Who We Are

Terri has been on the leadership team of Windrider Film Forum, Bay Area since its inception. She’s passionate about the arts as a powerful and creative vehicle to engage the community in thought-provoking issues. She’s been an active volunteer for UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, for the Parents of Alumni Committee for Menlo School, has served on the board of the Menlo Park Atherton Education Foundation and sponsored Music@Menlo, an internationally acclaimed Chamber Music Festival, since it began in 2003. Previously, she worked for twenty years in wholesale banking and finance for Wells Fargo Bank and Chase Manhattan Bank and in investment advising for The Savant Investment Group. She presently serves on the Board of Directors for Music@Menlo. Terri has a BA in English from the University of the Pacific, an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management and is a Certified and Licensed Financial Planner.

Entrepreneur and Peabody award-winning film producer, John has produced numerous web series, short form content and along with his brother Ed, is an executive producer of multiple award winning feature documentaries. He is a co-founder of the Windrider Institute, a non-profit established in 2004 as a vehicle to promote the presentation and exploration of the human narrative through film and interactive media. Founded on the belief that stories are truly the “storehouses” of culture and that visual media, our culture’s principal form of storytelling, is the most critical, value-defining medium of our age, Windrider Forums are renowned for their ability to utilize the medium of film to create conversations around the most important topics of our time. John lives in Boise, Idaho with Terri, his wife of 40 years, and the couple has four grown children. John has a Masters of Arts in Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary where he was awarded the Brehm Center Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012 and has a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Colorado.

Marina has been in the film industry since 2013. She began her career working in digital marketing and new media in Los Angeles, having the opportunity to work with clients such as Disney, Fandango, and Warner Home Video. Looking for a change of pace and a new creative challenge, Marina found Windrider. She has been with the organization four years now and is constantly amazed by the quality of work that is being produced at Windrider, counting herself lucky to be part of the team. Marina has worked in many capacities with Windrider, including as a producer, director, and editor. She graduated from Vanguard University of Southern California with a degree in Communication and an emphasis in Cinema Arts.

Meritt Lohr Sawyer is the Executive Pastor of Peninsula Covenant Church in Redwood City, CA. She has given executive leadership to internationally-focused non-profit organizations for over thirty years as the International Program Director for Langham Partnership International, Vice President of John Stott Ministries, and co-founder of FACT (global leadership), managing programs in almost 70 countries. She served as Executive Director of the Carlson Medical Foundation dedicated to medical and economic development in the Congo-DRC. She is personally active in a far-reaching series of local and global endeavors including the boards of Fuller Theological Seminary, Christianity Today, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Able Works and Scholar Leaders International. She co-produced Windrider Bay Area combining her passion for film, theology and global issues. She holds a Masters in Theology from Fuller Seminary and a Masters in Higher Education from Bowling Green State University. She and her husband, Steve, have three grown children. Passions include urban farming, contextual religious art, book clubs and her two rescue dogs.

Will was one of the co-founders of the Windrider Film Forum (along with John and Ed Priddy and Dr. Craig Detweiler). In 2004, the four co-founders visited the Sundance Film Festival and launched the one-of-a-kind immersive educational experience that is offered in Park City, UT. He was also an integral part of the leadership team who launched the Bay Area event in 2010. Prior to Windrider, Will worked for almost 35 years as an entrepreneurial leader in graduate theological education. From 1995-2019, he served as the director of Fuller Theological Seminary’s regional campus in Colorado Springs.

The Bay Area Windrider Film Forum committee came together under the leadership of Dr. Curt Longacre, who had the vision of transplanting the already successful Windrider Film Forum to the San Francisco Bay Area. Curt envisioned bringing together the diverse cultures of the Bay Area to engage in dialog surrounding film, culture and faith. Dr. Longacre served as the Regional Director of Fuller Seminary Northern California (FSNC) for 14 years. Under his leadership, FSNC has become the largest and one of the most successful regional campuses of Fuller Theological Seminary. Prior to Fuller Seminary, Curt had a successful career in business. He worked as a CPA and audit manager for KPMG Peat Marwick, LLP, a Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer for a division of Wells Fargo Bank, and as a Vice-President for Charles Schwab & Co.

