ANDREW deWAARD
Andrew deWaard researches the cultural industries, the political economy of media, financial capital, and media authorship. He is an Associate Professor of Media and Popular Culture in the department of Communication at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Derivative Media: How Wall Street Devours Culture (UC Press, 2024) and the co-author of The Cinema of Steven Soderbergh (Columbia University Press/Wallflower, 2013). He is a co-founder of the Cultural Capital Project (cultcap.org), which studies working musicians in the streaming age, and the Media and Consolidation Research Organization (macrolab.ucsd.edu), which analyzes the effects of monopoly ownership on media.
Baron Vaughn is an actor, writer, director, and comedian. He’s best known as “Bud” on the hit Netflix series, Grace & Frankie. Baron also voiced “Tom Servo” in the recent seasons of cult-hit, Mystery Science Theater 3000. He co-created and co-hosted the groundbreaking Comedy Central showcase variety series The New Negroes with Baron Vaughn and Open Mike Eagle. The show shined a light on both established and rising Black artists in comedy and music. Baron’s deeply personal project, Fatherless, directed by the award-winning Dawn Porter, explores the impact of absent fathers on families and communities while he also endeavored to connect with his own absent father. As a comedian, Baron has been entertaining audiences for over 20 years. He’s been seen on Comedy Central’s The Half Hour and The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, as well as on HBO’s 2 Dope Queens, and TBS’ Conan. Baron has performed at many renowned festivals including HBO’s US Comedy Arts Festival (Aspen), Just for Laughs (Montreal & Vancouver), Life Is Beautiful (Las Vegas), SXSW (Austin), and the New York Comedy Festival. Baron, along with Open Mike Eagle, has also toured the live version of the showcase The New Negroes across the country. He has two comedy recordings, Raised by Cable and Blaxistential Crisis, both available on all streaming platforms. He’s currently working on a solo show titled Cycle Breaker commissioned by the Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, NY where he just concluded his time as artist-in-residence.
Caty Borum is Executive Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI) and Professor at American University’s School of Communication. She is an award-winning media producer, scholar, and author or co-author of four books about entertainment media and social change: A Comedian and An Activist Walk Into a Bar: The Serious Role of Comedy in Social Justice, with co-author Lauren Feldman (foreword by Norman Lear); The Revolution Will Be Hilarious: Comedy for Social Change and Civic Power; Story Movements: How Documentaries Empower People and Inspire Social Change; and Radical Reality: Documentary Storytelling and the Global Fight for Social Justice , with co-author David Conrad-Perez. In 2020, she was nationally recognized as one of DOC NYC’s “New Documentary Leaders” industry list to recognize her impact on the documentary field. Borum co-founded and co-directs, with Mik Moore (Moore + Associates) the Yes, And Laughter Lab (YALL), and YALL Comedy Fest, the only festival in the country that celebrates the power of comedy to change the world.
Cheryl Contee is a pioneering technology entrepreneur and digital transformation expert. She is renowned as a trailblazing startup founder and a trusted advisor on innovation and impact. She inspires audiences globally as a leading voice on inclusive entrepreneurship and social enterprise. She has co-authored a bestselling new book, AI for Nonprofits: Putting Artificial Intelligence to Work for Your Cause, with Darian Rodriguez Heyman, sharing insights from over 50 AI experts intended to help nonprofit leaders embrace new tech. She is also a senior advisor for PosterChild.AI and co-founder of Change Agent AI, mission-driven & game changing AI-powered startups.
Chris Hastings is the President and Chief Executive Officer of WXXI Public Media. Hastings brings to WXXI a rich and diverse background in public media, joining from GBH in Boston. At GBH he served as Executive Producer and Editor-in-Chief of the WORLD Channel, where he elevated diverse perspectives through critically acclaimed documentary series, including “America ReFramed,” “Local USA,” and “Doc World,” which he co-created and led curation and production. Hastings’ work has earned numerous awards, including the Peabody Award, duPont-Columbia Award, News & Documentary Emmy Award, and International Documentary Association Award. Beyond his professional achievements, Hastings is a champion of independent film distribution through the public media system. Hastings is also passionate about nurturing new talent and regularly collaborates with organizations such as the National Multicultural Alliance and Firelight Media to support emerging voices in the industry. A graduate of Kutztown State University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunications, Hastings furthered his education with a Master of Arts in Film from American University in Washington, D.C. Originally from Chester, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia, Hastings remains deeply connected to his roots, where most of his family still resides. He is also a proud father and husband, values that have deeply influenced his career and commitment to community-focused storytelling. He is a leader dedicated to using public media to reflect, serve, and connect all communities in Rochester and beyond.
