2024 Jurors

Alaina Demopoulos has been a daily features writer at the Guardian US since 2022, where she writes about style, internet culture, and the way Gen Z lives. Before that, she was an editor at Allure magazine and a staff writer at The Daily Beast. She graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in dramatic writing. She was born in New Hampshire, but now she lives in Brooklyn with her street cat turned roommate, Vinny.

Kristina Douglass is an archaeologist who investigates how people, land- and seascapes co-evolve. She is an Associate Professor of Climate at Columbia University. Before coming to Columbia, she was the Joyce and Doug Sherwin Early Career Professor in the Rock Ethics Institute and Assistant Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at Penn State University. Douglass is also a Smithsonian Institution Research Associate. Her work is grounded in collaborations with local, Indigenous, and descendant (LID) communities as equal partners in the co-production of science, and the recording, preservation and dissemination of LID knowledge. Douglass and her collaborators aim to contribute long-term perspectives on human-environment interactions to public debates, planning and policymaking on the issues of climate change, conservation, and sustainability. Since 2011 Douglass has directed the Morombe Archaeological Project (MAP), based in the Velondriake Marine Protected Area. Douglass is a mother, singer, dancer, Capoeirista, SCUBA diver and avid gardener, all of which intersect in essential ways with her work as an archaeologist.

Jamil Ellis is the CEO of Unified Ground, a technology platform connecting community-based organizations and local businesses to environmental and sustainability investments. Previously, he served as CTO at NYC-based cleantech firms Bright Power and BlocPower, where he developed software solutions to decarbonize buildings nationwide. On the creative side he has worked as a producer, writer, and performer for stage, film, and television. Today, he co-hosts the podcast "Ellis Conversations," exploring race, law, and history, and is gearing up to launch a comedy/music podcast, "Brooklyn Dad," this fall.

Sonia Shechet Epstein is a curator, writer, and editor working at the cutting edge of science and cinema. She is Curator of Science and Technology and Executive Editor, Sloan Science & Film at Museum of the Moving Image in New York City. In addition to her work at MoMI, Sonia is a trustee of the On the Water chapter of the Awesome Foundation. She lectures internationally about the intersection of science and cinema.

Boloh Miranda Izquierdo (1986) is an artist and filmmaker based in Quito, Ecuador. He is currently a producer and film director at LLEGO films collective, and co-founder of Tawna: Films from territory. His work has been linked to the visualization of dispossessions and injustices in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Boloh’s audiovisual work is a continual denunciation of the systematic violence imparted by extractivism in the rainforest. His work includes a documentary record of workshops aiming at strengthening young leaders in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Also in 2015 he co-founded Minka Urbana, an activist collective to support communities that resist the invasion of mega mining projects. He is producer of the documentary ALLPAMANDA (LIFE IS TERRITORY), about the historical process of ecuadorian Amazon indigenous organization (CONFENIAE). His videos have been presented in important venues such as the Cuenca Biennial, the Reina Sofia Museum, and the Sydney Biennial, and he has had solo exhibitions at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Quito.

Dr. Len Necefer, Ph.D., is the CEO & Founder of NativesOutdoors – a native-owned athletic and creative collective. He holds a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and a Doctorate in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. Previous to this role, Len has worked for the U.S. Department of Energy and, most recently, the University of Arizona. His work melds the intersection of sport, environmental advocacy, and indigenous peoples. His storytelling work melds the intersection of sport, environmental advocacy, and indigenous people and has been featured in the Alpinist, National Geographic, and over 50 film festivals globally.

Alisa Petrosova is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and narrative strategist. She specializes in the intersection of climate, culture, film & television and believes in the power of storytelling and community to transform our world and collective future for a more just, healthier and beautiful world. She previously worked at Good Energy as the Director of Climate Storytelling Programs, where she led the climate research and consulting programs. She holds an MA in Climate & Society and has taught at the Climate School at Columbia University and a BFA in Fine Art from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.  She speaks on the topic of climate and culture change on panels at institutions like Conde Nast, the Climate School at Columbia University, The Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, and NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering. Alisa lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, where she hosts Big Love Supper Club with her partner that brings climate storytelling to their dinner table.

Sam Read is the Executive Director of the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance, a consortium of entertainment industry stakeholders working collaboratively to reduce environmental impacts within the global entertainment industry and inspire a sustainable future on-screen. A graduate of Tufts University, Sam has deep experience operating campaigns and partnerships in the advocacy and climate impact space, including work with President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, the No Kid Hungry campaign, the Peoples Climate Movement, C40 Cities, Murmuration, and others to establish collaborative advocacy and engagement programs.

