Gay Ducey is a freelance storyteller educator, and writer who travels across the country performing and teaching. She has appeared at many storytelling festivals throughout the United States, Ireland and Canada and has been a featured storyteller at the National Storytelling Festival and a guest storyteller on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Gay's storytelling repertoire is eclectic, reflecting today's diverse society, and includes traditional tales from world folklore as well as historical, personal and family material. Her style and stories have been described as "elegant as well as earthy, full of thoughtful amusement but always aimed straight at the heart".

A descendent of generations of Southern women, who prized independence and a sassy mouth, Gay grew up surrounded by family from the Southern Appalachians. She was raised in New Orleans with its sense of play, ritual and ceremony, and she and her family moved to California's Bay Area in the 60s. They remain there today. The Bay Area's shifting social landscape and New Orleans ancient street life have combined to mold an artist with a lifetime of performance skills and a reverence for the traditional place of the spoken word. She still can't resist stepping into any parade that passes by.

Word-struck since childhood, Gay has contributed many articles and stories to publications about storytelling, and is the co-author of A Crash Course in Storytelling, called "an essential purchase" by School Library Journal.

Gay has been a commissioned artist for the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History where she developed and presented a story on women in the American labor movement. That piece, along with others, forms her one-woman show "Union Maid: Stories from America's Women at Work. In 2007 she received the Oracle Circle of Excellence Award, the country's highest honor for storytelling art.

Holding a master's degree in information management from UC Berkeley, Gay continues to serve as a children's librarian at Oakland Public Library, and the staff trainer for Oakland Head Start centers. The Commission on the Status of Women named her one of the "Outstanding Women of Berkeley".

Gay has taught storytelling at the University of California, Berkeley's graduate library school, Dominican University, Santa Rosa Junior College, and UC Educational Extension. She has conducted workshops throughout the United States on storytelling topics, organizational development, festival development, and a variety of offerings for librarians.

Ms. Ducey is a storytelling organizer and the former Chairperson of the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling. She was the 2001 recipient of the Oracle Award for Distinguished National Service in Storytelling. One of the founders of the Bay Area Storytelling Festival, Ms. Ducey serves as the artistic director.