Anca Matioc is Founder and Director of La Sobremesa, a consultancy creating space for reflection and learning for civil society, by civil society. She has been accompanying civil society organizations and networks in Latin America and the global south for over a decade, as a designer and facilitator of change processes.

Graciela Selaimen is a longtime senior advisor to IRIS and former team member. In 2024, Graciela founded Instituto Toriba, a Brazil-based non-profit aiming to support civil society organizations, governments, and philanthropic institutions to forecast, design, and translate desired futures into stories, prototypes, and programs.

Dr. Mehret Mandefro, MD, PhD, Msc, is IRIS’ Executive Producer in Residence. Mehret is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, serial entrepreneur, and thought leader that champions the creative arts as a path to developing a more just society. Film credits include Difret, Little White Lie, and Ethiopia’s first-ever teen drama series Yegna.

Susan Mbogo manages programs and partnerships with Docubox, an east african documentary film fund based in Kenya. The group nurtures talented, driven and focused independent artists as they as they create an authentic body of work that provides personalized glimpses into the world, issues and lives that might otherwise remain undocumented.

Thomas Coombes is a global communications strategist and founder of Hope-Based Communications, helping the Human Rights movement develop new narratives for social change and “on a mission to apply brain science to human rights, so that we make compassion common sense.”

Trevor Smith is Co-founder and Executive Director of the BLIS Collective, which stands for Black Liberation-Indigenous Sovereignty. An infrastructure organization, BLIS sparks radical collaboration and narrative alignment between and within Black, Indigenous, and progressive social movements to repair, decolonize, and transform culture.