Staff, Board & Ambassadors

Ron Henderson

Founder/Director Emeritus

Ron Henderson is the co-founder of the Denver Film Society / Denver International Film Festival. He retired in in 2007, on the occasion of DFS’ 30th anniversary. For the past five years, he has served as a senior program consultant for the Starz Denver Film Festival. Ron is the recipient of the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the University of Colorado’s Distinguished Community Service Award, and the festival’s John Cassavetes Award. A former book editor at the Macmillan Company in New York, he is author of two books on film.

Kevin Smith

Chief Executive Officer

kevins@denverfilm.org

Amy Allison

Chief Administrative Officer

amyallison@denverfilm.org

Katherine Brothers

Senior Accounting Manager

katherine@denverfilm.org

Keith Garcia

Sie FilmCenter Artistic Director

keith@denverfilm.org

Matthew Campbell

Artistic Director

matt@denverfilm.org

Ambriehl Turrentine

Programming Manager

ambriehl@denverfilm.org

Amy Weiner Weiss

Senior Development Manager

amy@denverfilm.org

Eric Prather

Grants Coordinator

eric@denverfilm.org

Allison Heistand-Phelps

Graphic Designer

allison@denverfilm.org

Janna Parks

Marketing Coordinator

janna@denverfilm.org

Halea McAteer

Senior Manager of Events & Partnerships

Halea@DenverFilm.org

Becca Propper

Senior Partnerships Manager

becca@denverfilm.org

Esther Lopez

Events & Partnerships Coordinator

Esther@DenverFilm.org

Seth Degler

Volunteer Manager

Seth@Denverfilm.org

Russel Brewer

Senior Box Office Manager

russel@denverfilm.org

Anna Horn

Assistant Box Office Manager/Projectionist

anna@denverfilm.org

Aiden Pigg

Box Officer

Paris Haynes

Box Office & Bar Back

Sarah Pepe

Box Office & Concessions

Melissa Mooney

Sie FilmCenter Operations Manager

melissa@denverfilm.org

Asher Rosales

Sie FilmCenter Operations Manager

asher@denverfilm.org

Jack Virnich

Sie FilmCenter Operations Manager

jack@denverfilm.org

Tom George

House Manager & Concessions

Josie Van Ness

Bartender

Anthony Jones

Bartender

Carrie Mitchell

Conessionaire & House Manager

Kurt Konrade

Conessionaire

John Flathman

Conessionaire

Lauren Bourguignon

Conessionaire

Cris Elie

Senior Projection Booth Manager

cris@denverfilm.org

Billy Allyn

Projectionist

Chad Jimenez

Board Chair

Chad Jimenez is an attorney with Ballard Spahr LLP. He counsels companies such as FinTechs, banks, payment processors, and servicers, that specialize in offering financial products and services to consumers and small businesses. As a Denver native, Chad attended George Washington High School and is excited to give back to his community. He briefly left Colorado to attend Claremont McKenna College and University of Chicago Law School.

Amanda Blaurock

Vice Chair

Amanda Blaurock

Co-Founder/Executive Director, Village Exchange Center

Amanda has expertise in growth, accountability, and turnaround in both the private and public sectors. As a mission-based leader, she is known for innovative risk taking, creative problem solving for complex societal challenges and for fiscal accountability. Amanda has an acute ability to apply legal and management skills to create innovation, public policy, and system change and to test innovations to individual situations for future replication. Through a 20 year journey of representing the United States government, fortune 100 companies and family offices and co-founding and scaling an innovative non-profit, Amanda has developed a unique personal and professional accountability for relationship management resulting in client and philanthropic investments.

For her work during the COVID 19 pandemic, Amanda has been recognized as an Everyday Hero by the City of Aurora, by the Woman’s Foundation of Colorado as one of 9 Shero Woman Who Inspires Today and Every day and by the Salvadorenos Residiendo of Colorado “SARCO” for her dedication and commitment to the El Salvadoran Community.

