Our Team
Isadora Leidenfrost, PhD
Director, Executive Producer, DP, Writer + Editor
Dr. Leidenfrost is an independent scholar, award-winning documentary filmmaker, international public speaker, and author. The mission of her film production company, Soulful Media, is to create documentaries that empower women and shine a spotlight on vital traditions and movements. Over the past 23 years, Dr. Leidenfrost has created 14 films, which have aired on PBS and Amazon Prime (USA & International), in addition to thousands of screenings at universities, film festivals, and community events worldwide. In 2021, her 56-minute biographical film Herstory (2019) aired on PBS during Women’s History Month, receiving rave reviews and high ratings. Her award-winning film Things We Don’t Talk About: Women’s Stories from the Red Tent (2012) is subtitled in six languages and was screened in 75+ countries from 2012-2015. Dr. Leidenfrost also authored two accompanying books to the film, The Red Tent: A Historical Perspective, and How to Create a Red Tent. She continues to be a highly sought-after scholar and speaker, presenting her work at Harvard University, Cornell University, Williams College, Amherst College, and numerous academic conferences and museums. She holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and Masters and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.​
Executive Producers
Susan MacLaury, PhD
Executive Producer
Dr. Susan MacLaury is an Academy Award® winning and Emmy® winning Executive Producer. She won an Academy Award® Best Documentary Short for “Inocente” in 2012. In 2007, her film “War/Dance” won 2 Emmy Awards®, an Academy Award® nomination, and won Best Documentary Directing at the Sundance Film Festival. Dr. MacLaury is the co-founder and was the Executive Director of Shine Global, Inc. for 19 years; her tenure as Executive Director ended in July 2024, but she remains on its board of directors. At Shine Global, she was the Executive Producer or Producer on 17 critically acclaimed films. Her filmography includes: “The Harvest (La Cosecha)” (2011) with Eva Longoria, “1 Way Up” in 3D (2014), “The Eagle Huntress” (2016), “The Wrong Light” (2016), and “Liyana” (2017). As part of her commitment to Shine Global’s films, she has also helped to create impact campaigns including educational materials and social engagement campaigns, some of which have included US Congressional screenings.
Rose Marie Arce shares a Pulitzer Prize® (New York Newsday) and is a winner of three Emmys® for her producing work at CBS New York and CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360°. She is currently the Vice President of Soledad O’Brien Productions and her documentary Executive Producing credits include: “The Devil is Busy” (2024, DocNYC premiere, sold to HBO) recently qualified for nomination to the 2026 Academy Awards®, “The Perfect Neighbor” (2025, Sundance premiere, Nominated Sundance Grand Jury, sold to Netflix) and “The End of Affirmative Action” (2024, CBS/Paramount+). Ms. Arce who directed the SOB production, “War on La Radio” (2024, Scripps) was part of the Scripps series nominated for a 2026 Emmy Awards®. She was the Producer of “Hungry to Learn” (2019, Yahoo). She was a CNN Senior Producer for 16+ years with numerous producing, writing, and directing credits for 13 documentaries. Writer/Senior Producer for “Babies Behind Bars” (2015, CNN), “Black and Blue” (2014, CNN), “Black in America” (2014, CNN), “The War Comes Home” (2014, CNN), “Rescued” (2010, CNN), “Her Name Was Steven” (2010, CNN), “Latino in America” (2009, CNN), “Gary and Tony Have a Baby” (2009, CNN), and “Rescued” (2009, CNN). Previously she was a Producer at CBS News and WCBS, where she was honored for her investigative reports on abortion and policing. She also co-authored the book Latino in America (2010) with Soledad O'Brien. In her current role of Vice President of Soledad O’Brien Productions, she manages production and development. Their production company supports all the reporting and producing work of Soledad O'Brien, and creates documentaries and documentary series, news documentaries, and podcasts, for both for-profit and nonprofit funders and distributors. The mission of the company is to uplift the voices of marginalized groups through empowering storytelling.
