Founding Director Nina Fiore EdM

Nina is a Queens-born first-Gen disabled leader in the media and education sectors with a BA and EdM from Harvard University.  Nina has left an indelible mark on content creation for digital and TV as well as on afterschool program development. She also spent several years as a child development/education researcher at Harvard University.  Throughout her career, Nina has led digital media campaigns, emerging tech projects, tv production, and content creation for esteemed global brands, including Noggin, MTV, Sundance Channel, Sundance Film Festival, Paramount, CBS, Sesame Workshop, PBS, Wired, Netflix. Her dedication to championing inclusivity and diversity in children's content led her to become a Disability Belongs/Netflix Children's Content Lab Fellow (2022). Additionally, she lends her expertise and insights to the Advisory Board of the HS of Art and Design's CTE Film Program. Nina's journey to prominence in the media world began with her role on the team at Viacom that created emerging digital media platforms for many Viacom companies, and most significantly, launched the Noggin channel at Viacom. Given this experience plus her background at Sesame Street, she chose to pursue advanced studies at Harvard Graduate School of Education. While at Harvard, she became an education researcher and then Communications Director for a nonprofit focusing on students' mental health based at Harvard Medical School's McLean Hospital, where she also served as the Managing Editor of their Developmental Psychology journal.  Throughout her career, driven by her passion to uplift historically-excluded youth, Nina spearheaded after school programming at Mission Hill After School Program, Children's Aid Society, and the Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens. Motivated by her desire to create inclusive opportunities for her own disabled son and other under-served local youth, she founded the Astoria Film Festival, where she fosters a supportive community while providing invaluable filmmaking education, work experience, and essential industry connections in media/tv/film, for aspiring youth, especially those from marginalized backgrounds. Nina resides in her hometown of Astoria NY with her husband and son.

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Board Treasurer - Slavko Bogdanov PhD is an Astrophysicist at Columbia University where he conducts research on high-energy astrophysical phenomena utilizing space-based NASA observatories. Previously, he was a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Global Fellow at McGill University in Montreal, QC, and a research fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA.   Slavko holds a PhD and MA from Harvard University and a BS with Honors and Distinction from Penn State University. He resides with his family in Astoria, NY and is a member of our Finance and Executive committees.

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Yunah Chung MBA Yunah Chung is a Korean American creative executive. After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts as a film & TV major, she cut her teeth at CAA, followed by MTV. Her lifelong love of Korean cinema naturally led her to blogging about it online over at Dramabeans.com where a global community of K-drama fans continue to engage in thoughtful and enthusiastic discourse.  Unable to shake her interest in global cinema, she also developed content and analyzed scripts at Infinite Studios (local producer of Crazy Rich Asians) while completing her dual international MBA degrees in Singapore and Tokyo. She was a Development Executive at 9 Story Media Group in New York where she developed kids & family animated and live action content. Currently, she lives in Tokyo and serves as the Vice President of Content for a new SVOD platform called Samansa. She is a member of our Industry Outreach committee.

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Luis Feliciano is a Queens-born Latino musician and cinematographer who currently works as the Director of Business Development for ARRI Rentals NYC.  Luis has worked in the film industry as a Cinematographer, Camera Operator, and Director of Photography. He has also been a Business Development Executive at Adorama. Luis is additionally a creative producer, filmmaker, and singer with his band Night Coast.  Luis was part of the inaugural film class at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts HS, and he has a BFA in Cinematography and Film Production as well as A BA in the History of Filmmaking from Full Sail University.  He is a member of our Industry Outreach Committee

 

Ruth Fernandez  is a Queens-born artist who is a member of IATSE Local 798 as a HMU (Hair and MakeUp Artist and Groomer) for the film/tv industry.  While working in a salon in Chelsea in the early 2000's, she was introduced to her future mentor, who took her to assist on an independent film. Soon after, she found herself working on "Making the Band" with Danity Kane on MTV and was then asked to work on the group’s first video shoot in Los Angeles, which paved the way to her current career. Today, Ruth is the go-to to many, both on and off the red carpet.  Among the stars Fernandez has worked with are Selita Ebanks, Brian Tyree Henry, Kane Brown, Laila Ali, Sterling K. Brown, Marlee Matlin, Brooke Shields, Miriam Shor, Gaten Matarazzo and Niki Taylor among many more! Ruth also has extensive experience with editorial, commercial work and high-profile advertising campaigns, including Ray-Ban, Bon Appétit, Interview Magazine Germany, Nylon, GQ, Weight Watchers, Welch's and Verizon. In 2017, she became a member of IATSE Local 798. This was a long time dream of hers, to be able to lend her talents and continue to learn and grow as an artist by working alongside the best of the best in the TV/Film world. She is a member of our Industry Outreach Committee.

