STAFF

 

PRESIDENT: Sarah Wallendjack
Sarah is thrilled to be taking on the role of President of Women in Children's Media. She has been a member since 2006 and has enjoyed attending clever events ever since. She is the Associate Producer of the PBS hit super hero literacy show Super Why! and is on the staff of Out of the Blue Enterprises, a children's content development, production, licensing and merchandising company. Prior to joining the Out of the Blue production team, Sarah worked on Nickelodeon's Wonder Pets!, Disney's Go Baby! and Disney's Johnny and the Sprites! She is a graduate of American University's Visual Media and Arts and Cultural Management programs. She enjoys scuba diving, skeeball, the Muppets, and jumping on a trampoline.

 

VICE PRESIDENT: Karen Halpenny
Karen is excited and proud to be Vice President of Women in Children’s Media. A member since 2008, she was previously an events chair, producing events such as the “Where’s the Diversity?” and “Media & Obesity” panels as well as a screening of Waking Sleeping Beauty and the “The Baby-Sitter’s Club is BACK!” event with Ann M. Martin.

By day Karen is a book editor at Sesame Street, editing books like Candlewick’s Sesame Street: A Pop Up Book as well as titles for VTech’s new electronic reader for children. Karen manages relationships with multiple publishers and oversees the publication of 10 to 20 titles per year. Originally from the educational publishing world, Karen began her career at Scholastic before going on to work at Pearson Learning Group and McGraw Hill. Karen graduated from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education with a degree in Communications. When Karen is not at work or at WiCM events she likes to read, run, and go to the movies more often than is fiscally responsible.

 

TREASURER: Myra Crespo
Myra Crespo is currently working at Sesame Workshop as an Accounting Manager. Sesame Workshop is a non-profit educational organization that maximizes the educational power of all media to help children reach their potential.

As manger she is responsible for preparing quarterly consolidated financial statements, maintaining budget and estimate for Digital Media and International Home Video and reconciling various corporate bank accounts including the Direct Mail campaign account which receives all private donations of cash and credit cards. Prior to working at Sesame Workshop Myra was Senior Accountant at Random House and MTV Networks.

When not working, Myra likes to spend her time volunteering for different organizations including feeding the homeless at the Bowery Mission, fundraiser committee member for the Women’s Center, Tribecca and Latino film festival screenings, and escorting talents at the Latin Grammy Awards.

Myra graduated from New York University with a degree in Accounting and Marketing.  She financed her degree through scholarships and work (loan free!).

SECRETARY: Nicole Rivera
Nicole Rivera is Coordinator, Content Acquisitions & Co-Productions for Cartoon Network & Boomerang where she works with the acquisitions, content and programming teams to identify trends and opportunities in the global kids’ television landscape. She is also responsible for reviewing pitches and submissions from producers and distributors. Prior to working in content acquisitions, Nicole was a production assistant at the film studio Focus Features, where she assisted in all aspects of production and development on a full slate of feature films. Nicole also worked as the assistant to the producer on the 20th Century Fox film, The Devil Wears Prada and began her career at the Gersh Agency, where she assisted a Tony-Award winning theatre agent in finding and servicing clients including writers, directors and composers.

Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Nicole holds a BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. In addition to her work with WiCM, she is an active member of the Girls Quest Young Professionals Committee, a local nonprofit organization that serves and nurtures economically disadvantaged girls through summer camp, mentoring, teen leadership and personal development. She lives in Brooklyn.

 

 

COMMUNICATIONS CHAIR: Joanne Ruelos

Joanne Ruelos is dedicated to maximizing the potential of all media to encourage and develop children’s love of reading. Joanne has been writing and editing content starring characters such as talking trains, trucks, dragons, dogs, Legos, and Muppets for more than ten years. She has recently brought this experience to ScrollMotion where she is developing children’s apps for the iPhone and iPad. Prior to her position at ScrollMotion, Joanne was a Senior Editor in Scholastic’s Licensing Group managing publishing programs for preschool television shows and toy properties such as Chuggington, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, Hot Wheels, Transformers Animated, Littlest Pet Shop, and LEGO City. Joanne’s work as a Senior Editor at McGraw-Hill on the Treasures Reading program fostered kindergarteners and first-graders learning to read. Prior to McGraw-Hill, Joanne helped children with their letters and numbers by creating interactive activities featuring Grover, Elmo, and Big Bird among others in her editorial role at Sesame Street Magazine.

Joanne was the Events Chair on the founding board of Women in Children’s Media. She has recently returned to the group to lead the Communications department towards its goals to optimize the organization’s online and social networking presence.

