Team

Tom Shepard, Founding Executive Director

Tom has been directing and producing documentary films for over 20 years. His film SCOUT’S HONOR won two top awards at the Sundance Film Festival and broadcast nationally on the PBS program P.OV. He also directed and produced KNOCKING, a film about Jehovah’s Witnesses, which broadcast nationally on the PBS series Independent Lens. His most recent film UNSETTLED about LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival and aired nationally on the World Channel’s Doc World. Tom’s film WHIZ KIDS and his collaboration THE GROVE with Andrew Abrahams also both aired nationally on public television. All of Tom’s films have received acclaim in dozens of publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Denver Post among others. Previously, Tom worked as an editor at National Public Radio for Linda Wertheimer. He graduated from Stanford University where he majored in biology and film. Tom is also the series producer for ‘Our Time’ on public television. 

Mona Adelgren, Operations Coordinator

Mona graduated from Boston University with a degree in electrical engineering. Her goal as a filmmaker and storyteller is to shine a spotlight on the ordinary to illuminate its beauty, a theme strongly present in her debut documentary short film FOUND ART(IST). As a filmmaker, amateur photographer and musician who is also a highly experienced communications systems engineer, she believes filmmaking provides the perfect medium in which to blend her technical skills and creative passions. She is enthusiastic and grateful for the unique opportunity the Youth Documentary Academy affords her to assist youth in finding their voices and telling their powerful stories.

Eric Risher, Lead Instructor & ‘Our Time’ Series Editor

Ashley Cornelius, Lead Instructor & Facilitator

Ashley Cornelius is the first Black Pikes Peak Region Poet Laureate. She is a nationally recognized and multi-award winning spoken-word poet, facilitator, cultural worker and keynote speaker. Ashley published her debut poetry collection “Translations of the Soul’ in 2024. She is also a Licensed Professional Counselor and uses poetry as her modality for healing. Ashley has seven years experience working in hospitals and healthcare as a therapist in adolescent inpatient psych while managing a staff-wide resilience program. She is also a community organizer, a two-time Tedx speaker, opener for the former U.S. Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo and performer for the Grandmother of Juneteenth, Opal Lee. Ashley’s work has been featured at the Gallery of Contemporary Art and the Colorado Springs Pioneer’s Museum. She is also the Co-Director of Poetry719, a Black-led arts organization lifting the voices of BIPOC and marginalized communities through art. Since 2021, she has led story workshops and moderated courageous conversations for YDA. In 2024, she joined our teaching staff as a lead instructor. 

Mari Moxley, Senior Advisor & Facilitator

Mari’s strength is moving an idea through all stages of production. She collects and connects seemingly disparate concepts, harmonizing what she learns into Story. Her work includes congressional campaigns, suicide prevention efforts with the city of Colorado Springs, mental health awareness projects for the U.S. Air Force, educational campaigns with the DoD and NATO, and documenting breakthroughs in the medical and space fields. Her background in clinical social work and philosophy drives her to seek surprise in conversation and craft film stories that illustrate the inherent value in diverse human perspectives. In YDA, she has hosted premieres, organized teen mental health fairs, taught video production on our faculty, edited award-winning YDA films, designed outreach and engagement collaterals, and mentored youth. 

Kathy Stults, Impact & Engagement

Kathy has spent 43 consecutive years working with at risk youth in school settings including opening up a school for girls rescued from sex trafficking in 2015. She has been a volunteer for the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Institute (RMWFI) for 18 years. She started the Youth Outreach Program for the Institute and it continues to bring filmmakers and youth together in the Pikes Peak region. Kathy also serves as the Chair of the Development Committee for the RMWFI and is on the board of the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak region. 

Amanda Hill, Instructor & Program Associate

BAmanda Hill is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, TX.  She completed a Ph.D. in Texts & Technology at the University of Central Florida, and while there, she conducted research for the School of Visual Arts and Design and the College of Arts and Humanities. She holds an M.F.A. in Theatre from the University of Central Florida and a B.A. in Theatre from Susquehanna University. Amanda grew up in the mountains near Colorado Springs and returns every summer to teach and produce in the Youth Documentary Academy. 

Charla Ogaz Almeida, Instructor

Charla was born in Pueblo, Colorado, and was raised between Pueblo, Amarillo, Texas, and Colorado Springs. She attended Emerson Junior High School and graduated from William J. Palmer High School. She attended Colorado College for two years and then finished her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. In 2000, she completed her doctorate in History of Consciousness from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and began teaching Women’s Studies as an assistant professor at San Jose State University. In 2004, she married a soldier and began focusing full-time on mothering and volunteer service to military families. In 2015, she completed her Masters degree in Counseling Psychology from Bowie State University through the University of Maryland University College Europe. After returning to Colorado Springs in the summer of 2015, she began her private practice in mental health counseling, coaching, and consulting. Charla’s professional experience includes attention to human identity development, experiences of social stratification, and the creative process. During her first graduate career, she was fortunate to develop expertise in visual, media and popular American cultures.

