Board Members
Serena Altschul
Serena Altschul is an Emmy Award nominated television journalist with two decades of experience in investigative journalism. She has produced and appeared on Channel One News, MTV News, and CNN and is currently a correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning. Serena has also appeared on Conan O’Brien, Charlie Rose, and Bill O’Reilly, and collaborated with Jay Z on the song “Dopeman.” She is a winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award. In addition to serving on the Board of The Moth, Serena has served on the Boards of the Tribeca Film Institute and the Overbrook Foundation.
Ben Arnon
Ben Arnon is co-founder of award-winning film and television company, Color Farm Media and also co-founder of its sister 501(c)(3) non-profit entity, Color Farm Impact. Ben’s professional background uniquely positions him to lead a 21st century, forward-thinking company that spans across media/entertainment, technology and social impact. As co-founder of Color Farm Media, Ben has produced award-winning projects including the documentary film “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” which was nominated for 3 Emmy Awards and won the NAACP Image Award for Best Documentary Film, as well as “The Big Payback,” a critically acclaimed documentary film focused on reparations for Black Americans. Ben also produced “Finding Tamika,” an Audible Original Series that won the prestigious duPont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Journalism as well as a Webby Award and Audible’s True Crime Audio Series of the Year. Prior to launching Color Farm, Ben was integral in scaling the Facebook-incubated tech startup, Wildfire, from 6 to over 400 employees and an acquisition by Google. He also co-founded Curio, an innovative tech startup that resided at the intersection of Web3 and entertainment. At Curio, Ben sourced, negotiated, and secured a groundbreaking Web3 enterprise-level deal with Universal Music Group that spanned across all of its record labels globally. In media, Ben has led business development for Yahoo! Music and worked in numerous roles at Universal Pictures, Universal Music Group, Jersey Films and Scott Rudin Productions.
Daniel O. Ash
Daniel is president of the Field Foundation of Illinois, a private and independent foundation which, along with its strategic funding partners, distributes more than $4 million annually in grants to organizations working to address systemic issues in Chicago’s divested communities. Throughout his professional career, Daniel has focused on developing and using marketing and communication tools to advance social causes. Before his current role, Daniel was associate vice president of Community Impact for the Chicago Community Trust. He previously served as the Trust’s chief marketing officer. Before joining the Trust, Daniel was vice president of Chicago Public Media (Chicago’s primary NPR station), where he was a key voice in shaping its overall focus. Daniel earned his M.P.P. from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Economics from Oberlin College. He also completed a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship at Princeton University.
Gabrielle Glore
Gabrielle Glore navigates the film and television space as Emmy-nominated producer (SYLVIE’S LOVE), executive producer (DIRTY LAUNDRY), and film financier (THROUGH THE FIRE). She produced 2 seasons of THE ROUND for CENTRIC (now BET HER), a TV show providing a platform for women of color giving inspiring TED-style talks. Under the GLORIFIED production banner, she is developing a slate of episodic and feature projects, spanning the scripted, unscripted, and animation genres. She serves as a consulting producer for Warner Bros. Discovery 150’s artist studio, with an eye on sourcing and supporting undiscovered stories, while surfacing projects for development opportunity across the company’s portfolio of brands. Gabrielle formerly served as Festival Director and Head of Programming for Urbanworld, a 25-year-old NYC based festival providing a platform for inclusive storytellers from around the globe and a launching pad for some of Hollywood’s most successful talent behind and in front of the camera. Currently, she serves as the Executive Director of the Leading Women Defined Foundation, established by Debra L. Lee, former Chairman and CEO, BET Networks, focusing on the empowerment of Black and brown women through professional advancement, personal health and wellness, and collective community impact. She also sits on the Board of MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts).
Daniel Green
A former journalist with ABC News Nightline, Daniel Green is the director of Global Content and Campaigns at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dan led the launch of the foundation’s first global media partnerships portfolio, which included new partnerships with The Moth, Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship, Solutions Journalism Network, Stand-Up Planet with Hasan Minhaj, and many others.
Jesse Haines
Jesse Haines is an accomplished business leader and strategic marketer with extensive experience building mission-driven brands and scaling high-performing marketing teams. Currently a Partner at Shakti VC, Haines leads communications strategy, supports fundraising, and advises portfolio companies for this early-stage venture capital fund. Previously, Haines spent over 17 years at Google, where she created and led Grow with Google, a $1 billion initiative focused on economic opportunity in the U.S. Haines also established Google's accessories business, including the "Live Case" customizable phone case, and pioneered Google’s mobile advertising marketing strategy. Before joining Google, Haines held leadership roles at Tommy Hilfiger and served as a strategic consultant with Bain & Company. She holds an MBA from Kellog and a BA in History from Brown.
Sonya Jackson
Sonya Y. Jackson is a leader in social impact, communications, reputation management and giving. With more than twenty-five years of experience as a senior executive in multiple sectors including airlines, oil, retail, and consumer packaged goods, she is committed to improving humanity and creating opportunities for women and other underrepresented groups. She is a writer, producer, filmmaker, playwright and activist who uses storytelling, media, technology and live experiences as a force for good.
