The Gathering’s Guiding Idea

Awe. Fear. Pride. Anger. Love. Hope.

What role do these play in the chasm between awareness and action? How do emotions inspire action or apathy? Are we more likely to act out of hope or despair? Pride or anger? And what role do our emotions play in connecting us or pushing us apart?

At frank 2020, we played with our emotions to uncover how we could  intentionally use emotion in our work.

Watch frank 2020

Meet the frank 2020 speakers

  • Thomas Allen Harris is a filmmaker, scholar and artist exploring identity, family and spirituality through film, photography and performance. Founder of the Family Pictures Institute for Inclusive Storytelling, he uses personal archives to unite communities. A Harvard graduate and Yale professor, his acclaimed films have screened worldwide.
    Thomas Allen Harris
    Founder of Family Pictures Institute for Inclusive Storytelling
  • Maryam Iftikhar is a lifelong scholar and storyteller passionate about human rights and justice. A first-generation American, she focuses on peacebuilding, genocide prevention and accessibility. Dedicated to creating inclusive, intersectional communities, she connects awareness, research and compassion to make the world safer for all.
    Maryam Iftikhar
    Human rights scholar and storyteller
  • Laura Ligouri is the Executive Director and Founder of Mindbridge, a not-for-profit organization connecting psychological and neurobiological insight to non-profit and government sponsored humanitarian efforts.
    Laura Liguori
    Researcher
  • Katherine R. Dale (Ph.D., The Ohio State University) is an assistant professor at Florida State University. Her main research interests include positive media psychology and intergroup interaction. She is particularly interested in how media affect the way we see and experience the world.
    Katherine Dale
    Associate Professor at Florida State University
  • Gabrielle Huria MNZM comes from a Māori community in the South Island of New Zealand. The Ngāi Tahu story is one of extraordinary success. As an indigenous people whose lands and economy had been taken in the 19th and 20th century Ngāi Tahu has risen again on the South Island landscape.
    Gabrielle Huria
    Chief Executive, Te Kura Taka Pini Ltd
  • Jennifer Hudson is Professor of Political Behaviour and Head of Department of Political Science and the School of Public Policy at University College London. Professor Hudson is Director of the Development Engagement Lab (DEL), a five-year study of public attitudes and engagement with global development in France, Germany, Great Britain and the U.S., funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
    Jennifer Hudson
    Researcher
  • Misty Jones Simpson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Recording Industry at Middle Tennessee State in Murfreesboro, TN and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Baylor University. Misty studied Music Technology Innovation at Berklee Valencia in Spain, where she received the Outstanding Scholar award and achieved a Master of Music degree.
    Misty Jones Simpson
    Scholar
  • Erica Rosenthal is the Director of Research at the Norman Lear Center, a research and policy center based at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Her passion is for using media narratives as a vehicle to challenge stereotypes, move people to action and generate lasting culture change.
    Erica Rosenthal
    Scholar
  • Keith Bound started his narrative design and audience engagement research consultancy Receptive Cinema in 2016. His company specialises in the construction of suspense and science of storytelling to optimise cognition, emotion and engagement in movies and episodic television drama.
    Keith Bound
    Scholar
  • Grant previously served as an assistant professor in Xavier University of Louisiana’s Mass Communication Department teaching classes in strategic communication, social media management and media law.
    Rachel Grant
    Scholar
  • Pamela Mejia is Head of Research at Berkeley Media Studies Group. BMSG works to build the capacity of educators and community leaders to change narratives, communicate strategically and conduct media literacy to make their communities healthier, safer and more just.
    Pamela Mejia
    Researcher
  • Amanda is passionate about solid strategy, meaningful messages and the allure of alliteration. She takes pride in helping her clients reach new heights, whether it’s winning a national contest, nailing a one on one interview, or any other achievement in communication or justice.
    Amanda Cooper
    Strategist
  • Davin Phoenix is a teacher and scholar of race, emotion and political behavior. A first generation college graduate, Davin researches how humans interact with various spheres of U.S. politics to shape the attitudes, emotions and behavior of both everyday people and elites.
    Davin Phoenix
    Educator and Author
  • Ezra Marowitz, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Environmental Decision-Making in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research and teaching focus on the intersection of decision-making, persuasive communication, public engagement with science and environmental sustainability.
    Ezra Markowitz
    Scholar
