Interesting People
Walt & Monica
ABC10’s Monica Woods and Walt Gray may be longtime local media personalities, but to their kids, they’re also coach, cook, mom and dad.
“The kids don’t know anything different. We’ve always had media jobs,” says Woods of Abby, 16, Kelly, 13, and Joseph, 11.
Gold-Medal Cooking
As a sports performance chef, Brett Eisen has fed plenty of athletes, including the Sacramento Kings, Oregon Ducks, Denver Broncos and 2016 U.S. women’s Olympic soccer team. But working in PyeongChang, South Korea, as a chef for the U.S. ski and snowboard team was a special thrill. “Easily, to date, the highlight of my career,” says the 28-year-old East Sac resident.
Singing Her Praises
The sheer amount of paper spread out before us on the ottoman in the living room of Rona Commins’ Arden-area house is impressive. Brochures and flyers announcing concerts, contests, presentations and foreign excursions are visual reminders of how much work Commins does on a daily basis as a teacher, author and professional singer.
Telling Tales
There is an oracle in our midst. In the 40 years Mary McGrath has called Sacramento her home, the seasoned storyteller has brought relief to abused women, entertainment to classroom-weary youngsters, and self-esteem and confidence to adults yearning to perfect their oratorical skills. This summer, she received a prestigious award from the National Storytelling Network honoring her four decades of distinguished and passionate work.
Doing what comes naturally
Janice Kelley is one of those rare people who can point to an actual epiphany that led her to her current career as a naturalist, storyteller and founder of Nature Detectives, a program that brings hands-on, object-based field studies to local schools.
“I was driving to Point Reyes with the windows down,” recalls Kelley, who originally hails from LA County but moved to Sacramento in 1995 just before the birth of her son.
The Doctor Is In
As a teenager in Richmond, Letitia Bradford knew she wanted to go into medicine. During a summer program for high school students at UC San Francisco, she decided she would study there—not realizing it was the most competitive public medical school in the country. She got in.
