About The Shell Project Team

The Artist – Talora Michal


Talora Michal is a writer, filmmaker, and artist with a BA in Creative Writing from The University of Central Florida and an MFA in Fiction from Antioch University. After rewarding experiences teaching college and grade school English, Talora became accredited by The American Association of Suicidology to facilitate school-based suicide prevention classes where she led suicide prevention workshops for students and Gatekeepers. Talora’s cinematic directorial and producing debut, the documentary short One Voice: A Voting Conversation, was an official selection in the 2016 International Women’s Film Festival, Honolulu International Film Festival, Awareness Festival, and The Short Film Awards (SOFIEs) where she was the recipient of the award for Best Documentary Short. Every day, Talora strives to make the world a better place than it was when she entered it and hopes sharing The Shell Project along with her experiences will help save lives.

The Web Designer – Mathew Butka

Imagine a world that only about 27 people really knew what Facebook was, MySpace was everything, and the first iPhone was still 2 years away. Over a decade ago, Mathew was introduced to building websites, starting with a short-lived blog about him as a stay at home father after his first son was born.

Now, he gets an itchy clicker finger if he doesn’t use a mouse for a couple days and is known to tweak website code on his cell phone while hiking.

Mathew, now a busy father of 7, has spent the last 13 years honing his website building and marketing skills. While it has been great to be able to help businesses grow through web design and marketing, he has donated his time and company resources to Talora’s project because he wanted a chance to make a difference in the life of someone struggling to cope.