Geena Davis

Founder

One of Hollywood’s most respected actors, Geena Davis is recognized for her tireless advocacy of gender equality in media nearly as much as for her acting accomplishments. She is the Founder and Chair of the non-profit Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which is successfully influencing film and television content creators to dramatically increase the percentages of female characters — and reduce gender stereotyping — in media targeting children 11 and under.

In 2015, Davis launched the Bentonville Film Festival (BFF), an unprecedented initiative in support of women and diversity in the entertainment industry and serves as it’s Co-Founder and Chair. BFF provides a platform to significantly boost the commercial value of content produced and starring minorities and women. This initiative is the only film festival to provide guaranteed theatrical, television, digital and home entertainment distribution for the winners.

In 2012, Davis was appointed Special Envoy for Women and Girls in ICT for the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU). She is an official partner of UN Women, working toward their goal of promoting gender equality and empowering women worldwide. Davis is also the Chair of the California Commission on the Status of Women.

As an actor, Davis has appeared in several roles that have become cultural landmarks. Earning the 2006 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series Drama, Davis broke ground in her portrayal of the first female President of the United States in ABC’s hit show “Commander in Chief.”

In 1989, Davis received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Lawrence Kasdan’s The Accidental Tourist. She was again nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe for her performance as Thelma in Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise. Davis went on to receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress for her work in A League of Their Own. Other credits include iconic films such as Tootsie, The Fly, Beetlejuice The Long Kiss Goodnight, and Stuart Little.

Few have achieved such remarkable success in as many different fields as Davis has: she is not only an award winning actor, but a world-class athlete (at one time the nation’s 13th-ranked archer, and a semi-finalist in the Olympic Trials), and a member of the genius society Mensa. Davis holds honorary degrees from Boston University, Bates College and New England College.

Madeline Di Nonno

CEO, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media

Madeline Di Nonno is the Chief Executive Officer of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Di Nonno leads the Institute’s strategic direction, research, education, advocacy, financial and operational activities. Di Nonno brings thirty years of successful international executive and strategic advisor leadership experience in entertainment, non-profit, digital and consumer packaged goods industries.

Previously, Di Nonno served as President and CEO of On The Scene Productions, a leader in digital content creation and distribution. Di Nonno lead the company’s new business development and digital content platforms for the entertainment, healthcare, and consumer products clients such as Nike, Gatorade, Iconix, and PepsiCo.

Prior to On The Scene, Di Nonno served in executive marketing positions for Anchor Bay Entertainment/Starz Media and Echo Bridge Home Entertainment where she led global brand marketing, branded franchise development, acquisitions, digital media initiatives for home entertainment and limited theatrical releases in North America, United Kingdom and Australia. 

As Executive Vice President and GM for Nielsen EDI, a leading research provider of Theatrical distribution measurement and information, Di Nonno drove innovations in digitizing product offering, new business and product development and studio theatrical distribution and exhibition client management.
Previously, Di Nonno served as Senior Vice President, Marketing Alliances and Digital media at the Hallmark Channel, and launched the cable channel and established marketing, digital media, e-commerce, and corporate alliance functions.  Di Nonno developed revenue-generating, integrated marketing programs with companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Fuji, Mail Boxes Etc., Universal Pictures, Target, Sony Pictures, Chrysler, and Baskin Robbins.  Di Nonno pioneered the Channel’s digital media initiatives.

Di Nonno served eight years at Universal Studios Home Video as Vice President, Strategic Marketing where she established the company’s first Digital Platforms and marketing campaigns. Di Nonno supervised marketing campaigns for all theatrical, direct-to-video and library releases and spearheaded Universal’s launch into DVD and interactive.

Di Nonno began her career at ABC Television Network in corporate publicity working on the marketing communications campaigns for mini-series, sports and daytime, including “The Winds of War,” “The Thorn Birds” and the 1984 Olympics.

