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Advisory Council
The Jackson Wild Advisory Council provides support and guidance to the organization, with the intent of making recommendations to the Board of Directors. The Council is a volunteer group who seek to improve Jackson Wild initiatives by broadening perspectives that contribute to our place in the industry.
Akanksha Sood Singh
Akanksha Sood Singh is at the forefront of natural history filmmaking in India. With a career spanning 2 decades, she has produced some of the biggest wildlife films to come out of the country. Her work has been televised across the globe and won critical international acclaim. She has won four National Film Awards given by the President of India, the Diversity Leadership Award by the World Congress of Factual Producers and is one of the Jurors for the International Emmy – Documentary category. Akansha is also the founder of the Women of the Wild series in India, Pakistan and Malaysia.
Arun Dayanandan
Arun Dayanandan is a Ph.D. student at Yale University’s School of the Environment studying how industrial forestry can incorporate traditional management and restoration practices to improve biological and economic productivity while better serving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to starting at Yale, Arun completed a M.Sc. in Aquatic Chemical and Behavioural Ecology in Montréal, Canada, studying fish cognition for use in marine and aquatic species restoration. Through multi-national governmental scientific support, his research has brought him to Australia, Atlantic Canada, Galapagos Islands, India, Madagascar, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka.
Francene J. Blythe-Lewis
Francene J. Blythe-Lewis specializes in cultural education, cultural arts programming, and executive management by building sustainable grant programs, curating cultural art programming, creating philanthropic partnerships, and advocating for representation of cultural voices. Her passion to inspire others with knowledge and discovery has helped expand learning and understanding of Native peoples in the Western Hemisphere, and worldwide.Blythe-Lewis currently serves as the Executive Director at Vision Maker Media, where her father originally established the organization as the Founding Executive Director located in Lincoln, Nebraska. Vision Maker Media is largely funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to bring Native stories and content to public media. Previously, she served as the Director of Programs at the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, located in Vancouver, Washington/Portland, Oregon, where she led strategic program planning and developed art grant opportunities to Native artists and communities nationwide. There, she fostered and implemented successful grant programs for Native American: artists, community artist mentorships, and community projects that centered on social issues and partnerships in and around Native communities. Blythe-Lewis also served eight years as the Director of the All Roads Film Project at the National Geographic Society located in Washington, D.C. She steered this international Indigenous and minority-culture program into an award-winning portfolio of funded stories in film and photo-journalism. These stories were created and produced by Indigenous and minority-culture storytellers from communities around the world. Blythe-Lewis began in arts and media as a Cultural Arts Specialist at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), where she as programmed Native theater and dance performances, in partnerships with local and regional theaters, universities and museums for the inaugural NMAI stage. And just prior, she served as the Program Manager at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, where she contributed, produced and managed cultural and archival content for the Inauguration of the World War II Memorial, the annual summer Folklife Festival, and the “First Americans Festival” on the National Mall as part of the opening celebration of the National Museum of the American Indian.She currently is a board member for the Nebraskans for The Arts; Nebraska Urban Indian Health Coalition; AGE (Advance Gender Equity in Theatre Arts),has served as a commissioner on the Washington State Arts Commission and is sought out for her advisory presence on diversity, equity and inclusion committees in the arts of all sorts. Within her hometown community of Lincoln, Nebraska, she served on the Lincoln Housing Authority Board and as an AmeriCorps worker. During her early career, she initially started her cultural education efforts by presenting workshops, titled “Unlearning Indian Stereotypes,” in the Lincoln public school system. Blythe-Lewis received a YWCA’s Tribute to Women nomination for championing cultural diversity and equity in the community leadership. Francene is a proud Native American woman, as Eastern Band Cherokee and Sisseton- Wahpeton Dakota from her father’s side, and Navajo from her mother. She is married and proud of her four grown children.
Gunjan Menon
Gunjan Menon (she/her) is a National Geographic Explorer and conservation filmmaker from India. She has written, shot and directed films on human-wildlife coexistence, endangered species, wildlife expeditions and is known for her impact-driven storytelling. Over the last nine years, Gunjan has won multiple accolades with over 40 awards and nominations across 15 countries, including the prestigious Jackson Wild Rising Star Award in 2020, a Best Student Film award at the International Wildlife Film Festival and a student BAFTA nomination. Her work has been broadcast on Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, Nat Geo Wild, Disney+ Hotstar, BBC Earth, Netflix, Youtube, Buzzfeed and local Indian platforms. Gunjan holds a Master’s degree in Wildlife Filmmaking from the University of the West of England, Bristol, inpartnership with BBC-NHU and during her years in Bristol, she directed and shot the critically acclaimed short film, ‘The Firefox Guardian’ in Nepal, which later became a part of the 3-part series ‘WildLives’. The film still travels to renowned film festivals, colleges and schools, starting a dialogue on ecofeminism, raising funds for red panda conservation worldwide. She works alongside Red Panda Network on outreach activities and anti-poaching campaigns. Gunjan’s work has taken her to the remotest corners — trekking at 12,000 feet in the Himalayan bamboo forests filming red pandas, traversing rainforests looking for endangered purple frogs and, among others, searching for extremely rare turtles in the mighty Brahmaputra. But sometimes, even telling engaging stories about bats in her backyard makes her happy. Gunjan is a TEDx Speaker, 'Girls Who Click' partner photographer, and leads workshops and seminars for emerging filmmakers on conservation storytelling and cinematography. She also volunteers as a wildlife rehabber and strives to shift the limelight to lesser-known species and habitats. She authored a book for The Habitats Trust, which highlights grassroots conservationists and frontline warriors in India. Gunjan is the Co-founder and Director of ‘Beyond Premieres’, a non-profit organisation that supports filmmakers to create tangible impact through their art.
