Board Members

Joanne Parsont is the Director of Strategy at the EMA Foundation, supporting a dynamic impact network of small social impact organizations and an internal team of rising young professionals. She also oversees the development and management of EMA’s storytelling and learning resources platform, rhizōma. For nearly three decades, Joanne has worked as a media education specialist and film festival programmer specializing in children’s and documentary films, working with festivals and film arts organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and nationwide, including five years as the first Director of Education at the San Francisco Film Society (now SFFILM) and seven [...]

Almetria Vaba is the director of partnerships and distribution at KQED. In her role at the San Francisco public media station, she leads collaborative efforts with education agencies, public media stations, and nonprofit organizations. Almetria has held various roles focused on media and storytelling including as a producer at Peninsula Television, a performing arts educator in Oakland, and an instructor at Cal State Northridge while a graduate student in the Communication Studies department. Her efforts in East Bay Schools as a parent volunteer included managing a parent education program at Bishop O’Dowd, leading the African American Parents Alliance at Canyon [...]

Rachel is a 20-year production industry veteran, leading creative teams in the marketing and entertainment industries. After ten years leading global production at The Coca-Cola Company, Rachel joined Airbnb to build the creative and production team that would see the brand’s evolution from tech start-up to global travel platform. Following Airbnb’s IPO, Rachel executive-produced the Tribeca Film Festival Audience-Award winning documentary Gay Chorus Deep South, and led its successful sale to 26-time Oscar-winning producer Sheila Nevins and Viacom. Rachel currently directs and produces film projects with her production company, Cypress Trail Films, and continues to advise brands on how they [...]

Peter Hockaday is Director of Communications at the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the nonprofit partner to the National Park Service at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Video has been an important part of his work for almost 20 years, from multimedia reporting for news organizations like SFGATE and the San Jose Mercury News, to his current role connecting people to the national parks of the Bay Area. He has produced a wide range of video pieces from in-depth narratives to social video. Peter was born in San Francisco and enjoys a good matinee whenever possible.

Penny Krueger is a film and video editor who has been working in the bay area as a freelance and staff editor since 2005.  She was a founding board member of Reel Stories and sat on their board for 9 years and was Board President for the last 5 years.  Penny has worked as an editor on several short films and in advertising and with tech companies.  Penny strongly believes in supporting and helping young filmmakers find their voices.

Cassandra Herrman is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist.  Her films have been nominated for three national Emmy awards and have screened­ at numerous film festivals, including SXSW and Sundance. She directed and produced the Emmy-nominated documentary Tulia, Texas, co-produced with ITVS and broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens, about a town torn apart by the racial injustices in America’s War on Drugs. She is drawn to stories that explore the intersection of the criminal justice system with gender and race, as well as those that disrupt mainstream media representations.  She is currently serving as the Interim Head of Documentary Production [...]

Samantha Gill is a Revenue Cycle leader at UCSF Health.   As Director of Medical Group Business Services, she leads a group of over 100 talented individuals in Operations.  Samantha has held a variety of roles at UCSF over the last 14 years with the common thread of navigating competing priorities and critical staff needs, while ensuring income is optimized to support the mission of UCSF. Before joining UCSF, Samantha was the Finance Director for Key3Media, which later became MediaLive International, a full-service event production and media company.  She started her career as an Analyst at Darden Restaurants, later moving to [...]

Debra A. Wilson made her national debut with her film Butch Mystique, which she directed, wrote and produced. The film screened in more than 30 film festivals worldwide and won Jury and Audience Awards as well as Showtime’s Black Filmmakers Showcase. After receiving a grant from Showtime she directed her next documentary Jumpin’ the Broom: The New Covenant, that premiered on Showtime, and aired on Logo. Debra has spent much of her career working in the Bay Area in her role as location manager. She has worked on such projects as MILK, Contagion, The Master, Fruitvale Station, Looking, Sense8, 13 [...]