Advisors
Jamie Allison
Jamie Allison is devoted to building a healthy, just, and vibrant society, one in which we work creatively and collaboratively to bring the benefits of inclusive community to all. Before joining the Walter & Elise Haas Fund as its Executive Director in 2018, Jamie helped lead the S. H. Cowell Foundation. She started there as Program Officer in charge of Youth Development in 2006. Her portfolio at Cowell steadily grew to encompass affordable housing and program-related investment management as she took the role of Senior Program Officer in 2012, then as Vice President Programs in 2016.When not at work, Jamie keeps active as a hiker, runner, and frequent attendee of film festivals and Major League Soccer games. She was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but feels at home around the globe, experiencing and volunteering in places from Benin to Peru. Jamie earned undergraduate degrees in Political Science, Economics, Spanish, and Humanities from the University of Tennessee and went on to receive her Masters from the University of California at Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. Her breadth of civic involvement includes serving on the board of The Whitman Institute, a philanthropy focused on promoting trust and equity, and serving as faculty for Northern California Grantmakers’ New Grantmakers Institute.
Owsley Brown III
Owsley Brown III is a documentary filmmaker and social entrepreneur whose work explores and promotes cultural, spiritual, and civic life. He is also closely engaged with sustainable agriculture and the beverage industry. Since 1993, Owsley has worked in the wine business and he is an active fifth generation shareholder of Brown-Forman, his family’s international spirits and wine company. Owsley’s films include Night Waltz, the story of American writer/composer Paul Bowles, which won the award for best documentary at the 15th Independent Spirit Awards, and Music Makes A City, which chronicled the improbable creation and triumph of the Louisville Orchestra in the 1950’s for PBS. His current project, Ke Kontan, is a heartfelt profile of the Holy Trinity Music School in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Owsley is known in his native city of Louisville as host and producer of the Festival of Faiths, a founding board member of the Kentucky School of Art and as an advisor to Mayor Greg Fischer on his compassion initiatives. Owsley is also on the boards of the Sustainable Food Alliance, Center for Interfaith Relations and Roxie Theater. Owsley graduated from the University of Virginia in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and their three children.
Debrah Farentino
Debrah Farentino is an American actress, producer and journalist. She began her career starring in the CBS daytime soap opera Capitol from 1982 to 1987, before moving to prime time with a female leading role in the ABC comedy drama series Hooperman (1987–88).
Farentino had starring roles in a number of dramatic series in 1990s, include Equal Justice (1990–91), Earth 2 (1994–95), EZ Streets (1996–97) and Get Real (1999–2000). Her other notable credits include 1993 comedy film Son of the Pink Panther, 1999 miniseries Storm of the Century, and well as Syfy comedy-drama Eureka (2006–2012).
Farentino has been producing documentary films since 2012 and is a sought after advisory and producer in the film industry today.
Natasha Deganello Giraudie
NATASHA DEGANELLO GIRAUDIE is a mother, filmmaker and teacher of nature practice. Through Micro-Documentaries she helped to pioneer the short film genre for humanitarian movements, filming in 30+ countries and reaching expansive audiences with her work. Her film ONE WORD SAWALMEM on youth, climate resilience and indigenous wisdom was a finalist in the Tribeca Film Institute short film program and was an official selection for a dozen festivals in the first three months of its release. It was also selected to be screened at two UNESCO events at Climate Week NY and also at the International Congress of Indigenous Languages in Cusco, Peru. Her experiential meditative film INMANENCIA was selected to be screened in festivals around the world from Boulder to Buenos Aires to Bhutan where it won the Audience Choice Award. Her series on overcoming homelessness in San Francisco, LET’S GET STREET SMART, organically reached 800k online viewers and 100 million households through cable distribution. As a teacher of nature-centered wellbeing, Natasha guides retreats for groups from the United Nations, Google and One World Ayurveda in Bali.
