Lacey Schwartz is the CEO of Truth Aid. She is a director/producer and outreach strategist who has worked with a variety of production companies, organizations and networks, including MTV, BET, @radical.media, NASCAR and Be'chol Lashon. She also Executive Produced the narrative film DIFRET which won audience awards at the 2014 Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals. Lacey has a BA from Georgetown University and a JD from Harvard Law School. She is a member of the NYS Bar.

Mehret Mandefro is President of Truth Aid. She is a producer/ writer that draws on her experience as a physician and anthropologist to make films about the social determinants of health. She produced the film DIFRET which won audience awards at the 2014 Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals. Mehret received a BA & MD from Harvard University, and a MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine as Fulbright Scholar. She was also a White House Fellow.

James Adolphus makes motion picture films about social, cultural and political issues of global relevance. A cinematography alumnus from the American Film Institute Conservatory and winner of their prestigious Fisher Fellow Award, Adolphus cut his teeth in television on Sundance Channel's provocative documentary series "Brick City", winner of a 2010 Peabody Award. Other cinematography credits include "Mother of Murder" for Lifetime Television, "Poisoned Passions" for Investigation Discovery Channel and "Second Coming" for BET.

Toby Shimin began editing in 1988 when she cut The Children’s Storefront, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject Documentary. Since then, she has cut numerous films that have been been screened at many prestigious festivals and aired on PBS including A Leap of Faith, Martha and Ethel,  Everything's Cool, Out of the Past, AIDS Warriors for Angle, Miss America, Seabiscuit, Three of Hearts: A Post-Modern Family, Two Square Miles and Buck.

Erik Dugger’s work has explored topics ranging from innovations in stem-cell research, to the UN’s landmine removal mission in Lebanon. Recent projects include “Blood, Sweat & Gears,” featuring a professional American cycling team, and “Adam Blank Gets a Vasectomy,” a first-person documentary dealing with issues of masculinity. His work has been featured on the Discovery Channel, A&E Biography, the Sundance Channel and PBS’s POV series.

Kathryn Bostic is a prolific composer and singer-songwriter. She has written music for film, TV and theater. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Sundance Fellowship for Feature Film Scoring, Sundance Fellowship for Documentary Film Scoring, BMI Conducting Fellowship, and the ASAP/Disney Musical Theater Workshop Her scores have been heard in many award winning films and on Broadway.  

Michelle Ferrari has been creating innovative, critically acclaimed documentary narratives for over a decade. She is perhaps best known for the highly-rated Seabiscuit, which earned Ferrari a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Writing. Additional credits include the Emmy-nominated PBS series Reporting America at War and Out of the Past, winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award. Ferrari also served as story editor and creative advisor on scores of independent feature documentaries, including Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present. 

Stanley Nelson, an Emmy-winning MacArthur “genius” Fellow, is co-founder and Executive Director of Firelight Media, which provides technical education and professional support to emerging documentarians; and co-founder of the for-profit documentary production company, Firelight Films. His latest films include Freedom Riders, which aired on PBS' American Experience in May 2011 andWounded Knee, which is part of the landmark series on Native Americans We Shall Remain, which aired on PBS in May 2009. 

Sam Pollard's documentary and feature film accomplishments span nearly 30 years. He was a producer for Blackside, Inc.'s Eyes On The Prize II, for which he won an Emmy Award, and co-executive producer for Blackside's six-part series I'll Make Me a World: A Century of African American Art. His producing credits include Spike Lee's Academy Award and Emmy Award-nominated Four Little Girls; his editing credits include the feature films Clockers, Iron Mike, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, and Girl 6.         

(c) 2014 OTB Productions LLC