Meet Our Team
Staff
Camaro West | Co-Executive Director
Camaro (she/her) is a passionate advocate for women and girls, with 10 years’ experience leading program development, delivery and evaluation for nonprofits focused on gender equality. She holds a Masters Degree in International Development Studies, and has led global advocacy work in collaboration with UN Women, Youth and United Nations Global Alliance, The Dove Self Esteem Project, and served as an advisor for FRIDA the Young Feminist Fund. Prior to joining Peace is Loud, Camaro worked with Black Women Film! Canada to scale strategic and operations infrastructure. Camaro is also a producer and filmmaker telling stories that center the experiences of women of color through her production company. She is a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, a collaborator with the Buffalo Documentary Project, and sits on the board of Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Arts Center.
Rebecca Tye | Co-Executive Director
Rebecca (she/her) has over 15 years of experience leading teams at global nonprofits that advocate for the rights and equality of girls and women, including Plan International Canada and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. She is a passionate and active changemaker interested in sustainably growing organizations that are deeply embedded in their cause. Rebecca excels at solving the complex challenges that come with growth through developing corporate fundraising partnerships and creative strategic planning. She is so excited to join the Peace is Loud team and support their incredibly impactful work!
Melanie Butler | Program Lead, Film Campaigns
Melanie Butler (she/her) is a changemaker and media-maker who has been creating winning campaigns for documentary film and social movements for over a decade. She has built engagement strategies for Oscar-winning and emerging filmmakers alike, most recently with the documentary collective New Day Films. A long-time activist, Mel was a founding member of Occupy Wall Street, and has used media to advocate for gender justice, LGBTQIA+ rights, and against war and imperialism. She holds an MA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia and a BA in Cinema Studies and Political Science from the University of Toronto. Her writing on media and activism has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals, textbooks and magazines such as Ms. and Shameless. Mel lives on Vancouver Island, as a guest on the unceded lək̓ʷəŋən Traditional Territory of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.
Danielle Feder | Digital Storytelling Manager
Danielle manages Peace is Loud’s digital communications strategy, helping people understand who we are and what we do. She considers herself a multi-hyphenate, with a background spanning performing arts administration, theatremaking, digital marketing, and political organizing. All of her work is driven by a passion for amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities across all forms of media and storytelling. Danielle has an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University and a BA in Dramatic Literature from NYU.
Samantha Garland | Director of Finance
Sam (she/her) has been a freelance bookkeeper for over 10 years, working with small businesses from film production houses to law firms to textile agents in the fashion district. Sam is an accomplished actress who has self produced theater Off-Off-Broadway and whose first short film enjoyed a film festival run in 2016. She is currently working on her first webseries, full of strong, funny, flawed female characters. Her favorite kind. Sam is also a Life Coach who thrives on bringing out the best in others and helping them tap into their innate brilliance. Her mission is to effortlessly bring clarity and confidence to the work that her clients are called to do.
Kaitlyn Hamby | Senior Impact Producer
Kaitlyn (she/her) organizes grassroots screenings and outreach efforts for our film campaigns. She previously supported the program team at Chicken & Egg Pictures, working to bring emerging female filmmakers to the forefront of our industry. Her work in documentary film began in production and quickly moved to the intersection of film and activism during an internship at Peace is Loud as the College Outreach Coordinator for The Armor of Light. Kaitlyn holds a B.A. in Digital Media Production from Florida State University, where she was active in campus organizing around gun violence prevention.
Johna Eryn Hoey | Senior Strategy Advisor
Johna (she/her) has served as Speakers Bureau Director, Interim Executive Director and now Senior Strategy Advisor at Peace is Loud. In all of her roles Johna’s focus has been to raise the visibility, influence and funding for the women-identified changemakers who are breaking new ground in the fight for peace and justice, whether on our Speakers Bureau or in our film impact campaigns. Prior to joining Peace is Loud Johna was the Program and Development Manager at MADRE, where she worked closely with grassroots women’s rights organizations in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia to meet immediate needs, along with build their capacity to advocate for their rights, all while leveraging funding for their work. Her career in women’s rights has also included work with the Public Heath Program at the Open Society Foundations; Raising Voices, a gender-based violence organization in Kampala, Uganda; and the Gender, Violence and Health Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Daquisha Jones-Sol | Development Manager
Daquisha (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based writer and development professional with six years of experience in equitable arts access and organizational development. Her fundraising career began with World Cafe Live, an independent music venue in the Philadelphia region, serving 150,000 audience members annually. Her work with Brown Girls Doc Mafia launched her entry into the documentary landscape. Originally from Indiana, she has spent years in Philly volunteering for many community-oriented, grassroots organizations, including RadLove, Millennials in Action, and The ECO Foundation, where she served as Board President for two years. Daquisha devotes her spare time to her passion project, “Bad Ally: The Web Series,” co-created with her friend Ariel Mahler, exploring themes of intimacy, accountability, and identity.
