Board Member/Executive Director

Francis has dedicated over 15 years to art, science, and non-profit management. A strong believer in the expression of new ideas, Frank has built the foundation of his work developing projects that have a fresh perspective while advocating for social justice and change.

His background includes non-profit management in theatre where he helped develop over 40 new plays and fully produced over 25. In film, he is an all around filmmaker with writer/director/producer credits in independent film.

This year, in addition to his work at DecadesOut, he is in post-production on two documentaries: Head for Highland which confronts climate change from the viewpoint of individual empowerment and personal activism, and The Fringe which looks at how fringe personalities define mainstream society, and which stars the likes of Edward Albee, Lanford Wilson, Candace Cayne, Judith Malina, and Amber Ruffin; and The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters which currently stars up and coming actresses Julia Schlaepfer (The Politician, The Sky is Everywhere) and Kayli Carter (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Private Life).

He holds a BA from Manhattan College and is a member of the New York State Bar.

Board Member/Co-Producer

Jen is a producer living in Brooklyn. In New York, she has produced theatre in the New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) and is an active co-producer and partner at Dedalus7, a cross-format production company started in 1999 focusing on independent film, television, branded content, and online media. In June 2009, Jen proudly helped launch DecadesOut with Frank Kuzler. 

Jen co-founded the Let’s Make the Industry 50/50 Initiative, launched in 2013 and powered by the Art Directors Club (ADC), a 100-year-old institution in the advertising, digital media and design arenas. The initiative’s goals centered around achieving gender equality in all creative fields, calling on arts and media organizations to not only have a 50/50 gender balance on speaker panels and boards of directors, but also inspiring them to achieve that balance in the workplace. Jen also held the position of the Director of Awards Programs at the ADC, which included producing the Annual Awards, which identify and honor the best work in print and broadcast advertising, interactive media, graphic design, publication design, packaging, photography and illustration; Young Guns, a global, cross-disciplinary portfolio competition that celebrated the best young creative professionals age 30 and under; and the ADC Hall of Fame, established in 1971 as a cross-disciplinary acknowledgement of the most renowned professionals in visual arts and communications. She also served as lead organizer and producer of the club’s three-day creative festival.

As an actress and performer, Jen began her career with such companies as Hartford Stage Co., Long Wharf Theatre, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. She has performed in a wide range of classical and contemporary theatre, as well as independent films.

She holds a BFA in Acting and a BA in English from the University of Connecticut, has studied at the Circle in the Square Theatre School, and is a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA.

Managing Director, ACE Hotel, NYC

Jan Rozenveld serves as Managing Director at the popular Ace Hotel NY, a friendly hotel that opened in May of 2009, where he was involved with the construction, development and all operational and financial aspects of the hotel, as well as setting up all of its PR, sales and marketing strategies. In recognition of his work, Rozenveld was recently named New York GM of the Year for 2010 by the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI).

He has achieved distinguished veteran status in the luxury, boutique and friendly hotel industry, having opened, repositioned, renovated and managed properties including The Greenwich Hotel, Royalton, Paramount and St. Regis Hotels (all in New York), The Tides South Beach in Miami Beach, the Windjammer Landing Beach Resort in St. Lucia, the Westin Casaurina Resort in Grand Cayman, the Amanpulo Resort in the Philippines, The Chateau De Bagnols in France, the Stafford Hotel in London and others. Rozenveld also serves on the board of directors of The Brooke Jackman Foundation for children in need, and in 2006 won the Brookster Award for his dedication to the cause.

