Where are you from originally? How'd you end up in Chicago if you're not from here? 

I came here to follow a boy and loved Chicago when I came here. I moved around a lot as a kid, and I wanted to live in a city, and I ended up marrying the boy, so it all worked out. 

Awesome. So I met you because we're neighbors in the Kimball Arts Center and you work at Kartemquin. Talk a little bit about how you're involved, and Kartemquin generally. 

Kartemquin is an independent documentary organization and I became its executive director in 2022. My job is basically to do the operations, support, and financial management — the operations side of the house. I am not from media, you know, I didn't have a media background, a film background, but I love the concept of stories bringing people together. So when the opportunity came up, I ran after it. Got it. 

Not having the background in film or filmmaking, how did you get into this, or what was your background? 

Well, I worked for almost 30 years in a nonprofit that did human rights work, and so we had worked with Kartemquin on a couple of films, so that's how I knew about Kartemquin’s reputation — The Interrupters, America To Me, The New Americans — and so I had familiarity with with the organization. I was ready for a change. And, like I said, I had had the privilege in that space to get to hear a lot of peoples’ stories, and I thought, you know, not everyone has that luxury and I really could get behind film as a way of humanizing and connecting. And the opportunity came up and I just jumped for it. 

That's really cool. Do you have a favorite movie or a documentary? 

This is a question I should have a better answer for. You know, I tend to really, really love some of the early films that Kartemquin made. One of my favorites is Inquiring Nuns. It was like the first time anyone went on the street, besides Studs Terkel, and did like man-on-the-street kind of interviews. Only it's two nuns with the microphone. Just watching people respond to them is hilarious and heartwarming. And it’s also really interesting to see how, you know, they go around different places in Chicago and the deference that some people have for them in the way they interact, and the sort of masks that some people have to put up because it's not okay for them to be honest —  it's just such a social commentary without being a social commentary.