Nancy Rosenthal is Founder & Executive Director of the New York WILD Film Festival. She strongly believes in the power of film to engage audiences in exploration, conservation, and environmental advocacy and to effect change. Before New York WILD she made a variety of award-winning films about the natural world for National Geographic before exploring contemporary issues and the performing arts as subjects. She is an active member of the Explorers Club, Co-Chairing the Explorers Club Annual Dinner (ECAD) in 2016, and a Trustee of Egan Maritime Institute in Nantucket, MA. Outside of her love for film she is a passionate conservationist, avid sailor, and scuba diver.  

Griffin Sager-Gellerman has worked in Sustainable Production since 2019, and in physical production since 2012. He currently oversees production sustainability work for Sony Pictures Entertainment in the North America and Asia/Pacific regions. He’s a native New Yorker, but moved to Los Angeles in 2023, and loves the weather but misses the pizza. His favorite type of water body is a river, and his favorite state is Washington.

Caleb Smith (they/them) is the Resiliency Coordinator at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. They are a lead facilitator of the Extreme Heat Coalition launched as an extension of the Heat, Health, and Equity Initiative. The Coalition seeks to protect urban residents from heat stress through policy, adaptation, and mitigation strategies by integrating nature-based solutions, green infrastructure, social resilience planning, as well as renewable and affordable energy programs. Caleb is also a participant in the Rainproof NYC Collaboration, designed to innovate a new process by which NYC agency staff and community leaders could identify and recommend strategies and policies to adapt to increased heavy rainfall. Caleb received a Bachelor of Arts in Politics at the University of San Francisco and Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy at Columbia University. Previously they served as a Special Assistant to the Mayor in Oakland, where they worked to address illegal dumping, co-facilitated an local Environmental Justice Working Group, and helped implement community-led projects to serve local frontline communities as part of the Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors Initiative.

Chandra Simon Ritvo is a seasoned filmmaker and environmental advocate with two decades of experience working at the intersection of sustainability and storytelling. Her award-winning work, spanning feature films, documentaries, and television series, has been showcased on major networks like HBO, CBS, and PBS, as well as at film festivals such as Sundance and Tribeca. Currently at Netflix, Chandra serves as an in-house advisor to creators who wish to incorporate environmental themes into their stories. Chandra holds a Master’s of Environmental Science from Yale University and a BFA in Film and Television Production from NYU. While in graduate school, Chandra served as Executive Director of the Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY), playing a pivotal role in its growth as a leading venue for environmental filmmakers. She is also a fellow of the National Audubon Society and the National Tropical Botanical Garden, and a member of the Producers Guild of America.

Cheryl Slean leads the Sustainability and Storytelling program at Netflix, supporting films, series and games that have environmental and sustainability content with fact expertise and story consulting. Her diverse background as a filmmaker, writer and educator with degrees in physics, sustainability and creative writing come together to inform her past and present work, including co-founding NRDC’s Rewrite the Future climate in entertainment initiative; as executive producer for VisionLA, a grassroots climate action arts group; and creating Skymind, a production company specializing in narrative strategies for educational media.

Lauren Wang is an urban planner committed to serving the people and communities standing up to the climate crisis. At the Trust for Governors Island, home to the Center for Climate Solutions, she leads new programs that make the island available as a piloting site for technology-based urban climate solutions and that offer action-oriented climate field trips. Lauren also teaches at The City College of New York, where she is collaborating with the NYC Climate Justice Hub. Her previous experience includes managing climate adaptation and housing resiliency initiatives at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice and NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. 

Jeannette Williams is the COO of the Urban Future Lab at NYU Tandon. UFL is the longest existing climate tech incubator in New York State and is home to the ACRE Incubator, the Clean Start Program, the Carbon to Value Initiative, the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub and the Innovate UK Global Incubator Programme. Jeannette wears many hats and leads UFL’s special projects and events, including Urban Future Forum and Climate Is the New Economy, which aim to ensure that community voices are heard and included in vital climate innovation conversations. Prior to joining UFL, Jeannette’s work for mission driven organizations, including at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Penguin Random House, and the Core Knowledge Foundation, focused on making complex content accessible and actionable for all.