Producer/Cinematographer

Patrick Sullivan brings 35 years of experience in advertising and communications. His management skills include running studios in some of the most prominent advertising agencies in New York City and implementing cutting edge equipment and programs to most effectively promote various goods and services. His career has spanned working and managing small boutique agencies as well as large corporate advertising agencies, running a staff with as few as five people to a team of twenty-five in a graphics production studio of an international agency. Working closely with art directors, print production, and post production, Patrick has worked with companies including Verizon, Chase, Northrop Grumman, Disney, Chevron, Subway, American Express, United Airlines, Marriott, New Balance, Burt’s Bees, Hallmark, Intel, Kraft, Volvo, Schwab, Evian, and Crayola,. His experience includes several years in the pharmaceutical advertising industry working in conjunction with Pfizer, Glaxo-Smith-Kline, Bristol Myers Squibb, Bayer, Roche, Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Merck and Co. Patrick has set up the post-production facilities for in-house editing, audio mix, and color correction. He was responsible for hiring editors, sound mixers, and color correctors. Patrick also helped develop an in-house retouching facility. He has created and helped design experiential and environmental pitch presentations on site and with outside venues in major cities. He has also helped develop processes for in-house video and photography facilities for headshots, interviews, and video content for rips. A co-founder of Bjornquist films with Whitney Hamilton he utilized his own production package and skills to executive produce many short films and three feature length movies including My Brother’s War distributed by Vanguard and on Netflix (DVD), A Rogue in Londinium which premiered at the Lucerne International Film Festival in Switzerland and is streaming on several worldwide digital platforms and UNION distributed theatrically through Indican Pictures and digitally via Lionsgate . He co-produced Mr. Smith with Forrest Murray and Ian McCrudden. Virgil Bliss and Milk & Honey with PKino films. Short films include: Circle, …go I, Sweet Mary Jane, The Bellwatcher and The Delivery, UNION (the Short), Jeremy and TuLips. As a DP his films include: A Rogue in Londinium, My Brother's War, UNION (short), Circle, ...go I, One Lies, the other Swears and Jeremy currently running on RevryTV. He was also second unit DP on UNION.

Executive Chef/Owner, Sueños Restaurant

Sue Torres has been setting the standard for gourmet Mexican fare for over twenty years. She was the chef/owner of the critically acclaimed Sueños, the extraordinary New Yorkhideaway serving what food critics called “the most exciting Mexican food in the city.”

Over the years, Torres has received notable recognition: Time Out Magazine named her Culinary Ambassador in 2004, and Working Woman Magazine included her in their list of “20 under 30” to watch. Her innovative dishes and cocktails have earned her much praise from The New York Times, Vogue, Food & Wine and Bon Appétit, to mention a few, and have established her as one of the most revered chefs in New York. Torres’original recipes have been featured in several national magazines, including Fine Cooking and Food & Wine.

She’s is also a top-notch restaurant consultant, and a genuinely committed philanthropist working with charity groups that include the Cystic Fibrosis Organization, Autism Speaks, The St. Jude Children’s Foundation, and Women Breast & Ovarian Cancer. Torres’ current projects include a Mexican artisanal cookbook, and an organic Mexican taco truck.

Filmmaker

Whitney Hamilton is an award winning writer/director whose debut feature film, My Brother's War premiered in competition at the Methodfest Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Micro Budget Independent film and Best Actress for Whitney. It was released theatrically in L.A. and on video via VanGuard and was picked by Netflix in 2007 (DVD). It went on to play at the Bluegrass Independent Film Festival, Temeculah Film Festival, Southern Appalachian Independent Film Fest and New Hope Film Festival.

Whitney’s second feature film, A Rogue in Londinium premiered at Lucerne Independent Film Festival in 2011 and New Hope Film Festival 2012 where it won Honorable Mention for Indie Spirit Award and Best Art House Film. It is streaming on Vimeo-on-demand, Cinetie and Filmhub.

Whitney’s third feature, Union, is a passion project and the sequel to My Brother’s War. Loosely based on the characters in her book, Firefly, the film began production in 2013 in Alabama. It premiered at the Sidewalk Film Festival and went on to Santa Fe Film Festival, Sedona International Film Festival, Craic Fest NYC, Azalea Film Festival, Richmond Independent Film Festival and New Hope Film Festival where she won Best Director and Best Artistic Spirit. It was picked up for Theatrical distribution by Indican Pictures and Lionsgate for all other platforms in 2019.

Whitney’s short films have played at Seattle Underground Film Festival, Dragon Con, Shockerfest, Sidewalk Film Festival, STARZ Denver, Jellyfest, ABQ Indie Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, Poppyjasper, Orlando Independent Film Festival, Gasparilla International Film Festival, Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and Film Fleadh Summer Shorts.

Whitney has worked as a freelance director, producer and editor on various short films such as Jeremy, TuLIPS, Big Al as well as in-house spots and rips for advertising agencies in New York City. Whitney is a graduate of Birmingham Southern College with BFA in Fine Art and an MFA Candidate at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. She also studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute NYC. She got her start as a Script Supervisor on various indie films including Mr. Smith Gets a Hustler produced by Forrest Murray.