Since graduating with a B.A. in Broadcasting from San Francisco State University, Dan has worked in many roles in media production over the last 25 years ranging from audio to live multi-camera direction. With considerable experience in broadcast, corporate, ministry, academic, and live event venues, Dan cherishes the opportunity to live in the intersection of the creative and technical. Regardless of the setting, he enjoys being on a team that uses media to magnify a great message. He now works for Apple, Inc. as a Broadcast and Video Conference Engineer specializing in broadcast event streaming and system design. He has been involved with Windrider since 2012 serving as Technical Director and consultant.

After retiring as a high school chemistry teacher and attending Windrider Film Forum for several years, Jo joined the volunteer team to initiate the outreach program for high school students and teachers. Previous to her years in the teaching profession, Jo was actively involved in her local community through volunteering and taking board positions for PTO’s, School Foundations, Scouting, youth sports organizations and city events. Prior to the community work, she worked in the field of finance, following her MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management. She has a BS in Food and Nutrition from Iowa State University that led to her first career as a registered dietitian. She and her husband, Bob, have three grown children who all, thankfully, live in the Bay area. She is an avid reader, hiker, and now traveler.

After several years of attending the Windrider Bay Area Film Festival, Christina is excited to volunteer with Windrider’s marketing efforts. A Bay Area native, Christina brings a unique background in marketing, design and project management to the team. Christina holds a double bachelor’s degree in design and art history from UC Davis, as well as a masters in marketing degree from Hult International Business School. Christina is passionate for the arts and enjoys sharing her creative talents with the community.

Stephen is always striving to reach out of his comfort zone to grow and develop as a filmmaker and storyteller. Stephen is an extremely passionate and dedicated filmmaker with a love for cinematography. His goal is to tell stories that transform people’s lives in a powerful way.

Wendy attended the first Windrider Film Forum and was so impressed by the event that she joined the Windrider Bay Area team immediately thereafter. She finds getting to know filmmakers and listening to what has inspired them and how they created their films to be a unique and fascinating experience. Wendy has loved literature and film since she majored in English in Washington State. She worked as a copywriter in a Seattle Advertising Agency and as a paralegal for patent law firms in San Francisco and Palo Alto. After 'retiring' to raise a family, Wendy has played an active role as a volunteer in her son and daughter's schools and sports teams. She currently shares her love of reading with East Palo Alto first graders as a reading aide. She's an avid tennis player, loves hiking and traveling with her family and is proud to be a member of the Windrider Team.

Jonathan is a documentary director who believes story has the power to change the world. He has worked with Windrider for the past 7 years, in addition to working on several feature and short form documentaries, including The Dating Project, PRAY: The Story of Patrick Peyton, and Abstraction. Jonathan has traveled around the world sharing the stories of others in hopes to impact and inspire.

Shannon Fischer is a fan for the independent film world. Her stars aligned with Windrider at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival where she met the Windrider Bay Area inaugural team. She has been with Windrider Bay Area since the beginning and has helped on many fronts primarily with press and marketing. She has helped secure star talent Josh Lucas and supported the film curation as well.

Shannon is a Business Development Manager, bootcamp fanatic and huge Indie film fan. She has volunteered at Sundance and helped put on the City Shorts film festival at City College of San Francisco. She also was an Executive Producer for THE OTHER SIDE, a film by Israeli Filmmaker (and Windrider Alumnae) Khen Shalem. THE OTHER SIDE won the Chicago Children's Film Festival and qualified for the 2013 Oscars and on the short list for the 2013 BAFTA. Shannon enjoys seeing familiar faces each year at Windrider and many new ones too.

Dr. Jonathan Fung is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker and social activist. He has created site-specific installations and public art that explore the human condition, cultural and social issues, especially the human injustice of modern slavery. Jonathan’s work has been a platform to expose the darkness of human trafficking and to create a call to action to end modern slavery. Jonathan’s award-winning short film Hark was screened at many film festivals, including Windrider Bay Area 2013 and the Cannes Film Festival Court Metrage. Jonathan’s public art installation PEEP was exhibited in the 5×5 Project in Washington DC and later throughout the San Francisco Bay Area as part of Super Bowl 50. His site-specific art installation Coolie exposed the forced labor of Chinese immigrants during the California Gold Rush era. Jonathan teaches photography at San Jose State University through a social justice and narrative lens. He is also a pastor and leads the youth ministry at Santa Clara First Baptist Church. Jonathan is committed to making a difference through faith, arts and justice.

