Our Program Development Team is responsible for the creation of Journeys in Film curriculum guides, educator professional development workshops, partnerships with schools, universities and other community organizations, promotion of international education reform on local and national levels, and general organizational growth of Journeys in Film.

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Joanne Ashe – Founder and Executive Director

Journeys in Film reflects Joanne Ashe’s vision and her lifelong commitment to education and cross-cultural concerns. She has been involved in many successful educational and social initiatives, including working with the Russian Olympic Committee to establish a cross-cultural physical education program and curating exhibits on racism and children’s mental health issues. A social worker and activist with a master’s degree in education, Joanne has been influential in calling attention to the plight of orphaned children around the world. Her documentary film, The Waiting Children addressed the issues of international adoption; its premiere at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival led to an interest in foreign films that sowed the seeds for Journeys in Film. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Joanne founded and co-facilitated a therapy group to ease survivors’ trauma and speaks on the Holocaust at schools throughout New Mexico. She served on the board of New Day Runaway Shelters and worked with teens to produce a short documentary on the positive experiences of living in the shelter. Joanne has been involved in several diversity initiatives in New Mexico, including the internationally acclaimed exhibit, “Anne Frank in the World.”

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Anna Mara Rutins – Director of Program Development

Anna Mara Rutins brings more than 17 years of international professional experience to Journeys in Film, including six years working overseas with various development and government agencies. She specializes in the development of international youth programs, as well as business training for expatriates in the U.S. and abroad. Anna has held positions with the Open Society Institute/Soros Foundation and Berlitz International, and served as Training Coordinator for the Peace Corps-Baltics Region in language, technical skills training and cultural adjustment program planning and facilitation. Fluent in Latvian and proficient in French, she has worked in nine countries. She continues to apply her degree in Inter-Cultural Communication from American University (Washington, DC), with a concentration in Applied Cultural Anthropology, to all aspects of life. As Director of Program Development for Journeys in Film, Anna continues to facilitate workshops to leaders in education, administration, business and communities throughout the U.S. and Canada, inspiring creative and effective methods for globalizing education and, ultimately, influencing systemic reform.

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Eileen Mattingly – Director of Education

Eileen Mattingly is strongly committed to an interdisciplinary cross-cultural curriculum to help students understand and appreciate people from other cultures. Instrumental in developing the curriculum for Journeys in Film, she created an A.P. Language and Composition course and pilot program in American Ethnic Minority Literature for a Maryland school district and published teaching guides to multicultural novels for the Center for Learning. Eileen has been a curriculum consultant for PBS and presented curriculum workshops for the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Council for the Social Studies and other organizations. She recently served as Director of Coverdell World Wise Schools, the National Peace Corps’ K-12 program on cross-cultural education, Acting Director of Domestic Programs for the Peace Corps, and is working to create a high school focusing on global studies near Annapolis, Maryland. A teacher for over 30 years, Eileen has taught junior high through college in the Philippines, New York and Maryland. She has a B.A. in International Studies from Georgetown University, MA degrees from St. John’s University and Johns Hopkins University, advanced certification in English, History and Social Studies and has been selected for two fellowships by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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Amy Shea – Director of Research

Amy Shea has worked with brands for over 20 years, translating research-based insights into effective communications. Her work has been recognized with the David Ogilvy Excellence Award in Research, taking both the Grand Ogilvy and First-in-Category for research conducted on IBM’s integrated campaign on infrastructure. Shea has worked with the AAAA/ARF Committee to Study Emotional Response in Advertising, publishing her findings on what is considered the gold standard in branded entertainment research on BMW’s online films. A sought-after presenter, Amy brings a direct and creative perspective to the conference stage. She presents on brand development, communications, & differentiation in the US, Europe, and Asia. Her academic background includes an undergraduate degree earned by the University of New Hampshire, with joint studies at Harvard University, and her post-graduate degree in Marketing Research is from the University of Georgia.

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Roger B. Hirschland – Consulting Editor

Roger B. Hirschland graduated from Brown University in anthropology in 1965 and immediately served two years in the Peace Corps working in community development in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Following a year of graduate school at Brown, he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy, then taught English and social studies for eight years at the Gordon School, in East Providence, R.I. While teaching, he earned a master’s degree in the teaching of English from Boston University. After two years of editing in the newsroom at the Providence Journal, Roger moved to Washington. D.C., and joined the staff of the National Geographic Society. He worked as a writer and an editor of books and of their children’s magazine, World, for eight years, and then wrote and edited geography materials for students and teachers for 14 years in a program at National Geographic that aims to invigorate the teaching of geography in schools nationwide. He worked for many years on the Society’s style committee, and served as guide and lecturer on several National Geographic excursions to Australia, New Zealand, and Europe.

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Ethan Silverman – Film Literacy Consultant

Ethan Silverman brings 20 years of professional experience as a theatre director and filmmaker to Journeys in Film.  He has directed new plays, revivals, and performance pieces at many theatres around the country, including Bill Grahan Presents with Ron Silver and his adaptation of Pete Townshend’s The Boy Who Heard Music at New York Stage & Film.  His first short film Central Park and his documentary The Waiting Children (produced by Joanne Strahl Ashe) both premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.  Ethan is a member of the Writers Guild of America East and has written screenplays for Disney Pictures, VH-1, and Barry Levinson.  In 2008, he was selected for a creative residency at The Yaddo Institute, in Saratoga Springs, NY.  Currently teaching “Narrative Strategies” and “Thesis Writing” at the MFA Program in Design & Technology at Parsons The New School in New York City, Ethan is, “proud to have been an early developer and facilitator of Journeys in Film.”