Gabrielle Carteris

FIA President
SAG-AFTRA Immediate Past President

Gabrielle Carteris was elected president of the International Federation of Actors, or FIA, in May 2021. She is the immediate past president of SAG-AFTRA, where for more than five years she headed the union of 160,000 actors, recording artists, dancers and broadcasters. Before SAG and AFTRA merged in 2012, Carteris served in leadership positions in both unions, as well as on the merger committee.  

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Jack Lerner

Clinical Professor of Law

Jack Lerner is a clinical professor of law and the director of the Intellectual Property, Arts, & Tech Clinic at the UC Irvine School of Law. 

In 2016, Professor Lerner received the California Lawyer Attorney of the Year award for his work helping filmmakers and authors.

Tasha Nesbitt

WIFSFBA Past President

Tasha Nesbitt is the founder of Tasha.Media, a video marketing company dedicated to using storytelling as a tool for transformation. With over a decade of experience in video production, Tasha has built a reputation for crafting brand-specific content that drives engagement, sparks results, and fosters a strong sense of community. Her approach helps businesses, nonprofits, and organizations tell their unique stories in a way that resonates with audiences.

Tasha continues to help businesses, throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, to harness the power of storytelling, creating high-quality commercial videos that deliver tangible results and make a lasting impact on communities.

Lois Vossen

Independent Lens Executive Producer

Lois Vossen is the founding executive producer of Independent Lens on PBS. Each season, the series co-produces and presents 25-30 original feature documentaries, shorts, journalism videos with legacy journalism outlets, and docuseries including Philly D.A. Independent Lens has received 27 Emmy Awards, 28 Peabody Awards, 11 duPont Columbia Journalism Awards, 10 Academy Award nominations, and was honored with the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2022 International Documentary Association (IDA) Award for Best Continuing Series, along with 5 additional nominations. 

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Richard J. Lee

Attorney, Founding Partner at Richard J. Lee Law Group, P.C.

Richard is a founding partner at Richard J. Lee Law Group. He has been an attorney in private practice for more than 40 years. He is a California State Bar Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. He also advises independent filmmakers, nonprofit organizations, and small business owners, including on matters involving buying, starting, operating or selling their businesses. He emphasizes thorough planning that anticipates possible complications and works vigorously to solve problems once they have arisen.

He helped establish the Film Arts Foundation in 1976 and served as its counsel until 2008, when he assisted in the transition of the services it provided to independent media professionals to SFFilm. He was also one of the first panel members of California Lawyers for the Arts and continues to be on the panel.

He graduated from Stanford University in 1969 with a B.A. in Sociology with honors and with distinction. He received his J.D. from Berkeley Law in 1974.