Andrew Balster
Andrew Balster is the Program Director of the Chicago Studio, a semester-long residency program in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies. The program integrates education and practice by embedding A&D students within some of Chicago’s leading A&E firms. Its structure and curriculum promotes a collaborative design process, encompassing multiple points of view within academia, the profession, and the broader community. The program creates a neutral platform for the discussion and exchange of ideas, in an effort to generate potential innovations for the city.
Balster is currently coordinating a number of R&D initiatives with award-winning professional design practices to create and foster strategic academic and professional alliances in Applied Research & Development, which are dedicated to the enhancement of the built environment.
Balster has worked on projects that are broad in typology, ranging from small civic centers to super-tall towers and entire urban districts. He has experience in large-scaled and complex projects, with particular focus on developing markets. Before joining Virginia Tech, Balster was Senior Designer at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) Chicago for multiple national and international projects. Prior to SOM, he worked at Make Architects in the UK, and Blu Dot in Minneapolis.
Jan Bartoszek
Jan Bartoszek is the Artistic Director and Founder of Hedwig Dances, a Chicago-based contemporary dance theater ensemble. She has choreographed over 55 dances in her career that critics have described as “intelligent, accomplished, moving” (Chicago Tribune) and “poignantly human” (Chicago Reader).
Bartoszek was honored with a Ruth Page Award and included in “100 Women Making a Difference” by Today’s Chicago Woman Magazine. Her choreography credits include work for Steppenwolf, Northlight, and Live Bait and Court theaters. As a performer, she toured nationally and internationally with Ping Chong & Company and the Charlie Vernon Performance. Bartoszek has served on the Advisory Board of the Arts & Business Council of Chicago, the Board of the Chicago Dance Coalition, and dance panels for the Illinois Arts Council and the Oregon Arts Commission. She is the co-founder and co-curator of the Dance for Camera program at the Chicago Cultural Center, and has participated in the development and implementation of dance programs, Dance Bridge and About Dance.
Jan has served on the dance faculty at Northwestern University as well as at the School of the Art Institute/Chicago, Roosevelt University, and the University of Chicago. She recently completed the dance film Arch of Repose.
Susan Benjamin
Susan Benjamin is an architectural historian with a career that spans over 30 years in a broad variety of preservation activities. Benjamin practices as Benjamin Historic Certifications, LLC. Between 1992 and 2003 she was a founder and partner in Historic Certification Consultants, Chicago and Highland Park.
Benjamin and her associates have written more National Register nominations than any other firm in Illinois, while crafting local landmark nominations for homes designed in a variety of architectural styles and types throughout the North Shore, western suburbs, and City of Chicago. While a partner in Historic Certification Consultants, Benjamin worked with LR Development, preparing the “Historic Resource Management Plan” for the redevelopment of Fort Sheridan.
Benjamin frequently gives lectures and tours on Chicago and North Shore architecture and landscapes. She has prepared oral histories on John Holabird and Wilbert Hasbrouck for the Architecture Department of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has appeared on Chicago Tonight, in a program on the life of Julius Rosenwald, and on two segments of Home Again with Bob Vila. Benjamin has been an Adjunct Professor at Barat College, and has team-taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on “Preserving the Recent Past.”
Dorothy Bradley
Dorothy Bradley is the Museum President of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.
Deb Clapp
Deb Clapp is currently the Executive Director at the League of Chicago Theatres. Previously, she was the owner of Deb Clapp Consulting, and the Director of Management at the Goodman Theatre. Clapp holds a BA in Art History from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
Will Clinger
Will Clinger is an actor, producer, writer, and television show host. Best known as the host and segment producer of Wild Chicago, his work has earned him fourteen Midwest Emmy Awards. Clinger has hosted several documentaries, including Vanishing Act – Memories of Vaudeville, Lost and Found – Chicago’s Offshore Treasures, The Bleacher Bums – Rabid Fans of Wrigley Field, and The Legend of Del Close.
Clinger has acted in Witless Protection, Stranger Than Fiction, Something Better Somewhere Else, No Sleep ‘Til Madison, Stash, Serious Business and The Removed, and the short films Stealing Kisses, Hit and Run, Good People, and Train Town (earning a nomination for a 2008 BMA for Best Actor). Clinger wrote, produced, co-directed, and starred in the The Calvin Lewis Bobby Mayfair Show[s]. He has appeared in the television shows ER, Early Edition, The Untouchables, and America’s Most Wanted.
