Shifting the Paradigm: Social Entrepreneurs and the Art of Fiction Film
Speakers
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President and Producer, Truth Aid
Mehret Mandefro draws on her interdisciplinary training as a physician and anthropologist to
create compelling narratives she calls "visual medicine." She is an Emmy-nominated producer,
writer, and director whose credits include the Sundance and Berlinale Audience Award winner
Difret, the New York Times Critic’s Pick Little White Lie, and the viral digital series The Loving
Generation. Mandefro is the co-founder of the production company Truth Aid, which produces
inspiring and empowering multi-media content to affect social change. Truth Aid recently
produced BET’s Content for Change Black X Jewish a 30-minute news special that examines
the connections between anti-Semitism and racism. She is also showrunner of Ethiopia’s
first-ever teen drama series Yegna, and recently executive produced the American Masters
feature documentary film How It Feels To Be Free which was nominated for an Emmy for best
documentary film/series. Mandefro’s global work at the intersection of social impact and media
earned her a spot on Variety’s 2021 most impactful women in global entertainment list. She has
an AB in Anthropology from Harvard University, an MD from Harvard Medical School, a Masters
in Global Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as a Fulbright
Scholar, and a PhD in Anthropology from Temple University. She is an alumna of Sundance
New Voices Lab, EAVE Producers Workshop, American Film Showcase and is a member of the
American Television Academy. She lives between Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Alexandria,
Virginia with her husband and three children. For more information on Mehret, please visit
DrMehret.com and TruthAid.com.
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John Marks is the founder and Managing Director of Confluence International, an Amsterdam-based NGO that specializes in Track II diplomacy and TV production to promote social change. Until 2014, he was President of Search for Common Ground (SFCG), the world’s largest peacebuilding NGO, which he founded in 1982. SFCG was nominated for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. John also founded Common Ground Productions (CGP) and has produced or executive-produced TV series in more than 20 countries. He is a Visiting Scholar in Peacebuilding and Social Entrepreneurship at Leiden University in the Netherlands. With his wife, Susan Collin Marks, he is a Skoll Awardee in Social Entrepreneurship, and, additionally, he is an Ashoka Senior Fellow. A best-selling, award-winning author, he graduated from Cornell University and was a Fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School. He has an honorary PhD from the UN’s University of Peace in Costa Rica.
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Founding Director, International Resource for Impact and Storytelling
An award-winning independent media field builder, Cara is Founding Director of the International Resource for Impact and Storytelling (IRIS), a donor collaborative supporting creative visual storytelling and narrative analysis in the public interest. IRIS is a grantee partner of Skoll Foundation. Cara served at Ford Foundation as Director, JustFilms, piloting a network-focused, narrative-informed, cultural grantmaking strategy which was integrated across Ford’s ten regions and global strategies. She was Director, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, funding dozens of non-fiction films, co-founded Doc Society’s Good Pitch event and training model and created the Stories of Change initiative with the Skoll Foundation. Cara has received multiple Emmy Awards, George Foster Peabody Awards, and duPont-Columbia Awards.She received a Webby Award for creating P.O.V.’s Borders, a pioneering web series on PBS. She is a member of AMPAS and the WGA and lives in New Jersey, USA.