Tiffany LaTrice | Development and Communications Lead
Tiffany brings over 8 years of communications and development experience starting her career as a NBCUniversal Page at 30 Rock to working at tech startup and media companies like Cox Media to eventually running her own company in Atlanta to uplift Black women artists. Tiffany is passionate about storytelling, loves to travel, tacos and spends most of her time outside dancing in the sun!
Stephanie Palumbo | Director, Film Impact and Innovation
Stephanie (she/her) is a documentary impact strategist, film producer, and organizer. She leads Peace is Loud’s film team, which uses documentary films as tools for people-powered movement building. Her current work focuses on helping filmmakers prioritize care for themselves and their film protagonists by integrating the pillars of equity, safety, and representation into all aspects of documentary filmmaking. Before joining Peace is Loud, Stephanie was an archival and story producer who began her career as a researcher for Michael Moore, and has worked with filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, and Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. In addition, she is a former assistant editor at O, the Oprah Magazine, and a freelance writer published in The Believer, The Rumpus, and Vulture, among other outlets. She’s also been involved in community organizing for decades, from participating in anti-globalization protests as a teenager to building infrastructure for Occupy Wall Street’s public communications.
Florencia Varela | Program Lead, Learning and Filmmaker Outreach
Florencia’s (she/her) work lies at the intersection of learning, social impact, and film. She currently leads Peace is Loud’s learning and filmmaker outreach initiatives, mainly through the organization’s signature program Collective Lens. She previously has worked on impact campaigns for films such as To the End, On the Divide, Knock Down the House, Women War & Peace II, The Bleeding Edge, and The Hunting Ground. In her current role, Florencia seeks to center filmmakers who are currently underrepresented in the industry, and offer spaces to share knowledge, redistribute power, and build community. Previous to Peace is Loud, Florencia honed her partnerships, outreach, and development skills over more than a decade at organizations such as PEN America, the Rubin Museum of Art, the Poetry Society of America, and Nitehawk Cinema, where she launched the cinema’s partnerships and sponsorships program. Florencia is also on the board of The Future of Film is Female, is a published poet, and was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Board of Directors
Julia Bacha
Julia is a Peabody and Guggenheim award-winning filmmaker, media strategist, and the Creative Director at Just Vision, an organization that fills a media gap on Israel-Palestine through independent storytelling and strategic audience engagement. She started her filmmaking career in Cairo, where she wrote and edited Control Room (Sundance 2004), for which she was nominated to the Writer’s Guild of America Award. Subsequently she moved to Jerusalem where she directed Encounter Point (Tribeca 2006), Budrus (Berlinale 2009), which the New York Times called “this year’s must-see documentary,” My Neighbourhood (Tribeca 2012), and Naila and the Uprising (IDFA 2017), which was broadcast on PBS in 2019. Most recently, Julia directed Boycott which was an official selection at SXSW and HotDocs in 2022.
In addition to over thirty film festival awards, Julia is the recipient of the 2011 Ridenhour Film Prize, the 2012 Doc Society Creative Impact Award, a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship, 2017 Columbia University Medal of Excellence, and the 2019 Chicken & Egg Award. Originally from Brazil, Julia is a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, a Documentary Branch Member of AMPAS and has given two TED talks, “Pay attention to nonviolence” and “How women wage conflict without violence.”
Abigail E. Disney
Abigail is a filmmaker, philanthropist, activist, Emmy-winning director of The Armor of Light, and co-Founder of Peace is Loud. As president and CEO of the documentary production company Fork Films, she produced the groundbreaking Pray the Devil Back to Hell and co-created the subsequent PBS series Women, War & Peace. She is also the Chair and Co-Founder of Level Forward, a new breed storytelling company focused on systemic change through creative excellence. The companies and stories that have most meaning for Abigail are the ones which foster human understanding.
Bisola Falola
Bisola is an experienced thought leader and strategist who operates at the intersection of media, culture, and social change. She has worked across a range of issues—health, racial justice, climate justice, housing and urban policy—to secure more equitable policies, build narrative power, and fund transformative interventions. Bisola has designed social change campaigns, supported socially engaged artists, and funded a global portfolio of narrative and culture initiatives at Open Society Foundations. She has also worked as a media producer and designer with the Kennedy Center and Teach for America, as well as with local cultural institutions, public schools, research and advocacy centers. Bisola holds an EdM in education and technology from Harvard University, and a PhD in geography from the University of Texas at Austin. She is deeply committed to collaborating, listening, learning and unlearning, and pausing to orient toward equitable solutions and joy.