Clinger wrote and performed the one-man play Dr. Harlon’s Keys to Better Living and Two for the Show, receiving an After Dark Award and Jeff nomination. Clinger has appeared in the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, the Peninsula Players, and the Second City National Touring Company, and bears a startling resemblance to Willie B. Famous of the comedy bluegrass group, The Famous Brothers.
Margo Corona De Ley
Margo Corona De Ley is a Partnership Coordinator at the Office of Access and Enrollment for Chicago Public Schools. She has more than 20 years of experience in education as a teacher, curriculum developer, and administrator at the pre-school, elementary, university, and adult levels.
Her experience includes her current work in the Office of Access and Enrollment at Chicago Public Schools, and earlier positions at the University of Illinois at the Chicago (UIC) and Urbana-Champaign campuses, Illinois State University, and elementary schools in Champaign, Illinois, and San Bernardino, California. She has worked since 1994 building the capacity of nonprofit organizations and communities as a program officer at The Chicago Community Trust, as a consultant to nonprofits and foundations, and as an online adjunct instructor in UIC’s Certificate in Nonprofit Management program.
Over the past four years at Chicago Public Schools, De Ley has forged partnerships and helped raised funds for the district’s STEM elementary program partners, including a three-year National Science Foundation grant for the Chicago Pre-College Science and Engineering Program. De Ley has a BA, MA, and PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Spanish literature.
Denis Detzel
Denis Detzel studied at Northwestern University’s Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research and received a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Administration and Public Policy. Detzel has written, Managing to Keep the Customer, with Bob Desatnick and founded his own organization consulting firm, Eastlake. While with Eastlake, he served as a Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for SECURA Insurance and Financial Services and Vice President, Easter Operations for U.S. Cellular Corporation. Detzel has also taught and consulted with Northwestern, Mundelein, American and Rutgers Universities and has served on the Boards of Directors of several not-for-profit and for-profit organizations.
Detzel has enjoyed careers as a scholar, a business problem solver, a writer, and a community activist. His special interests are civil rights, rational economics, jobs, the environment, and transportation alternatives.
Joseph Dunne
Joseph Dunne is the Senior Development Manager at Holsten Real Estate Development. Previously, he was a Board Member for Edgewater Community Council, a Deputy Director at Illinois Medical District, a Project Manager for the City of Chicago, and Press Officer for the Chicago Humanities Festival. Dunne is also the Vice President at Friends of Peirce, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting the Helen C. Peirce School of International Studies and maximizing the potential of its students through a world-class primary education within the Chicago Public School system.
Dunne holds an MBA in Finance and Real Estate from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Raul Esparza III
Raul Esparza III is the Assistant Managing Director and Location Manager of the Illinois Film Office. A seasoned location scout, Esparza brought hands-on professional film experience to the IFO, having started working in production on NBC’s ER in 2001. He was Assistant Location Manager on The Vow, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, The Merry Gentlemen, among others, and was Visual Effects Location Supervisor on The Dark Knight and Public Enemies.
Jonathan Fine
Jonathan Fine is an Architectural Design Manager for the Chicago Public Schools. He was the co-founder of Preservation Chicago, the leading not-for-profit advocacy organization for the preservation of Chicago historically significant buildings. It’s action-oriented agenda led to the permanent preservation of hundreds of Chicago buildings through education and advocacy and the designation of individual Landmark buildings and Landmark Districts.
Fine is a seasoned architect with over two decades of leadership experience in the preservation, renovation and redevelopment of public, private and religious properties. He is known for the development and implementation of strategies for restoration and adaptive reuse of historic buildings throughout Chicago.
Fine’s honors include receipt of the Distinguished Service Award- Historic Preservation & Community Development by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Chicago Chapter. Fine holds a B.S., Architecture from the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaig
Richard Fosbrink
Richard Fosbrink is the Executive Director at the Theatre Historical Society of America. Previously, he was the Managing Director of Hilberry and Bonstelle Theatres at Wayne State University, and Company Manager for the Adirondack Theatre Festival. He holds a Masters in Fine Arts in Arts Management from Wayne State University, and a Bachelor of Music in Education from Seton Hill University.
Therese Grisham
Therese Grisham comes from a family of stage and film actors, directors, set designers, and puppeteers, and has had a life-long immersion in the visual and performing arts. After her Ph.D., she received a Fulbright fellowship to teach American literature at the University of Dresden in former East Germany.
