SONIA NANDZIK
Cofounder
A dedicated humanitarian and public policy officer with significant experience in international institutions, namely the European Parliament, as well as practice in the field. Sonia specializes in refugee crisis relief, human rights advocacy, humanitarian aid coordination and project management.
For the past two years Sonia has been in the field working with refugees, leading the "Fresh Response" initiative to distribute fresh cooking ingredients and desperately needed non-food items along the Serbian-Hungarian border, and coordinating with numerous aid organizations to increase refugee rights and provide daily support.
Sonia helped cofound Refocus media lab to shift the conversation in her native Poland so refugees are viewed as equals and deserving of internationally recognized human rights.
Photo: Rough Cut Media Photography Workshop Student- Eric (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
DOUGLAS HERMAN
Cofounder
An educator, media artist and humanitarian, Douglas has been guiding youth and refugees in developing media creation skills for the better part of two decades. To this end he founded Rough Cut media, which fights for equity in access to media creation tools both locally and globally.
Along with fellow humanitarians Douglas cofounded refocus media labs to ensure that refugees and those living this crisis have a platform to share their stories and develop professional media creation skills to secure future employment.
”In the beginning it was all about bringing the crisis to my classroom so my students could connect with real people impacted by these policies. but quickly I realized that it needs to be about bringing the classroom to the crisis, because They deserve the same level of access and opportunities that we enjoy. without equal opportunity nothing changes.”
Photo: Rough Cut Media Photography Workshop Student- Melak (Eritrea)
NAZANIN FOROGHI
Filmmaker, Teaching Artist; Lesvos Coordinator
an alumni of our program on Lesvos, Nazanin has been teaching and coordinating the very same program since 2022. She is also a senior member of our production team,and has directed original documentaries “Nothing about us without us”, and the music video “interview” with mo hussein.
”AS AN AFGHAN FILMMAKER, PHOTOGRAPHER AND TEACHER I COMBINE MANY OF MY PASSIONS TO CREATE ART, EDUCATE PEOPLE AND MAKE THEM AWARE OF IMPORTANT ISSUES. AS A CREW MEMBER OF SEVERAL FILM PRODUCTIONS I DEVELOPED A PORTFOLIO OF BOTH ARTISTIC AND JOURNALISTIC VALUE. IN TASKS I TAKE UPON MYSELF I ALWAYS SEEK OPPORTUNITIES TO GROW. I AM A CARING PERSON PASSIONATE ABOUT WORKING WITH DIVERSE CULTURES AND STRONGLY BELIEVING IN HUMANITY.”
NATIVE OF AFGHANISTAN, MS. FOROGHI EARNED HER BACHELOR OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE FROM TEHRAN UNIVERSITy, IRAN, and CURRENTLY RESIDes IN LESVOS, Greeece.
YASER AKBARI
Filmmaker, Teaching Artist
Lesvos Lab
An alumni from ReFOCUS from 2019, Yaser has been our talented teacher on Lesvos since 2022. He is also a senior member of our production team where he serves as director of photography, and director.
the music video “Erantzun (Respond)” with Zekan Askalari was his directorial debut, and his work behind the camera on refocus original films “Dancing Bells” and “Dead End” shows how bright his future truly is. Yaser is also been a senior citizen journalist, and has collaborated with international media reportage on the human rights and media freedom crises in greece.
CHARULATA DYAL
Photographic Teaching Artist
As a media artist, English Language Learning (ELL) and media arts teacher, Charulata has a strong focus on visual culture and theory. Her art and research focuses on the mimesis of the human body and form.
After working as a teaching artist with ReFocus Media Labs in the summer of 2019 and witnessing the crisis first-hand, Lata has become an advocate for refugees, currently organizes fundraising efforts in the United States and raises awareness of the larger crisis through her work.
Photo: Edris- ReFOCUS Class of 2019
PAUL McNEILL
VR/360 Video Teaching Artist
Paul is an accomplished media creator, director, writer, and innovator. From 2010-17, Paul worked as a creative producer at the National Film Board of Canada where he oversaw dozens of documentary films, animations, and interactive projects and led expeditions to remote filming locations around the world and under the ocean.