Rose Marie Arce
Executive Producer
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Geetha Murali, PhD
Executive Producer
Dr. Geetha Murali is the Chief Executive Officer of Room to Read, a global organization advancing foundational learning for children. Under her leadership, Room to Read has expanded to 28 countries, benefiting more than 50 million children. As CEO, Geetha oversees a global team of 1,200 staff and a broader network of more than 20,000 partners and volunteers. With over 25 years of experience spanning the corporate and non-profit sectors, Geetha has led Room to Read as CEO for the past seven years. Her unwavering commitment to literacy and gender equality has been recognized by former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She has been featured by the BBC and Bloomberg, and honored with distinctions including CNBC Changemaker, WIRED leader shaping the next 25 years, one of 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business, and knighthood from the King of Cambodia. Geetha is also the Executive Producer of "She Creates Change", Room to Read’s Webby® Award-winning multimedia initiative that amplifies the voices of adolescent girls worldwide. She holds a master’s degree in biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and both master's and doctorate degrees in South Asian Politics from the University of California, Berkeley.
As a native Australian, now working exclusively in Asia, Ms. Kunrojpanya is the recent Vice President of Communications, (Asia Pacific) at Netflix (ended in August 2024) and a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (International Emmy® Awards). During her time at Netflix, she led the promotional campaigns and awards strategies for hundreds of critically acclaimed titles across film, series and documentaries, including securing Thailand’s first ever Emmy for “Hope Frozen” and making history with the first ever non-English language Primetime Emmy® win for South Korea’s “Squid Games”. Ms. Kunrojpanya’s current position is as a founding member of The Elevate Group, a private network of the most powerful women across Asia seeking to harness the power of senior executive female leaders to uplift 5 Million women in business by 2034, creating social justice and inclusion for women in Asia. Her 20+ years of public affairs, communications and reputational work is deeply informed by her love of cultural nuance and diversity: She speaks eight Asian languages and has traveled to over 75 countries in her career.
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Amy Kunrojpanya
Executive Producer
Notable Advisor
H.E. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés is the former President of the 73rd UN General Assembly, and only the fourth woman to hold this influential office.
H.E. Espinosa Garcés is now the Executive Director of Global Women Leaders Voices (GWL Voices), an advocacy group for multilateralism and gender equality made up of 70 global women leaders. She has more than 20 years of experience in international negotiations, peace, security, defense, disarmament, human rights, Indigenous peoples, gender equality, sustainable development, environment, biodiversity, climate change, and multilateral cooperation. She has also served Ecuador as Minister of Foreign Affairs (twice) and Minister of National Defense. She is a fellow at the Bosch Academy in Berlin, working on international global order, multilateralism, and UN reform.
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Producers
Dr. Lushanya Echeverria is an Indigenous film producer, professional educator, author, and storyteller. Her work focuses on connection and learning using Indigenous storytelling to address trauma, leadership development, and equality. Dr. Echeverria is committed to dismantling systemic paradigms that alienate, marginalize, and subdue the traumatic effects of Western colonization. Dr. Echeverria specializes in organizational development to cultivate cultures of connection using Indigenous practice and pedagogy. She is the Executive Director of Kunsi Keya Tamakoce, a spiritual retreat center sharing the practices, beliefs, and ceremonies of her matriarchal Lakota heritage. The mission of Kunsi Keya Tamakoce is to connect community members to the earth and share teachings on how to live in balance and harmony with Mother Earth. Alongside her mother, Beverly Littlethunder, Lushanya engages intergenerational teachings through spiritual connection, community development, sustainable land practice, and leadership development. From 2010-2012, Dr. Echeverria supported production and post-production activities for Dr. Isadora’s film “Things We Don’t Talk About” (2012). She is currently the co-producer for “A Rainbow in the Sun”, a documentary produced by Nezera Films.
Lushanya Echeverria, EdD
Producer
Jamie Waggoner
Producer + Writer
Ms. Jamie Waggoner is the “Sisterhood” development writer/producer and also an in-country producer. Ms. Waggoner, has lived her entire adult life in the South: Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; and Auburn, AL. She identifies as a “Southerner by choice” with a deep, heartfelt connection to the people, places, and potential of the region—including its difficult histories, its struggles with misrepresentation, and its ongoing journey toward restorative and transformative justice. This comes with the responsibility to help build a better South, which is why she is involved in social justice education and activism. Involvement with the “Sisterhood” documentary expands her activism to the global level. She is an author and creative professional with 25+ years of experience. She worked as a Creative Director in Atlanta, GA where she performed copywriting, scriptwriting for television and radio commercials, videos, graphic design for print and electronic mediums, website design, creative direction for photo/video shoots, storyboarding, and strategic team, project, and vendor management. Ms. Waggoner assisted various production activities for Dr. Isadora’s film “Things We Don’t Talk About” (2012).
