Festival Organizers

• Sara Beresford

  

  Festival Director and Lead Programmer

  Sara grew up in the Seattle area and came to Athens in 1997 to earn a master’s degree in Conservation Ecology and Sustainable Development. After graduation she moved to Washington DC to work for an international non-profit. While traveling to remote corners of the globe, she had some time to gaze at her navel, and – among other things – contemplated going to film school. Starting a family put that idea on the back burner, and also led her to move back to Athens, where she disappeared into the fog of early parenthood for a couple of years until the EcoFocus idea took shape. Sara believes that film is a fantastic way to inform and inspire people about important issues. Despite the fact that organizing EcoFocus makes her want to tear her hear out sometimes, Sara loves supporting environmental filmmaking and independent film exhibition, and loves the local community that EcoFocus brings together.

• Nicholas Beshiri

  

  Programming and Print Traffic Intern

  Originally from Conyers, Georgia and a recent graduate of UGA in the Film Studies. Nicholas’s love for film most likely evolved from his mother and older brothers making him watch John Wayne classics such as The Quiet Man when he was a child. In his free time he enjoys running, biking and watching pretty much any documentary he can gets his hands on.

• Shandrea Evans

  

  Public Relations and Film Promotion Intern

  Shandrea is an undergraduate student at The University of Georgia. She is completing a double major in Marketing and Advertising as well as a minor in African American Studies. Because of her interest in the entertainment industry, particularly film and television, she studied abroad in Cannes, France last summer to participate in the Cannes International Film Festival. While igniting her passion for film this summer, she learned of the EcoFocus Film Festival from one of her professors. She then made it her mission to join the festival as an intern. She hopes to leverage her promotional skills as well as learn a few things about the festival business.

• Janet Frick

  

  Social Media Maven and Strategic Planning Committee Member

  Janet Frick is a UGA Psychology professor with personal and professional interests in children, nature, technology, and human-animal relationships. She first came to EcoFocus  through being drawn to films exploring these topics and their interface with environmental issues. She later became part of the EcoFocus team because of her ninja social media skills, and she also serves on the screening committee to evaluate potential festival films that explore children/families and animal/agricultural issues.

• Beth Gavrilles

  

  Public Relations and Website Helper

• Laura Hoffman

  

  Strategic Planning Committee Member

  Laura Hoffman brings her professional experience in film, theater, and dance to the strategic planning committee. She's worked in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and in distant locations such as Nepal and Siberia as a producer, performer and filmmaker. For Slamdance Film Festival, she functioned as sponsorship director in 1999 and On the Road inaugaral producer in NYC. She has two masters degrees in Psycotherapy and Landscape Architecture, both of which add to her ongoing exploration of the relationship between ourselves and the world around us. Born in Chicago, but now an official Athenian for 11 years, she lives with her husband Michael, daughter Bianca and a menagerie of pet friends.

• Amy Johnson

  

  Office and Event Planning Intern

  Amy is an undergraduate student at University of Georgia, studying biology and ecology, with emphasis in conservation.  When she's not in class, Amy works in the Entomology Department as a lab assistant and fosters dogs through Circle of Friends Animal Society. Amy was drawn to EcoFocus by her passion for educating others on environmental issues and exposing the cruel treatment of our food animals in the United States. 

• Katie Smith

  

  Strategic Planning Committee Member

  Born and raised in Athens, Katie Smith left a job with PBS in Reno, NV in 2006 and returned to her roots to pursue a master’s degree in conservation ecology and sustainable at the University of Georgia. Her shared interests in media and ecology drove much of her research in graduate school and also led directly to her participation with the EcoFocus team. She currently works as a video producer and editor at the University of Georgia’s Center for Teaching and Learning and hopes to lend some production know-how to the team.

• Matt Stevens

  

  Strategic Planning Committee Member

  A Georgia native, Matt Stevens is the Assistant Director of UGA Costa Rica, one of the University of Georgia's international operations whose core mission focuses on conservation research and various sustainability initiatives. Having received his B.A. in Theatre & Film Studies from UGA in 2003, Stevens went on to earn his M.S. in European Film Studies from Scotland's University of Edinburgh before returning to the Classic City. His background is primarily in teaching, though he also worked for years in television production before taking his position with UGA's Office of International Education.