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Maria Hantzopoulos PhD  is Professor of Education and Participating Faculty in International Studies, Media Studies, Urban Studies, and Women, Feminist and Queer Studies at Vassar College, where she is also the Coordinator of Secondary Certification and the former Faculty Director for Teaching Development.  Before Vassar, she supervised pre-service student teachers at Columbia University’s Barnard and Teachers Colleges and conducted staff development for middle and high school teachers throughout New York City and nationally. She also taught and worked in New York City public schools for 13 years, served on several public school planning teams, and worked with (and continues to work with) a variety of established youth organizations and professional educator organizations. She remains active in curriculum development for schools and NGOs and regularly conducts professional development for teachers. Maria’s work has appeared in a variety of peer-reviewed publications and she is the author of the books Educating for Peace and Human Rights (Bloomsbury, 2021) with Monisha Bajaj, Restoring Dignity in Public schools: Human Rights Education in Action (Teachers College Press, 2016). She is also co-editor, with Alia Tyner-Mullings, of the volume Critical Small Schools: Beyond Privatization in New York City Urban Educational Reform (Information Age, 2012) and Peace Education: International Perspectives (Bloomsbury, 2016) with Monisha Bajaj.  Her research and projects have been funded by the Spencer Foundation, and Social Science Research Council, the British Council and other sources. Maria earned her BA from Boston University in History, her MA in Social Studies Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and her doctorate at Teachers College in International Educational Development with a specialization in peace education.  She resides in Astoria, NY and is a member of our Executive  and Community Outreach committees.

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Bryan Korn is an Emmy, BAFTA, and Annie award-winning Children's Media Writer/Producer of world-class children’s media programming. Focusing on highly-imaginative, idiosyncratic, creator-driven worlds, characters, and brands,  Currently Executive Producer at an in-development children's series for SONY Pictures TV Kids, Bryan also served as the Co-Executive Producer on the Netflix Original animated series Hilda. Season 1 was nominated for a Peabody Award and won 3x Annie, BAFTA, Emmy, Kidscreen, and TAAFI awards. Season 2 won an Emmy for best Animated program for kids.  Bryan has also written for Octonauts (Disney), Hilda (Netflix), and Monkey with a Toolbelt (Netflix).  Additionally, Bryan served for several years as the Vice President of Creative Content Development at SONY PICTURES TV - KIDS, formerly known as Silvergate Media, where he guided IP through every stage, from development, to series, to 2D/CG animation production, for Disney, Nickelodeon, Netflix, and CBeebies. 

Bryan has a BFA in Dramatic Writing from the Conservatory of Theater Arts and Film at the School of the Arts, SUNY Purchase College.  He has also done Film Producing coursework at SVA and is a Certified Queens Public Television Producer.  Bryan resides with his family in Astoria.​

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Peter Romano  is the Queens-born Vice President of Operations at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Astoria NY.  Pete grew up in Astoria as the youngest of five siblings, one block from the studio. By 14, he had been hired to pick weeds from the studio grounds, and then he joined the maintenance crew. He became a foreman and a stage manager, before becoming the Vice President of Operations, where he oversees use of all of the Studio stages, including the Backlot, as well as the Zukor Theater.  Pete is a veritable encyclopedia of Astoria Film History and one could happily spend hours listening to all of his stories about the films, tv series, actors, and musicians who have graced the halls of the Studios.  Pete still lives in his beloved Astoria, with his wife, children, and dog, who are all regularly seen visiting him at the Studios.

 

Heidi M Thompson is a business executive who has worked as a VP for The Home Depot in Mexico and the United States and has prior international experience as a Strategic Business Consultant in London, Dublin, and Munich.   Ms. Thompson served for 7+ years on the Board of Trustees for The Home Depot Foundation and 2+ years on the Managing Board of The Home Depot Foundation. She currently serves on the board of the Windy City Toolbank. She is a past board president of Toolbank USA and Windy City Toolbank and was the 2020 recipient of the Toolbanker for Life award.  Ms. Thompson graduated from Harvard University and lives in North Carolina.

