Christian Dorsey is Executive Director for The Reading Connection, a Northern Virginia based non-profit organization that serves the Washington metro area’s homeless community. The Reading Connection provides literacy programs for children in housing crisis that focus on instilling in children a lifelong love of reading and giving them quality literature to pursue that love. Prior to leading The Reading Connection, Mr. Dorsey was the Executive Director for Operation Understanding DC, an organization that united African American and Jewish youth in intensive yearlong programs to combat division and bigotry and to provide a model for the entire community on how to effectively overcome all forms of discrimination. He now serves as Chairman of its Board of Directors.

Robert Parrish is an Arlington, Virginia based video artist. His documentary, "The Free Agents Video: D.C. Graffiti 101" was a Rosebud Festival winner in 2002. His works have been presented at New York’s Art In General; Baltimore’s Artscape; Maryland Public Television's "Independent Eye"; and D.C.’s MOCA D.C., the D.C. Independent Film Festival, WPA/Corcoran, Metro Cafe (RIP) and Art-o-matic. In the daytime, Rob helps protect the environment through his work with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In November 2002, Rob and his wife, Maribeth, premiered a collaborative effort, their first child, Ruby. Rob is very fond of walking on the beach and ice cream cake on Sunday.

Meredith Bragg is a local area filmmaker, writer, performer and musician. Currently he is a producer for washingtonpost.com Live Online, where he produces and moderates on-line discussions featuring newsmakers, reporters and entertainers. In 2002 his documentary, “Waiting for Jar Jar” won the Best Documentary award at the Atom Films/ Lucas Films – Star Wars Fan Festival. In addition to his video work, he spends his time writing and performing in The Big Honkin’ Sketch Show and playing music around the Washington, DC area.

Elizabeth Pringle works with MHz NETWORKS, where she combines her experience in theatre and love of media as the director of E.A.T. (Education Arts Technology), and the MHz Shortz Student (and teacher) Film Festival. Through a grant from the Department of Education, Ms. Pringle uses storytelling and media tools to enhance K-12 student learning and creativity. She hopes to grow the MHz Shortz Film Festival into a national event, celebrating collaborative learning and student vision. Her background in theatre includes acting, writing, directing, and teaching.

Mark Casale pays the rent working in television, mostly as an editor, but also as a producer, writer and shooter. In his spare time, he plays an awful lot of music (mostly not awfully) in the old-timey, bluesy, hillbilly vein. He’s written and directed plays and worked on the fringes of the DC theater scene for many years. An all-around creative kinda guy, he hopes that there’s a place for him in the coming new world order, or that they’ll at least allow him to take his mandolin with him to the gulag.

Vilma Zefran was born and raised in Manila, Philippines. Before coming to live in the US, Vilma worked with several government and private agencies producing short training videos. After graduating from the School of Film at Ohio University with a Masters of Fine Arts in Film Production, Vilma worked part time for Arlington Community Television and America’s Voice in the Washington, DC area. Her short film “Outside, Looking In” was a nominee in the 1999 Rosebud Film Festival. Her succeeding film, “Inay, Paano Na Kami?” explores the plight of Filipino overseas workers. She has plans to update this film and distribute it to Social Studies and Film Studies programs. Currently, Vilma teaches video and television to high school students of TC Williams High School at Alexandria, Virginia. Her students have won several awards from local and international student film and video festivals. She still plans to continue making short films, “when I find the time and energy to do so.”