Park Krausen

Park Krausen is a theater- and film-maker currently based in Chicago. Since 2019, Park has worked intimately with Tibetan monks and nuns as an English conversation partner. During this time she was fortunate to receive many teachings in Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan culture. Recently, she served as program coordinator of Northwestern University’s monastic research training internship and supported monastic participation at Mind & Life’s Summer Research Institute. She has frequently traveled to the Drepung Loseling Monastery’s Center for Science and Meditation and to Dharamshala in India, working with Northwestern’s team. This is in conjunction with the Emory Tibet Science Initiative, established by the visionary 14th Dalai Lama, the Venerable Geshe Lhakdor and Emory’s Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi. Also, as a lucid dreamer herself, Park was an early subject of the monastic scientists’ research!

Relatively new to documentary filmmaking, Park is a story-sharer, theater-maker, and actor with over 25 years of experience. In 2021, she co-produced, filmed, and acted in an unreleased web series directed by Tinashe Kajese creatively produced amidst the restrictions of the covid lockdowns. An award-winning actor, she has performed, taught, and directed Shakespeare, Beckett, and other classics, in addition to devising, curating, directing, and performing new works.

For 10 years, she served as the Producing Artistic Director of Théâtre du Rêve, the only professional Francophone theater company in the U.S. During her tenure, she commissioned new work from french speaking writers investigating, among other things, the nuanced relationship between France and America. She brought art to public spaces in Atlanta, collaborating with the High Museum, Elevate Atlanta, and international farmers markets, creating free immersive happenings, animating spaces and neighborhoods in unexpected ways. She also cocreated cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary dialogues that asked audiences to reflect on timely questions and dynamized collaborations between fashion, theater, film, music and culinary artists; as she did in the lauded SO COCO, around icon Coco Chanel.

As a bilingual artist, she also serves as a translator for artists and humanitarians from Africa, France, Canada, Haiti, and Switzerland. She was delighted to serve as a French coach and translator for Owen Wilson in the pilot episode of Loki.

Park hails from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Hartford, Connecticut. She attended school at Brillantmont in Lausanne, Switzerland, received a BA in theater and French at Emory University, and continued her education at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts (CNSAD) in Paris, France.

Barrett Doyle

Barrett Doyle is a Washington, DC-based multi-disciplinary artist. Originally from Clearwater, Florida, he has worked as an actor, immersive theatre-maker, scenic designer, cinematographer, photographer, fine artist, builder, and producer. After graduating from the Savannah College of Art & Design with a BFA in Performing Arts, he went on to work with many Atlanta theaters as both an actor and designer, garnering awards and nominations and building community. Some of these theaters include the Alliance, Aurora, Georgia Shakespeare, Sky Creature Productions, Synchronicity, Théâtre du Rêve, Theatrical Outfit, Vernal & Sere, and Working Title Playwrights. In addition to working theatrically, Barrett has appeared onscreen on shows such as The Walking Dead, Dead Silent, Halt & Catch Fire, and Ozark, to name a few, and behind the camera on a number of independent productions, commercial ventures, music videos, and theater-to-film translations with Atlanta’s Seven Stages Theater.

In 2016, he cofounded Catalyst Arts Atlanta, a collaborative multidisciplinary group of theater and fine artists seeking to foster exciting new works and rediscover the classics in inventive and immersive formats. Barrett performed and co-designed the group's inaugural Suzi-nominated production of Naomi Wallace's The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek and directed and scenic designed Catalyst’s Suzi-winning production of Patrick Meyer’s K2.

Since moving to DC, Barrett has been deeply involved with the renaissance of the Dupont Circle-located Spooky Action Theater, contributing to the marketing, realization, and production of the company’s newest chapter as it produces adventurous, politically salient adaptations and plays. He has also worked extensively around DC as an event photographer, videographer, scenic carpenter, technical director, and multi-hyphenate production designer.

