Meet the Team

Meet the people that work to make our programs and impact a reality.

Founder.

Kimberly Bautista

  • Kimberly Bautista is a Colombian-American award-winning writer, director, and producer. Her feature-length documentary film titled "Justice for My Sister" about femicide in Guatemala was broadcast on PBS Stations and TeleSUR. The film screened in 20 countries to audiences who also received training in violence prevention with the trauma-informed curriculum that Kimberly authored. Over 15,000 live audience members partook in the community screening and trainings, and over 100,000 people saw the film on television broadcast. As a result of community organizing and the film’s multi-year tour, she founded the arts nonprofit Justice for My Sister Collective to train youth to make films that transform trauma into healing, in order to promote racial equity and gender justice. Kimberly is a fierce champion of youth leadership, human rights, and the arts to promote healing and social change.
    Kimberly obtained her Bachelors from Pitzer College and her MFA from University of California, Santa Cruz in Social Documentary.

Admin.

Karla Legaspy

  • Karla Legaspy is MeXicana multi-disciplinary artist and filmmaker. She is a two-time awardee of the Latino Public Broadcasting Public Media Content Fund. Karla is proud of her many creative collaborations with artists, communities and organizations. Her creative spectrum of work crosses borders, time and genres with themes on race, class, sexual orientation, trauma, migration, ceremonial work and queer love. Karla is known for her PBS audience award winning film “Gold Star” playing on PBS platforms. As a producer, Karla has been able to support numerous projects that bring forth the queer/trans brown experience. Her latest directorial film “The Daily War” premiered on the PBS Latino Experience series and will be available on Voces on PBS soon. As an active member of the queer Latinx community she Co-founded The Latin@ Queer Arts and Film Festival/Cine Arte Film Festival. In 2020 she founded Kitzo Productions to help shift the narratives of her communities, envisioning storytelling from her specific lens. Karla envisions her work in the words of Gloria Anzaldua "Do work that matters, vale la pena"

Maaman Rezaee

  • Maaman Rezaee is an Iranian-American filmmaker whose work focuses on issues of memory, belonging and transcultural dynamics. She writes and directs and has a background in education, talent management and nonprofit work. She works within experimental and narrative forms. Her films have screened in numerous national and international film festivals and have been exhibited at ICA LA, Anthology Film Archives and Another Gaze Journal, to name a few. Born and raised in Iran, Rezaee began her creative practice with studies in music and painting. She later attended Baha'i Institute of Higher Education, an underground university for Baha'is, a religious minority in Iran who are banned from entering state universities. After immigrating to the U.S, Rezaee received her MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University and worked as an Assistant Professor at University of New Mexico. She’s currently based in Los Angeles.

Martin Russell Johnson

  • Martin Russell Johnson is a visionary filmmaker dedicated to creating socially conscious films and projects that amplify the voices of underserved communities. With expertise in writing, producing, and directing across narrative, commercial, and social platforms, Martin excels at using storytelling to foster empathy and inspire connections with diverse audiences.

    Martin launched his career at just 18 by writing, producing, and directing his first film about a young Vietnamese-American girl struggling to balance her two cultures. Since moving to Los Angeles, he has collaborated with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Directors Guild of America, and the NAACP Hollywood Bureau, gaining invaluable insight from industry leaders such as Paris Barclay, Oz Scott, and Millicent Shelton.

    Martin’s creative leadership thrived in his role as Executive Producer for a filmmaking nonprofit organization, where he oversaw the development and production of 18 films written by system-impacted artists who used their voices to examine and overcome debilitating trauma. These projects attracted top talent, including Terry Crews, Ty Burrell, Kellee Stewart, and Ringo Starr.

    His recent commercial work includes directing and producing multiple social media ads for Amazon, creating social media news segments aimed at shifting public perceptions and influencing policy change for unhoused communities, and developing high-concept society and culture podcasts focused on identity and ageism. In 2024, Martin won a screenplay competition sponsored by Participant Media, which gave him the opportunity to direct an Afro-futurism short film that’s set to premiere on the festival circuit in 2025.

Betty Hang

  • Betty Hang serves as the Grants Associate at Justice For My Sister. She has produced content for Disney, Panda Inn, PNC Bank, and Life is Good. Serving as a Co-Producer for the Sundance backed music documentary, NEW WAVE (2024), she also served as production support for indie films, BA (2024) and BRUT FORCE (2022). Her latest film projects are about the transformative experiences in Vietnamese-American households. Outside from her work in the film industry, Betty supports the Bay-area based non-profit organization, Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN).

Nancy Ramos

  • Nancy Ramos (she/her/hers) is a Queer Chicana from San Bernardino, California. She graduated from CSUN in 2018 with a degree in Television Production. She's been working professionally as a Video Editor since 2012. She's edited projects for companies such as Sony, Netflix and PBS SoCal. She also teaches Video Production to middle school and high school students in San Diego County. She began her work with Justice for My Sister in 2019 after a chance encounter on a bus with founder, Kimberly Bautista who offered her a mentorship and career in non-profit, which has become the highlight of her career. In her free time, she enjoys reading, screenwriting, and hosting a Film Club.