Clara Blustein Lindholm serves as the Director of Research Interpretation for the Culture Change Project at the FrameWorks Institute. She was previously a Principal Strategist at FrameWorks, specializing in helping organizations to communicate about the criminal legal system, juvenile justice, and behavioral health. Clara has been interested in the intersection of research and advocacy since she was an intern at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, where she conducted research on restorative justice programs for youth and indigent defense delivery systems. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a BA in East Asian languages and civilizations, focusing on comparative legal histories of China and the United States.
Esteban Gast is a comedian, writer, and host. He is Colombian, was raised in Puerto Rico and Illinois and lives in L.A. His work has been called "irreverent but aspirational" by Variety and, honestly, they nailed it. After teaching creativity and design thinking at the University of Illinois and running an eco-community in Panama, he's now telling silly stories that matter. He is the host of podcasts that include Spotify Original "Identity at Play" and "Comedians Conquering Climate Change." He’s the creator and host of “Heated Conversations,” a digital interview/sketch that’s secretly about climate and not secretly produced by Adam McKay’s Yellow Dot Studios. He's written for screen (co-writer of feature film Thena, which premiered at Taorimina Film Festival), for stage (co-writer and co-lyrics of Teacher of the Year, O’Neil finalist ), and travels and performs as a standup comedian. He is currently serving as the “comedian in residence” at Generation180, a national nonprofit. While there, he co-founded Climate Comedy Cohort and Climate Cultura. For his work in bringing creativity and comedy to the climate movement, he was recognized as a Grist50 Fixer and one the Top 100 Latinos in the world taking action on climate change.
GABE GONZÁLEZ
Gabe González is a Puerto Rican comedian, writer and actor living in Brooklyn, NY. He was born and raised in Central Florida.
Most recently, he wrote for Season 2 of After Midnight on CBS and worked with GLAAD’s Spanish-language & Latine Media team as a consultant and creator of the comedic digital interview series “Dímelo.” He can also be seen in Season 4 of The Last OG, the HBO Latino documentary Habla y Vota, and starring in Audible’s The Comedians.
Gabe was featured in Brooklyn Magazine’s “30 Under 30” in 2017, Time Out New York’s “Comedians of Color You Should Know” in 2018 and his pilot Los Blancos was a winner at the Yes And Laughter Lab in 2019. His satirical sketch “Bootlickers” was an official selection at the LA Comedy Film Festival and Atlanta Comedy Festival in 2022. That same year he penned the Spanish-language short Alma for Imagine Entertainment.
He currently hosts “We Disrupt This Broadcast,” a new podcast from The Peabodys and the Center for Media and Social Impact, as well as “Cruising Confessions,” a new series from Sniffies and iHeartRadio.
Iman Zawahry is one of the first hijabi American-Muslim filmmakers in the nation. She has worked on numerous films that have played at over 150 venues worldwide. She’s an Emmy Award winner, Princess Grace Award recipient, Lincoln Center Artist Academy Fellow, Sundance Momentum Fellow, Sundance Universal Fellow, and is a part of the Warner Brothers Directing Program. She is also the co-creator of the first American Muslim film grant with the Islamic Scholarship Fund, where she currently serves as Director of Film Programs. Iman works to amplify underrepresented voices and frequently consults and speaks nationwide on Muslims in Film, while mentoring young filmmakers and producing films that reflect bold, transformative storytelling that inspire change. Her debut feature film Americanish has won twenty-six awards, including Best Director and Best Film, and has been distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures International. She is currently a Senior Lecturer of film production at the University of Florida where she was named undergraduate Teacher of the Year in 2024.
Julie Ann Crommett is a powerhouse in media and storytelling, driving transformative change at the intersection of entertainment, business, and culture. As the Founder and CEO of Collective Moxie, a global storytelling, media strategy and audience engagement agency, she advises top studios, brands, and creatives on innovative strategies that reshape industries. Previously, she led multicultural audience engagement at Disney, influencing billion-dollar hits like Encanto, Black Panther, and Raya and the Last Dragon, and spearheaded global DEI initiatives at Google and NBCUniversal. A sought-after speaker and thought leader, Julie Ann has shaped the future of inclusive storytelling as an Adjunct Professor at Georgia Tech and co-creator of Columbia University’s mandatory inclusive storytelling course. She serves as an emissary for the U.S. State Department’s American Film Showcase, is a BAFTA and PGA member, and hosts the acclaimed “You Got Moxie!” podcast. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, Forbes, Animation World Magazine, and Variety. A proud Puerto Rican and Cuban American, she is also a true trivia nerd having competed on Jeopardy!
