Paloma Valenzuela is a Dominican-American writer, director and actress originally from the city of Boston. She is the creative director of the production operation La Gringa Loca Productions based in Boston and the Dominican Republic. Paloma has worked on several Dominican productions as a script editor and also on set working as Second Assistant Director for various Dominican feature films. She plays Lolita in the 2018 Dominican Feature Film "Un 4to De Josue". Paloma won Best Supporting Actress at the Premios Iris Dominicana Movie Awards 2019 for her role in the film. In 2019 she was featured in Boston Magazine's "Boston's New Creative Guard" and selected as one of the WBUR The Artery 25, a series highlighting millennials of color making an impact in the Boston arts scene. She is the writer/director and producer of the Boston-based comedic web series "The Pineapple Diaries" which currently has two seasons. The show was featured in the Latina Magazine's "5 Web Series Every Latinx Needs to Watch Right Now". The show has also been selected in film festivals including the New Orleans Film Festival 2018. Paloma is currently collaborating with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and is currently working on production for the third season of "The Pineapple Diaries" set to be launched by the end of 2019. She also works as a teaching artist at GrubStreet in Boston teaching classes in Dramatic Writing and Screenwriting.

Carol Downs has been a small business owner, community volunteer and resident of Boston for twenty-nine years. Carol is founding Co-Owner and current General Manager of Bella Luna & The Milky Way, an award-winning dining and entertainment landmark in Jamaica Plain opened in 1993. She currently serves as Board Member and Treasurer of the Boston Planning and Development Agency and as a member of Boston’s Community Preservation Committee. She served as a Trustee of the Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester from 2002-2017. She served as an elected Board Member of the Jamaica Plain Firehouse Multicultural Arts Center from 1992-1996. Carol has a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Virginia (1988) and lives in Roslindale with her husband and two children.

Dr. Karilyn Crockett focuses her research on large-scale land use changes in twentieth century American cities and examines the social and geographic implications of structural poverty. Karilyn’s new book "People before Highways: Boston Activists, Urban Planners, and a New Movement for City Making" (UMASS Press 2018) investigates a 1960s era grassroots movement to halt urban extension of the U.S. interstate highway system and the geographic and political changes in Boston that resulted.