Maureen has been involved with Windrider since its inception, helping with Volunteer Coordination and Corporate Solicitations. She loves the format of Windrider—great, thought-provoking films with stimulating conversation afterward. When not involved with Windrider, Maureen is the Development Director for Peninsula Bridge a nonprofit which supports highly motivated, low income middle school, high school and college students (from Mountain View to San Mateo) in a comprehensive 12-year program (5th grade through college graduation) with year-round academic and social-emotional support. Maureen and her husband Bill, an attorney in Palo Alto, have three children and live in San Carlos.

With over 14 years of experience in the nonprofit and arts education arena, Mara brings extensive donor/sponsor relationship and fundraising knowledge and skill to the team. Passionate about film, but especially independent films, Mara became involved with Windrider six years ago as a volunteer to ensure that the three-day forum was written on her calendar in ink. She hasn’t missed a film yet! Every film has been exceptional and getting to meet and hear the filmmakers discuss what inspired them, describe the process of making the film, and sharing little personal stories makes this unique film forum unforgettable. Recently, she worked with the San Mateo County Arts Commission to develop their strategic plan, managed the Post-It-Note Community Mural Project for the opening of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and taught art 4-5 classes in under-resourced schools in San Mateo. Mara has been actively involved in her local community through numerous volunteer and board positions. She's an avid arts advocate, loves reading, gardens/gardening, cooking, drumming circles, spending time with family and friends and is delighted to be a member of the Windrider Team.

Amy is an enthusiastic new addition to the Windrider Film Forum volunteer team, building on her lifelong passion for film and her desire to foster greater community engagement around critical topics facing society today. Amy has spent the past 25 years working as a technology marketer and strategist for a variety of large and start-up companies, and she’s looking forward to applying her skills with Windrider. Amy has been a past volunteer on fundraising activities at her children’s school. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family and dogs, as well as exercising, cooking, and enjoying the outdoors.

A former high-tech executive, Dana leads a Menlo Park-based, national nonprofit that helps the families of severely disabled veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan transition to civilian life. He also advises new business and nonprofit teams, actively participates in community programs and enjoys riding his bike wherever it will take him. Dana is a volunteer driver for the Avenidas senior ride service and is the editor and publisher of the Re-Imagine Menlo Park website. This year Dana is managing our new Windrider Soiree program. His wife Lisa and he love the Windrider films and conversations and enjoy hosting participating actors and directors. Great people. Each year friends join us for dinner and then we share an unforgettable Windrider experience. It’s a Kick!

Judy Hyrne discovered The Windrider Film Forum during its inaugural year in the Bay Area. She fell in love with the intimate setting that gave the audience a chance to view thought provoking, independent films, as well as, the opportunity to engage in conversation with the filmmakers, themselves. Judy is the Director of Operations at Atrium Capital and has been an active volunteer in her son's schools, including a board member of the Menlo Park Atherton Education Foundation. She is an ardent hiker and finds many opportunities to explore the trails that abound our beautiful hills and beyond. She is thrilled to be part of the Bay Area Windrider Team!

Saila Kariat is a filmmaker and entrepreneur living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is passionate about the arts and helping to make the world a better place. After obtaining her Ph.D. she worked as a research staff member at the prestigious IBM T.J. Watson research center, and as a product engineering manager at IBM. She moved to Silicon Valley in 1996 and was involved in a leading-edge start-up company, CadMOS Design Technology as director of marketing. Her most important role as the mother of two girls prompted her to discontinue working for corporations and start her own profitable residential construction company. She pursued her lifelong passion for film in parallel, obtaining a degree from San Jose State University. She has written and directed several short films and has written several feature length screenplays. The Valley, her feature directorial debut, tells the story of a successful entrepreneur in Silicon Valley who seeks answers after the suicide of his bright and promising daughter. It is a commentary on the stress filled, anxiety inducing lifestyle which has become prevalent in our technologically driven modern society. Saila is working on her next feature narrative screenplay and a documentary project.