Layla Zaidane is President & CEO of Future Caucus, the largest nonpartisan organization of young lawmakers in the United States. Future Caucus works with over 1,900 Millennial and Gen Z elected leaders in Congress and state legislatures to bridge divides, collaborate on future-oriented policy, and scale a healthy culture of democracy. Layla joined Future Caucus in 2016, and previously also served as Executive Director & COO. Prior to joining Future Caucus, Layla served as the Managing Director for Generation Progress, where she led integrated communications, policy, and advocacy efforts around solutions to the challenges facing today’s youth, as well as spearheaded innovative new global youth engagement efforts. She helped launch and manage the “It’s On Us” campaign in partnership with the White House in 2014, and launched the “Higher Ed, Not Debt” campaign in 2013, a coalition group of dozens of organizations working to make higher education accessible and affordable for all. Before joining Generation Progress, Layla worked for LivingSocial as a marketing specialist, consulting with business owners across the country to increase their online presence and grow their customer base. Previously, she has held roles promoting the public’s voice in public education with DC VOICE and developing outreach strategies to connect college students with federal job opportunities and news at the Partnership for Public Service. Layla graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and holds a BSFS in international politics.
Lisa Leeman has been directing and producing award-winning feature documentaries for 35 years. She is a MacDowell, Yaddo, and Bogliasco Fellow, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences. Leeman is a tenured professor and endowed chair at University of Southern California, where she teaches documentary filmmaking and cinematic ethics. She co-chairs the ethics subcommittee of the Documentary Producers Alliance, and writes articles about the ethics and craft of documentary filmmaking. Leeman’s documentaries, shot over many years, illuminate contemporary social issues through intimate character-driven stories that follow people at critical turning points in their lives. She considers documentary portraiture as a form of narrative activism. She is currently directing and producing the feature documentary Walk by Me, a portrait of a transgender artist’s life over thirty years, a follow-up to her groundbreaking first documentary, Metamorphosis (Sundance Filmmakers Trophy; POV/PBS, 1990). Filmed over ten years, Walk by Me weaves past and present to explore aging, art and resiliency, faith, friendship, and the blurred boundaries in documentary filmmaking. Roger Ebert cited Leeman’s One Lucky Elephant as one of the best documentaries of 2011. Other acclaimed films include Out of Faith, Who Needs Sleep (with Haskell Wexler), Awake (with Paola di Florio), and Crazy Wisdom. Her films have been distributed worldwide, and supported by the Sundance Documentary Film Program, Catapult Film Fund, the Producers Guild, AFI, NEA, and California Humanities.
Nima Shirazi works at the intersection of culture and politics, media and narrative, advocacy and the arts. A Vice President at Spitfire, Nima designs communication strategies and develops compelling stories to dismantle systems of oppression, extraction and disinformation. He was a founding member of the Narrative Initiative and currently co-hosts the award-winning podcast “Citations Needed”, which was recently featured in the new book, “101 Podcasts That Changed How We Listen.” Born and raised in New York City, Nima used to tour the country as a drummer in rock bands and now serves as vice chair of the board of directors for Proteus Fund.
Pamela Rae Schuller is what happens when you mix stand-up comedy with a master's degree in advocacy and just the right amount of neurological chaos. As an internationally known disability and mental health advocate with one of the most severe documented cases of Tourette Syndrome, Pamela transforms her experiences into powerful, laugh-filled lessons on inclusion and authenticity. Standing at 4 foot 6 (and a half), she commands every stage she steps on, speaking to Fortune 500 companies, national nonprofits, college campuses, and K-12 schools across six countries and almost every U.S. state. Her work has been featured on Netflix, NBC, and in The New York Times. With degrees in psychology, advocacy, and executive coaching from MIT, Pamela doesn't just tolerate what makes her different, she celebrates it. Whether performing a one-woman show, stand-up, or delivering a keynote, she's living proof that you don't need to reach high shelves to raise the bar on inclusion.
SARAH ROSE SISKIND
Sarah Rose Siskind is a science comedy writer based in New York City. She’s the founder of Hello SciCom, a company that combines science communication and comedy to help smart people get their message across. Clients and collaborators range from OpenAI to National Science Foundation to Honda to Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, producing comms that measurably boost engagement and positivity. They specialize in AI & Robotics as well as all STEM. Sarah is also an Executive Producer of a science comedy show on PBS and formerly EP’ed a National Geographic physics comedy pilot starring Sarah Silverman.
She’s delivered keynotes at SXSW Edu, PopTech at the Kennedy Center, Yale, IBM, and many other illustrious venues about science comedy, technology & creativity, and psychedelic science. She performs as a standup comedian, host of “Drug Test” (her show about mind alteration written up in The New Yorker, sits on the board of several psychedelic organizations, and she has a column at Psychology Today about… you guessed it, psychedelics.