Outside of theater, he has continued an exploration into the world of documentary filmmaking. This has led to an evolution of his practice and keen appreciation for cinematic storytelling and journalism. As director of photography and producer on Frontiers of the Mind: The 100-Year Project, he has had the opportunity and great fortune to document a new chapter in this incredible intertwining journey of Tibetan Buddhism, Neuroscience, and Global Health.

In 2024, Barrett began training at the prestigious Aikido Shobukan Dojo in DC, which has become a deeply stabilizing and generative force in his personal creative practice, providing grounding, community, and direction in an otherwise chaotic world and industry.

Kalsang Damdul

Kalsang Damdul was born in Karze in the eastern region of Tibet. At age 7 he embarked on a transformative journey—crossing the formidable Himalayan range on foot in pursuit of education and freedom.

With over a decade of experience spanning various film projects, including short films, documentaries, digital campaigns and photography. Kalsang currently serves as a full-time independent documentary filmmaker and photographer, driven by a passion for storytelling and social advocacy. Committed to making a meaningful impact in the world through his work, Kalsang is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of film and media to shed light on pressing social issues and inspire positive change.

His latest documentary film project, Breaking Barriers – Geshema for Tibetan Buddhist Nuns, represents a ground-breaking exploration of gender equality within the Tibetan community, and earned acclaim for its depth and impact. His current endeavor, Tsem-thang, is a documentary focusing on Tibetan embroidery thangka makers and the preservation of this ancient art form within the exile community.

Kalsang earned a Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Communication Studies from Madras Christian College in India and an M.Phil degree in Journalism and Communication from the University of Madras.

Sam Rong

A classically-trained pianist, Sam Rong didn’t become a professional musician, though a childhood spent sitting and pushing keys prepared him for the edit suite, where he has accumulated over a decade of experience in journalism and film. He has worked in newsrooms and production houses across three continents. His work has shown on Al-Jazeera, CNN, Vice, eNews Africa, and PBS.

Sam’s first feature documentary edit was Faceless (2021), about the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests. His subsequent work includes several more feature documentaries: The Faraway Nearby (2023), about the intersection of scientific discovery and artistic creativity, Ashima (2023), about a teenage rock-climbing prodigy and her relationship with her father/coach, and New Wave (2024), a story of musical rebellion and refugee trauma centered on the Vietnamese American community of 1980s Southern California.

Sam is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Leyi Huang

Leyi Huang is a Chicago-based journalist and documentary filmmaker who is passionate about exploring identity and resilience through intimate and impact-driven storytelling. She brings a cross-disciplinary approach that combines investigative rigor with narrative craft. She began her career as an editor in academic publishing before transitioning to journalism. Her reporting has appeared in China- and U.S.-based publications, including People’s Daily and CBS 6, and her documentary projects have screened at festivals including AmDoc and Double Exposure. Leyi holds a Master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Betsy Reid

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Mandela Drope

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S. Gabriela Torres Platas

Dr. S. Gabriela Torres-Platas is a neuroscientist at Northwestern University researching the neural correlates of Contemplative Sleep Practices (CSP), including Tibetan Dream Yoga. She is also interested in exploring dream yoga-inspired interventions to treat psychiatric symptoms. Additionally, she seeks to understand the molecular mechanisms of CSP and their effects on the neuroinflammatory system.

Originally from Mexico City, Gabriella holds a PhD. in Neuroscience from McGill University where she studied the implication of glial cells and their inflammatory contribution to depression and suicide. After her studies, she co-led a laboratory in Montreal where she conducted several clinical trials to study the biological mechanisms of Mindfulness-based interventions when used as a treatment in psychiatric disorders.

Dhonup T. Rekjong

Dhondup T. Rekjong is a Tibetan scholar and doctoral candidate in religious studies at Northwestern University. His writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, The Journal of Asian Studies, Lion’s Roar, and The Treasury of Lives. He is an editor of The Tibet Reader, forthcoming from Duke University Press.

