PORTFOLIO
Films
My films tell stories about big issues facing the environment, education, health, culture, and climate change.
A Tree Story: Gullah / Geechee Roots and Resilience
Director, Writer, Co-Producer, Cinematographer, Editor
Johns Islanders fight to hold onto their ancestral land, Gullah / Geechee culture, and trees amid the threat of land loss due to overdevelopment and climate change related sea level rise in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Their story is reflected in the fight to protect the Angel Oak, a beloved live oak tree that is over 400 years old and located on a former plantation on Johns Island.
Accolades: Best Student Film, AfroSouth Film Festival (2022); Official Selection, AfroSouth Film Festival (2022)
(*Please note this is the trailer, but the full film is 18 minutes long.)
Broken Land: Confronting Climate Change and Migration in Guatemala
Co-director, Co-producer, Cinematographer, Co-editor
Distribution: Pulitzer Center
Guatemala ranks as one of the most vulnerable countries to the climate crisis in Latin America, especially due to its location in the Dry Corridor of Central America. Such conditions are driving communities to the breaking point. Internal displacement and mass migration to the U.S. disrupt the family structure and etch away at cultural roots, heritage, and identity of communities in the largely Indigenous area in the Western Highlands. This film explores how community groups are developing solutions that address the complexities and human rights issues connected to climate change, environmental justice, and migration.
After the Storm: Pollution in the Potomac
Producer, Writer
Distribution: Maryland Public Television
Whenever it rains in Washington, D.C., raw sewage spills into the Potomac River because of the city’s outdated sewer system. These Combined Sewer Overflows release pollutants like fecal coliform bacteria and e. coli into the waterway sickening animals, fish, and humans, and depleting the oxygen levels causing harmful algal blooms. “After the Storm: Pollution in the Potomac” investigates the all-too-common problem of wastewater overflows, and reveals a remarkable network of underground tunnels being constructed below the nation’s capital to try to stem the toxic tide that threatens the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay.
Accolades: Telly Award Silver Winner - General TV (2020); Official Selection at the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (2021)
Civil Rights Learning Journey: Understanding Educational Inequality through History
Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor
The civil rights movement of the 1960s continues to shape equity issues in the U.S., and AIR staff and education leaders got to see this first-hand by participating in a civil rights learning journey organized by the Institute for Educational Leadership. After visiting historic sites from Jackson, Mississippi, to Birmingham, Alabama, participants had a better understanding of this legacy and how it affects their efforts to achieve educational equity for all students.
Supporting Students Through Response to Intervention
Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor
Response to intervention (RTI) is a multi-level prevention system to maximize student achievement and reduce behavioral problems. With RTI, schools use data to identify students at risk of poor learning outcomes, monitor student progress, provide and adjust evidence-based interventions when needed, and identify students with learning disabilities or other disabilities. In this video, Dia Jackson describes the importance of implementing RTI with fidelity and how she provides RTI coaching and professional development to schools so that they see gains in student achievement.
Improving Student Outcomes and Building Positive Relationships through the BARR Model
Producer, Camera (second)
Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) is an evidence-based strategy that uses research and real-time data to increase teacher effectiveness and improve student outcomes. An AIR evaluation found that the BARR model leads to better academic performance, fewer course failures, more courses attained and better relationships. This video shows how the BARR model is implemented at West Valley High School, in Hemet, CA.
Dual Language Programs Explained
Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor
In recent years, there has been an increased interest in dual-language programs, in which students receive instruction in both English and a partner language to help them acquire both. In this video, Diane August, AIR managing researcher, explains the benefits of dual language programs and some of the challenges to implementing them.
Leadership Coaching for School Improvement
Producer, Editor
School leaders can play a pivotal role in school improvement efforts. By increasing the capacity and stability of leaders and teachers, low-performing schools may improve student performance and increase graduation rates. This video explores a leadership coaching program at an Illinois high school, which has seen considerable improvements in areas such as student attendance, graduation rates, and instruction delivery systems.
LAC Reads Capacity Program: Improving Early Grade Reading in Latin America and the Caribbean
Director, Producer, Editor
Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, early grade reading attainment varies significantly. AIR leads the USAID-funded Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Reads Capacity Program in partnership with Juarez and Associates to research early grade reading and increase the size, scale and sustainability of reading interventions throughout the region. In this video, Rebecca Stone, AIR senior researcher and literacy specialist, and Josefina Vijil, early grade reading specialist with the program, talk about key findings from their work on the region’s first systematic review of the literature on early grade reading.
The Art of Coaching Better Math Instruction
Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor
Instructional coaching can promote more effective and engaging learning in the classroom. This video shows how coaching supports teachers and helps students learn critical math skills. It examines why it’s important to teach students not only how to do mathematical procedures but also to understand the concepts behind them.
A Voice for Sickle Cell Disease
Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor
Adults are living longer with sickle cell disease, but healthcare providers often lack the knowledge and training to appropriately care for them. In this video, Mandy David, a certified physicians assistant, talks about issues that adult patients face as she evaluates and treats them at the Johns Hopkins Sickle Cell Center for Adults.