  • Aundre is a Florida native, Brooklyn-based portrait photographer who has spent the last few years shooting editorial and lifestyle content for his clients. He most recently shot the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with The North Face, NY Fashion week and a portrait project about Amendment 4 in Florida. Throughout the years, he has always pursued the truth that can be found in portraiture and his current work is the next chapter of that.
    Aundre Larrow
    Photographer and Educator
  • Camryn Jackson is a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar studying journalism and sociology at Mercer University. As a contributing writer and reporter for her school’s TV station, Camryn has developed a strong interest in storytelling.
    Camryn Jackson
    Karel Fellow
  • Alia Sharrief is a California-based hip hop artist, educator and human rights champion known for founding the Hijab Chronicles, a platform elevating Muslim women in hip hop. She blends her identity into her music and action, using lyrics to empower communities and challenge stereotypes. Her work includes organizing concerts, youth workshops and scholarship programs supporting creative Muslim women, aiming to represent and uplift voices through art and storytelling.
    Alia Sharrief
    Artist
  • Karin Wahl-Jorgensen is Professor and Director of Research Development and Environment in the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture, where she has worked since 2000. She holds a PhD from Stanford University, USA and an honorary doctorate from Roskilde University, Denmark.
    Karin Wahl-Jorgensen
    Scholar
  • A native of Ashtabula, Ohio, Chelsea Fuller is a multiplatform journalist and communications strategist currently working at Blackbird. As Blackbird’s Senior Communications Manager, Chelsea supervises the accounts of various clients, including The ‘me too.’ Movement and the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL).
    Chelsea Fuller
    Senior Communications Manager
  • Kareem is an Egyptian community leader and one of the leaders of the Arab Spring in 2011. Kareem’s leadership experience was mainly through the student movement that thrived after the Arab Spring and was elected as spokesperson of the Student Union. Kareem participated in writing the legislation regulating public higher education in Egypt and in crafting the Egyptian Constitution.
    Kareem Emara
    Community Leader
  • Heriselda oversees impact campaigns at Participant Media where she works across sectors with non-profits, multinational companies, government agencies, foundations and others to raise awareness and mobilize viewers around film and episodic content.
    Heriselda Begaj-Viotti
    Senior Manager, Participant Media
  • Since co-founding the Center for Artistic Activism, Steve Lambert has worked alongside artists and activists in 20 countries on 4 continents helping them to effect power through creativity and culture. Over the past ten years they have focused on helping artists and activists.
    Steve Lambert
    Co-Founder, Center for Artistic Activism
  • As Director, Global Campaign, Liba Beyer launched Human Rights Watch’s first ever campaigns unit. She develops global, national and local awareness campaigns for public engagement to advance policy goals and promote human rights values.
    Liba Beyer
    Policy Educator
  • Thomas Coombes is a human rights strategist and communications expert from Ireland. He founded his own consultancy called hope-based communications in July 2019 to help non-profits communicate as effectively as companies and governments, with a particular focus on using integrated comms strategies and digital marketing to change narratives.
    Thomas Coombes
    Human Rights Strategist and Communications Expert
  • Dr. Debbie Almontaser is an internationally recognized, award-winning educator, speaker and authority on cross cultural understanding. She is an influential community leader and the Founder and CEO of Bridging Cultures Group, Inc.
    Debbie Almontaser
    Scholar
  • As a youth leader, Key is responsible for mentoring ten students. They’ve also designed a new curriculum around empowerment and founded a 20K scholarship program to help high school students attend college.
    Key Estime
    Karel Fellow
  • René Weber’s lab investigates complex cognitive responses to mass communication and mediated narratives with an emphasis on the neural mechanisms of moral conflict, persuasion, media violence, cognitive control and flow experiences.
    René Weber
    M.D., Ph.D.
  • A storyteller and educator, Chloé would quickly find her voice while volunteering with peers and allies on the historic New Hampshire campaign of 2017-2018. Since becoming a regular volunteer with the ACLU and organizing with the progressive nonprofits like Rights & Democracy and most recently Freedom For All Americans.
    Chloe LaCasse
    Speaker and Educator
  • K.L Broad has a PhD in Sociology (1998) from Washington State University and is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Florida. Dr. Broad’s research focuses primarily on analyzing interpretive and identity work of social movements, especially in relation to human-nature and accessibility.
    Kendal Broad-Wright
    Professor, University of Florida
Read Speaker Bios