Suzanne St. John-Crane, Executive Director

suzanne[at]creatvsj.org

Suzanne has worked in community television for the last seventeen years as a volunteer, producer, manager and advocate. She earned her Masters in Non-Profit Arts Administration at San Francisco State, where she fell in love with video. Suzanne began her career as Operations Manager at Pacifica Community Television, and moved on to be Assistant Director of Community Television of Santa Cruz County. After nearly seven years of running a four-channel community television station for Gilroy, Suzanne decided to move on to CreaTV San Jose, opening the long anticipated media center for San Jose. Suzanne is the recipient of over a dozen regional and national awards for programs she has produced, and was honored to receive the 2001 Gail Rich Award in Santa Cruz County as an Interdisciplinary Artist. Suzanne has served on both the Regional and National Boards of the Alliance for Community Media. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Santa Cruz County, and regularly indulges her passion of singing in Pearl Alley, her blues band.

Danny McGuire, Operations Manager

danny[at]creatvsj.org

Danny McGuire has been a creative force in television broadcasting for nearly thirty years, working as a cameraman, editor, director, producer and executive producer for many local stations and production companies. As an Executive Producer for both Public Television stations KTEH/San Jose and KQED/San Francisco (where he also served as Director of Television Production) McGuire has been instrumental in bringing nearly 100 documentaries and performance programs to PBS’ national broadcast schedule. In his career, he has garnered more than 50 industry honors for his productions and co-productions. 

Justin Cowgill, Director of Facilities and Technology

justin[at]creatvsj.org

Justin loves working in Television and enjoys sharing his passion of TV with others. Prior to his tenure at Petaluma Community Access as Production Director, he served as Newscast Director/ Chief Photographer at TV50. Justin started his life in media while in high school as a sound technician at his hometown church. Justin decided to get a degree in radio and audio recording; but that all changed when he took a video production class. At the beginning of the next semester he dropped all his audio classes and dove into video. He loves technology and equipment and loves to talk to people about it.

Luis Costa, Programming Manager

luis[at]creatvsj.org

Luis has been involved with Community Television for almost ten years. His last stint was as a Program Director at TV 30 in Pleasanton, California. Luis also worked at KMVT 15 in Mountain View, California for four and half years. Lastly, Luis Costa was born and grew up in the City of San Jose until he was a young teenager.

Pam Kelly, Director of Membership and Marketing

Pam has lived and worked in San Jose since 1971. Pam was the Director of Marketing for the Camera Cinemas in San Jose for 16 years leaving in 2000 to work for PRx Communication Strategists, one of Silicon Valley's leading agencies, where she held the positions of Account Manager and Vice President of Client Services. Pam is a board member for the Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival, the VP of Business Development for the San Jose Dublin Sister City Program Committee and is an adviser for the Catholic Charities marketing group.

Juan Serna, Access Facilitator

juan[at]creatvsj.org

Juan has a degree in Film and TV from SJSU. He's a producer, director and editor. Check him out on IMDB.

Drena Lewis, Administrative Assistant

hello[at]creatvsj.org

Drena is a freelance videographer and editor.  She fell in love with Tv production after majoring in Radio, Television, Film at San Jose State University.

Mike Johnson, Programming Assistant

Michael has been working professionally in Television ever since graduating from SJSU in 2005 with a degree in Radio-TV-Film. He worked for NBC Bay Area for three years in Production and two years in the Newsroom where he was nominated for an EMMY in 2009 as a Coordinating Producer. He's also worked as a News Photographer, Editor, and Studio Technician for Tri-Valley Community Television in Pleasanton. And in 2006, his 16mm film "Sonatine" was accepted into the De Anza Film Festival.

CREWPEOPLE

crew[at]creatvsj.org

Gopher Gold

Gopher Gold has over 35 years of experience in the entertainment business.
Starting out as a sax/flute/vocalist in the early 70's with rock and jazz bands he later became an audio engineer designing and operating various studios in the
bay area. In the past 10 years has added video production to his skill set.

Frank Mariscal

Frank has been actively working in video production since 2001. His artistic conceptualization of multi media production has been inspired with high demand on community projects. Frank's passion for media and his community have inspired him to pursue further education and expertise in this field.

Patrick Ryan

Patrick Ryan started working in TV production at a young age. He worked his way up from Camera to Floor Director and then to Technical Director. After a hiatus Ryan is back in the studio directing, and loving  it.

Walter Von Tagen III

 Walter Von Tagen III has previous experience with a local PBS station in both the Production and Engineering Departments. Walter has also been involved in Public, Educational, and Governmental Access Television for the past fifteen years.

CONTRACT CREW

Francisco Del Rosario

A seasoned camera operator, videographer and utility of various television productions and stations in the Bay Area, Francisco has worked in news and field production shoots as well as live sporting events.  As much as he loves the multi-camera location tapings he does for CreaTV clientele, the most favorite event he's participated in was the Major League Baseball All-Star 2007 at A.T.& T. Park.