Marty Krasney
Marty Krasney, is the Founder of Dalai Lama Fellows, a global leadership development program that lives at the Contemplative Sciences Center.. Marty's prior work in the not-for-profit sector includes having served as the first director of the Aspen Institute Seminars (where he revivified the curriculum, edited six editions of Aspen Institute Readings and launched the Corporation in Society seminars), program director of the National Humanities Series, founding president of American Leadership Forum and executive director of The Coalition for the Presidio Pacific Center. His corporate employment includes directing public affairs at Levi Strauss & Co. and managing executive development at ARCO.
Marty has served on more than two dozen boards and advisory committees in the arts, education, human rights, international affairs, social justice and sustainable development. He has published poetry and short stories in American and British journals; is currently at work on two books, one about citizen sector culture and the other a long inquiry into vision and perspective; and continues to write poetry. He graduated with honors from Princeton University, pursued graduate work in English Literature at the University of Michigan and in Broadcasting and Film at Stanford, and earned an MBA from Harvard.
Amy Martinez
Amy Martinez is a Business & Financial Reporting Emmy nominated producer of documentary films, series and branded content. Her work can be seen on Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, PBS, The Huffington Post, National Geographic, MSNBC, Discovery, A&E Networks and more. “Paws in Prison,” one of the episodes she produced for the documentary series, That Animal Rescue Show (2020, Paramount +) with directors Richard Linklater and Bill Guttentag was an official selection for the 2020 Telluride Film Festival.
Amy has produced two feature documentaries. Farmland, directed by Academy Award winning director James Moll (2014, Netflix), spotlights six young farmers and ranchers and the high-risk, high reward of farming. Amy also produced A Whisper to a Roar (2012, Prime Video, director: Ben Moses), which tells the stories of activists in Egypt, Malaysia, Ukraine, Venezuela and Zimbabwe taking great risks to promote democracy in their countries. Amy has produced an award winning short narrative film, Roadside Assistance (2015) with director Bears Rebecca Fonté, which won best horror short at the SENE Film Festival, best science fiction short at the Apocalypse Later International Fantastic Film Festival, Best Horror/ Sci Fi Short Thriller at the High Desert International Film Festival and was a Louisiana Film Prize finalist.
Amy is a founding member of Like Clockwork Entertainment, a women-led content creation company. LCE takes a unique and forward-looking approach to storytelling by designing transmedia experiences across platforms telling stories from diverse perspectives, creating access to funding and forging more pathways to impact audiences.
Amy is pivoting to directing developing a new film at the intersection of sports, race and identity. She is also consulting for filmmakers.
Originally from South Texas, Amy is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. After living and working in Chicago and Los Angeles, Amy returned to her home state and currently lives in Austin.
Jamie Redford (dec.)
Jamie Redford is Co-founder and Chairman of The Redford Center, whose mission is to use the power of positive stories to effect real change. Jamie writes, directs, and produces for film and television. “I come from a long line of storytellers, so the idea of being compelled to make sense of things is essential to who I am and how I see the world,” he says. In the last two decades, he’s written, directed, or produced over a dozen films, including the award-winning documentaries Watershed, Toxic Hot Seat, and Mann v. Ford. He also wrote and directed the short comedy film Quality Time and wrote the screenplays for Cowboy Up and the PBS Mystery movie Skinwalkers. After surviving two liver transplants, Jamie launched the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness, a nonprofit dedicated to educating the public about the need for organ and tissue donation. His live music event, Share the Beat, has raised awareness and funds in cities throughout the United States.But it’s his involvement with The Redford Center where his passion for creating documentaries and action campaigns around issues truly shines. “Our role has always been to take complicated issues that are important and challenging and render them coherent, digestible, and hopefully inspiring so people can get engaged,” Jamie says. Since The Redford Center’s inception in the late nineties, Jamie has been at the forefront of the center’s work, not only creating thoughtful, strategic action campaigns, and making documentary films, but also guiding the vision of the center to continue to tell stories that move. “I just love meeting people and hearing their stories,” he says. “Being in the documentary filmmaking world ensures your life is one long continuing education course. You’re constantly learning more—not only about topics but also about human nature. And then to be able to apply a love of sound and vision into how you shape that content—that’s the icing on the cake.” Jamie Redford holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and film from the University of Colorado–Boulder and a master’s degree in literature from Northwestern University.