Di Nonno is a requested keynote speaker at global industry conferences, corporations, academic institutions, film festivals and organizations such as AdWeek, Cannes Lion, CinemaCon, CTAM, Digital Hollywood, CES, The White House, The Department of State, UNESCO, the United Nations. Di Nonno has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, Huffington Post, Kidscreen, Fast Company, and Wired Magazine.

Education
Di Nonno holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University.

Board Affiliations
Di Nonno serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Television Academy Foundation; Board of Directors: Population Media Center, and Promundo U.S.; Advisory Board for PBS Kid’s Ready Jet Go, GameChanger Films; Strategic Advisor, YouTube Red. Di Nonno served as President of the Glass Lions Jury for the Cannes Lions 2016.

Lesley Chilcott

Filmmaker, Producer
An Inconvenient Truth, Code Girl

Lesley Chilcott is an award winning filmmaker and a producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Other notable Chilcott-produced films include the rock documentary It Might Get Loud and Waiting for Superman, for which she was awarded a win by the PGA for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Documentary. Chilcott directed the feature documentary, A Small Section of the World which played in theaters, the UN in Geneva, and ran for several months at the World Expo Milan. Her viral short film Codestars garnered over 20 million views online and was the number one video on youtube.com for two days. In 2015 Chilcott released the documentary Codegirl, the first movie to have its premiere on youtube.com before going to theaters and other outlets. Lesley is an Executive Producer on An inconvenient Sequel, currently in theaters.

Amy Mainzer

Astronomer, Research Scientist
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Dr. Amy Mainzer is a Senior Research Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  Her scientific interests include asteroids, comets, astronomical telescope and camera design, and science education. She served as the deputy project scientist for NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission, an Earth-orbiting telescope designed to survey the entire sky in heat-sensitive infrared wavelengths.  Following successful completion of its prime mission, this telescope was renamed NEOWISE and given a new mission to characterize asteroids and comets; Mainzer is the principal investigator. She is also the principal investigator of the proposed Near-Earth Object Camera mission, which would carry out a comprehensive survey of asteroids and comets using a dedicated space telescope.  Prior to joining the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2003, she designed and built the fine guidance sensor for NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope as an engineer at Lockheed Martin.  She serves as the curriculum consultant and on-camera host for the PBS Kids series Ready Jet Go!, an animated and live action children’s show aimed at teaching space and Earth science to kids as young as 4 years old.

Greta McAnany

Co-Founder/COO
Blue Fever

Greta McAnany is an award-winning filmmaker and entrepreneur. A proud graduate of the University of Southern California, she began her career in film by starting her own production company and producing the feature film Bite Size. It was released on TV, digital platforms like Netflix/Amazon, screened internationally and was featured in The Washington Post and on the Katie Couric show on ABC. After experiencing the extreme gender bias in Hollywood, Greta co-founded the video streaming platform for millennial women: Blue Fever. She is a recipient of film grants from Morgan Freeman and his Rock River Foundation, Chicken & Egg Pictures and the prestigious Thornton Foundation. Beyond her work in film, she has produced award-winning live newscasts and reported as a theatre critic for LA Stage Times, where she interviewed Oscar and Tony-winning writers, directors and actors. Because she believes in giving back (and karma), Greta serves on the Inspired Stars Council for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s non-profit After School All-Stars. She is dedicated to empowering young women through media and is addicted to musical theatre and nachos.

Sadaf Muncy

Vice President, Entertainment
MGA Entertainment

Diana Skaar

Head of Business Development
Robotics at X

Diana is the Head of Business Development for Robotics at X, formerly known as Google X. Here she leads business development efforts for moonshot solutions involving robotic technologies. Despite having imposter syndrome all throughout college, Diana is proud to have graduated with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from UCLA and is passionate about increasing the diversity pipeline into tech. As part of this effort, Diana is currently serving on the Cartoon Network’s STEAM Board of Advisors which is focused on inspiring kids through the intersection of technology + creativity.