Niké Hamilton is a documentary storyteller and multimedia creator from Freetown, Sierra Leone. Living in Gambia, she first learned the power of story as a child refugee of the Sierra Leonean civil war and the experience of that lived reality. After working as a film production assistant in New York on the film “Thirdy” (2020), “Dogs” season 2 (2021, Netflix), and “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” (2023, Apple TV), Ms. Hamilton founded 3rd Culture Kid Productions, a full scale audio-visual production company where she uses her passion for documentary storytelling as a fuel for positive social and political change. In collaboration with IRIS (International Resource for Impact Storytelling) and Purposeful, Ms. Hamilton runs a transcontinental multimedia storytelling fellowship for girls in Sierra Leone, Kenya and Tanzania; training them in storytelling for movement building and resistance, as well as equipping fellows with skills in audio visual production. Ms. Hamilton is a 2023 DW Constructive Journalism fellow, and has produced multimedia content for British Journal of Photography, Deutsche Welle, Aljazeera, Doc Society, Generation Africa, Purposeful and many others.
Adenike Hamilton
Producer
Tatiana Lopez
Producer
Tatiana Lopez is an Ecuadorian documentary filmmaker, photographer, visual anthropologist, artist, and ethnographer. Through filmmaking and photography, she highlights Indigenous nations in the Amazon region to explore the intersectionality between cultural identity, women’s rights, environmental conservation, transgenerational trauma, and extractivism. Her film “Naku Ikinyu” screened at film festivals in Ecuador, as well as in the United States, Germany, Austria, Spain, Mexico, Denmark, and Finland. In 2021, “Naku Ikinyu” received the Audience Award from Muestra de Antropología Audiovisual de Madrid (MAAM) and an award from The Society for Visual Anthropology. She has received a Revolutionary Storyteller Grant (2022) from Photographers Without Borders, and won third place in the LensCulture Fine Art Photography Awards (2022). She is also an “Up Next” Diversify Photo and Women Photograph member. And she regularly collaborates with Tawna Cine, a multicultural collective in Ecuador that focuses on Amazonian narratives to strengthen cultural legacies. Through these collaborations, Tawna Cine and Ms. Lopez have been part of different exhibitions, including the ECO/23] Ecologías/Territorios/Comunidades in the CCEMx (Cultural Center of Spain) in Mexico City and in the Paseo del Prado in La Paz, Bolivia, GetxoPhoto Festival in Bilbao, Spain, Photo London at the Somerset House in London, among others.
Anna Charalambous is a Melbourne, Australia based film producer who focuses on impact storytelling. Australian-born to Greek and Cypriot families, Ms. Charalambous draws on her multi-cultural background to navigate diverse narratives for Australian audiences. She has worked on the feature films “Spreadsheet Champions” (2025, SXSW), “Paper Champions” (2020) and “The Fort” (2022). Her short films include “I Don’t Speak” (Winner Best Female Filmmaker RODE REEL 2019), “The King of Frankston” (2019) (MDFF, MWFF), the VICE originals TV series “Party in the Back” (2016-2017), and the short series “Suburban Legends” (2023). Recent productions include “Australia’s Open” (2023), and “Ellis Park” (2024). Passionate about driving social impact through storytelling, Ms. Charalambous’ experience also includes work on impact projects like “2040” (2019) and “Regenerating Australia” (2022).
Anna Charalambous
Producer
Key Personnel
Shuling Yong
Production Sound Recordist
Shuling Yong is a Singapore-born, Chicago-based award-winning documentary filmmaker, director of photography, and on location sound recordist with a passion for social change. She has worked on former First Lady Michelle Obama’s documentary, Becoming (Netflix, 2020, dir. Nadia Hallgren), The Feeling of Being Watched (Tribeca/POV, 2018, dir. Assia Boundaoui), And She Could Be Next (Tribeca/POV, 2020, dir. Grace Lee and Marjan Safinia), Radical Grace (HotDocs, 2015, dir. Rebecca Parrish), In Time To Come (HotDocs, 2017, dir. Tan Pin Pin), and films by the Chicago media collective Kartemquin Films including In The Game (2015, dir. Maria Finitzo) and America To Me (Sundance, 2018, dir. Steve James). Ms. Yong was selected as a DOC NYC “40 Under 40” honoree and a “New City Film 50: Chicago Screen Gem.” She is also a Tribeca Film Institute program alumnus, a Kartemquin Films Diverse Voices in Docs Fellow, and a participating filmmaker at the Doc Society (formerly BRITDOC) Queer Impact Producers Lab, Docs By The Sea, the DocNet Southeast Asia Strategy Workshop, and the KOMAS Video For Change Forum.
