01 | 10:45 AM - 11:30 AM

Huffington Post Impact: Activisim, Philanthropy, Change Agents for the greater Good
Moderator: Brian Gerber, Producer, Gerber Rigler
Caty Borum Chattoo, Producer/Strategist, Link TV & Link Media; Assistant Professor, American University (School of Communication)
Josh Grossberg, Producer/Director, "A Bridge Life: Finding Our Way Home"
Jyllian Gunther, Writer/Director, Wonderful6, Inc. http://www.wonderful6inc.com/
Penelope Falk, Editor, The Greater Good
Laura Elizabeth Pohl, Filmmaker

Presented buy Huffington Post Impact  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/impact/

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Caty Borum Chattoo, Producer/Strategist, Link TV & Link Media; Assistant Professor, American University (School of Communication)

Caty Borum Chattoo is a strategic communication professional with multifaceted expertise in social change communication, integrated media campaigns, and documentary film and television production.   As a consulting producer and communication strategist with independent U.S.-based broadcaster Link TV, she develops partnerships, directs strategic communication outreach and produces documentary half-hour specials with global development organizations for ViewChange.org, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2011, she co-produced four half-hour documentary TV specials about progress and issues in global poverty, including “The Mothers Index” (collaboration with Save the Children), “HIV Prevention: Looking Back and Moving Forward” (collaboration with PSI), “Challenging Hunger” (collaboration with Bread for the World), and “Africa’s Last Famine” (collaboration with Oxfam America).  She also currently works as studio producer for Link TV’s new “LinkAsia” half-hour news program, hosted by "Survivor: Cook Islands" winner Yul Kwon.  As an integrated strategic communication specialist, she has served as a writing and strategic communication consultant for organizations including the Institute for Inclusive Security, USAID’s Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP), NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and others. Borum Chattoo is currently an assistant professor at American University’s School of Communication in Washington, D.C..

As a former senior vice president at Fleishman-Hillard, the global communications agency, she directed national issue campaigns and produced documentary-style videos for nonprofit issues-based clients.  Prior to this work, she was a longtime collaborator with producer and philanthropist, Norman Lear, as special projects director and senior producer at the Norman Lear Center, a multidisciplinary center and think tank based at the University of Southern California; and as a founding director, strategist and media spokesperson for Lear’s Declare Yourself, a national youth civic engagement campaign.  Prior to this work, she served as a program officer in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Entertainment Media & Public Health program, and she co-produced the investigative feature documentary film, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price” and the investigative environmental justice documentary TV documentary series "Sierra Club Chronicles," which aired on Link TV and the Sundance Channel.

Borum Chattoo holds an MA in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania (the Annenberg School), and a BA in Communication from Virginia Tech, where she graduated in honors, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.  She has completed coursework toward her MFA in film production from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles.

Josh Grossberg, Producer/Director, "A Bridge Life: Finding Our Way Home"

Joshua Grossberg is the senior entertainment journalist for “E!

Online.” As a filmmaker, his achievements include: broadcast of his

feature-length documentary, A Bridge Life: Finding Our Way Home, on

the Documentary Channel as well as the recipient of both national and

international awards. The film is now available on DVD as well as for

streaming in various outlets including Netflix. In 2009, Grossberg

directed, produced and co-wrote Betrayed, a nine minute short thriller

starring Seth Gilliam (HBO’s The Wire) and Cara Buono (HBO’s The

Sopranos) which was one of the first films shot on the new Canon 5D

Mark II Digital SLR camera. Betrayed, which he co-wrote with Michael

Kier, had its world premiere at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. In

2005, Grossberg completed Looking for Harrison, a 30 minute comedy

parodying the films of Harrison Ford featuring real life Raiders of

the Lost Ark costar John Rhys-Davies. Grossberg is also the recipient

of the Platinum Award for Best Short at the 1999 WorldFest Houston

International Film Festival for Life Is Elsewhere; a semi-finalist for

the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ prestigious Nicholls

Fellowship in Screenwriting for The Ascendance (top 30 out of 4,250

entries); a finalist for the New Century Writer Awards, a Special

Honorable Recognition for The Number You Have Reached and The

Ascendance. A graduate of Northwestern University, he is also the

recipient of The Steven Spielberg Award for Best Student Production at

the WorldFest Charleston International Film festival, for Nowhere

Town.

Jyllian Gunther, Writer/Director, Wonderful6, Inc. http://www.wonderful6inc.com/

Jyllian Gunther has worked as a writer, producer, and director for the past 15 years. Her critically acclaimed first documentary, PULLOUT, was an official selection at numerous festivals, nationally and internationally. She was awarded an Emmy for an educational PSA series she directed and produced for PBS. Currently, she is working on a story for This American Life on the topic of “Kid Politics.” Most recently, she was director on multiple episodes of a new tv series, The In-Laws, for ITV.  Other TV directing credits include: TLC’s World Chocolate Championship; PBS’ Design Squadand Postcards From Buster; Mtv’s MADE; The N’s Love High (an original pilot).  She was post producer on the TLC/NYTimes television series, BodyWorks. She began her tv career as a staff writer for Nickelodeon and was previously a public and private school educator in the fields of art, drama, and creative writing. She runs the production company, Wonderful6,Inc.

Penelope Falk, Editor, The Greater Good

Penelope Falk (Editor) started her career on Jennifer Fox's groundbreaking series, An American Love Story. Since then, credits include A Letter Without Words (premiered at Sundance Film Festival), Bombay Eunuch (winner of the New York Gay and Lesbian Film Festival), Stagedoor (debuted at the New York Film Forum), Toots Shore: Bigger

Than Life (premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival), Smile Til It Hurts(premiered at the Slamdance Festival) and Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, winner Excellence in Editing award.) TV film credits include: Afghan Stories (the Sundance Channel), Uncle Sam Wants You (A&E), Escuela (PBS) and Unfinished

Country (PBS).

Laura Elizabeth Pohl, Filmmaker

Laura Elizabeth Pohl works as the multimedia manager, a DC-based advocacy NGO, where she leads the organization's video, audio and photo storytelling strategy on hunger and poverty around the globe. She also teaches digital storytelling in American University's graduate program in interactive journalism. You can find her on Twitter at @lauraepohl.

Digital Hollywood Content Summit VIIII - Thursday, November 17, 2011