Presenter Bios

Theresa Dawson

Theresa began her career as a film professor in the UK and has since worked with the Families First nonprofit educational center, developed curriculum materials for the American Museum of the Moving Image, and consulted for Witness. Theresa has a deep interest in teaching, inspiring, and mobilizing students to create media that advances social change. She has taught Reel Change, Reel Change for Nonprofits, Expanding the View, and the Summer Teachers Institute at the Lab.

Thomas Frankie

Thomas Frankie is the Chief Strategist at Think to Lead LLC, a leadership consulting firm based in Westchester County, New York. His primary role stems from his passion for leading, learning and leveraging organizational resources for greater collective impact. Tom’s experience includes partnership development, evaluation, marketing, communications, and policy analysis.
Tom spent the last 7 years at the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo headquarters where he coordinated professional development programming for local, national, and international teachers and graduate students. His work in schools, informal science institutions and universities across the country was instrumental in helping WCS become the largest provider of teacher training focusing on environmental science in the world.　

 

Bill Gordh

Bill is an award-winning storyteller, author, musician, and educator. He is the author of Stories in Action: Interactive Tales and Learning Activities to Promote Early Literacy. Bill has performed with the New York Philharmonic, at the Clearwater Festival, and at the White House Easter Egg Roll. He is the Director of Expressive Arts at the Episcopal School (NYC) and the Director of the Summer Arts Institute at Manhattanville College. He collaborated with the JBFC to create a curriculum for Seeing Stories, which uses storytelling and media to foster early literacy, and is teaching Family Tales.

Aaron Mace, full-time JBFC faculty

Aaron has crewed on and produced numerous short films and has worked as a JBFC projectionist. He has taught and supervised See Hear Feel Film, the JBFC’s program for third graders, since 2004. He teaches Experiments in Media, Projects in Media, Special Effects and Make-Up, and many other JBFC classes. He is also director of the summer program, Lab Camp

Rob Morton

Rob is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and film scholar. After majoring in film at Hobart College in Geneva, NY, he earned his MFA in writing and directing from NYU. His feature-length screenplays include the kidnapping comedy Bus 12, a ghost story entitled Dead Born, and the comic drama Side Tracks. Now based in Pleasantville, NY, Rob continues writing features and teaches screenwriting at NYU. He teaches The Art of the Short Screenplay and screenwriting courses for the Creators’ Co-Op at the Lab

Peter Nelson

Peter Nelson is Director of the New York Office of Facing History and Ourselves, a non-profit that supports educators across the US and internationally. Facing History provides professional development and resources to help teachers for grades 6 - 12 in the humanities. The goal is to investigate choice making and responsibility by having students think about decisions made in the Holocaust, American Civil Rights movement and other histories including today and how such an inquiry can affect our own behavior - our decision to be upstanders or bystanders. Peter Nelson was a teacher in the New York City public schools for 13 years before joining Facing History and Ourselves. He has a B.A. in Psychology from S.U.N.Y at Binghamton and an M.A. in Philosophy from the C.U.N.Y. Graduate Center.

 

Anne Marie Santoro

Anne Marie is an award-winning program designer, writer, and producer of educational media and national projects that nourish the best in the human spirit. With 30 years of experience, she has developed a national reputation as an author and educator whose curricula and professional development programs bring communities together around a common goal. Anne Marie, founder and president of From the Heart Communications, created and teaches the JBFC’s first education program, See Hear Feel Film, as well as The Power of Story I, II, and III. She created the new professional  development course, Teaching and Technology in the Digital Age.

Brady Shoemaker, JBFC Director of Curriculum

Brady, a certified K–12 arts educator with a MA in Art Education, taught computer art on the high school level in Pennsylvania and worked on several films before joining the JBFC faculty. Brady has developed the JBFC’s Digital Storytelling programs, which encompass a course for English language learners at Westchester Community College, a course for adults and teens at the Media Arts Lab, and a collaboration with a social studies class at Fox Lane High School. In addition, he teaches Experiments in Media and Projects in Media and more.

Joseph Summerhays

Joe is an award-winning media designer whose work has been featured on television, in print, and at venues around the country. He has developed more than 40 children’s software titles, written 35 children’s books, and lectured widely on animation theory and visual intelligence. He created the JBFC’s Minds in Motion program for fourth graders and has guided the production of more than 300 animated short films in that program. He teaches A Taste of Animation at the Lab.

Sean Weiner, full time JBFC faculty

Sean is a former house manager at the JBFC Theater, production assistant on several films, and teacher in Japan. He has taught Screen Stories, First Take, Behind the Screen, Classroom to Screening Room, Experiments in Media, and Reel Change and is the host for Friday Night Films @ the Lab and an instructor in the JBFC’s digital video program for incarcerated youth. He is completing his MFA in Integrated Media Arts at Hunter College.