Larry Laboe is Co-Founder and Executive Director of NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA), an organization championing filmmakers and storytellers worldwide. Larry is a member of the Producers Guild of America and has been a Faculty Member at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) and L Art University. He is a Board Member of the BRIC Foundation and Film Festival Alliance (FFA) and a Committee Member of SAGindie. Larry has produced content directed by talent such as Joseph Gordon Levitt, for some of the world’s leading brands, networks and studios, including Disney, NBC, VEVO, Dailymotion, MTV, DEFY Media, Comedy Central, Verizon, Amazon, Complex Media, Mountain Dew, Samsung, Coca-Cola, Verizon and Smuckers. These productions have been official selections at top festivals including South by Southwest (SXSW) and have won major awards including a BANFF World Media Festival Rockie Award.

Tahnee Freda is a writer, instructor and arts administrator in Los Angeles. She's currently the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Music and Art School, as well as the Managing Director at Ojai Playwrights Conference.

Tahnee is a graduate of the University of Southern California's School of Dramatic Arts, and holds a BA in Visual and Performing Arts Studies with a concentration in Playwriting.  She received her certification in Nonprofit Management from the Center for Nonprofit Management in 2023 and is a member of the Teaching Artists Guild's National Advisory Committee.

Amy Eriksen has had a long career in arts education and passion for bringing the arts to all ages and groups. She has worked in the non-profit and education sectors for over 25 years and loves how arts and education convene at Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro, where she serves as Executive Director. Amy is dedicated to community and collaboration; she spends much of her free time on community task forces and is the Past Chair of the Long Beach Human Relations Commission. Amy holds a BA in Music Education from the University of Redlands. In addition, she holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Management.

Jennifer Fukutomi-Jones currently serves as Principal Arts & Culture Administrator with the City of Glendale’s Library, Arts and Culture department, and works directly with the Arts and Culture Commission to oversee public art initiatives of the Urban Art Program. Prior to working with the City of Glendale, Jennifer held previous roles with Arts for LA, Ford Theatre Foundation, The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company and LA Opera. Jennifer received her B.A. in American Literature and Culture with a minor in Theatre from UCLA.

Piper Gourley is a creative writer from Houston, Texas residing in Southern California. Their work has been published in Joyland, The Rumpus, Michigan Quarterly Review: Mixtape, Quarterly West, X-R-A-Y, Glassworks, TIMBER, Lindenwood Review, and elsewhere. They are a graduate of the University of Houston’s undergraduate Creative Writing program, where they won the Bryan Lawrence Prize for Nonfiction and the Provost Prize for Creative Writing. In 2023, they completed their MFA in Creative Writing through Chapman University with a focus on memoir. Piper is the Editor-in-Chief of The Institutionalized Review, a literary magazine which aims to elevate writing and artwork from formerly institutionalized, hospitalized, and incarcerated individuals. They are enthusiastic about supporting creatives in their unique and vulnerable journeys.

Over 20 years ago, Karen Mack created the South LA based nonprofit LA Commons based on a vision of communities where everyone has the access and freedom to express themselves culturally and to tap the power that creativity provides.  Since that time, she and her team have worked in neighborhoods across the city, implementing artistic programs that foster interaction, dialogue and collaboration for a better Los Angeles.  LA Commons plays a unique role as a facilitator of local engagement in arts and culture as well as in other important issues - health, transportation and education to name a few, giving residents and particularly young people, a voice and an onramp to making positive change. Prior to work with LA Commons, she served as a Public Service Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where she researched the role of culture in community building.  She holds an MPA from Harvard University and an MBA from the John Anderson School of Management at UCLA and is currently a mayoral appointee to the City of Los Angeles Planning Commission (Equity Chair) and serves on the board of California Humanities.