About Me

I’m a filmmaker, media producer, and teacher. I have been working as an independent media generalist for over a decade now, with extensive experience in screenwriting, cinematography, editing, producing, animation, and illustration. 

 

I found my love for film as a kid growing up in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, spending my days with a small camcorder and iMovie. Although growing up in a small town, our community put a lot of emphasis on traveling and exploring the world. So when an opportunity to take a gap year and work in West Africa on a medical ship arrived, it was not hard to take it. I spent over a year working in Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Togo. I developed a great community in Sierra Leone during this time and I have returned to the country to work in different capacities frequently over the rest of my career. 

 

After returning to the US, I moved to San Francisco to attend San Francisco State University to study cinema, receiving a Degree in 2015. During that time I got a job on a film and started doing freelance videography and editing. After graduating I carried on my freelance work, expanding my skill sets, doing animation and producing work for many SF Bay Area based tech companies. I also worked for multinational companies like Pepsi and AT&T as a videographer. I also got an opportunity to go back to Sierra Leone working with The University of San Francisco on a research project looking at menstrual health management among Sierra Leonean school girls. I made the media materials for their fundraisers, designed their employees badges, and helped with other logistics using my previous experience living in the country. 

 

In 2017, 5 associates and I decided to bring our skills together to create a media company, LemonBucket Studios. We decided an employee owned cooperative structure would work best for us. As part of this co-op company, I managed video projects for small mom and pop shops in the SF Bay Area and animation projects for local creatives and tech companies. I also handled the business filings, taxes, and financial books of the company. This experience grew both my managerial and creative skills.

 

Then 2020 happened. The shutdowns killed our entire business. So we pivoted, quickly. I was tasked by the team to oversee the shift from video production to live streaming. I retooled our production workflow, learned and taught the team the relative software and skills, and acquired the needed equipment. This period of my life was all about learning to adapt and work with my team to keep us afloat. 

 

This period also gave me a chance to work on a Sierra Leone project again. MirabelPictures hired me to manage the translations of dozens of hours of interview footage with Sierra Leonean Ebola survivors for Emory University. I managed two teams, one based in Freetown and the other in Makeni. I also contributed to some of the translations. This job taught me how to manage over a dozen people from half a world away, how to structure team hierarchies, and delegate responsibilities.

 

In 2021, an opportunity to go back to Sierra Leone came up. A non-profit, Future View Media Center, asked if I would be willing to volunteer with them as a media teacher. I grabbed this opportunity and relocated to Sierra Leone.  My first year there, I created six courses, each nine weeks long, and taught for three quarters. At the end of that first year, some of my students asked me to help them create their own employee owned co-op media production company. So in 2022, seven of us banded together and started Apex Multimedia. I was elected to oversee the collective creation of our constitution.

 

As part of this company,  I have served as the secretary, Head of the education department, and filmmaker. As secretary I have been incharge of managing all meeting notifications, agendas, minutes, and member votes. As Head of the Education Department I’ve developed 13 courses and their materials, taught hundreds of students, and trained up the next generation of teachers who have now successfully taken over my teaching job. These courses were successful enough to catch the eye and funding of UNDP in our company’s third year. As a filmmaker I managed all of the team's animation projects, worked as a film editor, and cinematographer. Our assignments took us to some of the most remote places in the country. We developed great working relationships with organizations like Namati, World Hope, DW, and the UNDP. This period of my life taught me to manage through uniquely adverse circumstances, like completing projects without power or living without running water. Being cut off from many resources, and having any new equipment being three months away taught me lateral problem solving. (insert example here). I learned how to take a leadership position to build structures and projects that are sustainable and lasting. Then I had to learn to step down, and entrust that those who took over after me will carry on the work I did. 

 

I have now moved on from my time at Apex and ready to take on new adventures.  I’m not sure what the future holds, but I hope to find something that will teach me something new.