The Team Behind the Story

Before she died, Debra Chasnoff appointed a team of people to finish the PROGNOSIS - notes on living for her. She chose these people because of their skill-sets and the close friendship she had with them. Since the end of 2017, this team has volunteered countless hours to bring this film to life and realize Debra’s last wish.

Carrie Lozano is director of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program, and is an award winning documentary filmmaker and journalist. She was most recently director of the International Documentary Association's Enterprise Documentary and Pare Lorentz funds, where she supported more than 60 diverse films and filmmakers at the intersection of documentary and journalism. She is on the advisory board of U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, where she is an alumnus and has been a lecturer and editor in its documentary film and investigative reporting programs. Lozano was previously an executive at Al Jazeera America and a senior producer of the network’s investigative series Fault Lines.

Kate Stilley Steiner is the co-founder of the not-for-profit media organization, Citizen Film. Her most-recent producing credits include American Creed slated for a national PBS rollout in 2018, and editing credits include documentaries for PBS, The Learning Channel, ABC and Fox. Debra Chasnoff’s long-time collaborator, Kate edited several films with Chasnoff, including two in the Respect for All series, and they co-produced several titles together, including One Wedding and a Revolution.

Lidia Szajko is an award-winning independent filmmaker and film educator whose works have screened on public television and at festivals internationally. She served on the San Francisco Film Commission from 2001 – 2004. As a Member-Owner of New Day Films since 2004, she served on the Steering Committee from 2012-14. She joined the faculty of the Cinema Department at City College of San Francisco in 1999 and served as Chair from 2001 – 2015.

Joan Lefkowitz, a technologist since the 1970s, began with her work at Resource One, the first people’s computer center. Her career has included engineering jobs doing live sound, radio, television and video editing with one exhilarating year of editing Deadly Deception with Debra Chasnoff. In addition she has created and maintained websites for a variety of groups and individuals including a long stint as web manager at the SF Public Library. Her goals have always focused on getting free information to those who need it the most.

Nancy Otto is Debra Chasnoff’s wife and featured in PROGNOSIS - notes on living. She consulted on the final stages of Chasnoff’s films and on the administration of Groundspark. Nancy is also a senior consultant at Klein and Roth Consulting, working exclusively with nonprofit organizations to build and strengthen their individual donor programs. Nancy was the video editor for WTVD-TV News, an ABC affiliate, in Durham, NC. Nancy also is a conceptual artist working with blown glass she creates.