Kahmeela Adams is a photographer, producer, podcaster, writer, and overall cinephile. Having served as the Pittsburgh Producer for the 48 Hour Film Project for 10 years, she has been involved in the Pittsburgh film community for decades. She has produced and programmed film events in the Pittsburgh area, with The Hollywood Theater, Row House Cinema and The Oaks Theater. After studying film and video production at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Kahmeela has designed a career that allows her to create in multiple areas of media. Her opinions on life, film, and literature can be found on many podcasts, in the Pittsburgh City Paper, and BUST Magazine, just to name a few.

Caroline Collins is a filmmaker and an actor. She also has more than 30 years of marketing communications experience in a variety of industries ranging from health care to media. Caroline has been on both sides of the film festival process showing films she’s directed and produced at festivals in the US and Australia, as well as programming and serving on juries for other festivals. She is a member of Women in Film and Media Pittsburgh and is vice president of the board of Carnegie Screenwriters.

Wendy Eiben is a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Communications Media, focusing on photography, design, and writing for broadcast. She has also studied advanced screenwriting at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. Wendy serves as President for Carnegie Screenwriters. She created and served as Festival Director for the inaugural Carnegie Screenwriters Script and Screen Festival before the festival joined forces with Film Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Shorts. She is an award-winning writer of feature length and short screenplays as well as stage plays, commercials, and short fiction. She has produced short films that have been shown in festivals throughout the United States and abroad.

Tina Kakadelis joined the Film Pittsburgh team first as an intern in 2023. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Film & Digital Technology at Chatham University. Before coming to Film Pittsburgh, she has been involved with the LGBTQ+ Showcase at the American Pavilion at Festival de Cannes, Atlanta Film Festival, Florida Film Festival, and others. She is a member of the Society of LGBT Entertainment Critics (GALECA) and an assistant film editor for Film Obsessive.

Judy Kaplan, a native of Western PA, worked for many years as an actress and production coordinator in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles after graduating from Northwestern University with a BS in Speech/Theatre. After she returned to the Pittsburgh Area with her husband and their young children, she enjoyed fourteen years as a pre-school teacher at Carriage House Children’s Center. Judy is happy to be working in the arts community again as a member of the Film Pittsburgh staff.

James Harland Lockhart V, also known as Jamie Lockhart, is an independent filmmaker and post production specialist. Working actively in the film industry since 2007, Lockhart has collaborated on various aspects of filmmaking even writing, producing, editing, and directing his own feature film, Flatwoods (2022), which has been distributed nationwide by Gravitas Ventures and is on Amazon Prime and other services. He earned his BFA in Cinema and Digital Arts from Point Park University in 2007. In his spare time, Lockhart writes for the website Fulvuedrive-in, where he strictly reviews films on physical media.

Morgan is a writer and filmmaker who joined the Film Pittsburgh team in 2023. She grew up in Pittsburgh and graduated from Penn State with a BA in Film Production and minors in English and Jewish Studies. As a student, she helped bring the Centre Film Festival to Philipsburg, PA. After working at a summer film camp in Wyalusing, at a synagogue-slash-concert hall in DC, and at Pitt, Morgan is happy to be working with the Pittsburgh film community. 

Lori Sisson has been a member of the Film Pittsburgh staff since 2009. She received her Clinical Psychology degree from the University of Pittsburgh, with a focus on children with disabilities and their families and has experience working with special needs and at-risk children and youth in inpatient, home, and school settings. After a hiatus to raise her two children, Lori returned to work at Film Pittsburgh to manage the Teen Screen program, sharing international films with school students both in the theater and virtually.

Paul Sloop officially joined the Film Pittsburgh team in March of 2018. In addition to his role at Film Pittsburgh, he is also the Lead Programmer of Short Films at the Oscar® qualifying Cleveland International Film Festival, a role he has held since 2003. Paul was born in Sewickley and spent his formative years in the Pittsburgh area. He currently resides in Mentor, OH, with his wife, Sarah, and five of their eight children.

Kathryn Spitz Cohan has been Executive Director of Film Pittsburgh since 2001. From 2003 to 2007, she also was the Artistic / Education Director of Shakespeare-in-the-Schools and a Teaching Artist at the University of Pittsburgh. Previously, she served as Assistant Director of Administration for the Three Rivers Arts Festival and was Artistic Director of the Theater Department at the JCC-Greater-Pittsburgh. In 2004, Kathryn was named to Pittsburgh’s Top 50 Cultural Forces list in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In 2012, she received an Opal Award from Women in Film and Media–Pittsburgh for exemplary professional achievement. Kathryn serves on the Board of Film Festival Alliance and is a graduate of Northwestern University.