Donald Quan is an award-winning film composer and music producer with a catalog of over 3000 song cues registered with the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN). After graduating from the Berklee College of Music, he was a member of the internationally renowned Canadian pop/rock group Lighthouse, and other bands, but he suffered a near fatal stroke on stage and had to turn his musical talent to studio-only practice. Mr. Quan’s film music company, Q Music Inc., has provided music services to hundreds of television, film, radio and multimedia productions including the popular television shows Relic Hunter, Mutant X Tracker, Starhunter, and The War Next Door, the notable Aboriginal TV drama Moccasin Flats, as well as the feature films Expecting and Eve. Mr. Quan also scored Dr. Isadora's film Herstory (2019) for PBS.
Donald Quan
Composer
Debra Gish, MA
Advisor, Translator, and
Latin America Crew
Ms. Gish is the Founder and Managing Director of Asesoría Internacional Gish y Paz (Gish, Paz & Associates) and brings 40+ years of progressively diverse experiences in planning, directing, and evaluating social, economic, developmental, and humanitarian aid programs. Linguist, sociologist, gender and social policy expert, she is recognized for her pioneering and empowering work preventing violence against women and girls and combating human trafficking. She also has done fieldwork in crisis and post-conflict contexts with women, girls, Indigenous, and other marginalized populations. Ms. Gish has worked closely with the UN, NGOs, community organizations, and land defenders around the world toward climate change policy and advocacy, mitigation of natural and manmade disasters, and related projects. Her consulting firm Gish, Paz & Associates has provided strategic and technical assistance to the US Department of State, UN Women, UNDP, and UNDC, among others. Ms. Gish is also a published author of 2 books: Displaced: A Perilous True Story of an Expatriate Working to Right Wrongs from the Past and Crone Chronicles 20-20: Intimately Inspiring Glimpses into the Lives of Wise Women 52+
Marisa T. Dery is the Chief Engineer at Tamar Mastering, as well as the principal consultant in Forensic Audio at ARCCA, a technology service firm, and was previously an audio engineer at Harvard University's Audio Preservation Services. Ms. Dery, a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Music Production and Engineering, worked at the Tape Complex–at the time, the largest real-time duplication center on the East Coast–for thirteen years, several of them as Chief Engineer. She left the Tape Complex and founded Tamar Mastering in 2002. She has over 30 years experience in the industry, working with an extensive variety of music and audio.
Marisa T. Dery
Sound Engineering and Mastering
Karen Durham’s work in film publicity spans 20+ years, including with the Gene Siskel Film Center of the Art Institute of Chicago, FACETS, Asian Pop-Up Cinema, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, and the Wisconsin Film Festival and UW Cinematheque, the latter two presented by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Communication Arts. She has worked both in venue and festival settings with emerging and established filmmakers alike, providing integrated communications support in the areas of press, social media, marketing, outreach, advertising, partnerships, and sponsorships.
Karen Durham
PR Consulting
Our Advisors
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June Oscar AO (honorific Officer of the Order, Australian Order of Service, 2013) is a Bunuba woman from Western Australia’s Kimberley region. She recently ended her term as the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner in 2024. She has received many awards for her advocacy work in social justice, women’s issues, and Indigenous Australian languages, including the Desmond Tutu Global Reconciliation Award (2016), and honorary Distinguished Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (2019), among others. Commissioner Oscar and her team published the landmark Wiyi Yani U Thangani (“Women’s Voices”) Report in December 2020 and continue to pursue its full implementation to advance First Nations gender justice and equality in Australia.