Throughout her work, whether in literature, visual art, or film, Grisham has been devoted to teaching from feminist and gender studies perspectives, and researches women filmmakers, writers, and artists. Since 2010, she has served on the Editorial Board and as Consulting Editor for the film journal, La Furia Umana. She has led and participated in roundtable discussions and curated dossiers written by film critics and filmmakers on topics such as movies in the digital age and women filmmakers. She serves also on the Editorial Committee of desistfilm, which publishes essays on a variety of experimental and underground films.
Currently, she is curating a dossier, including one of her own essays on German filmmakers Ulrike Ottinger and Werner Schroeter. Aside from her focus on women in film, Grisham specializes in classical Hollywood, digital-age American film, and the national cinemas of Germany and Italy.
Bob Hudgins
Bob Hudgins is currently engaged in Freelance Film Production, working for Sterling Rock Productions. Previously, he worked for the Texas Film Commission. He holds a degree from East Central University.
Walker Johnson
Walker Johnson is a nationally recognized, award-winning architect with more than 40 years of specialized experience in historic preservation. He served three terms on the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council to the State Historic Preservation Office. He was on the Board of Landmarks Illinois and was very active in its organization.
Johnson currently serves as a PBS Peer Professional for the General Services Administration, where he reviews a number of federal courthouse projects. He has served on the Building Design and Construction Magazine Award Juries (2004-2012), as well as the 2008 AIA Honor Award Jury. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the Association of Preservation Technology.
Prior to founding Johnson Lasky Architects in 1992, he was Director of Restoration and Rehabilitation at Holabird & Root Architects. A well-known speaker, he lectures on many topics, including preservation, history, lighting for historic buildings, and building material treatments.
Dan Kamin
Dan Kamin is a performing artist, writer, and Chaplin expert. On film, he created the physical comedy sequences for Chaplin and Benny and Joon, training Robert Downey, Jr. and Johnny Depp for their acclaimed starring performances. He also created Martian movement for Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! and played the wooden Indian come to life in the cult classic Creepshow 2.
Undeterred by the fact that vaudeville was long dead, he cobbled a new vaudeville circuit out of colleges, theatres, and corporations, for whom Dan often appears as a keynote speaker who falls apart. His Comedy Concertos, blending comedy with classical music, have become popular with symphonies worldwide. And, as Mr. Slomo, he strolls through arts festival crowds in eerie slow motion, terrifying the very children who tormented him as a youth.
Kamin returned to his comedy roots to write Charlie Chaplin’s One-Man Show, revealing the secrets of Chaplin’s comic art. Hailed as a breakthrough work, the book boasts a preface by another Chaplin fan, Marcel Marceau. Dan’s new book, The Comedy of Charlie Chaplin: Artistry in Motion, updates his earlier book and features an account of how he trained Downey for his Oscar-nominated performance.
Gary Keller
Gary Keller is Vice President of Essanay Studios and Strategic Initiatives at St. Augustine College. He is responsible for the restoration and reuse of the iconic entrance and Studios A/Charlie Chaplin Auditorium of Essanay Studios as the Essanay Centers for Early Film and Cultural Performance. Keller served as President of the Uptown Historical Society, based upon his expertise in the history of film in Uptown, restored the John Ferris House in Sheridan Park. Keller has held numerous leadership roles related to the redevelopment of Uptown as an entertainment district.
Gary Keller is an executive leader in the technology business development, fundraising, corporation relations, and strategic technology-based partnerships. Keller has significant experience in intellectual property, strategic initiatives, the establishment of new organizations and companies.
David Kiehn
David Kiehn is the author of Broncho Billy and the Essanay Film Company, the definitive history of that pioneering film company, published in 2003. His research on the subject, which began in 1995, sparked a renewed interest in Niles history, resulting in the first Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival in June 1998, and the formation of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, a non-profit organization, in 2001. He is the historian and film programmer for the Museum, located at the historic Edison Theater in the Niles district of Fremont, California.
In October 2010, he was seen on 60 Minutes in a segment with Morley Safer about A Trip Down Market Street, a film created by the Miles Brothers of San Francisco. Kiehn discovered the film was shot only four days before the 1906 earthquake.
Kiehn is currently working on a book about the Chicago Essanay Film Company. He is also producing a one-reel western movie, using a hand-cranked silent era movie camera, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Essanay Film Company’s arrival in Niles.