Tom Downey

Treasurer

Tom Downey is a regulatory attorney and shareholder at Ireland Stapleton with significant experience as both a government official and a private practice attorney. Tom helps his clients navigate all aspects of regulatory law and is well-known for untangling complicated issues that are regulated by local, state, and federal agencies. The majority of his practice consists of advising and representing corporate clients in the administrative, transactional, and disciplinary processes related to liquor licensing, legalized marijuana, and professional licenses governed by the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. He also represents investors, creditors, developers, intellectual property holders, and others in and around licensed industries. In providing full services to his clients, Tom conducts a great deal of zoning, code enforcement, election law, and public policy work. He represents governments and nonprofits around the country. Additionally, Tom serves as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association. He routinely teaches continuing legal education courses and gives other presentations on regulatory and licensing law within the US.

Previously, Tom served in the Mayor’s cabinet, running Denver’s licensing department; created and ran the Business and Licensing Division of the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office; served as an Assistant Attorney General under AG Ken Salazar and ran the Children’s Museum of Denver. Tom started his legal career clerking for Judge D. Warren Donohue on the Circuit Court of Maryland. During law school, he spent the summer of 1992 in Budapest as a consultant to a founding member of FIDEZ, the first opposition party in Hungary, in preparing to redraft their constitution. He worked for US Congressman Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) prior to law school.

Previously, Tom chaired the boards of the Colorado Nonprofit Association and the Colorado Children’s Campaign and currently serves on the board of Civic Canopy. He is a Livingston Fellow of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation; managed the 2000 Gore/Lieberman presidential campaign in Colorado and led Senator Amy Klobuchar’s Colorado presidential primary campaign in 2020.

Tom and his wife, Lori Fox, have three young daughters, Cate, Ella, and Meg, who are amazing actors, singers, and songwriters.

Micah Gurard-Levin

Secretary

Micah Gurard-Levin serves as Senior Manager of Community Relations at Liberty Global, where he of the company’s community investment, corporate responsibility, and diversity, equity & inclusions. Micah initially joined Liberty Global in 2008 and has held roles in several areas of the business, including strategy, business development, and venture capital.

Outside of Liberty Global, Micah serves in several leadership capacities in the Denver community, with a particular focus on equity and inclusivity in education. He is an alumnus of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce Leadership Foundation and holds a Certificate in Corporate Social Responsibility from the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business.

Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, Micah has been residing in Colorado since 2008 where he enjoys skiing, playing ice hockey, cooking, and playing piano. Micah received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Anthropology from Middlebury College in 2008, where he also studied music composition and film.

Karen Brody

Karen Brody has served as a judge in the Second Judicial District since 2014. She has presided over a civil and criminal division in Denver District Court, and is presently the presiding judge of the domestic relations division. Before becoming a judge, she specialized in commercial litigation with an emphasis on real estate and eminent domain litigation, and litigated cases across the state of Colorado, the Colorado Court of Appeals, and Colorado Supreme Court as well as the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. She is particularly interested in improving Denver as well as the arts. In 2019, she served on the Denver Community Corrections Advisory Group to provide recommendations on how community corrections should look in Denver. She was a trustee for Historic Denver, Inc., serving as the chairman in 2014, has hosted a variety of artist support and fund-raising events for Opera Colorado, and has also participated in the Colorado Girl Scouts governance committee.

Sandy Holmes

Sandy Holmes has been involved in entertainment, marketing and strategy working with both the studios and independent cinema community. As Co-CEO of Screen Insider, providing independent theatres their next generation cinema toolkit or at 2656 Marketing, a company she co-founded in Los Angeles, CA, the goal remains providing the best marketing tools available for the cinema owner to reach the movie going public.

Sandy created a mobile marketing company 15 years ago that introduced SMS and MMS to the Newspaper industry by utilizing the vast content resources of The Village Voice. She then went on to develop 2656 Marketing, a new and exciting company focused on meeting the needs of the independent theater and movie studios. She has always believed that being open to new and varied ideas and opportunities is key to continued professional growth and achievement.

A New Yorker via Los Angeles, she relocated to Denver in 2019.