Dr. Maliha Khan is the President and CEO of Women Deliver. Dr. Khan’s commitment to feminist movements and the empowerment of girls and women began in her native country of Pakistan, where she started her career implementing development projects in marginalized regions of the country. Her commitment to gender equality continued in her roles leading gender-focused program design, implementation, and evaluation at organizations like the Care and Oxfam. She has also worked with the Rockefeller Foundation, and Asian Development Bank, and was the head of programs at Malala Fund before joining Women Deliver. Based on her personal and professional experience in Pakistan and countries around the world, she firmly believes that organizations working to advance gender equality worldwide must be representative of the world’s most vulnerable girls and women to truly achieve change. Her experience in international development programming has also made her a fierce advocate for challenging and dismantling the sector’s colonial and racist legacies that continue to inform its operations, programming, language, and funding.
Azza Karam, PhD is the Executive & Founder of Lead Integrity. She has served for nearly two decades in the UN. She was the UN Secretary General High Level Advisory Board on Multilateralism. She coordinated the Arab Human Development Reports, co-founded and chaired the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Religion–with over 20 UN system bodies–and founded and convened its Multi Faith Advisory Council.
Debra Gish, MA is the founder and managing Director, Asesoría Internacional Gish y Paz (Gish, Paz & Associates). Ms. Gish has worked closely with the UN, NGOs, community organizations, and land defenders around the world toward climate change policy and advocacy, mitigation of natural and manmade disasters, and related projects.
Falguni Sheth, PhD is the Department Chair, Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Emory University. Dr. Sheth’s areas of focus include critical philosophy of race, feminist political philosophy, and postcolonial theory and empire studies.
Lushanya Echeverria, EdD is the Director of Educational Programming for Kunsi Keya Tamakoce and enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Dr. Echeverria is committed to dismantling systemic paradigms that alienate, marginalize, and subdue the traumatic effects of Western colonization in the Americas.
Jules Gill-Peterson, PhD is an Associate Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Gill-Peterson’s expertise and research interests include transgender history, focusing on racial histories of gender and trans embodiment spanning both institutional and vernacular science and medicine.
Felicia Tuggle, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Auburn University. She has worked with civil society organizations and universities in Ghana, Liberia, Trinidad and Tobago, Rwanda, and South Africa. Dr. Tuggle uses the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for her teaching, research, and service to advance human rights and facilitate sustainable development. Her work engages communities and organizations in addressing local development needs using inclusive and participatory approaches to mobilize cross-sectoral stakeholders, amplify community voice, and center indigenous knowledge.
Alka Arora, PhD is a Professor of Women’s Spirituality at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Dr. Arora has been developing the field of integral feminist education and feminist spiritual activism, to create a transdisciplinary and socially-engaged approach to the study of gender, spirituality, and religion.
Jeanette Mwendwa Gitobu is a African policy advisor at the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and the director of the Women in Wind Global Leadership Program. Her role at GWEC is to be a solutions architect and ecosystem builder, working closely with industry leaders and policymakers to create an inclusive and equitable work environment for all in the renewable energy industry.
Marie C. Nazon, PhD, LMSW is a emeritus faculty member at The City College of New York, a Fulbright scholar, author of "What a Woman Wants" (2021), philanthropist, and social worker with over twenty-five years of clinical experience in mental health.
Megan Carney, PhD is an Associate Professor in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. She is also the director at the Center for Regional Food Studies. She is an award-winning author of "The Unending Hunger: Tracing Women and Food Insecurity Across Borders" (2015) and "Island of Hope: Migration and Solidarity in the Mediterranean" (2021).
Olta Cibuku is the lead for Amp's Clean Energy research and strategy team and the founder of the company's Women’s Network which aims to promote representation of women in positions of leadership in clean energy. She is also leads the Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE) chapter in Italy. WiRE is a global organization whose mission is to advance the role and recognition of women and other under-represented groups working in the energy sector.
Phyllis W. Curott, J.D. H.Ps. is a bestselling author, attorney, Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Clergy and Scholars inductee, and member of the Executive Board of Directors for the Parliament of the World’s Religions. She served as the vice chair and creator of the Parliament's Inaugural Women’s Assembly.
Megan Radavich is the Executive Director for Zonta International. Founded in 1919, Zonta International is a leading global organization of professionals empowering women worldwide through service and advocacy. With more than 28,000 members belonging to more than 1,100 Zonta clubs in 63 countries and geographic areas, we at Zonta envision a world in which women's rights are recognized as human rights and every woman can achieve her full potential.
