AFS Staff

Board & Founder's Circle | Advisory Board | Staff | Interns & Apprentices | Filmmaking Mentors

	Rebecca Campbell / Executive Director Rebecca Campbell has served as Executive Director of the Austin Film Society since 1998. During her tenure, the Film Society expanded its nationally recognized exhibition and artist services, created Austin Studios, founded the Texas Film Hall of Fame, and established a community outreach and education initiative involving paid internships and summer youth camps. Ms. Campbell spent 12 years in the nonprofit sector, serving as Executive Director of two statewide California organizations. She went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree in Video and Film Production from the University of Texas at Austin. She produced several award-winning CD-ROMs for Cortex Interactive, including Film, Form and Culture; worked on feature films in Austin and Los Angeles; and produced and directed an award-winning documentary, THE TOWN THAT JACK BUILT. Her position managing the Austin Film Society allows her to combine her film and nonprofit background on behalf of the Austin community.
	Stephanie J. Baker / director of marketing Raised in San Angelo, Texas, Stephanie J. Baker joined the AFS as Director of Marketing in September 2012, after managing sponsors and events at SXSW 2011. Prior to that, Stephanie lived in New York City for 12 years working for award-winning publications. During that time, as Marketing Director for Bon Appétit magazine, Stephanie created promotional campaigns, national media tours and multi-day festivals for global brands, including a dining series in partnership with the Sundance Film Festival. Stephanie also developed cross promotions with major film and television networks including Warner Bros., Columbia Pictures and Turner Classic Movies. Prior to that, Stephanie worked for Elle Décor, Metropolitan Home, Home and Vogue magazines, producing everything from star-studded benefits, auctions and live performances, to red-carpet award shows, press events and product launches. Working at the AFS affords Stephanie the opportunity to work with leaders in film, while leveraging her marketing skills to support Austin’s endless talent.
	Austin Culp / Marketing & Events Coordinator Austin Culp was born and raised in Amarillo, TX. Film and television have always been an important part of his life but it was while making short home videos that he realized he wanted to work in the entertainment industry. A few years later after watching a good majority of the AFI’s top 100 films, he found it the perfect time to come to Austin to seek an education in Radio-Television-Film. So in 2006, Austin moved to Austin (say that five times fast) where he soon discovered the passion the city of Austin had for film. In his first month in town, the city hosted Fantastic Fest and the next month it was Austin Film Festival and soon thereafter SXSW. While Austin was finishing up his degree in RTF from the University of Texas, he also interned at the local PBS station, KLRU. Austin has transitioned from Interim Artist Services Manager into the Marketing & Events Coordinator.
	KATY DAIGER DIAL / Community Education Manager Katy was born and raised in Houston, Texas, where she developed an eclectic love of all things film – from JURASSIC PARK to GONE WITH THE WIND. She moved to Austin to get her RTF degree from the University of Texas and never left the Bat City. Before AFS, she worked as the Video Game & Animation Industry Liaison for the Texas Film Commission, where she grew the State’s educational opportunities and economic benefits. She’s also had her hand in other aspects of filmmaking, working as Assistant Managing Director for CinemaTexas Short Film Festival and doing research and publicity for the documentary RICHARD GARRIOTT: MAN ON A MISSION. Katy has a Master’s Degree from the UT School of Information and has served on the Steering Committee for non-profit arts organization StrataTX. In those rare moments that she’s not working on, talking about or experiencing the moving image industry, Katy is indulging in her love of historical fiction and digital archives.
	JOHN ELDER / Studios Operator On April 1st, 2013, Austin Film Society welcomed aboard John Elder. April fools day aside, this was no joke. John brings with him the broad experience of a filmmaker, wine enthusiast and midwesterner. Born and raised in the Chicagoland area (excellent), John began his trek south to Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, where he earned a B.A. in Radio-Television. There, John worked with the Production Coordinator of the PBS affiliate, WSIU, gaining experience in television production and studio management. Before continuing south, John also served as Executive Producer of the Emmy and Hugo award-winning series, alt.news 26:46, which aired new episodes monthly on WSIU. Now residing in Austin, TX, John has worked as a freelance filmmaker on a wide variety of projects and continues to hone his skills as a videographer and editor. He is especially happy to be part of the Austin Film Society team.
	CHRIS ENGBERG / FACILITIES MANAGER Raised right here in Central Texas, Chris Engberg started his education at Austin Community College before abdicating to mini-Austin (aka Denton, TX) to finish a degree in Radio-TV-Film at The University of North Texas. After completing their program in less than two years, he immediately returned to Austin. Following a year of freelancing on commercials and small budget productions, Chris found himself as Studio Operations Manager at East Side Stages. In that role, he spent two years as the sole employee running and maintaining their daily studio functions while also managing the facilities for the building’s other tenants; not uncommonly seven days a week just to ensure the production community continued to have a stage available (to avoid over postulating he’d like to shout out to Region C for having his back on numerous occasions). Chris joins the AFS/Austin Studios team bringing that passion and understanding the need for having a great hub available to all levels of production.