Sylvia Lambe

Sylvia Lambe is the founder and CEO of Lambe PR LLC, a public relations company that specializes in promoting cultural and racial equity projects for organizations.

She is a BBC award-winning broadcast producer and journalist with more than 20 years of experience. Her media career began in post-communist Poland at one of the first state deregulated radio stations. A synopsis of her Eastern European adventures, which includes her time as a judge on ‘The Sexiest Man in Poland ‘ contest, is detailed in a section of The Rough Guide’s -More Women Travel.

After relocating to Denver from the UK in 2017, her media skills have illuminated projects such as; The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African History and Culture curation tour, Black Pride, Colorado, NAACP, The DROP 104.7 amongst many others.

She has also created a RMPBS documentary film celebrating Dr. Justina Ford, Colorado’s first licensed female Black doctor, and produced live TV productions for the Juneteenth Music Festival and Youth Violence Prevention Week.

The equity and diversity agenda has always underpinned her media communications career.

So, as a ‘transplant,’ she continues to contribute her professional creativity to help organizations strategize their media campaigns while raising awareness of diversity issues.

Nicole Maholic

Nicole Maholic is an Account Director for Salesforce.com, one of the largest software companies in the world, where she consults with enterprise retail organizations on their marketing, commerce, sales and service strategies. At Salesforce, Nicole served on the employee survey team in the West and recently joined OutForce, one of several equality groups at SFDC that empowers underrepresented groups in the LGBTQIA community and encourages them to bring their authentic selves to work. Nicole is a published poet, writer and artist, and a longtime patron of the arts and film. She holds a BA in Fine Arts for Painting and a BS in Broadcasting Communications, both from the University of Tennessee. Hailing most recently from Nashville, Nicole moved to Colorado in 2017 to launch the Denver market for her previous company and fell in love with the weather and lifestyle. When not hunkered down in a movie theater, she spends the rest of her free time on a yoga mat, cooking for friends and traveling around the world with her boyfriend Ricky.

Gary Martinez

Deirdre McGuire

Deirdre McGuire has a passionate appreciation for both sides of the Atlantic hailing from both Denver, Colorado, and Dublin, Ireland. This duality helps explain her passion for both finance and film. By day Deirdre is a professional Wealth Advisor with the local firm, GHP Investment Advisors, a family office for the millionaire next door. Deirdre describes herself as a financial nurse, who supports the financial health of her clients. In her free time, Deirdre appreciates the creativity and diversity of film and Denver Film. Deirdre is a graduate of the University of Colorado, Denver with a degree in Sociology and maintains a Series 65 designation as an investment advisor. In addition to Denver Film, Deirdre supports Hope House of Colorado, Junior League of Denver, and World Denver.

Sheila O’Brien

Sheila O’Brien’s career has been quite varied, but most recently she was an international marketing executive for American Express, IBM and British Telecom, based in Paris, Amsterdam and London. Although growing up in the New York area she has long been connected to Denver where she was an Arvada West high school teacher, and also a Denver parks and recreation social worker with senior citizens and underprivileged youth. She first became involved with the Denver Film Festival in its inaugural year in 1978, and later served as the presenting sponsor of the Women +Film/Voices program and currently sponsors the UK/Ireland Cinematic Achievement Award which will debut at the 2017 Denver Film Festival. Sheila believes deeply in the mission of the Denver Film Society and its crown jewel, the Denver Film Festival that contributes so much to Denver’s vibrant cultural and educational scene.

Maren Stewart

As a founding principal of Taloma Partners, Maren provides senior-level strategic counsel, direction, and project management to a variety of non-profit and for-profit companies and can augment capacity by serving as an extension of a senior team as a fractional executive. Maren is an experienced and effective executive with a proven record of creating, directing, and executing successful public affairs and communications initiatives and campaigns over nearly three decades. She is highly competent in strategic development and integration; complex problem solving; reputation management; partner development and cultivation; public will-building; public policy and advocacy. Her focus is on developing and executing public engagement efforts through the lens of strategic communications and reputation management.