Teaching Artists and Mentors.

Annette La Del Barro

  • Annette zaragoza-cerritos: la del barro, M.Ed (UCLA) is an autistic healing artist, magical realist and infinite phoenix. She is a first-generation daughter of immigrants from El Salvador and Mexico who believes in the impossible. The peak of her life was giving birth to her two indigo children. The valley of her life was being told that every member of her immediate family had been shot and only her mother had survived. Clay (barro) has been the mud that has birthed her lotus. The feel of clay between her hands has kept and keeps her light burning bright. zaragoza-cerritos longs to see a world where everyone feels the freedom of safety, so she founded Radiclay, a mobile ceramic school for sensitive and radical young (and young at heart) artists that long to be agents of change through art, community and joy. Radiclay seeks to make visible what the world tries to hide. There are classes for LGBTQIA+ kids, neurodivergent kids, for kids with incarcerated family members, for kids with trauma, for kids that are grieving and for anyone that feels like they don’t belong in most spaces. annette was a featured artist in the 2020 Ancestral Lights Exhibition at Self Help Graphics. Her mixed media altar for her brothers and father, “Stigma = Muerte”, addressed the Stigma that the BIPOC community has regarding mental illness.  As part of her exhibition, she created educational pamphlets to help anyone trying to help a loved one through a mental health crisis. zaragoza-cerritos was a speaker at the sold-out 2020 California Department of Education Student Mental Wellness Conference hosted by  the first Surgeon General of California, Dr. Nadine Burke. annette’s presentation, What Killed My Brothers?: How The Latinx, Chicanx, Indigenous and/or Immigrant Communities Are Seeking to Expand Their Vision Regarding the Stigma of Mental Healthfocused on the science and data behind the stigma of mental illness in different communities of color and how that is connected to the short and long term effects of mass incarceration and state violence on school aged children. annette spoke alongside Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, at various events to successfully help pass Measure J, which amended L.A. County’s charter to permanently allocate at least 10% of existing locally-controlled revenues – growing close to $1B– to community investment and alternatives to incarceration. She produced, filmed and directed a short documentary about the community efforts during the BLM protests. annette was selected by Justice For My Sister to be in the first BIPOC Sci-Fi screenWriter’s lab. la del barro recently served as a grants panelist for the California Arts Council and voted to ensure equity, inclusion and transparency amongst art based non-profits. She explored the interconnectedness of art and healing as a speaker for The Los Angeles Department of Arts and Culture Art Summit: Art & Healing. Currently, her joy is co-creating magic through art, as a teaching artist for Self-Help Graphics, The Natural History Museum, The Other Art Fair, CAST (Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking), and especially Justice For My Sister.

Eddie Hemphill

  • Eddie is a writer, editor, filmmaker, and producer who has worked to bring creative projects of all scales to life. His work ranges from producing HBO Max documentaries to spearheading globe-spanning viral campaigns to producing Apple Podcast featured shows. He is currently a Creative Producer for Field/House Productions. His work has premiered at the Doris Duke Theater in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi; has been commissioned by organizations including Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, the Movement for Black Lives and others; and has been exhibited in art spaces including the Honolulu Museum of Art. Eddie seeks to highlight how delicate moments with ourselves and each other are world-changing and revolutionary.

Jahmil Eady

  • Jahmil Eady is an award-winning writer, director, and producer who blends genre with social impact storytelling. Her work unpacks contemporary social issues and often features Black, POC, and LGBTQIA+ folks in fantastical environments. Jahmil grew up in Charleston, SC and NYC. She earned her BA in Media Studies from Pomona College and studied at the Prague Film School in the Czech Republic. Jahmil holds an MFA in Directing from UCLA where she was the Inaugural Graduate Class Artist, representing over 14,000 Bruins for the class of 2023. She is also the Princess Grace Foundation's Inaugural Sir Roger Moore Honoree in Filmmaking. Before transitioning to narrative film and television, Jahmil was an Associate Producer on documentary projects for Oprah Winfrey Network, Viceland, and Discovery Networks. Her short films have screened at over 50 film festivals worldwide, including several Academy Award and BAFTA-qualifying film festivals. She has been supported by Film Independent, Plate Spinner Productions, New Filmmakers Los Angeles NewNarratives Program, and the Rhulen Family Foundation. Jahmil's other distinctions include the New York Times Award, The Jackie Robinson Foundation Award, and the Four Sisters Award bestowed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, Sara Finney Johnson, Mara Brock Akil, and Felicia D. Henderson.

Luie P. Garcia

  • Mexican immigrant is a former graphic designer and home decorator turned Production Designer since 2010. Experience includes short and full length films, episodic content, music videos, commercials, media content, stage design and residential/industrial renovation makeovers. Work often revolves around under-represented communities and the important issues affecting their daily lives such as discrimination, racism, mental health issues, addiction and domestic violence. Community work includes classroom and on-set filmmaking mentorship programs with the "Youth Cinema Project '' by the Latino Film Institute and work as a teaching artist for Justice for my Sister for their summer program "Nuevas Novelas" and "To Foster Change" through PBS.