Maud Linder
Maud Linder is the daughter of the world’s first movie star, Max Linder. Linder has made it her mission to bring renewed interest to the great cinematic genius whom Charlie Chaplin affectionately called “my professor.” She has made two documentaries, En compagnie de Max Linder (aka Laugh With Max Linder) and L’homme au chapeau de soie (aka The Man in the Silk Hat). She lives in France.
Kim Mattes
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Kim Mattes is the Director of Production Services for WTTW. Previously, she was the Studio Producer and Production Services Manager for CSTV. She holds a BA in Communications from Northeastern Illinois University.
Bonnie McDonald
Bonnie McDonald is the President of Landmarks Illinois. McDonald joined Landmarks Illinois in 2012, after seven years as executive director of the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, based in St. Paul. Prior to that, she held positions with the Anoka County (MN) Historical Society, the Preservation League of New York State, and Preservation Action in Washington D.C. Bonnie has a Bachelor of Arts in Art History (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Arts in Historic Preservation Planning from Cornell University.
Matthew Mateo Mulcahy
Matthew Mateo Mulcahy is the Co-Director of Events – Programming and Community Projects at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, a staple devoted to the preservation and proliferation of folk music, offering concerts, classes, and workshops. Mulcahy was hired in 2006 with a mandate to initiate partnerships with Chicago’s ethnic communities with a focus on the Latino community.
In his time at the Old Town School of Folk Music, Mulcahy has partnered with dozens of community organizations, including organizations that represent all of the principal Latin communities, and has attracted 10 official Latino media sponsors for my programming. For several years, he has been working on a plan to increase Latin/Spanish offerings at the school.
Elena Mulcahy
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Elena Mulcahy is the Chairman of the board of St. Augustine College.
Bill Natale
William (Bill) Natale is an Emmy-Award winning producer and director, and is an executive member of the Directors Guild of America Midwest Council. When not working on production projects for Internet Streaming Corporation, Bill serves as Executive Director of the Illinois Center for Broadcasting Chicago Campus and President of the Board of Directors for PanAmerica Performance Works Theatre Company.
Bill continues to work as a broadcast professional in various capacities for media outlets, including radio stations (WXRT, WGN and Spanish language WSBC) and TV stations (WGN, WMAQ, WTTW, WFLD, WLS, WBBM, WYCC, WJYS and Spanish language WGBO). He has also served on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Television Arts & Sciences – Chicago Chapter, and as a professor at Columbia College of Chicago.
John Owens
John Owens is a multimedia producer and photo editor for the Chicago Tribune. In this capacity, he shoots, edits and produces videos for the Tribune, chicagotribune.com, WGN-TV, and CLTV. Owens is also an online photo editor (for chicagotribune.com) and weekend photo assignment editor.
Owens is an accomplished multimedia journalist who has worked on a variety of projects in the Chicago-area over the past 20-plus years at the Chicago Tribune, Fox and CLTV. His non-fiction video productions have earned an Emmy award, three additional Emmy nominations, and a several additional honors. In addition, Owens is a print journalist who has worked on a variety of Chicago-based news, features, and sports stories for the Tribune, the Reader, and other periodicals.
Currently, Owens is a member of the Board of Governors for the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the National Television Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also an educator at City Colleges of Chicago.
Paul O’Connor
Paul O’Connor is a Chicago native raised by city-loving TV news commentator Len O’Connor and apprenticed in journalism under the late Mike Royko and John Callaway, before moving to Seattle as the urban affairs writer and columnist for its morning newspaper. As a state government executive in Washington and Illinois he led international business and economic development. He spent a successful decade in corporate marketing, including as Young & Rubicam Inc.’s Budapest-based worldwide communications director for the Hungarian world’s fair. He created and ran for eight years the public-private economic development nonprofit World Business Chicago that dramatically reversed downtown headquarters flight and six times led all North American metropolises, with $8 billion in corporate investment and 70,000 jobs.
Urban Strategist Paul O’Connor joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) in its city design practice headed by Phillip Enquist, FAIA, Partner in Charge of Urban Design and Planning. O’Connor, the former founding executive director of internationally recognized World Business Chicago, brings his urban affairs expertise and innovative creativity to the SOM studio, which is a global design leader in a rapidly urbanizing world.
Ruth L. Ratny
Ruth L. Ratny is known as “Chicago’s first lady of film,” and has been named the 2010 Chicago Legend by Chicago International Film Festival. Ratny is a lifetime Chicago film careerist, spokesperson, and film industry leader. She has been the chronicler of the Chicago film industry for 30 years, first with her original Screen Magazine and for the past 10 years with ReelChicago.com.
