Workers Unite Film Festival Team

Andrew Tilson - Co-Founder/Executive Director
Phil Hopper - Co-Founder/Secretary-Treasurer, Jury
Melanie Lindauer - Co-Director, Director of Screening & Submission Services, Website Manager
Kait Halibozek - Special Events & Outreach Coordinator, Promotional Services
Maria Ramos - Special Events Coordinator & Spanish Language Outreach
Kenneth J. Levitt - Legal Advisor, Counsel
Kyra Rose - Talent Coordinator (Music), Customer Relations
Gabriella Chavez-Sztyk - Graphic Designer, Branding
Jeannie Kim - Fundraising, Asian American Outreach

And special thanks to representatives from the National Writers Union for judging our screenplay contest!

Workers Unite Film Festival Advisory Board

Executive Board of Directors:

Andrew Tilson (President) - Founder & Director of the Workers Unite Film Festival, Adjunct Professor of Film at ESC/SUNY, Consultant to major healthcare companies, including Emblem Health, EPIC Hearing Health, Apogee Health Direct

Phil Hopper (Sec-Treas.) -Co-Founder of the festival, Professor of Film & TV at the University of Northern Iowa, recently NY Institute of Technology.

Rosalyn Yasser (Retired Vice President, Recording Sec.) - Director of the Health and Pension Fund for DC37 for over 25 yrs, then SVP for Emblem Health for Municipal & Government Affairs.

Esther Cohen (Chairperson) - Executive Director of Bread and Roses Cultural Project for SEIU1199 for a decade before joining our Board. Renowned NYC author, organizer, cultural activist.

Advisory Board:

Rachel Bernstein - Director of Labor Arts Web Museum

Gene Carroll - Adjunct Professor of Labor History - SUNY Empire State University, former Director for the AFL-CIO Leadership Project at Cornell University - School for ILR

May Y. Chen - Director Emeritus, China Labor Studies Program, Murphy Institute/CUNY, founding member of APALA, Board President of the NYS Immigrant Action Fund. International Union VP of UNITE HERE.

Esther Cohen (Advisory Board Chair) – Author, Poet, Artist, Cultural Activist (Former Executive Director, SEIU 1199 Bread And Roses Cultural Program).

Victorious De Costa - Director, Writer, Producer - Storm Over Brooklyn (HBO), Digging For Weldon Irvine (2019), Jackie Robinson: Get To the Bag, ESPN (2022)

Victoria Mitchell - Former President, District Council 1707 - Homecare Workers

Maria Figueroa – Labor Policy Director at SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government

Sean Claffey - Filmmaker and producer - Americonned film

Carl Ginsburg – Former President of Air America, Former Communications Director for NYSNA

Brendan Griffith – Acting President, NYC Central Labor Council

Dean Hubbard – Staff Director of the Climate Jobs 2050 Committee

Kenneth J Levitt – Attorney at Law, Counsel

Penny Lewis – Professor, Labor Studies, School of Labor/CUNY

Stephanie Luce – Professor, Labor Studies, School of Labor/CUNY

Gregory Mantsios – Founder, Dean, School of Labor/CUNY

Ruth Milkman – Professor of Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center, Professor and Academic Director, School of Labor, CUNY

Ed Ott – Distinguished Lecturer, School of Labor/CUNY, Former Executive Director of NYC Central Labor Council

Janna Pea - Founder and President of Pea Nation Public Relations. Janna was an Executive Vice President at the top-ranked firm Berlin-Rosen, NYC.

Zahida Pirani - Filmmaker, Consultant, Former Director of La Fuente's NY Civic Participation Project

Ray Rogers - Founder and Director of Corporate Campaigns, Inc., Campaign to Stop Killer Coke

Harvey C. Sigelbaum – Senior Advisor, The Riverside Company, past President & Co-CEO, MultiPlan, Inc.; past CEO, Amalgamated Life Insurance Company, NY

Justin Thomas - Filmmaker, Activist, NYC - Produced and directed Truth Through A Lens, Founder and CEO of The Black Independent Filmmaker App

Roz Yasser – Labor/Healthcare Consultant, Former SVP at Emblem Health, Inc.

Michael Zweig – Director, Center for the Study of Working Class Life, SUNY Stonybrook

Copyright 2025, Workers Unite Film Festival, Inc. All rights reserved. Workers Unite Film Festival,Inc. is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization. Donations made to Workers Unite Film Festival, Inc. are tax deductible to the full extent of the law. Your accountant can advise you on the specifics.

The Workers Unite Film Festival respectfully requests all filmmakers to make their best efforts to use union or guild labor on their films wherever possible and to contact their local performance unions to make arrangements for reduced scale, not-for-profit, or low budget productions whenever this can be done. Stay union, Stay Strong!

The Workers Unite Film Festival Blog may contain copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available without profit under the provisions of “fair use” for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use”, you must request permission from the copyright owner. Please note that if you are the author or publisher of an article posted on this site and would like the article removed, kindly let us know by posting a comment to the article or via email and we will honor your request ASAP. Thank you.

All blog opinions are solely the opinion of the Blog Editor and do not represent the views nor acceptance by the Advisory Board nor of Workers Unite Film Festival, Inc.