Carol and Noel Giambalvo are well-known exit counselors who have worked as a team as well as individually since 1983, after five years' membership in est and The Hunger Project. It was ironic that Mrs. Giambalvo had already become knowledgeable about cults (her husband's daughter had joined the Hare Krishnas) and had spoken publicly on the subject. With dawning awareness of the similar nature of est came her determination to persuade her husband, who, she says, was not hard to convince, that both of them should leave.

       
    The couple were members of the Board of Directors of the Cult Awareness Network, New York/New Jersey, from 1984 to 1991, and Mrs. Giambalvo was on the CAN National Board from 1988 to 1991.

       
    Noel Giambalvo (B.S. in Education, Adelphi U., M.S. in Education, Hofstra U.) officially retired from his duties as an elementary school special counselor as of 1985, but is still occasionally required to lend his expertise in counseling cult leavers. He was the invaluable Chairman of Audiovisual Teams for national CAN conferences in 1989 and 1990.

       
    For her part, Carol Giambalvo is a member of AFF's Exit Counseling and New Age study groups, and participated on a panel at the Project Recovery meeting in May dealing with post-cult problems of former cultists. She appears on many national and local (Florida) TV and radio programs, and has written numerous articles on est and The Hunger Project, including her personal story, "Getting It and Losing It," for the Spiritual Counterfeits Project Journal. Her other credits include an article on the Crossroads Church of Christ, precursor to the proliferating Boston Church of Christ, about which the Giambalvos receive the largest number of calls for information and help, and her book, Exit Counselling: A Family Intervention (edited by Lorna and William Goldberg), an acclaimed addition to the AFF armamentarium, of equal value to professionals and families in its plain-spokenness and useful, down-to earth advice.

       
    With their hard-won knowledge of large group awareness training programs and New Age groups, the Giambalvos have been uniquely helpful in providing information, guidance, and support to those who have been confused and disturbed by their experiences.

       
    The Giambalvos' recent move from New York to Florida has given them tine to explore the many rewards of retirement, including fishing, visits from children, step-children, and grandchildren, but it has not moved them more than a few degrees from the sort of action of which cultists, ex-cultists, and their families stand so much in need.