Prior to Taloma Partners, Maren served as the first president and CEO of a non-profit focused on creating the only statewide, multi-sector obesity prevention movement in the nation. She was responsible for developing and executing a strategy focused on local, state, and federal policy changes, augmented by a multi-media communications and marketing campaign. For nearly 12 years, Maren served as Vice President of External Affairs at Children’s Hospital Colorado, where she led a multitude of comprehensive public policy efforts, which included lobbying at the state and federal levels, and grassroots and media advocacy. While there, she developed nationally recognized advocacy campaigns and established the hospital as leader in child health policy and advocacy.

Maren has a BS in Journalism and a Juris Doctorate. She is admitted to the Colorado Bar and is accredited by the Public Relations Society of America. She has been active in nonprofit and civic organizations throughout her career, having served on numerous boards of directors, often in leadership positions. Currently, she serves on the board of directors for Denver Film and the Downtown Denver Partnership’s Denver Civic Ventures board of directors. She also is a member of Metro State University of Denver’s Community Cabinet and volunteers for We Don’t Waste. In the past she has been a Mayoral Appointment to the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs, a board member of the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation, the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts, and Chair of the Aurora Economic Development Commission, among others. Maren is a member of the Colorado Women’s Forum and has been recognized as one of the “Top 25 Most Powerful Women” by the Women’s Chamber of Commerce, named a “Woman of Distinction” by the Mile High Chapter of the Girl Scouts, listed as one of Denver’s “40 Under 40” by the Denver Business Journal and is a Livingston Fellow with the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation.

Mike Fries

President and CEO, Liberty Global

A 28-year veteran of the cable and media industry, Mike Fries has been President and CEO of Liberty Global since 2005. Under his leadership, Liberty Global has grown into the largest international cable company in the world. Mr. Fries was a founding member of the management team which launched the company’s international expansion over two decades ago, and has served in various strategic and operating capacities since that time. He sits on the board of Liberty Global, CableLabs® and the Cable Center, is a Cable Television Pioneer and an active Telecom Governor of the World Economic Forum. He was named Communications Executive of the Year (2010) by Communications Technology Professionals, U.S. National Entrepreneur of the Year in Media, Entertainment and Communications (2012) by Ernst & Young, Industry Leader of the Year (2010, 2013) by Digital TV Europe, and honored by 5280 Magazine’s Top of the Town Awards, Reader’s Choice as Top Humanitarian (2013).

AnnaSophia Robb

AnnaSophia currently stars as the young Carrie Bradshaw in the CW’s The Carrie Diaries, based on the novel by Candace Bushnell. The series, now in its second season, is a prequel to Sex and the City, and follows the character of Carrie Bradshaw during her high school years as she ventures to New York City to become a writer in the 1980s. Robb has previously starred in such films including The Space Between, Race To Witch Mountain, Jumper, The Reaping, A West Texas Children’s Story, Because of Winn Dixie, Spy School and the highly rated TV movie Samantha: An American Girl Holiday. Revered for her stand-out performances in the films Soul Surfer, Bridge to Terabithia, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sleepwalking, Robb has performed under the tutelage of directors Tim Burton, Doug Liman, Stephen Hopkins and Wayne Wang. She most recently co-starred in the motion picture The Way, Way Back with Steve Carell and Toni Collette, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will next be seen on the big screen in Khumba, set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Daniel Junge

Daniel Junge is an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker (and two-time nominee). His first feature-length film, CHIEFS, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival and broadcast nationally on PBS. His subsequent feature, IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and aired on over 50 broadcasters worldwide including PBS and the BBC. THEY KILLED SISTER DOROTHY, his third feature film, won the Audience and Grand Jury Prizes at the South by Southwest Film Festival before broadcasting on HBO and earning a 2010 Emmy nomination for Best Investigative Journalism. Junge’s film THE LAST CAMPAIGN OF GOVERNOR BOOTH GARDNER was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short in 2010. His most recent film, SAVING FACE, won the 2011 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

Ellie Caulkins

Opera Colorado – Lifetime Honorary Chairman of the Board

Graland Country Day School – Life Trustee

Metropolitan Opera of New York City – Board member

University of Colorado Foundation – Board member

Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital Foundation-former board member