See his article, How Buddhism Met Science: A Monastic Scholar’s Journey at lionsroar.com.

Brent E. Huffman

Brent E. Huffman is an award-winning director, producer, writer, and cinematographer of documentaries and television programs. His work ranges from documentaries aired on Netflix, VICE, The Discovery Channel, The National Geographic Channel, NBC, CNN, PBS, MTV, and Al Jazeera, to Sundance Film Festival premieres, to ethnographic films made for the China Exploration and Research Society. He has also directed, produced, shot, and edited documentaries for online outlets like The New York Times, Time, VICE NEWS, Salon, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, and PBS Arts.

Huffman has been making social issue documentaries and environmental films for over two decades in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. These films have gone on to win numerous awards including a Primetime Emmy, Chinese Academy Award, Silver Plaque from the Chicago International Film Festival, IAFOR Documentary Film Award, MacArthur Foundation Grant, Best Film at CinemAmbiente International Environmental Film Festival, Grand Prize and Audience Award at Arkhaios Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Festival, Best Conservation Film-Jackson Hole, ten Cine Golden Eagle Awards, and a Grand Jury Award at the American Film Institute’s SILVERDOCS.

Huffman was also an editor of Julia Reichert’s and Steven Bognar’s Primetime Emmy-winning PBS documentary series A Lion in the House, now on Netflix.

Huffman’s documentary, Saving Mes Aynak, about the fight to save a 5,000-year-old ancient city in Afghanistan threatened by a Chinese copper mine, has won over 35 major awards and has been broadcast on television in over seventy five countries. It can currently be seen on Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, OVID, and on special edition DVD from Icarus Films.

Huffman recently finished producing Finding Yingying, an Emmy-nominated Kartemquin Film about a Chinese family searching for their missing daughter in the U.S., which won the Breakthrough Voice Award at SXSW and the Chinese Academy Award for Best Foreign Documentary in 2020 and is being distributed by CBS/Paramount+/MTV Films in the U.S..

Huffman is currently directing/producing a new feature-length documentary in Yemen about Yemeni women, saving cultural heritage threatened by climate change, looting, and war.

Huffman is also a professor and the Director of Documentary Journalism at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.

Vee Hua

Vee Hua (they/them) is a writer, filmmaker, and artist who splits their time between Oaxaca, Mexico, and Seattle, Washington. Much of their work unifies their metaphysical interests with their belief that art can positively transform the self and society. They are the Editor-in-Chief of REDEFINE magazine, and recent Editor at International Examiner and South Seattle Emerald. Prior to that, they were the Executive Director of the interdisciplinary community hub, Northwest Film Forum, where they played a groundbreaking role in making the space more welcoming and accessible for diverse audiences.

They are currently in post-production on their first feature film, Reckless Spirits (2027). In 2025, they premiered their documentary short film, Hunt’s Trading Post, set just outside of the Navajo and Ute Nations. In 2017, Vee released the narrative short film, Searching Skies, which touches on Syrian refugee resettlement in the US, and co-organized The Seventh Art Stand, a national film and civil rights discussion series against Islamophobia.

Vee is passionate about cultural space, the environment, and finding ways to covertly and overtly disrupt oppressive structures. They also regularly share observational human stories through their storytelling newsletter, RAMBLIN’ WITH VEE!. They have a Master’s in Tribal Resource and Environmental Stewardship under the Native American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota.

Amira Danan

Amira Danan is a Moroccan-American polymath creative based in Chicago. A Magna Cum Laude graduate from Northwestern University, she studied Theatre, African-American Studies, Musical Theatre, and Playwriting. Currently, her multi-hyphenate career includes the titles of actress, Development Director for Jackalope Theatre Company, freelance web designer, and headshot photographer.

