Ava Palmo was raised by filmmaker parents in Austin, Texas, where she spent her summers working as a production assistant on sets. After studying art and geoscience at Williams College, Ava moved to New York City for a job at ABC News’s Lincoln Square Productions, where she helped develop documentary pitches and contributed to post-production. She’s currently working as an Associate Producer on a three-part ABC documentary series about Emmett Till executive produced by Will Smith, Jay-Z, and Aaron Kaplan.

Email: avajanepalmo@gmail.com

Madeline Johnson is a documentary filmmaker and multimedia journalist from Waco, Texas. She currently works for BBC Global News in their New York Bureau, producing short-form documentaries and digital content. Before attending Columbia Journalism School, Madeline studied filmmaking and sociology at The University of Texas at Austin. Prior films she worked on include Until Proven Innocent, a documentary about Texas activists working to abolish the death penalty and At Arm’s Length, which explored journalists’ relationships with mass shooting survivors. Madeline also spent five years working as a freelance videographer, filming nonprofit events, weddings and political fundraisers.

Email: madeline.johnson@columbia.edu

Olivia Muse is a journalist and filmmaker from Pittsburgh, PA. She currently works as a video producing fellow at McClatchy Newsrooms. When she was a marketing intern at WGBH in college, Olivia spent significant time sneaking into film shoots and live tapings. This landed her at FRONTLINE PBS as a post-production and special projects intern, where she worked while completing her Bachelor’s degree. At Columbia, she met the co-directors of Bad Lesbian, a film that explores her own experience and survival of LGBTQ+ intimate partner violence. Olivia hopes to continue in the documentary field with a focus on stories that are told through a trauma-informed lens.

Email: oliviamuse8@gmail.com