was an editor with AARP The Magazine — the world’s largest circulation magazine with 35 million readers — including stints as health editor, travel editor, and executive editor. My work as editor of the magazine’s Navigator section was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 2005 and I continue to write frequently for AARP.

I’ve made 100+ appearances on TV and radio, including NBC’s Today, CBS This Morning, ABC News Now, CBS’s The Early Show, CNBC’s Street Smarts, C-SPAN 2’s Book TV, National Geographic Weekend, and radio networks such as Martha Stewart Living Radio, USA Radio Network, Voice America Radio, and New Zealand public radio. 

As a volunteer, I blogged for Medical Missions Foundation in India in 2018 and I volunteer weekly with Capital Caring Health, a D.C.-area hospice organization. My volunteer work has taken me to locations such as China, Kenya, Ecuador, the West Bank, and Costa Rica. I’m a board member for George Mason University’s library and its Fall for the Book festival; I’m also a co-founder of the Robert and Sandra Budd scholarship endowment at Mason. I have donated all of my earnings from The Voluntourist to the places and organizations where I volunteered.

Jennifer L. Disano is a highly accomplished nonprofit executive and cultural advocate, recognized for leadership in literacy, education, and the arts. She is Executive Director Emeritus of The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at George Mason University, where she previously served as Executive Director and CEO for 12 years, curating thousands of educational programs annually, preserving oral histories, developing community-based cultural initiatives, and overseeing modernization efforts (e.g., registration systems, social media, classroom technologies, and university partnerships). With extensive nonprofit management experience, she served as Chairman of the Board for the Fall for the Book Festival and George Mason University Libraries, and Vice Chairman for the Fairfax County Public Library Foundation. Her work emphasizes community engagement, cultural enrichment, and intergenerational dialogue. Her expertise includes nonprofit management, education, media production, public speaking, communications, and technology, supported by an academic background in geography and psychology plus certifications in technology, communications, and diversity regulation. She originated the idea for Upstart Crow and recruited the other hosts. After stepping down from OLLI in 2025, she serves as a consultant for nonprofits.