Jacqueline Farmer
I am passionate about the natural world and our place in it and I have a deep sense of urgency for conservation which I believe can be considerably furthered through diversity and inclusion in story telling about nature. I began my career in radio, working for the BBC World Service then Radio France International. I moved from there into television where I have spent the past 20 years in documentary filmmaking and production for cinema, television and Imax, retaining throughout my love for sound. The 3D feature length documentary ‘Hurricane’, I produced and co-directed was widely screened in festivals across the world and continues to be shown in IMAX cinemas, 7 years after release. The film was bought for television by Universal Pictures and Netflix. In 2019, in collaboration with photographer Gary Knight and the VII Foundation, we set up Nature Through Her Eyes, a festival aimed at supporting and celebrating women's creative work about the Natural World year round. Following Perpignan, the festival’s second edition took place in Cape Town in 2022. The first film to come out of NTHE, ‘Kuishi na Simba’ directed by Tanzanian Erica Rugabandana won Best of Festival, Best African Film, Best Storytelling at the Pridelands Festival, Kenya in July 2023. It will be released globally by Curiosity Stream end of September 2023. In 2020, Jacqueline began a long term collaboration with Jackson Wild as part of several working groups to establish the Collective, a platform for emerging film makers whose purpose is to connect people, encourage collaboration between Western producers and African and Asian filmmakers and cinematographers, and provide ongoing mentorship for emerging filmmakers. I continue my work with Jackson Wild to help bring to the fore stories about the natural world told by underrepresented communities from the majority world.
Mac Cardona
Mac Cardona is passionate about engaging communities with science and nature, especially those that are still underrepresented in the sciences. With her background in wildlife biology (B.S in Wildlife Biology, HSU), science and nature storytelling (M.S. Biology, HSU), and Latinx community engagement; Mac founded cWave Labs. cWave Labs is a creative lab that helps leverage creative strategies and digital technologies to help communities connect, learn, collaborate and innovate. In the process, Mac and the cWave Labs’ diverse team develop content, design programs, facilitate events, workshops, and build collaborative platforms. Mac is especially interested in increasing Latinx representation in all kinds of storytelling.
Natalie Cash
Natalie Cash is the Executive Producer in charge of video production at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), an international conservation organization founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society. With three decades of experience in the industry, Cash produces short-form programming about WCS projects and stories for multiple platforms. Cash is a Fellow of the Explorers Club and serves on the Board of the New York WILD Film Festival and the Advisory Council of Jackson Wild. Prior to joining WCS, she was a series producer and writer at the Emmy Award-winning documentary production company Pangolin Pictures.
Neil Losin
Neil Losin is a biologist-turned-filmmaker based in Miami, FL. He earned a Ph.D. from UCLA’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2012, and co-founded Day's Edge Productions with fellow biologist Nate Dappen the same year. Day's Edge creates award-winning science, natural history, conservation, and adventure films for clients like National Geographic, Smithsonian Channel, PBS, HHMI, WWF, and the National Science Foundation. Nate and Neil also co-organize the Jackson Wild Media Lab and other professional development workshops for early-career scientists and filmmakers.
Reyhaneh (Rey) Maktoufi
Reyhaneh (Rey) Maktoufi is a DC-based, Iranian researcher and science communicator. She is the co-producer, host, and illustrator of PBS|NOVA's digital series Sciencing Out, a mini-series on women in history who have used different strategies to communicate their science. Rey successfully defended her Ph.D. in Media, Technology, and Society at Northwestern University. She is a Rita Allen Foundation Civic Science Fellow in Misinformation at GBH|NOVA. As a researcher and producer, her main fields of interest are science communication, misinformation, curiosity, public engagement with scientists, pop culture and science communication in media. She was a visiting researcher at the Adler Planetarium, where she studied science communication and facilitated workshops on communication skills and she's also a producer at The Story Collider podcast. Before starting a Ph.D., Rey has been working as a health communication facilitator and cancer preventive/palliative care campaign manager in Tehran, Iran. Rey currently enjoys working with different nonprofits such as the Communicating Science Conference (ComSciCon). She also engages in science outreach through writing blog-posts and making science comics and has been interviewed on outlets such as the Smithsonian Magazine and the SETI Institute's podcast Big Picture Science.
Roshan Patel
Roshan is a filmmaker in Washington, D.C. Currently, he is the media producer for Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute where he produces short films, exhibit installations and social media content. He earned his MFA in Science and Natural History Filmmaking from Montana State University and has produced award-winning short films on a variety of topics, from Asiatic lions in western India to coral conservation in the Caribbean. In addition to his independent films, he has produced films for the National Park Service, World Wildlife Fund and Smithsonian Institution.
Sally Snow
Sally Snow is a Zoologist and Filmmaker. She is an Executive Director for the Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines, an NGO dedicated to the conservation of marine megafauna and their environment in the Philippines. A passionate science communicator she has worked with the BBC, National Geographic, S4C and PTS in diverse roles from associate producer, undercover filmmaker, self-shooting presenter and fixer for blue-chip series. Sally believes in conservation filmmaking as a tool for behavioural change and delivering stories that connect people and the environment. Her recent work in the Philippines uses "impact media" to address knowledge gaps (identified by research), to raise awareness in key audiences (e.g. tourists, community stakeholders, government units) and create behaviour changes to protect marine wildlife and the marine environment. She was awarded the Jackson Wild Rising Star Award in 2019.