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 this local 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 which he discovered was shot by the Miles Brothers, a San Francisco film company, only four days before the 1906 earthquake.

He is currently working on a book about the Chicago Essanay Film Company, and producing a one-reel western movie using a hand cranked silent era movie camera to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the Essanay Film Company’s arrival in Niles.

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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.   He 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 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 a fellow of the Association of Preservation Technology.   Prior to founding JLA in 1992, he was Director of Restoration/ Rehabilitation at Holabird & Root, Architects. A well-known speaker, he lectures on topics such as preservation, history, lighting for historic buildings and building material treatments.

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Meg Kindelin is an Associate with Johnson Lasky Architects with 15 years of experience in architecture and preservation.  She is the architect for the restoration of Howard Van Doren Shaw’s Ragdale House in Lake Forest and for several projects at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  She is a member of the Chicago AIA Historic Resources Committee and an active speaker in the City.  She earned Master Degrees in both Architectural History and in Design from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a University Fellow.

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