Television Producer and Executive

Darren Campo is a television producer and executive. Author. New media pioneer. And university professor. Darren Campo’s savvy creative instinct has led him to run one of the most popular programming divisions in cable network television. His philosophical ingenuity and storytelling ability has fostered one of the most intriguing literary series written in the best-selling Alex Detail’s Revolution and Alex Detail’s Rebellion.

As a television producer and executive, Darren is versed in developing all genres of content. Currently, Darren oversees one of the industry’s largest original production operations at truTV. Just prior to the launch of truTV, Multichannel News named Darren Campo one of “40 Under 40” to watch.

But Darren’s fare for content can ride the wave of reality trends to drawing on inspirations for his own creative writing from Schopenhauer, Schrödinger and Joseph Campbell to create the epic adventure and story of intrigue that Alex Detail takes.
 Early critique of Darren’s first bestseller, Alex Detail’s Revolution has been cited as a work of ‘activation’, not unlike thematic nerve struck by Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code.

Darren also spent four years working at CBS where he was involved in the production of the station group’s syndicated programming and news. Campo graduated from the Stern School of Business at N.Y.U. with degrees in marketing and industrial relations. Darren is as an Adjunct Professor in the Entertainment, Media and Technology program at NYU Stern School of Business, where he teaches “The Business of Producing.”

BioArtist

Joana moved from Portugal to America to study art and biology at Carnegie Mellon University, which allowed her to work in the lab and in the studio. Today, her process begins with a survey of research articles and news. She then contacts researchers directly to discuss their motivation and gather artifacts of their work. In the studio, she builds on these ideas to form questions about concepts of self and our place in the world, usually in the form of oil paintings. A painting based on her work with Dr. Alison Barth was published as the cover of the Journal of Neuroscience (2005), supporting what has become her core motivation: that art can both support and contribute to science, and vice-versa. This has driven her work in science art and science education work and has led to collaborations with galleries, schools and museums in Portugal and the USA. These include the Andy Warhol Museum (2007), the Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh and the National Aviary (2010).

Global Practice Director, Events and Environments at IBM

Growing up in Texas, Shaunna spent most of her time dancing, training with the Houston Ballet and graduating from the High School for the Performing & Visual Arts. She moved to Oklahoma where she continued her dance training at Oklahoma City University (OCU), and before long moved to New York City, where she has been for the past nine years. Continuing her education at FIT with a dual degree in Fashion Merchandising and Advertising, Marketing and Communication, she began to focus more on the business side of the arts.

Her experience includes working with public relations, event and promotional companies as well as working with a number of advertising firms. After testing the waters as a creative manager, brand strategist and trend analyst, she realized her true calling was working in the not-for-profit art sector. She is currently freelancing, doing PR and marketing for dance, film, theater and art collective companies and is thrilled to a part of the DecadesOut team.

Theatermaker/Curator/Educator

Erwin Maas is a New York based theatermaker, curator, educator and international arts advocate from the Netherlands with extensive international experience across a variety of creative and community contexts. In New York, he directed numerous productions Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway as well as Site Specific. More so than touring fully made productions, he is especially passionate about developing new or existing works with local artists and/or communities and has done so all around the world. His directing work ranges from plays by contemporary playwrights to devised, interdisciplinary immersive projects, opera, music theater & dance with performances for all ages. Maas is the Co-Executive Director of the Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE), Director of the Fellowship Program for the International Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY), and the Programming Director for the Off Broadway Origin Theatre Company. As former Artistic/Creative Director of the International Society for Performing Arts (ISPA) and Director of Performing Arts for the Cultural Department of the Royal Netherlands Embassy & Consulates in the USA, Maas offers an extensive knowledge and network in the international cultural field with a focus on international cultural relations and policy. He currently teaches as Adjunct Professor at CUNY Brooklyn College's MFA Performance & Interactive Media Arts Program (PIMA). Erwin is a core-member of Theater Without Borders, a member of Georgetown University's Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics and of the Netherland-America Foundation Cultural Committee. He also serves on the Artistic Advisory Board of the ISSUE Project Room in Brooklyn, the First Nation Spiderwoman Theater, and DecadesOut, an organization at the intersection of Arts, Science & Policy. Maas was a Fulbright Scholar for his MFA in Theatre Directing at Columbia University School of the Arts in NYC. He also holds a M.A. in Drama Teaching from the Academy of Dramatic Arts Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and a M.A. in Media Arts and Production/Documentary Filmmaking from the University of Technology Sydney, Australia - www.erwinmaas.com