Julie Mell lives on the coast in Montara and has been a member of the Windrider Bay Area Volunteer Board for three years, and a volunteer since returning to California in 2013 after a few years in Chicago. She graduated as a film major from the California College of Arts, and has worked in many areas of film and advertising, ranging from festivals to post production houses. She runs her own Social Media Consulting business which focuses mostly on festivals. Her past work as an Associate Director for the Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival allowed her to assist in every aspect of creating a festival; from working on the search and preview committees, to marketing, fundraising, theater logistics, contract negotiations, customer satisfaction and presentation of films. Julie is passionate and enthusiastic about film and misses the theater during COVID 19, so recently she’s launched Beach Break Entertainment – an opportunity for her coast side community to safely get out of the house for a family night/date night/evening out Drive In cinema experience.

With over 8 years of experience in the non-profit and social enterprise space, Michael brings extensive organizational and operational management to the Windrider Institute. Alongside the Windrider Productions team, Michael has lead the completion of over 200 short films for various clients as a producer and director since 2015. Michael is passionate about working closely with clients in discovering their story and collaborating with production crews to bring those stories to life on screen. Michael graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2010 with a degree in Managerial and Organizational Communications and currently resides in Boise, Idaho.

Chris has previously attended Windrider Bay Area Film Festivals and is excited to be part of the volunteer team. Building community is at the core of her interests and what drew her to Windrider. Chris was a co-owner of a local bakery and formerly an executive recruiter. As an active volunteer for her two children, she has served on the Menlo Park Atherton Education Foundation as well as the M-A board in fund-raising activities. Aside from her passionate interest in film, she enjoys yoga, reading and travel.

John Sayage is an award-winning Producer, who in addition to being a 2016 Student Academy Award winner and 2017 Student Emmy nominee for It's Just a Gun, was recognized by the DGA in 2016 for his work on the film Black Magic. Most recently, his thesis film, Esta es tu Cuba, was a winner of the 2018 Student Academy Award and 2018 Caucus Gold Circle Award. He graduated from Chapman University in 2017 where he earned an MBA & MFA in their Film/TV Producing program. John's focus is to make character-driven films with a layer of social consciousness and he is currently developing a feature version of Esta es tu Cuba.

Scott has been on the Windrider Bay Area team since 2012. He graduated from the University of Colorado in Boulder with a degree in marketing. Scott currently runs a creative media company in Colorado that specializes in video production, graphic design, and web development. He is a lover of film and music and spends his down time traveling the world. Most recently, Scott traveled to Paris to run a half-marathon.

Kayla came to the Windrider Bay Area’s first Film Forum as part of the viewing audience and, because of a happy coincidence, became part of the volunteer team. A long-time resident of the Bay Area, Kayla has served on PTO Boards, the Menlo Park Atherton Education Foundation, co-Chair of the Menlo-Atherton High School Athletic Boosters, founding Board of the Redwood Chapter of the National Junior Basketball League, and a CASA (court appointed special advocate to a child in the foster care system). She worked for many years as a pediatric nurse at Lucille Salter Packard’s Children Hospital. She is an avid basketball fan, in particular, the Golden State Warriors – go Dubs!

Regina is excited to join the Windrider Film Forum team and is inspired to be part of a thought-provoking community event that will engage and motivate others. Regina is a private banking professional with more than 20 years of relationship management experience. She is currently responsible for working with a team of experts to deliver a full range of financial solutions and expertise to high net worth individuals and families. Regina and her husband Steve, a Menlo Park Fire Captain, live in Belmont with their daughter and son. She has been an active volunteer with her children's schools and sports teams. In addition to spending time with her family, Regina enjoys entertaining friends, running, hiking, cooking, and reading.

Excited to join the Windrider team this year, Karen is returning to the business world after spending the last several years at home as the domestic COO to raise their three children, and volunteering at various school, athletic and extracurricular activities, including being the Eichler Swim Team Communications Lead. Karen's corporate experience include the audit practice at Price Waterhouse and Corporate Finance at Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard. Karen is a CPA, and graduated with a BS and MBA with emphases in accounting and finance from UC Berkeley. Karen is looking forward to the transition from watching animated and kid-orientated movies to enjoying films in different genres, especially independent films.