Aaron Burns, Lead Instructor (emeritus)

A former actor, Aaron decided to study filmmaking at Chapman University where he earned an MFA. He went on to work in Los Angeles for the Director Morgan Neville, as an assistant on THE COOL SCHOOL (PBS documentary) and on Todd Snider music videos. He was Assistant Editor and Screenwriter on THE BATTALION, a web-based series that chronicles the real-life challenges of firefighters across the country. He served as co-editor on JOURNEY WITH MY MOTHER, a documentary from the late Richard Kassebaum. Aaron served on the faculty of the Colorado Film School in Denver where he taught film production. He taught in YDA for eight years and co-produced/edited numerous award winning films before he passed away in July of 2021. 

Eva Brzeski, Instructor/Editor

Eva Ilona Brzeski is the writer, director and editor of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning films THIS UNFAMILIAR PLACE, 24 GIRLS, and CHINA DIARY (911) and the producer, director and editor of the underground sensation LAST SEEN, written and co-produced by Holiday Reinhorn. Eva edited the documentary feature UNDER OUR SKIN as well as the TV shows The Real World, The Simple Life and many documentary and narrative films. She lives in Northern California, where she works as an editor and is completing a lifelong project, DAUGHTERLAND, which is scheduled for completion in 2023. 

Kathryn Eastburn, Instructor

Freelance journalist and author Kathryn Eastburn, MFA, was co-founder and editor of the Colorado Springs Independent, where her work garnered numerous state, regional, and national journalism awards. Her features, reviews, and interviews have appeared in newspapers and magazines across the U.S., including the Denver Post, Saveur, and Texas Highways. The author of twobooks of literary nonfiction, Eastburn is visiting professor of Creative Nonfiction Writing and Journalism at The Colorado College and a faculty member at Denver’s Lighthouse Writers Workshop where she teaches memoir and personal essay writing.

Suzan Beraza, Instructor

Suzan was born in Jamaica and raised in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Her thought-provoking films challenge viewers to examine their lives and consider the impact of their choices. Social and environmental issues pervade her work, including her recent highly acclaimed films BAG IT and URANIUM DRIVE IN. Beraza’s films have appeared on PBS, the Documentary Channel and at many festivals around the world, winning numerous awards. Founder of the Telluride Repertory Theater Company (1990), Beraza worked as a theater director for 20 years. She created Reel Thing Productions, an independent media company and has taught film and video in Telluride where she is based.

Gino Canella, Instructor/Editor

Gino Canella is a media researcher, filmmaker, and instructor. Gino earned his doctorate in Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2018. As part of his dissertation, Gino produced a documentary film, Radical Labor, that profiled labor unions and community organizers in Denver, Colorado. Gino’s research and creative projects examine how activists use media production to interrupt social, political, and journalistic discourses about race and labor and distribute their media in ways that foster meaningful social relationships amongst progressive grassroots groups. From 2004 to 2011, Gino worked as a video journalist in local television news, and in September 2018, joined the faculty at Emerson College as Assistant Professor of Community Multimedia Journalism.

Board of Directors 

Cassandra Walton, Executive Director, Pikes Peak Suicide Prevention Partnership
Will Stoller-Lee, Executive Director of TDB Family Foundation
Karen Walldorf, Technical Director, Rocky Mountain Women’s Film
Betsy Dean, Treasurer, Rocky Mountain Women’s Film

Advisors (2013-2021)

Alexis Miller, CS School District 11
Amber Coté, Center for Nonprofit Excellence
Amber Ptak, YellowBird Consulting
Birdie Miller, Community Advocate
Charla Ogaz Almeida, Heart Mind Soul Services
Chris Tessarowicz, CALM Foundation
Dylan Nelson, Film and Media Studies at Colorado College
Heather Carroll, Joseph Henry Edmondson Foundation
Hillary Hienton, Capstone Investment Financial Group
Jeff Stachel, Community Advocate
Kate Perdoni, Rocky Mountain PBS
Linda Broker, Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Institute
Mark and Angelia DeLay, Mark DeLay Real Estate
Michelle Asher, MK Communique
Suzanne Holland, Platinum Group Realtors
Tara Thomas, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College