Notable acting credits include: REGIONAL THEATRE: The Penelopiad, Bernhardt/Hamlet, and A Christmas Carol 2021-2026 (Goodman Theatre); Comedy of Errors (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Birthday Candles, Origin Story, and Sanctuary City (Cincinnati Playhouse); Southern Gothic (Windy City Playhouse); A Doll’s House (Raven Theatre); Ever in the Glades (Kennedy Center); School Girls (TheatreSquared); and What the Constitution Means to Me (Boise Contemporary Theater). FILM/TELEVISION: Chicago Fire, 61st Street, and 4400. AFFILIATIONS: Medina Theater Collective, Jackalope Theatre Company, and proudly represented by Gray Talent Group. You can see more of her artistic journey in real-time @amiradanan on Instagram.

Lauren Janoschka

Lauren Janoschka is an arts administrator and general manager, working across international and US-based productions, including The Hunchback of Notre Dame in Houston, Texas, Jesus Christ Superstar at Bühnen Bern in Bern, Switzerland, and the gala-concert Total Eclipse: Symphonic Steinman at the London Coliseum.

She previously served as associate producer, general manager, and production manager for regional organizations across the US, including Tantrum Theater in Athens, OH and Spooky Action Theater in Washington, DC, with an emphasis on new play/musical development. Her work on world premiere plays Cracking Zeus and Professor Woland's Black Magic Rock Show garnered six Helen-Hayes Awards, including for Outstanding Production – Musical, the first Helen-Hayes awards in the organization's 21-year history.

Tanmay Agarwal, CPA, CA, of Marth Advisors

Tanmay Agarwal is a dual-certified CPA and Chartered Accountant (CA) with a Master of Science in Accounting & Analytics from Rochester Institute of Technology. With over a decade of progressive experience, his background spans Fortune 500 corporations, public accounting, and international financial institutions. Tanmay has a strong track record of partnering closely with CFOs and cross-border teams to drive process and financial improvements. His expertise lies in providing high-level accounting oversight, optimizing financial operations, and delivering strategic guidance in complex, multi-jurisdictional environments.

Marth Advisors provide strategic accounting and financial advisory. As a dedicated team of CPAs and qualified accountants, they provide organizations with dependable financial oversight, reporting, and practical business guidance. Their group focuses on financial strategy, operational efficiency, and delivering clear, actionable insights to support our ongoing goals. They bring extensive experience working across a wide variety of industries, including specialized expertise with Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) and Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs). This diverse background allows them to apply practical, tailored financial solutions that address the unique operational needs and specific growth stages of different organizations.

Kyra Cuadrado

Kyra has more than a decade of experience working in the nonprofit and philanthropy sector. Currently, she serves as a manager at the Help at Home Community Foundation, which provides comprehensive support to home caregivers across the US. Previously, Kyra worked at the Centerbridge Foundation, where she fostered connections between Centerbridge employees and community-based nonprofits. She received a B.A., cum laude, from Colby College and an M.S. in Nonprofit Management from Columbia University.

Liz Schad

Liz Schad is a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, CA who has worked in both film and theatre as a producer, writer, actor, stage manager, coordinator, and assistant director. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Liz pursued a BFA in Theatre from Columbus State University before graduating from Chapman University, summa cum laude, with an MFA in Television Writing and Producing. Her goal is to create impactful and innovative content that entertains, educates, and inspires.

Mingla Sherpa

Mingla Sherpa of Nepal is a current freshman at Northwestern University. Mingla’s educational journey has taken her from primary school in Nepal to secondary school at the Tibetan Children’s Village School (TCV) in India. She completed her high school through United World College of Atlantic in the UK before traveling to Northwestern for college.

Mingla was a part of the Lighthouse Project in the UK, where they pitched and won funding used for building a dining hall and kitchen space for a local school in Punakha Dzong, Bhutan under partnership with the Bhutan Youth Development Fund. Additionally, she has also dedicated her vacation time over three years to volunteer at a school in the northeastern Himalayas of Nepal, her hometown, where she taught Tibetan cultural dance and helped set up the school's library which was established to offer children access to quality education and help preserve Buddhist culture and the Tibetan and Sanskrit languages.

