Our Staff
Debra Chasnoff
Executive Director and Senior Producer
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Debra Chasnoff is an Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work has fueled progressive social-change movements in many fields. She is a the executive director at GroundSpark and co-creator of The Respect For All Project, a program that produces media and training resources to help prevent prejudice among young people.
Her films in The Respect For All Project include: Let’s Get Real (2003; director/producer), a powerful documentary about young teens’ experiences with name-calling and bullying in which youth speak up about racial tensions, anti-gay taunting, sexual harassment and much more; That’s a Family! (2000; director/producer), which looks at family diversity from a kids’ perspective, and was screened at the White House and been embraced by scores of national children’s advocacy, education and civil-rights organizations; and It’s Elementary -Talking About Gay Issues in School (1996; director/producer), which was hailed as “a model of intelligent directing” by International Documentary and has served as a catalyst for schools all over the world to become more proactive in addressing anti-gay prejudice in the classroom.
Debra’s other film credits include the Oscar-winning Deadly Deception - General Electric, Nuclear Weapons & Our Environment (1991; director/producer), a crucial component of a successful international grassroots campaign to pressure GE out of the nuclear-weapons industry; Homes & Hands - Community Land Trusts in Action (1998; co-director), which is used extensively to inspire local communities to explore new models of creating permanently affordable housing; Wired for What? (1999; director/producer), part of the PBS series Digital Divide about the push to computerize education; Choosing Children (1984; director/producer), which explored the once seemingly impossible idea that lesbians and gay men could become parents; and, One Wedding and a Revolution (2004:Director/Co-producer), which captures the frantic days leading up to the bold political decision of San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom to start issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
Debra serves on the national advisory board for Frameline, the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, and Jewish Voices for Peace. She is a graduate of Wellesley College, lives in San Francisco, and is a mother of two.
Cristy Chung
Community Programs Manager
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Cristy Chung began working with GroundSpark as a facilitator in September 2003; and joined the staff full-time in September 2007. Cristy provides ongoing management and coordination of The Respect For All Project community based programs and outreach initiatives. With twenty years of experience working in the nonprofit sector she has worked extensively in the fields of diversity education, safe schools planning, cross-cultural service delivery, domestic violence intervention and prevention and creating supportive programs for lesbian/gay headed families.
“As a parent I am passionate about the need for hate-free, welcoming learning environments for our children. The Respect For All Project gives educators, families and the communities they live in an opportunity to ensure all children feel safe and supported.”
Alana Esquivel
Office Manager
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Alana Esquivel joined the GroundSpark team after uprooting from Santa Cruz, California in September 2007. In her role as Office Manager she oversees the many day-to-day operations of the busy office and works with the Financial Manager handling billing and expenses for the organization. With a B.A. in Film and Digital Media, years of administrative experience, a history of volunteer work in areas
of diversity, and a love for organizing (literally) Alana felt this position would be a great match for her. She has not been proven wrong.
“It had been a personal goal of mine to work for an organization that does something I truly believe in. GroundSpark is made up of a dedicated staff that creates an astonishing amount of work which in turn, moves the world forward in a positive way.”
Susan Freundlich
Senior Strategic Consultant
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Susan Freundlich is currently serving as a Senior Strategic Consultant for GroundSpark. She brings more than two decades of experience in nonprofit management, fund development, communications and organizational development to her work with GroundSpark.
Most recently Susan served as Vice President for Strategic Partnerships and Communications at the Women’s Foundation of California where she led fund development and external communications activities for the foundation. Susan founded and developed several successful grantmaking donor circles including the Race, Gender and Human Rights Circle focusing on the criminal justice system and its impact on women and girls, and the Women of Silicon Valley donor circle making grants to support leadership and economic development.
Throughout her career Susan has worked with a variety of nonprofit organizations working to build a more just, equitable and sustainable world including Groundspark, Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, UC Berkeley SAGE Scholars Program, Brit Tzedek v’Shalom: Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, Citizen Film, The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Redwood Records, and MADRE for Human Rights.
Amy Scharf
Director of Educational Programs
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Amy Scharf joined GroundSpark in April 2008. As our new Director of Educational Programs, she oversees the day-to-day work and the visionary expansion of GroundSpark’s core program, the Respect for All Project. Amy previously served as Program Director for California Tomorrow where she led a statewide training program on diversity and equity for afterschool programs and spearheaded efforts to inform local and state afterschool policy initiatives. Amy directed a three-year national study on equity issues in the afterschool field and is co-author of Pursuing the Promise: Addressing Equity, Access and Diversity in Afterschool and Youth Programs and Our Roots, Our Future: Affirming Culture and Language in Afterschool and Youth Programs. She holds a PhD in Social and Cultural Studies in Education from the University of California at Berkeley and is an experienced trainer, teacher and policy analyst.
Brittney Shepherd
Staff Producer
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Brittney Shepherd loves the idea of media as a means of connection. With a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, Brittney was a founding member of the student run production team MothaBase Productions whose short film entitled Hurricane Katrina: Ya’ll Know Where the Vietnamese Were? is used as a discussion tool for community groups, policy makers, and educators around the country concerning the issues of language access and disaster preparedness for immigrant communities. Since then, she has gone on to work on many independently produced documentaries such as Ask Not, and A Village Called Versailles. Appreciating the power and strength of filmmaking, Brittney is excited to be at GroundSpark helping complete Straightlaced.
Helen S. Cohen, former co-director and co-founder of The Respect For All Project, is now an independent producer. To contact Helen S. Cohen, e-mail Helen@openstudioproductions.com.