our BOARD

  • Cynthia López is an award-winning media strategist, and former Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, where she implemented strategies to support film and TV production throughout the five boroughs. López is the recipient of many coveted industry awards including: 11 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, a Special Emmy Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking, three Peabody Awards, and two duPont-Columbia Awards. In addition, she received the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) Award for Commitment to Corporate Diversity. Prior to working as Commissioner, López was Executive Vice President and co-Executive Producer of the award-winning PBS documentary series American Documentary | POV, and was involved in the organization’s strategic growth and creative development for 14 years. Her ability to forge strategic partnerships among corporate and public interest media has been a signature of her work. Notable partnerships include: New York Times, Reuters, Al-Jazeera Network, Discovery Communications, The Moth, Story Corps, Harpo Studios and ABC News, NIGHTLINE with Ted Koppel. López is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), and is proud to have spent her career collaborating with independent filmmakers across all portions of the film and television industry. She served on the Board of Trustees for the Paley Center, NYC & Company, Museum of the Moving Image and the Tribeca Film Institute Latin America Fund Advisory Board. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Latino Public Broadcasting, Manhattan Neighborhood Network and Hunter College IMA Program.

  • Marjan Safinia is an Iranian documentary filmmaker whose films examine identity, community and social justice. Most recently, and together with Grace Lee, she produced and directed And She Could Be Next, a two-part documentary series about women of color transforming American politics from the ground up, which debuted as POV‘s first ever series in June 2020 and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Best Documentary. Other work includes Seeds, the story of ten brave teenagers from the world’s most troubled conflict zones living side-by-side for one life-changing summer, and But You Speak Such Good English, a humorous short exploring the first-generation immigrant experience from an insider perspective. Her work has been supported by IDA Enterprise Fund, Ford Foundation, MacArthur and Sundance Institutes, Doc Society, and she is also Sundance Catalyst Fellow. Until 2018, Marjan was the longest-serving President of the Board of Directors of the International Documentary Association (and the first woman of color to lead IDA since its founding in 1982). She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Chicken & Egg Pictures and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Marjan is one of five co-hosts of the longest-running online documentary community, The D-Word, a founding member of Beyond Inclusion, and a regular juror, programmer, speaker and connector of all things documentary.

  • Shaady Salehi is a strategist, facilitator, and network builder with expertise in narrative and social change. She currently serves as the executive director of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, which she helped design and launch in 2020.

    Shaady has held a wide range of leadership roles during her 20-year tenure in the nonprofit sector. As Executive Director of Active Voice, she oversaw an impressive portfolio of national film campaigns on topics including immigration, criminal justice, food security, and healthcare. As Managing Director of Distribution & Impact at ITVS, she led a team to broaden the reach of independent documentaries on public television. As Senior Brand Strategist with Mission Minded, she helped nonprofit organizations clarify their values, branding, and messaging to better support their missions.

    As a frequent speaker and thinker on power dynamics in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, Shaady’s perspectives have been featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Social Investor Magazine, and the San Francisco Business Times. She has served on advisory committees for Human Rights Funders' Network and the National Council on Family Philanthropy; and is currently a proud board member of Color Congress, an innovative organization dedicated to strengthening the ecosystem of nonfiction storytelling by and for people of color.

  • Rachel Herzing is the director of the Yarrow Institute for Organizing and Analysis and co-author of How to Abolish Prisons: Lessons from the Movement against Imprisonment. Herzing's work has spanned grassroots movements against imprisonment and policing, community and movement education, and philanthropy.

  • Brian Walker is a versatile change agent with over a decade of experience working at the intersection of culture, digital media, social enterprise, and social justice. For over eight years, Brian was the Chief Operating Officer of The Creative Mind Group, a film and television professional development organization for students and early career professionals operating at global film festivals and film markets including Cannes, Sundance, and TIFF. In 2013 Brian joined Participant Media, where he directed social impact and digital strategy for the TEACH and He Named Me Malala campaigns focused on education, inclusion, and access. After his tenure at Participant Media, Brian served as the first Culture and Entertainment Advocacy Director at Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. In this role, Brian led the development of the Hollywood Culture Project, an initiative to change the rules in Hollywood, ensuring accurate, diverse, empathetic, and human portrayals of Black people on television and throughout the entertainment and media landscape. Most recently, Brian served as a Stakeholder Engagement Leader with the Enterprise Diversity & Inclusion group at The Walt Disney Company. In his role, he advised senior corporate leaders and business unit leaders from across Disney’s family of brands on their cultural and social justice competency development and on strategic external relations with a specific focus on multicultural stakeholders and communities. Brian currently serves on the board of Made In Her Image, an organization dedicated to the advancement of young women, girls, and non-binary youth of color within film, media, and technology. Brian is a graduate of Howard University School of Business where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Business Management, and from Howard University School of Law where he focused his studies on civil rights, intellectual property, and social enterprise. He is based on the West Coast.

  • With over three decades of experience designing systems and strategies to strengthen organizations at the heart of social justice work, Sarah currently serves as the Managing Director of The Bayard Project. There, her work focuses on providing infrastructure services to support and strengthen social movements across the country. Proud to call Oakland, California home, she has lived there for more than 25 years while raising her two daughters. Throughout her career, Sarah has specialized in organizational development, holding senior leadership roles in human resources, finance, and operations, with a consistent focus on building the foundational systems that empower frontline leaders and strengthen movements.

    Sarah’s career started at La Casa de las Madres, a domestic violence shelter and advocacy organization, where she staffed the crisis line, trained volunteers, and worked overnight shifts while in college. These early experiences ignited her lifelong dedication to justice and community empowerment. Sarah has gone on to hold senior leadership roles in organizations advancing housing justice, community organizing, and nonprofit leadership. As Deputy Director at Tenderloin Housing Clinic, she developed internal systems and built departments for a rapidly growing organization. At CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, she served as Director of Operations, providing financial leadership, building progressive internal practices, and teaching in the organization’s public workshop series. During her decade at CompassPoint, Sarah led the Bay Area Nonprofit Human Resources Network, a project she deeply loved for the opportunity to connect with nonprofit leaders across the Bay Area and to witness firsthand the power of peer learning and support. Prior to joining the Bayard Project, Sarah was Managing Director at Common Counsel Foundation, a public social justice foundation that advised progressive donors and supported movement infrastructure.