Moderator

• 
  Teaneck International Film Festival

Participants

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  Helen Archontou

  Moderator

  As Chief Executive Officer of YWCA Northern New Jersey since 2011, Helen Archontou is focused on guiding the agency into its next century of living its mission to eliminate racism, empower women, and strengthen communities. Helen has overseen the development of a continuum of programs to support women and families in every stage of life as well as to raise awareness and take action to end racial and social injustice. In 2019, under Helen’s leadership the organization expanded its service area to Essex, Hudson, Morris, and Passaic in addition to Bergen County.

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  Hazel Gurland-Pooler

  Director

  Hazel Gurland-Pooler is a Colombian-born, NYC-based director/producer and documentary filmmaker. She directed 10 episodes of PBS's Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. and co-produced the 6-hour The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, also with Gates Jr., which won Emmy, Peabody, duPont-Columbia, and NAACP Image awards. Storming Caesars Palace, her first feature-length documentary, will broadcast on PBS Independent Lens on March 20, 2023.

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  Sondra Phillips-Gilbert

  Panelist

  Sondra Phillips-Gilbert is a current Social Services Representative at the Department of Human Services/Economic Security Administration in Washington DC and a former elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner who represented the Rosedale Community in Ward 6 for 10 years. She is the daughter of Ruby Duncan, the subject of Storming Caesars Palace, and continues the work of fighting for equity and improving the quality of life for our neighbors and community members.

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  Rhona Vega

  Panelist

  Rhona Vega is amulti-award-winning community leader and entrepreneur. As the founder and CEOof Parent MatterzTM, Rhona is a social disrupter, change agent, thought leader,dynamic motivational speaker, and success coach. She founded Imagine Me, an empowermentgroup that encourages women to focus on self-care and pursue their dreams.Rhona is the winner of the 2022 YWCA NNJ Racial Justice Award and the 2021YWomen Start It Up Pitch Competition. Parent MatterzTM has been featured on theBlack Information Network radio show sponsored by Geico and in the New JerseyPBS docu series 21. Rhona is a founding member of Teaneck Tea Talks, which wascreated by African American and Orthodox Jewish women to hold space forcourageous conversations. Rhona truly adores her husband, Dr. Victor Vega, and theirfive children and enjoys traveling the world. Book Rhona as an educationalconsultant, inspirational public speaker or creator of your school's nextOpportunity ExpoTM.