Luna Flores-Ramirez

  • Luna Flores has a background in education and historical studies. Originally from North East Los Angeles, Luna earned her bachelors in Historical studies from Bard College where she went on to earn her Masters in Education with a focus on social studies. Although her education took place in New York, Luna's research has largely been focused on her home neighborhood of El Sereno. She has worked with various housing groups in the area such as United Caltrans Tenants and the Reclaim our Homes movement. Her work at Justice for My Sister, as one of our teaching artists, employs her teaching experience, her love for the arts and deep commitment to community.  

Michael Allen Harris

  • Michael is a Black queer nerd and 90's R&B/Hip Hop connoisseur. A 2020 Film Independent: Episodic Lab Fellow where he was mentored by Netflix producer Pete Corona, John Agbaje (Bad Robot), and Christopher Yost (Thor: Ragnarok). He is an Afrofuturist, who writes to carve a space for those subtracted from mainstream consciousness. Michael’s produced plays include Kingdom (published through Steele Spring Stage Rights), PUNK, and Rocky Road. His play, Kingdom, earned a Best New Play Nomination for the 2018 Non-Equity Jeff Awards, and the Lorraine Hansberry award through Black Theatre Alliance. Michael graduated with a MFA in Dramatic Writing from Tisch School of The Arts, and is one of the Resident Playwrights of Broken Nose Theatre.

Nanobah Becker

  • Nanobah Becker (Diné) is an award-winning writer/director whose short films FLAT, CONVERSION, THE 6th WORLD, and LANDBACK, WATERBACK and video collaborations I LOST MY SHADOW and MY SOUL REMAINER have screened at festivals in the U.S. and internationally including the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and imagineNATIVE film + media arts festival and have been acquired by institutions such as the Baltimore Museum of Art. She recently shadowed on episodes of DARK WINDS (AMC) and BIG SKY (ABC) to learn more about TV directing and is currently in development on her first feature film. Nanobah is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and currently calls Tovaangar (Los Angeles) home.

Rey Acuna

  • Rey Acuña is a Chicano music producer, sound engineer, and teaching artist passionate about fostering creativity and empowerment through music. A graduate of the LA Recording School, Rey earned a Bachelor’s degree in Audio Engineering and an Associate’s degree in Music Production in 2020. His career has been shaped by a deep commitment to collaboration, technical excellence, and a dedication to uplifting underrepresented voices.

    Rey’s professional journey has included producing and mixing albums for Los Angeles-based artists and expanding his craft internationally. While living in Barcelona, Rey honed his skills working closely with Grammy award-winning audio engineers like Alberto Perez and managing the studio of Dublab Radio. These experiences allowed him to develop a global perspective on music production and connect with diverse creative communities.

    Rey’s decision to join Justice for My Sister as a teaching artist stemmed from his belief in the power of storytelling through music. Inspired by his own mentors and collaborations, he wanted to create opportunities for young people—especially those from marginalized communities—to express themselves and develop their skills.

Sannii Crespina

  • Sannii Crespina-Flores has been a teaching artist, advocate, and activist for youth and women for more than twenty years, but it is the space between pen and paper that she finds sanctuary. A member of the Writers Guild of America(East) Indie Caucus and founder of the Un-Inhibited Muse Film Festival, the global youth initiative Do Remember Me, and the art collaborative Yram Collective, she is committed to building community, sharing the art of storytelling, and bearing witness through archiving. Sannii has also served as Board Chair for the Bartol Foundation. She has been a recipient of the Arts Connect International Ripple Award, a 2-time recipient of the Leeway Art and Change Grant, a 2-time recipient of the Independence Public Media Foundation Award and the MoFilm/AT&T grant to create works for independent television and cultural organizations. She has recorded an audio book of poetry and written a book of short stories currently on Amazon Books. She has screened work at the 60th Cannes Film Festival and was awarded the grand prize for the short story challenge at the 15th Sundance Film Festivals and a Producer of the independent award winning films “Slow Burn” and “The Accomplices”. Her work has been published in 50 in 50: Letters to Our Daughters, Black Female Photographers, midnight & indigo, Root Journal and received the MVICW Author, Barbara Neely Fellowships and a member of the Justice for my Sister Sci-Fi Screenwriting Lab. She has also contributed to academic publications and created learning guides for TED-Ed, National Geographic, and the Hip Hop Education Center.

Interested in joining our team?

We are always looking for passionate individuals to join our team and help us expand our reach. Whether you’re supporting our programs, coordinating events, or amplifying our message, your work will contribute to a movement that uplifts underrepresented voices and transforms the industry. Check out our current openings below and apply today!

Get Involved

You can make our work possible and help us expand the voices of emerging filmmakers in Los Angeles.