	Holly Herrick / Associate Artistic Director Holly Herrick joined AFS in June of 2012 to serve as Associate Artistic Director. Prior to joining AFS, she served as Deputy Program Director at the Hamptons International Film Festival in New York, where in addition to film programming, she programmed and produced the festival’s signature artistic events. Concurrently with her Hamptons work, Herrick served as Director of Programming at the Sarasota Film Festival in Florida, and also programmed an edition of the Newport International Film Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. Through her work in festival programming, Herrick developed a passion for talent discovery while fostering her deep appreciation for daring, ambitious filmmaking in narrative, documentary and experimental forms. Also during her time in Sarasota, she partnered with Women Make Movies to develop and produce a symposium for the mentorship and promotion of American women filmmakers. Herrick has collaborated with her writer/director husband, Michael Tully, on his films. In 2011, she associate produced his narrative feature SEPTIEN, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and in Austin at SXSW, and was distributed by IFC/Sundance Selects. She is also associate producer on the upcoming narrative comedy feature PING PONG SUMMER. Prior to her career in film, Herrick studied French literature and cinema at New College of Florida, the honors college of the Florida state university system. She researched her undergraduate thesis on Senegalese filmmaker Safi Faye at the African Cinemathèque in Paris, while continuing her literature and cinema studies at the Sorbonne Nouvelle. Holly continues to write about films, and contributes to the Resources Blog of the Independent Feature Project and the editorial film website, Hammer To Nail. Her writing has been syndicated by the trade publication IndieWire.
	BECKY LUNNEY / DIRECTOR OF FINANCE Becky Lunney joined the Austin Film Society in January 2013 as Director of Finance. After earning a BBA in Finance from the University of Texas, Becky began her career with a national CPA firm in Houston, Texas. She subsequently earned a MS in Accountancy from the University of Houston and continued her work in public accounting. Prior to joining AFS, Becky worked as a consultant for several non-profit organizations to improve various aspects of their accounting functions including financial reporting, fiscal management of federal, state, and local funding, and implementation of internal controls. Becky resides in Lakeway with her husband and has three daughters.
	Aaron Malzahn / Office Manager Aaron was born and raised around Dallas, Texas, but has called Austin home ever since he moved to pursue studies in Radio-Television-Film from The University of Texas at Austin. His bond with the city solidified when, after graduating, he found he could not bear the thought of leaving a city so rich in live music and independent art. Before joining the Austin Film Society in 2011 Aaron previously worked as a production manager for 91.7 KVRX FM, a freelance location sound recordist and post production sound designer, and as an intern with Pony Sound Studios and Texas Media Systems. In 2012 Aaron became office manager of AFS, helping the society by managing day to day tasks, organizing events and screenings, and helping to manage AFS’ internship program.
	Sarah Ann Mockbee / Deputy Director Sarah Ann began her tenure with AFS in 2008 and became deputy director in 2011. Before joining the team, she worked in the development department at KUT and in the communications department at WNYC, the premiere NPR affiliate in New York City. She has served on the board of the Austin chapter of the American Institute of Architects and been a grant reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a producer of CITIZEN ARCHITECT, a documentary about her father, Samuel Mockbee, and the architectural design/build program Rural Studio that he created in Alabama.
	Chale Nafus / Director of Programming & Founder's Circle Chale Nafus was reputedly conceived in the top balcony of the Majestic Theater in Dallas, TX, two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. His first profound movie memories were THE RED SHOES and some Abbott and Costello horror movie, both of which explain something about his life. His father was particularly fond of British comedies, so young Chale was often called upon in junior high to "speak British." At the same time he was learning lots of interesting things, including Texas-Spanish, from his best friends, all of whom were gang members. The only sport he enjoyed playing was soccer, but the school deemed it "Communist" and removed it from the playground. Totally unprepared by the public school system for SMU, he dropped out before it was cool and took a job at Texas Instruments, where he made a hella lot of money for a 19 year old. But, after two years of his own version of walking on the wild side, he decided to go back to school, this time to UT Arlington where he got his B.A. in English. By that time Fellini and Bergman were happening. When Chale went to UT Austin for his M.A., he studied film and English. Nearly every summer was spent in Mexico, which he came to know much better than the U.S. After a rather odd semester teaching at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville, he moved aimlessly about and settled in Puerto Rico where he taught for a year. From 1970 to 1973 he lived and taught in New York City, while studying super-8 filmmaking and becoming a psychedelic macrobiotic Buddhist militant activist, contradictions be damned. When Austin Community College opened in 1973, Chale applied. When told he would be hired, he immediately went to Hippie Hollow and cast the I-Ching, which indicated he should take the job. He did, thinking he would leave after a few years. Twenty-five years later, he retired from ACC, after teaching film studies for many of those years, establishing the RTF department, and serving as Chair of Humanities for seven years. During that time he created over 80 video programs on Latino culture in central Texas as well as a hip-hop series in 1984-1985. In 1985 he became a founding board member of the Austin Film Society. Chale now happily serves as Director of Programming for AFS, a position he plans to hold until he is murdered by some angry film patron in the lobby of the Alamo Drafthouse. He continues to write and will eventually dump onto a website his 850-page magnum opus on the making of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. Right now he writes lots of program notes and web essays on films he programs for AFS and is currently researching interesting crimes committed in Dallas in the 19th century and through mid-20th century. Why? He hasn't a clue.