Ratny is also a screenwriter and is working on a musical biopic about Mahalia Jackson, the world’s greatest gospel singer. Ratny is also a prodigious writer of commercials and non-theatrical films/videos (corporate, sales, motivational, training, documentaries, branded entertainment, etc.) for some of America’s largest corporations.
In addition to Clios, Emmys, Tellys and Cine Lions, Ratny’s honors include induction into Today’s Chicago Woman’s Hall of Fame; Chicago Advertising Woman of the Year and Midwest Advertising Woman of the Year; Women in Film Recognition Award and recognition awards from Lawyers for the Creative Arts and the Chicago Coalition, a grass roots organization that elevated Chicago business of which she was a founding member. Ratny studied marketing at DePaul University. She is active in many local film organizations, and earlier taught business film courses at Columbia College.
Angela Schlater
Angela Schlater is a Historian and Photographer. Schlater is currently a Consultant to Interntaional Programs at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. As a historian, she is an independent contractor managing a private family archive, consisting of thousands of letters written during World War II and photographs dating from the 1870s to 2005. She is a photographer with Angela Schlater Photography, specializing in natural light and on-location portrait photography.
Schlater holds a Master of Arts in History, with distinction, from DePaul University, where she worked as a Graduate Assistant for the History Department, and Special Collections and Archives at the John T. Richardson Library. She also holds Doctor of Philosopy in History from Loyola University Chicago.
Rita Simo
Dr. Rita Simo is the founder of the People’s Music School. Simo learned to play the piano in her native Dominican Republic, but came to the United States to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. After receiving her Doctor of Music from Boston University, Rita began to dream of creating a place where anyone could receive music instruction, regardless of their financial situation.
Towards the end of 1975, she began to take action on this dream. With hard work, $625, and a donated piano, the People’s Music School was born in a one-room, converted beauty salon. The school constructed its own specially designed facility in 1995. Today, the school’s teachers offer instruction in many different instruments, plus theory and voice. Simo’s school reaches over 1,000 students every year between our classroom instruction and El Sistema-based orchestral instruction with the YOURS Project.
In 2001, Simo retired from her role as Executive Director from the school, but she continues to be involved on its Board of Directors.
Michael Smith
Michael Smith is an independent filmmaker, author and Film Studies instructor based in Chicago, Illinois. He received a BA from Columbia College in 2000, and an MA from Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, in 2004. His last two short films, At Last, Okemah! (2009) and The Catastrophe (2011), have each won multiple awards at film festivals across the United States.
Since 2009, Smith has taught film history and aesthetics at Oakton Community College, Triton College, Harold Washington College, and the College of Lake County. Additionally, Smith lectures regularly at Northwestern University and Facets Multimedia. His first book, Flickering Empire: How Chicago Invented the U.S. Film Industry, a non-fiction account of early film production in Chicago, will be published by KWS Publishers, Inc. in late 2013.
Smith is also the creator and sole author of the Chicago-centric film blog, “White City Cinema.”
Chuck Stepner
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Charles “Chuck” Stepner holds a BS in Communications from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a freelancer, Stepner completed advertising campaigns for numerous clients and produced reality specials for Paramount Television. Stepner was also the producer of the 1991 Emmy Awards, the NBC Fall Preview Program, and the ABC Fall Preview Program.
Stepner was also the Vice President of Special Promotion Projects at NBC Entertainment in Los Angeles, where he was in charge of launching new programming. He wrote, produced, and, in some cases, directed special promotions for new and existing shows on the NBC schedule. Stepner created, wrote produced and edited the fall campaigns for the network, and also did special campaigns for NBC news.
Among his accomplishments, Stepner holds an Emmy for producing “One To Grow On,” and Three Emmy Nominations for Writing. Stepner earned Chicago Film Festival Gold, Clio Nominations, PROMAX Gold, Silver and Bronze, BPME Gold, Silver and Bronze. International Broadcasters Association Award, Ollie Award for Children’s Programming, The Gabriel, Award, the Association for Children’s Television Award, the Association for Better Broadcasting Award, and an Addy Award.
