Archive for Profile Category: The 2020 Youth Media Network Advisory Group

Jalena Keane-Lee is a director, dp, producer and the co-founder of Breaktide Productions, an all women of color video production company that has earned awards and recognition from Sundance, the Aspen Institute, the Washington Post, SXSW, ITVS, Cannes Lions, and TEDx. Jalena’s short film PERIOD GIRL, follows Nadya Okamoto a young menstrual activist, premiered at CAAM and is now being adapted into a docuseries co-produced by Stick Figure Productions.

Willa Johnson is the daughter of a retired middle school teacher and coal truck driver, Willa Johnson grew up and has returned to her home community in Letcher County. She has served as an Appalachian Transition Fellow, is a co-founder of the Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project (STAY), and is a licensed foster parent. Willa recently worked for the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC) Community Engagement team where she created FIREshare, a program designed in collaboration with The Holler to train teachers and students to use multimedia tools to tell their own stories about their schools and communities.

Since 2001, Tara Malik has worked with community-based arts organizations that center racial justice and youth power in Rochester, New Orleans, Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Richmond, CA. She is passionate about supporting young people in exploring their identities and roots, constructing and sharing their own narratives, and advocating for the issues that matter to them most. In 2006, she co-founded One Bird, a nonprofit organization that collaborates with local communities to build media arts programs for children. One Bird projects have developed in partnership with community-based organizations in New Orleans, LA; Dharamsala, India; and Carrefour, Haiti.

Liz began her artistic career in the tangible arts; oil painting, metal sculpture, prosthetic makeup for zombies. Her love of art evolved to the digital media arts. Liz attended Salt Lake Community College (Associate of Applied Science, Visual Arts and Design Emphasis, Associate of Applied Arts, Animation Specialist, Certificate of Proficiency, Web Graphic Design and Certificate of Proficiency, Motion Graphics) and Utah Valley University (Bachelor of Applied Science, Digital Media Emphasis). Liz continues to combine traditional art and digital media art.

Aylee Shomali is a teen digital artist and filmmaker and a member of the advisory group for The Issue. She was a content contributor and a Youth Engagement Specialist for The Issue #2. Based in Portland, Oregon, Aylee was a teaching assistant, intern, content creator, and a participant of the Echo AiR program at Open Signal PDX. While being an intern at Open Signal, Aylee helped to prepare submissions for The Issue #2.

Carly Short is a filmmaker and artist. Her work meshes personal and collective histories through the exploration of portraiture and cultural landscape. In addition to teaching at Venice Arts, Carly has taught at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston and at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.