Donald Zuckerman

In May 2011, Donald Zuckerman was appointed Director of Colorado Office of Film, Television & Media by Governor John Hickenlooper. In 2011, Donald Zuckerman executive produced Freaky Deaky, based upon the Elmore Leonard novel, as adapted and directed by Charlie Matthau. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2009, Donald Zuckerman executive produced Casino Jack, directed by George Hickenlooper, and starring Kevin Spacey, Kelly Preston, Barry Pepper and Jon Lovitz. The film was released theatrically by ATO Pictures, with home entertainment handled by Fox. In 2008, Donald Zuckerman produced Beer for My Horses, directed by Michael Salomon, and starring Toby Keith, Rodney Carrington, Claire Forlani and Tom Skerritt. Roadside Attractions released the film in theaters, and Lionsgate has foreign sales.

Jeffrey Donovan

Jeffrey Donovan has appeared in numerous Oscar-nominated Films, Emmy-nominated TV, as well as Tony Award winning Broadway shows. He starred in the hugely successful Burn Notice for 7 Seasons and will appear in the upcoming films “Welcome to Harmony” and “Sicario” as well as the 2nd Season of “Fargo”. He’s on the Board of Directors for the Family Reach Foundation. He currently resides in Colorado with his wife and children.

Tom Bower

Tom Bower’s career spans motion pictures, television and theatre. A busy character actor, he has appeared in more than 60 feature films, but is perhaps most recognized for his role as Marvin, the janitor who helps John McClane defeat the terrorists, in the blockbuster “Die Hard 2.” Bower’s additional film credits include “Out of the Furnace,” “Crazy Heart,” “Garner, Iowa,” “In Embryo,” “Cantuckee,” “Stars,” “Angry Little God,” “As You Like It,” “The Killer Inside Me,” “Appaloosa,” “The Hills Have Eyes,” “North Country,” “The Badge,” “High Crimes,” “The Laramie Project,” “Hearts in Atlantis,” “The Million Dollar Hotel,” “The Negotiator,” “Nixon,” “Georgia,” “Clear and Present Danger,” “Raising Cain,” “True Believer,” “Distant Thunder” and “Beverly Hills Cop II.”

Donna Dewey

Donna Dewey is an Academy Award winning filmmaker who has been writing, producing and directing documentaries, commercials and theatrical films for over twenty years. Ms. Dewey’s documentary, A Story of Healing, filmed in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. In addition, her films have won top prizes at Tribeca in New York, SXSW in Austin, Edinburgh, Warsaw, Jacksonville, Aspen and many others. She was named 2000 Colorado Businesswoman of the Year, is a 2004 Girl Scout Woman of Distinction, has served on the Colorado Governor’s Film Commission Advisory Board, and was appointed by then Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper to serve as Chair of the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs.

Jérôme Pischella

Jérôme Pischella has been Consul and Senior Trade Commissioner at the Consulate of Canada in Denver, Colorado since July 2014, overseeing Canadian interests in Colorado, Utah, Kansas, Wyoming and Montana. Jérôme has over 17 years of experience working with Canadian exporters and innovators. Prior to joining Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, he worked for 7 years with Export Development Canada, most notably as a Small Business specialist. Jérôme holds a BA in International Commerce from ESCM (Poitiers, France) and a MA in International Business Analysis from Leicester University, UK.

Zee Ferrufino

A distinguished leader within the Denver business and Hispanic communities and an accomplished businessman, Zee Ferrufino embodies the spirit of the “American Dream”. Throughout his distinguished career as an entrepreneur, Zee Ferrufino has played a leading role within the community. He owned his first business, Denver Fine Furniture, for more than 25 years. During that time Mr. Ferrufino continued to add additional business interests such as Denver Music Distributing and Colorado Latin Promotions to his portfolio. As owner and CEO of KNBO Spanish Radio 1280-AM in Denver, he is able to reach out to more than 500,000 Hispanics in the greater Metro Denver area. He also owns 1490-AM in Colorado Springs and 1480-AM in Pueblo.