Vina Tran

Vina is an aspiring broadcast journalist who oversees Southeast Asian news with an emphasis in multimedia production such as TV hosting, field production and editorials. Vina was one of 20 students selected for the Mosaic San Jose Urban Journalism Workshop, an annual two-week program at San Jose State University. During the workshop she contributed two bylines in the student run newspaper sponsored by the San Jose Mercury News and other Bay Area media outlets. She was also an intern at KNTV and Nhà Magazine in San Jose. Currently, Vina is an active member of the community and volunteers for various non-profit organizations throughout the Bay Area. On her free time, Vina enjoys spending time with her cat Deathblow, writing and playing video games on her Xbox 360.
 

PRODUCERS

Janice Edwards

Janice Edwards is a published writer, talk show host, executive producer and media consultant. She is the host and executive producer of “Bay Area Vista” and President and CEO of Edwards Unlimited. Janice has served as Community Relations Director and Executive Producer & Host of “Bay Area Vista” at NBC BAY AREA, where she launched the show.
 
Janice's notable interviews span a variety and include Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Rachel Maddow, Robert Redford, John Travolta, Jerry Seinfeld, Gloria Steinem, Robin Williams, Ang Lee,  Glover,  Dr. Cornel West and John Cena. Janice has also worked as a special projects producer and writer at KPIX-TV, an update anchor/writer/producer and reporter/photographer/editor at KRON-TV.Janice is a published co-author of the book "Quality Angles" featuring interviews with Kevin Costner, Robert Townsend, veteran news anchor Evan White, and Lloyd Richards.
Janice’s awards include the 2009 Western Regional Communications Award from the American Heart Association, the 2008 Woman of Excellence for Advocacy (Woman of the Year Award) by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Silicon Valley chapter, the Caring Through Communication award from the American Cancer Society and the Bronze award from Junior Achievement. Additionally, she has received recognition from NAWBO, the National Association of Women Business Owners –Silicon Valley, Healthy Silicon Valley, and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  In 2006, Janice was recognized as one of 101 Women Making A Difference in Our Community. 100 Black Men of Silicon Valley, 100 Black Men of the Bay Area, and the Bay Area Black Media Coalition have also honored Janice for her work. Janice is a member of the Board of Governors for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and of Friends of Faith, founded by KTVU's Faith Fancher. Janice emcees or moderates over 40 community events each year. Support of those organizations is a critical part of her commitment and vision for community empowerment.     

MIKE PIERCE

Mike Pierce is a professional Producer, Director/Cameraman and Editor, with over 25 years of Bay Area production experience. He is an award winning news cameraman and teacher with a passion for visual story telling. His breadth of experience includes television, independent film, documentaries and corporate productions. As a cameraman, Pierce’s list of television credits includes “Monk”, “Nash Bridges”, “60 Minutes” and he has worked on the original episodes of “Cops” and “American Detective”. Mike is also an Emmy award-winning editor as well as NPPA Cameraman of the Year. As a Producer, Mike has worked on dozens of documentaries, promotional and corporate videos and educational films.

 INSTRUCTORS

Jen Vaughn

Jen received her BA & MA from the Broadcasting & Electronic Communication Arts (BECA) program and San Francisco State, and has been a lecturer in the BECA program for the past five years.  Jen teaches Upper Division production courses specializing in Television Studio Production, Field Production, Editing, Directing and Sports Broadcasting.  
     Her freelance career and love of travel has led her to produce, direct, and edit a series of international documentaries from Mexico, Russia, and Brazil.  Television credits include programs aired on HGTV, DIY Network, and The History Channel.  Her passion for music and live entertainment led her to become a videographer for the San Francisco Noise Pop Music Festival and Stern Grove Music Festival.  Find out what Jen has been up to at http://jenvaughn.blip.tv

Mark Boscacci

http://www.boscacci.com

VOLUNTEERS / INTERNS

Tami Green - Graphic Design Volunteer

Tami Green is a local web/graphic designer. She has been doing graphic design for over 10 years now and is originally from southern California.

Linda Kahn - Graphic Design Volunteer

Over 20 years experience in Graphic Design/Advertising/Creative Services at major Fortune 500 companies.
Graduated from San Jose State University with a B.S. in Graphic Design/Illustration concentration
A.A. Degree in Graphic Design from Santa Monica City College

Hibah Mohammed -

Marketing

Hibah is a first year student at EVC. She is working to transfer to UC Berkeley to earn a Bachelors in Communications.

Linda Dobbins - Graphic Design Volunteer

A high-school graduate, Linda is a self-taught graphic artist, knitter, sculptor, miniaturist, webmaster, and musician. In May of 2009, she launched a website to sell hand-knit items of her own design. Much of her work can be seen at http://dobbyknits.deviantart.com.

Eric Hopp - Marketing

Christine Yeh - Research