In December 2019, Paul led a VR workshop with ReFOCUS Media Labs, ensuring students were taught the fundamentals of VR filmmaking and directed their own unique stories. Their projects showcased their incredible creativity and diverse set of skills and interests. You can see their work on our YouTube channel- @refocusmedialabs
KYRA SACKS
Visual Art Teaching Artist
Kyra studied Art and Education at the Utrecht School of the Arts and at the Fine Art Academy of Barcelona, Spain. Recently she obtained a master degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (cum laude). Splitting her time between Amsterdam and Athens, Kyra works on a variety of multi-disciplinary projects combining art, anthropology, research and education. www.kyrasacks.nl
Since joining ReFOCUS, Kyra has led students in further developing visual and artistic communication skills. Kyra currently leads our #humansofmoria project, where students hone their documentary skills by interviewing residents of Moria refugee camp for a multimedia exhibition centered on passion, resilience and the human spirit.
STEFFEN STENDER
Photographic Teaching Artist
Steffen has been studying Communication Design & Media in Wismar, Germany for 4.5 years, and is completing his degree this summer with a thesis on the refugee crisis here on Lesvos, Greece
Steffen specializes in the field of portraiture, reportage and street photography. Due to the refugee crisis and the resulting upswing of the right wing in Germany, Steffen was sensitized for the topic of refugee aid. He believes in the power of creativity to process stories, experiences and traumas, and since February 2020 he is a photographic teaching artist with Refocus Media Labs.
CIARAN CARNEY
Media Production Teaching Artist
Television producer, drone pilot and outdoor enthusiast from London, Ciaran has previously worked for the BBC, Unilad and Culture Trip specializing in factual series across a range of platforms. Currently traveling around Europe in his van, Ciaran takes time telling stories of unique characters and experiences he encounters along the way.
Being part of ReFOCUS and moving into a role as a filmmaking teaching artist has been a new and incredibly valuable and humbling experience. The passion, creativity and determination of our students to tell unique and thought-provoking stories has led Ciaran to support ReFOCUS for a very long time to come.
TITO MAZZUCCHI
Media Production Teaching Artist
Working in media and communications has always been an incredible experience and a great passion for me. In the summertime, I travel to Lesbos, Greece, to work as a teaching artist for ReFOCUS Media Labs.
Alongside Co-Founders Douglas Herman and Sonia Nandzik, I teach photography, video, and editing with asylum seekers in Lesbos so that they can have a set of tools to aid their search for jobs in Europe and other countries.
It has been an honor to see our students develop independent skills and share their personal stories to broad audiences, especially with the completed feature documentary “Even After Death”, written and filmed by students of ReFOCUS and produced in collaboration with Minority Rights Group International.
REBECCA SNYDER
Photographic Teaching Artist
Currently a Freshman at the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at The New School in New York City, Rebecca is majoring in Global Studies and Economics. Throughout high school, Rebecca was a student in the CTE photo and video program foudned by Douglas Herman at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia who also mentioned an amazing media program he has started with asylum seekers in Greece.
Rebecca came over in the summer of 2018 and served as one of the first teaching artists to help the program expand. Due to how inspiring this trip was, Rebecca and another teaching artist, Bea Gerber, spent the next year creating an interactive exhibition “Wandering Eyes” to fundraise for the program and bring awareness to the refugee crisis back in Philly. The year-long project won Bea & Becca the annual Social Justice Award at the 2019 Rough Cut Film Festival.
Due to this experience as well as many others, Rebecca is extremely passionate about social equity and dismantling the systems that form global inequality. She hopes her studies will grant her more opportunities to do amazing work around the world.
BEA GERBER
Photographic Teaching Artist
A freshman at Clark University, Bea is leaning towards a degree in sociology. Growing up in Philadelphia, she attended the project-based high school Science Leadership Academy which inspired her to get involved in her community, empowered her to be a leader and a doer, and gave her the chance to study professional media creation in a CTE- Career in Technical Education program.
Through this program, Bea developed the skills necessary to eventually teach others and was able to travel to Greece and work with her former teacher Douglas Herman, who cofounded ReFOCUS Media Labs. Bea’s time sharing her storytelling skills with asylum seekers motivated her to return to Philadelphia and collaborate with Rebecca Snyder on an interactive multimedia installation “Wandering Eyes” to educate and inspire local Philadelphians to engage in the crisis in Europe. The year-long project won Bea & Becca the annual Social Justice Award at the 2019 Rough Cut Film Festival.
Bea hopes to continue empowering people in her future and is excited to take on her current role as a young person in America.