Dr. Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager
Associate Professor of Communication, Director of Education Abroad Program, and a Global Scholar for the Institute of Shipboard Education/Semester at Sea. Julia joined the ACT team in 2016 as a program advisor and assumed the role of Artistic Director in Fall 2023. An award-winning, multicultural, and multilingual scholar, Julia specializes in intercultural and international communication, European studies, conflict, cultural memory, international cinematography, and critical media studies. Feminist perspectives on communication and business leadership with a global mindset are further areas of her scholarly focus. Julia previously worked as a journalist, a Peace Corps coordinator, and a liaison for a Refugee/Migration center.
Dr. Greg Dickinson
Department chair and professor, Greg Dickinson heads festival leadership and fundraising. He has received the College of Liberal Arts Excellence in Teaching Award and the CSU Alumni Best Teacher Award. He has also received the National Communication Association’s Gerald R. Miller Dissertation Award and (with his co-authors Brian L. Ott and Eric Aoki) the NCA Golden Anniversary Monograph Award. He writes about ways the buildings and human landscapes engage viewers and users on questions values, beliefs, and action. His work advances critical and theoretical understanding of memory, place, materiality, and everyday life. He has published in numerous journals on coffee shops, shopping malls, museums, and gentrified urban spaces. His book Suburban Dreams: Building and Imagining the Good Life was published by the University of Alabama Press in 2015, and he is completing a co-authored book on the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
Beth Seymour
Beth Seymour (she/her) joined ACT Human Rights Film Festival as Managing Director in 2018. Beth earned a B.A. in Spanish from Whitman College, and an M.A. in Latin American Studies from Tulane University. A Colorado native, Beth brings extensive experience in nonprofit fundraising and event management. Beth formerly sat on the board of directors of the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film and chaired the board of Imagination Celebration, both located in Colorado Springs. Beth is currently a board member of the Human Rights Film Network, based in Amsterdam.
beth@actfilmfest.org
Zel Gabriel
Zel Gabriel (she/they) began working for the Department of Communication Studies in Spring 2023. After graduating from The University of Akron in Ohio, she worked for the Teaching Assistant Program in France as an English classroom assistant at two middle schools in Alençon, France. She moved to Fort Collins in 2019 to pursue a dual Master’s degree in French Language, Literature, and Culture and Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language at Colorado State University and graduated in May 2023. Zel assists ACT with filmmaker travel and other festival support.
Dr. Scott Diffrient
Professor of Film and Media Studies in the Department of Communication Studies, Scott Diffrient began planning the ACT Human Rights Film Festival after receiving the 2014-2016 William E. Morgan Endowed Chair of Liberal Arts. He has attended human rights film festivals around the world with the intention to write scholarly texts on human rights cinema as well as to establish Fort Collins and Colorado State University as a locus and leader in humanitarian outreach and scholarship. Dr. Diffrient is currently ACT’s Emeritus Director of Programming following a successful tenure in this role from 2016-2023.
Azumi Solbrig
Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Azumi Solbrig holds a B.S. in Economics from Komazawa University. With more than ten years experience in sales and accounting in Tokyo, Azumi moved to Fort Collins in 2017 and took the opportunity to expand her knowledge by studying Accounting. In 2020, Azumi joined Communication Studies as an Accounting Technician. Azumi oversees budgeting and financial reporting for ACT Human Rights Film Festival and supports festival contracting and operations.
Eliza Wagner-Kinyon
Eliza Wagner-Kinyon completed her Bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies at Colorado State University, graduating in 2015. She continued her education to earn her Master’s degree in Communication Studies with a focus on Organizational Communication, specifically researching resilience and resistance within individual employees. Since completing her Masters in May of 2018, she now enthusiastically the College of Liberal Arts and ACT Human Rights Film Festival as financial analyst.
Program Advisory Committee
Usama Alshaibi, Teaching Associate Professor of Film, CSU and CU Boulder
Karrin Vasby Anderson, Professor, Communication CSU
Aaunterria Bollinger-Deters, Instructor, CSU
Rita Brown, Community Volunteer
Carl R. Burgchardt, Professor, Communication, CSU
Carol Busch, Sales and Marketing Manager, ExperiencePlus!
Jeanetta Caligari, Community Funded
Hye Seung Chung, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, CSU
Doug Cloud, Associate Professor of English, CSU
Evan Elkins, Assistant Professor of Media and Visual Culture, CSU
Kevin Foskin, Director of Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts Major, CSU
Shantel Hansen, Documentary Filmmaker and Training Consultant
Saul Hopper, Clinical Psychologist (Ret.)
Sue Ellen Klein, Partners for Peace
Lucia Levis, Filmmaker
J.J. Levy, Community Volunteer
Emma Lynn, Graduate Student, CSU
Nick Marx, Associate Professor of Film and Media, CSU
Adriana Avila McClintock, Marketing Communications, CSU
Miranda McCreary, Graduate Student, CSU
Meredith Laurel, Graduate Student, CSU
Devin Odell, Eighth Judicial District Judge (Ret.)
Antonio Pedrós-Gascón, Associate Professor of Contemporary Spanish Literature and Culture, CSU
Mary Ellen Sanger, Associate Director, Community Literacy Center, Program Coordinator, English, CSU
Riana Slyter, Graduate Student, CSU
Ty Smith, Director, Native American Cultural Center, CSU
Mary Vogl, Professor, Chief Academic Officer, Semester at Sea