Jungwon Kim
Jungwon is a climate justice advocate, narrative strategist, and storyteller who has chronicled and amplified frontline environmental and human rights movements for the past two decades. For nine years, she served as Head of Creative & Editorial at the Rainforest Alliance, where she led a team of writers, videographers, and information designers in storytelling that centered frontline rural communities in global south countries impacted by the climate crisis. Prior to joining the Rainforest Alliance, Jungwon worked as a journalist across print, digital, video, and radio, including an eight-year tenure as editor of Amnesty International magazine. She has published articles in Colorlines, The Nation, and Newsday and produced on-air reports as a correspondent for Marketplace Radio and Pacific Time, a nationally syndicated radio program about the Asia-Pacific region.
Jungwon did her undergraduate studies (B.A. Philosophy) and graduate studies (M.J./M.A. Journalism and East Asian Studies) at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was awarded the Fulbright, Foreign Language Area Studies, and Korea Foundation fellowships. She is serving her second term as a board member for the Fund for Public Health NYC, which works to advance racial and socioeconomic health equity.
At present Jungwon is on a career sabbatical, working on a personal writing project and select consulting engagements while living in Brooklyn with her two daughters, partner, and dog.
Debra Pemstein
Debra is vice president for development and alumni/ae affairs at Bard College. During her tenure, Bard has been able to expand its programs through major capital campaigns that have resulted in the building of new centers for the performing arts (the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, designed by Frank Gehry) and sciences (The Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation, designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects).
Pemstein also supervises development activities for all of Bard’s institutes and programs, including the Fisher Center, Bard Music Festival, Bard High School Early College Program, and Center for Curatorial Studies–Hessel Museum, to name but a few.
Pemstein formerly served as director of major gifts and planned giving for New York City Ballet, director of development for Paul Taylor Dance Company, and associate director of development for the New York Philharmonic. In addition she is a college lecturer and has presented papers on fund-raising at national professional conferences. She has served on many boards and advisory committees, including Poughkeepsie Day School; Temple Emanuel, Kingston, New York; and Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, New York City. She is a founding member of Modern Dance Development Directors. She attended the London School of Economics, received her B.B.A. from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and is a certified fund-raising executive.
Gini Reticker
Gini is an award winning documentary director and producer, and co-founder of Peace is Loud. Her long track record of creating groundbreaking films has earned her numerous accolades including an Academy Award-nomination (Asylum), and two Emmys (Ladies First, and Out of the Darkness). Her films have regularly featured women’s stories at the center of a wide range of topics including global conflicts, political asylum and the AIDS epidemic. Gini directed the widely acclaimed Pray the Devil Back to Hell, co-created and executive produced multiple seasons of the PBS series Women, War and Peace, and directed the gripping Egyptian episode, Trials of Spring. Throughout her career she has promoted and supported women in all levels of film production becoming known amongst her peers for her mentorship and support of women filmmakers, and has executive produced over twenty awarding winning documentaries.
Angie G. Wang
Angie Wang is chief of staff to filmmaker and philanthropist Abigail E. Disney, and provides strategic management and operational and leadership support to all of Disney’s entities. Angie served as the outreach director for Fork Film’s documentary film series Women, War & Peace, and as executive director of Peace is Loud. For the past 20 years, Angie has worked at the intersection of advocacy, culture change and social movements, lifting the stories of people and communities as public platforms for justice, equity and peace. Before joining Disney in 2011, Angie worked in leadership positions at The New York Women’s Foundation and the September 11th Fund. Prior to her work in grantmaking, Angie was working in the field of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child sexual abuse at Safe Horizon, where she worked in a variety of direct-service, advocacy and management roles. Angie got her start in social justice as a tenant organizer in Northern California. Angie is an executive producer of Bei Bei, a documentary about a Chinese immigrant in Indianapolis fighting feticide and first degree murder charges.
Yukiko Yamagata
Yukiko is an arts leader, advisor, and curator with 20+ years of experience championing and building the capacity of artists, arts organizations, and the field of socially-engaged art. As Founder of Lucida Projects, she collaborates with artists and organizations on grant making, strategic planning and implementation, program design, people management, cross-sector collaboration, project management, and producing exhibitions and public programs. For 16 years, she worked at the Open Society Foundations–most recently as Curatorial and Deputy Director for Culture and Art–where she led work to support artists, cultural activists, cultural spaces, and their leaders who are working towards building more open and equitable societies throughout Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa. She also served as acting director of Open Society’s Documentary Photography Project and curator for its Moving Walls exhibition series. Prior to joining Open Society in 2005, she coordinated exhibitions, publications, and web content for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Whitney Museum. As an MBA candidate at NYU Stern School of Business, she is focused on researching leadership and change management, entrepreneurship, and sustainable business practices that can help strengthen the arts sector.