	LARS NILSEN / PROGRAMMER Lars Nilsen has been an Austin resident since 1994 and a film programmer since 2001. Born in 1971 and raised in North Carolina to movie-loving parents he spent just as much time reading about movies as watching them. His most cherished book as a child was Thomas G. Aylesworth’s “Monsters From The Movies”, and whenever a horror movie played on television he would stay up as late as necessary to watch it. When the family acquired a VCR in 1985 his obsession really took flight and has been airborne ever since. After years as a musician, bookseller and cabdriver, Lars began programming a weekly series at the Alamo Drafthouse in 2001 and was hired fulltime in 2003 as a programmer. In 2007 he became lead programmer for the Drafthouse and continued programming for the Alamo until the opportunity at the Austin Film Society presented itself. He still spends as much time reading about movies as watching them and his passionate film introductions tend to be full of equal parts information, humor, and enthusiasm.
	Celeste Serna Quesada / Event Producer Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Celeste Quesada has been preaching the gospel of Texas artists and entrepreneurs for over 15 years. Quesada has worked with some the finest talent that Texas has to offer, ranging from filmmakers, musicians and designers to educational projects. In 1997, launched her Event Production career as the Founder and then Executive Director of Cine Las Americas Media Arts Center. Quesada raised funds and produced numerous film screenings, concerts and cultural activities in Austin, Texas and New York City, New York. For the last four years, she works for Austin Film Society as the Event Producer for the Texas Film Hall of Fame. She is responsible for all aspects of producing the event including program creation, management, budget supervision, and hiring event vendors. Quesada works extensively with the Director of Development, Production Designer associated with the show and provides support to other members of the AFS staff, production team and vendors. Celeste lives in South Austin with her husband, musician Adrian Quesada, their daughters, Amelie and Marcelle, three chickens, two parakeets and their six-year-old chihuahua, Ana Empanada.
	Catherine Sckerl / Interim Studio Manager A LEED-certified project manager, designer and community planner, Catherine worked with Broaddus & Associates to lead AFS through a planning process resulting in the vision for Austin Studios’ expansion. You can find out more about Catherine at studioespero.com.
	ASHLAND VISCOSI / DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE Ashland was born and, partially, raised right here in Austin, Texas. At the tender age of 8 she was swept away to a small town in Oklahoma, relying on a surprisingly well-stocked local video store and a well-programmed two-screen theater to ease the transition and help expand her love of cinema. She stayed in Oklahoma and received a B.A. and an M.A. in Political Science (no need to worry UT fans, she didn’t attend either OU or OSU). Much to her surprise, she loved managing data, something she didn’t expect to find during her employment with the Oklahoma Office of Personnel Management. Keeping with the spirit of non-profit or government work, Ashland joined the Peace Corps and served in Honduras. Upon her stateside return, she moved back to the city she loved best and began working at UT. She used every ounce of her time outside of UT to either work with independent filmmakers, attend AFS or community screenings. In fact, she can be found in the same seat, week after week, at the Alamo Ritz attending her favorite genre series, Terror Tuesday. She gleefully accepted a position with AFS where she finally found the career that allows her to balance her two loves, cinema and data.
	Ann Welch / Director of Development Ann Welch joins AFS with nearly a decade of experience working with nonprofits in New York City, Connecticut, Georgia, and Colombia. After earning an MBA at the Yale School of Management, she worked as a fundraising consultant directing capital campaigns for multi-million dollar organizations in the health, education, social service and cultural sectors. Ann previously interned at PBS and worked at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. She is a proud board member of One Year Lease theater ensemble and volunteer for Artistic Dreams International. In her spare time, Ann enjoys seeking out cultural and culinary adventures.