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ADVISORY BOARD

Lori Greene  founded LPG edu, a training and learning consultancy that helps clients produce educational content that sticks. As Global Education Manager for Netflix, she formulated and ran live educational courses in 20 countries on 6 continents utilizing her adroit strategy to scale external training. Lori conceived and produced the first-ever Netflix virtual course on entertainment content and developed several other immersive curricula. She produced from scratch the Netflix Discovery Hub, home to all digital learning of crew roles. Through this, Lori helped improve the quality, creativity, and efficiency of Netflix titles globally. An adjunct at NYU and Fordham’s Gabelli Business School, Lori teaches a Master’s class on influencer communications and a course on the digital consumer. She launched an advisory council for Temple’s Business School and has spoken at universities across the US.  She resides in Manhattan.

 

Marta Márquez  is the Founder/CEO of Chico&Punky Productions, an independent production company focused on horror tales and films.  Marta began her career as a journalist and then developed her career as a freelance producer in New York, Mexico, Cuba, Amsterdam  and Spain, working on commercials, television shows, music videos, independent films, and documentaries.  Marta is also an experienced filmmaker, having directed “Verano Perro” and “WTNY Bienvenida a Nueva York”, an award-winning Horror Short, shot on 16mm film. Marta has a Master´s Degree in Radio and TV Communications by Universidad Complutense de Madrid and also studied Filmmaking at the NYFA in Manhattan and Screenwriting at EICTV in Cuba.  She currently resides in the south of Spain.

 

Angela Morgenstern  is an accomplished Media Executive who currently serves as an Advisor and Consultant  for enterprise leaders, entrepreneurial startups, and philanthropic organizations around the world. Angela was the Vice President of Product and Content Innovation at Netflix for more than 7 years, during which time she founded, built, and grew a team of product leaders in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Mexico and Mumbai who helped the company grow. She was in charge of launching and positioning Netflix Originals across the globe, managing relations with prolific creative partners around the world on behalf of the platform, and building bridges across product, content studios, tech teams, ML/AI experts, policy, marketing and more. She also launched and oversaw critical new business initiatives for the company - including Netflix Games, interactive, and new formats and enhancements.  Angela led similar initiatives at Current TV, PBS, and MTV, where she focused on integrating emerging media and interactive platforms with on-air content. Angela graduated Magna Cum Laude from Colgate University and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.​

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Andy Rodriguez is the Executive Director of Variety Boys & Girls Club in Astoria NY.  He has over fifteen years of experience in Youth Services and the non-profit sector. His experience includes advocacy for displaced families, designing and implementing dynamic youth programs, as well as program management and administration. He has worked in a variety of environments: schools, community centers, athletic programs and family residences. Andy understands and appreciates the transformative power that youth programs can play in the lives of the young people and families in the neighborhoods they serve. He has lived in Astoria for over 10 years and is excited to be a part of an organization that serves the community.  He resides in Astoria/LIC.

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Kathleen S Wilson PhD is a professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the Interactive Telecommunications Program and is a founding co-partner of the Rikaroo Film Collective. She has been involved in digital media design, development and strategy since she created interactive multimedia projects for Bank Street College of Education in the 1980s, co-designed SimTown with Maxis and worked as an Executive Producer at Paramount Pictures’ Media Kitchen in the early 1990s. Kathleen was part of the founding team that created Viacom Interactive Services, Viacom’s in-house digital media development group, where she was the VP/Creative Director from 1995-2001. Since then, she has taught, consulted, and created digital media products, participated on a variety of judging panels, and given presentations on digital media creation and strategy to organizations worldwide. Kathleen has an EdD from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, a Global Executive MBA from TRIUM (a joint MBA offered by NYU- Stern, The London School of Economics, and HEC-Paris), an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and a BA from Middlebury College. In her spare time she’s a app reviewer for School Library Journal and has published several novels for children and young adults.  She resides in Manhattan, NY.

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Committees:

Finance/Executive Committee:

Nina Fiore, Slavko Bogdanov, Heidi Thompson, Maria Hantzopoulos

Festival/Industry Outreach Committee:

Nina Fiore, Ruth Fernandez, Luis Feliciano, Bryan Korn, Yunah Chung

Community Outreach Committee:

Nina Fiore, Maria Hantzopoulos, Peter Romano, Bryan Korn

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