Alejandro Palacios | Director & Producer
Alejandro Palacios is an artist who works in responsive installations and interactive media design. He uses video, photography, installation, and mixed media to explore the complexity of human experiences such as immigration and identity.
Alejandro was born and raised in Mexico, his family moved throughout the country as he grew up, allowing him not just to experience but most importantly, to develop an appreciation for different cultures within Mexico. After living, working, and attending school in Tijuana, BC, Mexico, Palacios moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in November 2009. His work has been selected to participate in festivals and exhibitions in Canada, Germany, Ecuador, Mexico, Spain, and the USA.
Lefteris Ioannou | Score Composer
Lefteris Ioannou is a deeply impassioned composer for Film, TV, and Video Games, writing from the heart and for the heart.
Born in New York and raised in Athens-Greece, Lefteris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA) with a BA in Guitar Performance. His ability to compose music in multiple genres led to collaborations with a number of acclaimed Greek artists.
His passion for classical music drew him to film composition, further expanding his love for cinematic creative storytelling through music. In 2019 Lefteris received an MA in Scoring for Film, TV, and Video Games, with honors, from Berklee College of Music (Valencia, Spain).
Stephen Santoyo | Sound Designer
Stephen Santoyo is a Sound Designer based in Southern California. He has worked as a dialogue editor on award-winning documentaries, and television series for Discovery Channel, and continues to study the art of sound through mixing and recording.
Flash forward to now, Stephen enjoys editing Sound to image as well as recording. When he’s not in front of a screen, you can catch him eating bolillos and basking in the infinite pallet of sounds that fill our everyday lives.
Heather Dunaway Smith | Illustrator
Heather Dunaway Smith is XR artist that blends storytelling, illustration, animation, music, and the physical world into immersive art experiences that blur the line between art and audience. A lifetime interdisciplinary artist, her work has included a number of innovative interactive experiences including award-winning mobile games, virtual worlds, interactive museum exhibits, AI art experiences, and AR and VR artworks.
Bonny White | Advisor
Starting her career at the Marin County Free Library (MCFL) as a contingent library worker, Bonny White eventually filled, over the next two decades, almost every position from library assistant to deputy director.
Now retired, she made a significant impact on the local, state, and national library profession by creating, supporting, and nurturing critical services to underserved communities. In West Marin, she developed the “Reading on the Ranches” program to bring summer learning and reading to families who live on ranches and have little access to community services. Moreover, White was certified by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide first-level immigration services and support to undocumented people seeking a legal pathway to U.S. citizenship.
Angela Bustos | Translator & Subtitler
Angela Bustos is a Spanish and Catalan > English subtitler, translator, and localization specialist based in Portland, Oregon. Her subtitling and dialogue list translation credits include titles on Hulu and Apple TV+, as well as a variety of internet docuseries and corporate videos.
Angela currently serves on the Leadership Council of the American Translators Association’s Audiovisual Division, and she holds an MA in Translation and Interpreting Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Sara Jones | Advisor
Sara Jones, currently, the Washington State Librarian came to Washington from Marin County, Calif., where she served as Director of the Marin County Free Library since 2013. Previously, she held positions in Nevada libraries for 25 years, including Carson City Library Director, Elko-Lander-Eureka County Library System Director and Youth Services Coordinator, and Nevada State Librarian and Administrator of the State Library and Archives.
Jones has served as Nevada’s American Library Association (ALA) Council Delegate and Nevada Library Association (NLA) President. She was a member of the Western Council of State Libraries, serving as Vice President and President. She received the ALA Sullivan Award for Services to Children in 2018, and was named NLA’s Librarian of the Year in 2012. She is currently on the board of directors of CALIFA, a nonprofit library membership consortium.