Kalina Pierga

Kalina Pierga is a filmmaker, journalist, and photographer. Kalina earned her B.S. from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where she explored her interests in culture and social justice through documentary journalism. She is currently a J.D. Candidate at Georgetown Law.

Her work includes documentation of the experiences of Northwestern Prison Education Program participants and their loved ones for Northwestern University’s Epistemic Reparations Global Working Group. Kalina is also a video producer for the Here To Stay Community Land Trust, which works to provide affordable land ownership in Chicago’s rapidly-gentrifying neighborhoods.

Kalina has recently provided production support and data management services for Sung Kang’s The Ride Life, as well as production assistance for Comcast NBCUniversal’s editorial content team in Philadelphia. In 2023, Kalina was selected for Netflix’s inaugural cohort of the Documentary Archival Research Training Program, through which she earned a certification in Documentary Archival Research and Production. She specializes in data management, archival production, camera operation and editing.

Mia Mylvaganam

Mia Mylvaganam is a filmmaker, cinematographer, and media artist, who is currently in her final year of undergraduate studies in Film and Computer Science at Northwestern University. Being of Chinese and Sri Lankan descent, her work has always existed in the middle ground: in between art and technology, in between analog and digital mediums, and in between past and present temporalities.

Having spent her childhood in a small Michigan town, usually hoping for another time, another place, she has always wished to exist in the art that she connects with most and hopes to create work that can evoke that feeling in others. She has worked as the Director of Photography for numerous student films and focuses her work on that sense of yearning.

She will be shooting her thesis film called Dreamlogic this spring, a series of long takes shot on color film that centers on themes of nighttime, power, queerness, and dreams. She also creates artwork in a digital space, primarily through computer programming. This past summer, she began developing an interactive mystery game called ORANGES GONE MISSING in an internship with Eyebeam. This game will serve as her capstone project for Northwestern's Media Arts and Game Design module. You can find her work at mia.wiki.

Ali Wilt

Ali Wilt is a queer journalist, photographer and filmmaker from the small town of Martinsville, Indiana. She is a recent graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where she created her first film with three other students entitled Let us Breathe, an educational and inspirational documentary short telling a story of environmental injustice on Chicago’s southeast side, which was honored with a Chicago College Emmy Award and a Social Impact Award from CineYouth Film Festival, and premiered at four film festivals.

Amelia Pane Schaffner

Amelia Pane Schaffner is a Partner at Lexicon Strategies, focusing her practice on strategy consulting, ecosystem building, innovation agendas, and culture change efforts, for clients across the globe. Before joining Lexicon, Amelia cofounded and secured multimillion-dollar funding for the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Goizueta Business School – Emory University, ranked 22 among the 4,000+ American universities. During her time there, she fostered a novel climate of entrepreneurship and innovation, successfully ran 15+ entrepreneurship initiatives, built 14+ strategic partnerships in the southeast ecosystem and beyond, facilitated the funding of 25+ startups, coached 100+ startups, and advised a $1M minority-focused fund.

Amelia is also an accomplished educator, with a summa-cum laude Master of Science in Business, Finance, and Economics from LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome, Italy. She has designed and taught various trainings around entrepreneurship & innovation topics, designed corporate curricula and capability development programs, created playbooks and best practices forums. Amelia has also moderator and panelist experience, including having led multiple stakeholder sessions, and collaborated with the World Economic Forum.

Amelia has served on several boards and advisories, including Startup Atlanta, the RAISE Forum, Innov8GA, CNBC Disruptor 50 Advisory Council, and Emory’s Advancing Healthcare Innovation in Africa. She has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Emory-Goizueta 2022 Excellence Award for Influence, the Accenture A3 “Addo Agnitio” award for connect/contribute/champion behavior, and a Deloitte-Bersin Learning leaders award for a Strategy Podcast she designed while at Accenture. She has served as a startup mentor in accelerators and incubators like Techstars, ATV, and Goodie Nation.