Susie Jaramillo
Susie Jaramillo is an Emmy-nominated director, artist, storyteller, and entrepreneur. She currently serves as Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Encantos and has won multiple awards from Kidscreen, Cynopsis Media, Publishers Weekly, and more. She is also the creator of Canticos, the author/illustrator of over 35 children’s books, and a sought-after speaker at conferences and festivals nationwide for her leadership and expertise around entrepreneurship, leveraging tech in entertainment, and developing story-based brand franchises in the children's space. She has been featured in Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, NPR, NBC, CBS, The New York Times, Pop Sugar, She Knows, AdWeek, People en Español, and Univision. She was most recently listed on NBCU + Telemundo's Inspiring America list.
Mia Jung
Ms. Jung is a Talent Partner on the Healthcare team at WCAS, having joined in 2022. Ms. Jung focuses on executive talent strategy and management and is responsible for helping WCAS’s healthcare companies build best-in-class leadership teams. She brings nearly a decade of executive search experience, having placed hundreds of leaders in many of the healthcare industry’s top organizations. Prior to joining WCAS, Ms. Jung served as a Partner at Oxeon Partners, a leading retained executive search and investments firm where she partnered with innovative healthcare organizations, boards and investors to build high performing, diverse leadership teams. Ms. Jung co-founded Break Into The Boardroom, an initiative that seeks to drive gender parity in privately held healthcare boards. She is an angel investor in 20+ women founded companies. Mia received her undergrad degree at Villanova and MBA at Columbia Business School & London Business School. She resides in Tribeca with her family, where she has lived for 20 years.
Chenjerai Kumanyika
Alongside his scholarship and teaching, disciplinary service on the intersections of social justice and media, Kumanyika specializes in using narrative non-fiction audio journalism to critique the ideology of American historical myths about issues such as race, the Civil War, and policing. He has written in scholarly venues such as Popular Music & Society, Popular Communication, The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture, as well as public venues such as The Intercept, Transom, NPR Codewitch, All Things Considered, Invisibilia, and VICE. Kumanyika is also the co-creator, co-executive producer and co-host of Uncivil, Gimlet Media’s podcast on the Civil War and he is the collaborator for SCene on Radio’s Influential Season 2 “Seeing White,” and Season 4 on the history of American democracy. Kumanyika’s work has been recognized with several prestigious honors including the George Foster Peabody Award (2018) for Uncivil and The Media Literate Media Award (NAMILE) for Scene on Radio (2021). In 2021, he received the Union of Democratic Communications’ Dallas SMythe Award for his career accomplishments and advocacy. Kumanyika studied mass communications and critical media studies at The Pennsylvania State University’s Donald Bellisario College of Communication where he earned his Ph.D.
Maybel Marte
Maybel Marte is Managing Director and Head of US Credit Product Strategy for BlackRock's Global Credit Business. Ms. Marte is responsible for portfolio solutions, client servicing and product development across Private and Public Credit. She also leads our broader fundraising efforts and client engagement with a focus on Institutional Clients. Before becoming the Head of US Credit Product Strategy, Ms. Marte was the Head of US Leveraged Finance Product Strategy within BlackRock's Global Credit Platform. As the Senior Strategist, she focused on developing credit solutions for both institutional and retail clients, across our Bank Loans, High Yield Bonds, CLOs, as well as our multi-asset suite. In that role, she was also responsible for product development, marketing and client service. Prior to joining BlackRock in September 2017, Ms. Marte was a Senior Vice President at PIMCO in the US Institutional Client Management Group. While at PIMCO from 2010 to 2016, Ms, Marte was responsible for servicing and marketing to large corporations, multi-national agencies and non-profit organizations. As a client strategist, Ms. Marte focused on delivering customized investment solutions to institutional clients, including duration overlays/underlays, asset allocation optimization, interest rates and equity-based tail-risk hedging programs, and multi-asset credit solutions. Prior to joining PIMCO in early 2010, Ms. Marte held positions in fixed income institutional sales for over a decade; the majority of which was spent at Goldman Sachs on the High Yield-Distressed Bond desk. Ms. Marte received her Masters of Business Administration from The Wharton School and Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Wellesley College.
Michael Pickrum
Michael Pickrum is a builder at heart—of companies, teams, and ideas. With a career that has spanned media, tech, and education, he thrives at the intersection of creativity and operations. He is energized by helping others, traveling, and learning new things.
Denmark West
Denmark is the Chief Investment Officer of the Connectivity Ventures Fund. He is a frequent speaker and sometimes blogger on technology trends and business models. He has been referenced in books like “Stealing MySpace,” “The Facebook Effect,” and “Leapfrog: The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs.” He has been seen on the Today Show (NBC) and Squawk Alley (CNBC). Denmark was previously an angel investor with early investments in ALICE (sold to Expedia), Virgin Mega (sold to Nike) and Weatherbill/The Climate Corporation (sold to Monsanto). He currently advises K1 Investment Management, a $4B private equity fund, and the NBPA, the Union for NBA Players, Prior to co-founding Connectivity, Denmark was a President at BET and an Executive Vice President at Viacom Media Networks. Prior to Viacom, Denmark worked in various capacities at Microsoft including Corporate Development and Windows. He started his career on Wall Street with Smith Barney and Goldman Sachs, and received both his AB in Applied Mathematics and an MBA from Harvard University. Even though he used to complain all the time about traveling, he is definitely looking forward to traveling again.