Andrew Sund
Andrew Sund is the President of St. Augustine College (Chicago). During his five years as president, St. Augustine College’s enrollment has increased by 39%. Additionally, under his leadership the college opened a new site in Southeast Chicago, developed new programs, strengthened accreditation and has guided St. Augustine from a period of turbulence into one of stability and success. President Sund has raised the level of recognition and prestige of St. Augustine, making it a respected advocate and player in the Hispanic and general community in the Chicagoland area.
President Sund began his career at St. Augustine College where he served in various functions, including faculty, Director of Institutional Research, Associate Dean for Curriculum and Assessment, Associate Dean for Student Services, and Interim Dean of Academic Affairs. He also worked at Olive-Harvey College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, as Assistant Dean for Research and Planning and Dean of Workforce and Community Education.
President Sund received his Bachelor’s Degree in History and Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master’s Degree in History from Northwestern University. He is preparing to defend his doctoral dissertation in higher education policy and administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
David Syfczak
David W. Syfczak is a longtime member of the Patrol Division of the Chicago Police Department. He has a background in the construction industry and is a qualified tradesman and has been the caretaker of the Uptown Theatre since 1996. Currently he serves as a board member of the Theatre Historical Society of America and is a volunteer member of the Silent Film Society of Chicago.
Jackie Taylor
Jackie Taylor is the Founder and Executive Director of the Black Ensemble Theater Company. She rose from modest roots to become a distinguished director, producer, actress, singer, playwright, and theater founder. She has created a strong institution committed to eradicating racism, which is recognized throughout the nation for its outstanding original productions and exceptional educational outreach programs.
Taylor has written and produced more than 100 plays and musical biographies, including All In Love Is Fair, The Other Cinderella, I Am Who I Am (The Story of Teddy Pendergrass) Don’t Make Me Over (The Story of Dionne Warwick) Don’t Shed A Tear (The Billie Holiday Story) Somebody Say Amen, At Last: A Tribute To Etta James, Precious Lord Take My Hand and The Jackie Wilson Story, among a myriad of other acclaimed productions.
Taylor is also an outstanding teacher having worked for the Chicago Board of Education, the Illinois Arts Council and Urban Gateways. Through the years, Taylor has taught every grade level from kindergarten through major universities.
Taylor serves as the president of the African American Arts Alliance. Nationally, she has been featured in Jet, Variety, the New York Times, The Washington Post and Essence.
Melissa Thornley
Melissa Thornley’s professional life began in the technology and telecommunications field at U.S. Robotics. Three years later, Thornley felt a desire to explore her creative side and went back to school to study film. While at Columbia College, her serendipitous meeting with a producer in advertising and a commercial film editor led her to her career in advertising and film.
For the past thirteen years, Thornley has worked in Chicago, New York, and London as an Executive Producer for the Whitehouse creative film editorial boutique. She has produced award-winning work with advertising agencies from Japan to Amsterdam to Austin, TX.
In 2008, Thornley opened Wholesome Midwestern Girl, a consulting and sales firm focused on representing editorial, motion graphics, and music/sound design talent to the advertising industry. She worked with her clients to create overall brand strategy as well as market individual talents.
Thornley is currently the Managing Director for Beast, Company 3 and Method Studios, divisions of Deluxe in Chicago and an active member in the Chicago Film and advertising industry.
Pepe Vargas
Jose “Pepe” Vargas was born in Colombia and arrived in the United States in 1980. He earned a degree in Broadcast Journalism and TV/Film production in 1985. He is the founder and executive director of the International Latino Cultural Center, where he fosters the understanding of Latino culture through the universal language of the arts. The Center annually presents the Chicago Latino Film Festival, which is currently in its 30th year.
Vargas has received many awards for his dedication to the arts and was profiled by the Chicago Tribune as a “Chicagoan of the Year” for 2003. In 2004, he received an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Fine Arts from Lake Forest College, and is one of two winners of the Chicago Community Trust 2006 Fellowship.
Dan Ventura
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Dan Ventura was the CEO of Ventura Enterprises, Inc. Previously, he was the Regional Administrator of the Midwest for the Children’s Television Workshop. Ventura holds a B.S. in Social Welfare from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and an A.A. in Social Service from Loop College Chicago.
Lisa Wagner
Lisa Wagner currently works for Intrinsic Books, and studies creative writing at Columbia College Chicago. She was the Uptown Chamber of Commerce Executive Director.
Kathrene Wales
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Kathrene Wales was the Director of Business Development for Columbia College.
Brenda Webb
Brenda Webb is the Executive Director of Chicago Filmmakers.
