Sundance Adds Network Exec Wonya Lucas, Civil Rights Attorney Kimberlé Crenshaw to Board
Sundance Institute has added prominent Civil Rights attorney Kimberlé Crenshaw, Crown Media Family Networks executive Wonya Lucas and Adobe executive Ann Lewnes to its board of trustees.
The institute also announced Monday that Uzodinma Iweala, Amanda Kelso, William Plapinger and Junaid Sarieddeen have joined the board over the last year.
“We are so grateful to welcome the expertise and unique perspectives of Kimberlé, Uzodinma, Amanda, Ann, Bill and Junaid to Sundance as we move forward in this challenging time,” said chair Pat Mitchell. “Our board possesses the right skills, a broad range of talents and a high level of commitment to our founding values and ethics to guide the organization’s mission oriented work in supporting emerging artists around the world and connecting audiences to their stories.”
The trustees announced in August that the 2021 Sundance Film Festival would be shortened from 11 to seven days, running from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3.
Crenshaw is the co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, and popularly known for her development of “intersectionality,” “Critical Race Theory” and the #SayHerName Campaign. She’s the moderator of the webinar series “Under The Blacklight: The Intersectional Vulnerabilities that the Twin Pandemics Lay Bare.” Crenshaw is featured in the documentary “On the Record,” which covers man of the women who came forward to accuse music mogul Russell Simmons.
In July, Lucas was named president and chief executive officer of Crown Media Family Networks. Lucas oversees the company’s portfolio of entertainment brands, including linear networks Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and Hallmark Drama; and subscription video on demand service Hallmark Movies Now.
Lewnes is executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Adobe, a position she has held for over a decade. Under her leadership, the Adobe brand has focused on creativity, digital marketing and the design and development of transformative digital experiences.
Iweala is writer, filmmaker and medical doctor. As the CEO of The Africa Center, he is dedicated to promoting a new narrative about Africa and its Diaspora. Kelso has spent the last 25 years serving as a creative communications and brand leader for global tech companies and served as the managing director of Google Creative Lab. Plapinger was a partner for almost three decades at the global law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Sarieddeen is a theatre actor, director, dramaturge and a founding member of Beirut-based Zoukak Theatre Company. At Zoukak, Sarieddeen directed “Lucena / Obedience Training” (2013), “Heavens” (2014), “The Jokers” (2017) and “36 Abbas street, Haifa” (2017).
They join current members on the board: Robert Redford, president and founder; Pat Mitchell, vice chair; Jeanne Donovan Fisher, Ebs Burnough, vice chair; Sean Bailey, Ritesh Batra, Jason Blum, Lisa-Michele Church, Kenneth Cole, Pascal Desroches, Fred Dust, Philipp Engelhorn, Caterina Fake, Robert J. Frankenberg, Donna Gruneich, Cindy Harrell Horn, Charles D. King, Lisa Kron, Lyn Davis Lear, Gigi Pritzker, Alejandro Ramírez Magaña, Amy Redford, Geoffrey K. Sands, Nadine Schiff-Rosen and Lynette Wallworth.
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