Organizers
Fanshen Cox
Co-Founder/Co-Producer
Fanshen (right) graduated with honors from the University of Michigan and holds an MA from Teachers College, Columbia University. She served 2 years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cape Verde, West Africa and was one of the first recipients of the Peace Corps’ Franklin H. Williams Award. She honed her production skills as a Film Independent Project: Involve Fellow, and is the co-producer and co-host of Mixed Chicks Chat. This fall she is going back to school to get her MFA in Acting & Performance at CalState University, Los Angeles. Fanshen’s parents are Jamaican, Scottish, Danish and Native American. www.fanshencox.com
Heidi W. Durrow
Co-Founder/Co-Producer
Heidi W. Durrow (left) is a graduate of Stanford University, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and Yale Law School. Heidi has worked as a corporate litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, and as a Life Skills trainer for the National Football League and National Basketball Association. She blogs at Light-skinned-ed Girl and is the co-producer and co-host of the award-winning podcast, Mixed Chicks Chat. Heidi is the winner of writer Barbara Kingsolver’s Bellwether Prize for Literature of Social Change. Heidi’s award-winning novel, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (Algonquin Books), about a young biracial girl’s coming-of-age, is in bookstores NOW. www.heidiwdurrow.com
Jennifer Frappier
Festival Coordinator
Born and raised in Northern Virginia, Jennifer’s career in front of the camera began at the age of three when her grandparents urged her to smile for a photo by saying “Hollywood smile!” Recognized for her naturally curly hair and infectious smile, her exotic appearance is credited to her French, Filipino and African American ancestry. Jennifer can be seen in national commercials for companies such as: Anheuser-Busch, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Skechers and Sony PSP. She is also proud to be the face of the national iChooseAdoption campaign. Jennifer makes her film debut in the independent film, One/One Thousandth, to be released in 2010. She continues to study with Steve Eastin at the Steve Eastin Studio in North Hollywood. www.jenniferfrappier.com
Rayme Cornell
Education Outreach
Rayme has recently joined the Faculty of UNLV. She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio and Actors Equity Association. Rayme received her B.A. from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and her MFA in Acting from the University of Missouri Kansas City in association with the Missouri Repertory Theatre. She is the host of the national award winning PBS show Real Moms, Real Stories, Real Savvy. She has worked on television, Off Broadway and with some of the nations most prestigious Regional Theatres including, The Old Globe, The Alley, Crossroads, ATC, The Vineyard, Nevada Conservatory Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Primary Stages, The O’Neill, Missouri Rep., Unicorn Theatre and with New York’s famous Acting Company. Rayme is also known for her extensive voice-over work representing such products as L’Oreal, Ford, Dunkin Donuts, Cingular, Singulair, Lifetime, WE, Oxygen Network, USA Network, MTV, VH1, BET, ESPN, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Republican and Democratic Candidates and many more. Rayme splits her time between working in New York and teaching and working in Las Vegas. Her greatest role to date is that of being Brick’s Mom.
Adebe D.A.
Volunteer PR/Marketing/Outreach
Adebe D.A. is a mixed-race writer of Ethiopian and Italian descent whose words travel between Toronto and New York. A recent MA graduate in English/Cultural Studies with a fondness for both literary and legal studies, she writes on issues related to race, social justice, migration, and the phenomena of culture. She currently holds the honour of Toronto’s Junior Poet Laureate and is the author of a chapbook entitled Sea Change (Burning Effigy Press, 2007). Her debut full-length poetry collection, Ex Nihilo, which explores mixed-race identity through and as metaphor, will be published by Frontenac House in early 2010. Visit her blog at http://www.adebe.wordpress.com.
Shannon Mitchell
Administrative Assistant