When Joanne isn’t at her day job, she is freelance writing about Justin Bieber, Barbie, and other things kids find fascinating. She is also usually thinking about going to yoga and trying not to check facebook.

email: communication@womeninchildrensmedia.org

 

DEVELOPMENT CHAIR: Casandra Kate Escobar

CKE is enthusiastic to be the Development Chair for Women in Children's Media. Solidly standing behind WiCM's mission, she is committed to the growth of the organization. Currently, she is the Business Development Coordinator at Definition 6, a unified marketing agency, known for award-winning campaigns for brands like Coca-Cola. CKE is an experienced producer, writer, and performing artist, and has freelanced in the performing arts, journalism, and business analysis fields since 2005. In 2010, she produced a teen radio series on WDJZ Radio titled "Pocket Change." CKE is a Montclair State University accounting graduate turned media business gal! Contact: development@womeninchildrensmedia.org

 

 

DIRECTOR OF EVENTS : Laura Kaufmann

Laura Kaufmann oversees live theatricals and events for Nickelodeon worldwide. Developing and expanding new lines of theatrical businesses for the network, she has launched family tours and events such as Dora the Explorer Live! and SpongeBob SquarePants Live! in more than 15 regions including South Africa, Argentina, Australia and the Philippines. She launched and continues to oversee Nickelodeon’s stock and amateur licensing program which offers branded entertainment to local school and community theatre groups.

Previously Laura worked in Broadway general management on shows and events such as Little Women the Musical, The Glass Menagerie starring Jessica Lange and Christian Slater, Broadway Under the Stars and Broadway on Broadway. Her past non-profit contributions include serving as Associate Producer of Play on Broadway for Fractured Atlas and as Events Chair for Operation Fairy Dust. Laura holds a BA from New York University.

 

 

PANEL EVENTS CHAIR: Jeanne Fishman
Jeanne Fishman has been working as a voiceover artist for the past 7 years. As a voice artist, her first loves are children's media projects, for which her bright, expressive child-like voice is particularly well-suited. She has performed on broadcast commercials, for online ads and webisodes , in animation, audiobooks, and toys. She has worked with well-known directors including Sarah Ball (Bob the Builder and Chuggington). For the pilot of Chuggington, Jeanne created the vocal personality and played the lead role of Koko the Train. Jeanne narrated the young-adult audible book series, Keeker and Sneaky Pony, and the web animation pilot for The Dripps, created by James Cahill. Aside from her voiceover career, Jeanne has worked as a derivatives floor trader and trainer and high-level customer service rep in the financial information industry. She is also a specialist at Apple and can be found leading workshops within the Apple youth programs and field trips, in addition to leading iPhone and iPad workshops.

In her spare time, Jeanne volunteers with the Gift of Literacy Program in the New York Public Schools in partnership with the Good Dog Foundation which is devoted to creating reading buddies for children.

 

WORKSHOP EVENTS CHAIR : Jenn DiLullo
Jennifer is a Senior Field Producer for Teachscape Inc., a professional development organization working on a nationwide Public Education study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to Teachscape, Jennifer had extensive experience as a Reality Television Producer on A&E’s Flip This House, Tru TV’s Haunting Evidence, and Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. In addition, she worked in event management for clients such as the Clinton Global Initiative. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Jennifer started her career in television working at HBO Family on the Emmy Award Winning documentary Goodnight Moon and Other Sleepytime Tales.

 

 

EVENTS CHAIR: Lynn Kestin Sessler

Lynn is the founder and creative powerhouse behind Show & Tell Productions, an award winning Production Company renowned for innovative programming across all genres for both TV and Web.

Lynn is a multi-award winning producer. Her projects have been honored with the Peabody, Parents’ Choice, Action For Children’s’ Television, Golden Cine, Prix Jeunesse, and multiple Emmy nominations.

For more than 20 years Lynn has developed, written and produced shows, websites, interstitials and promotions for networks and media companies large and small. She is proud to include Sesame Street, PBS, MTV, HBO, Nickelodeon, Scholastic, Fox Movie Channel and the Food Network among her many clients. Lynn has interviewed and directed many celebrities including Sarah Jessica Parker, Shia LaBeouf and Matt Lauer.

Lynn shines in crafting many educational, documentary and unscripted productions. She served as Supervising Producer for Sesame Workshop’s Math Is Everywhere, Let's Get Ready! and Food for Thought PSAs. She created the original concept for HBO’s Project Greenlight, the PBS reality special More than Money, and produced the Nickelodeon special Take a Moment, spotlighting family communication, which aired on over 50 cable networks.

Lynn's multimedia websites include the award-winning PBS Kids WordGirl, PBS Sesame Street, PBS Kids Play: Curious George, and Nick Jr.'s Storytime. She is also a Contributing Producer to the Emmy, Peabody, and Webby award-winning sesamestreet.org.

 

 

MEMBERSHIP CHAIR: Debra Stewart
The Membership Chair is responsible for managing and bolstering member relations and, as such, is Women in Children's Media members' primary resource and point of contact. She is in charge of developing and keeping current a plan to increase membership and awareness. With her finger on the pulse of WiCM, the Membership Chair also works with the Development team to determine and regularly evaluate membership perks and the added value of joining the organization.

email: membership@womeninchildrensmedia.org

 

 

 

 

 

WEBSITE PROGRAMMING AND DESIGN: Madhur Khandelwal

WEBSITE DESIGN: Mike Penta

 

 

GRAPHIC DESIGN: Sarah Wilson http://swilson.co.nz

Advisory Board

 

 

These women were responsible for the founding of the organization in November, 2004.
Livia Beasley
Stacie Billis
Yvette Buono
Claire Curley
Laura Gallagher
Meredith Halpern
Melanie Pal
Joanne Ruelos
Tiffany Washington
Sasha Wolff

 

 

To inquire about staffing, please contact Ashley at info@womeninchildrensmedia.org

 

WiCM Refund and Security Policy