Previously, she’s written comedy for an artificially intelligent robot named Sophia at Hanson Robotics and was the lead writer for StarTalk & lt with Neil deGrasse Tyson, a TV show on National Geographic. She’s written comedy for the White House Press Correspondents’ Dinner and her Harvard cum laude thesis on comedy.
Seanne Winslow is an award-winning writer, director, and producer who bridges continents and cultures through story. Raised across Germany, England, Israel, and the Middle East, she has built a career on crafting emotionally resonant, globally-minded films and series that inspire empathy and spark change. Her breakout hit, Nowhere for Netflix, became one of the platform’s most successful non-English releases worldwide. She made history directing The Falconer—the first feature ever shot entirely in Oman—which won 14 festival awards and is now streaming globally. Seanne is developing a range of high-profile film and television projects that blend emotional depth with global scope. Before moving behind the camera, Seanne helped launch The LEGO Movie, Sherlock Holmes, and It while at Lin Pictures (now Rideback Ranch), contributing to more than $2 billion in box-office success. As Senior Advisor for Entertainment at Resetting the Table, she works with leading Hollywood storytellers to cultivate authentic, multivocal narratives that bridge divides and foster social understanding. A sought-after speaker and creative coach, Seanne also founded The Creative Salon, an invite-only community of 200+ filmmakers. Across every arena, she champions storytelling as a force for connection—and a catalyst for a more imaginative, empathetic world.
Tina Friml is a New York City based comedian, originally hailing from Middlebury, Vermont. In 2024, she was named one of Variety’s “Top 10 Comics To Watch.” Her sharp jokes and fearless honesty about the social assumptions that come with living with a disability has earned Tina a dedicated social media following with over 600,000 followers across a variety of platforms, as well as two appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She recently wrapped up two years of performing her latest hour of standup all over the country, on her Bonus Round tour.
WENDY LOBEL
Emmy Award–winning filmmaker Wendy Lobel made her feature directorial debut with Anxiety Club, a humorous and heartfelt exploration of our shared experience with anxiety, told through the lens of comedians.
Anxiety Club premiered at DOC NYC Film Festival (the first of 30 festivals) and is the recipient of the Mental Health America Media Award. Drawing from her own experiences with anxiety, Wendy brings empathy and authenticity to the film.
With three decades in television and documentary production, Wendy’s work explores the complexities of the human experience and has been featured on PBS, A&E, VH1, MSNBC, Nickelodeon, and more. She produced over 25 episodes of the acclaimed children’s series Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, including Worried Sick: Living with Anxiety, about teens struggling with anxiety. Her credits also include the documentary specials Inside TV Land: Primetime Politics and MSNBC Investigates: The Mating Game, the PBS shorts Women In Science & Technology and Mothers and Sons, and the short film The Power of Positivity.
Wendy is a member of the Television Academy and the Producers Guild of America, and serves as Vice President of Angelight Films, a nonprofit production company that gives children with brain tumors the profound opportunity to direct and star in their own short films.
WING HAR
Wing Har is the Data and Marketing Technology Lead at Jolt, where he drives the future of film marketing through data innovation, automation, and responsible AI. With a multidisciplinary background spanning product management, full-stack engineering, UX, and digital marketing, Wing focuses on building next-generation marketing systems that help independent films cut through noise and reach audiences more intelligently and efficiently.
At Jolt, Wing leads the development of AI-enhanced marketing infrastructure designed to modernize how films are discovered, marketed, and scaled. This work includes architecting LLM-powered tools such as intelligent chatbots, filmmaker dashboards, and social listening platforms that surface real-time audience insights, sentiment analysis, and behavioral trends. By embedding AI directly into marketing workflows, Wing enables teams and filmmakers to move faster, test smarter, and make data-backed creative decisions without sacrificing storytelling authenticity.
Wing oversees global paid and organic campaigns for award-winning films, introducing automation and predictive insights to optimize spend, placement, and audience targeting. Through unified event tracking, experimentation frameworks, and lifecycle marketing systems, he has helped transform fragmented touchpoints into cohesive audience journeys customizable by film. A key focus of this work is future-proofing marketing operations–designing systems that adapt as platforms, algorithms, and viewer behaviors evolve.
With an eye on what’s next, Wing champions the responsible adoption of AI to enhance – not replace – human creativity. Currently pursuing CIPP/US, CIPT, and AIGP certifications, he brings a privacy-first, governance-aware perspective to innovation in film marketing. Wing’s vision is rooted in building scalable, ethical, and intelligent tools that empower filmmakers today while preparing the industry for tomorrow.
