Staff

Photo of Opeyemi Olukemi.

Opeyemi Olukemi

Director

Throughout her career as an interactive producer, funder, and public programmer, Opeyemi has created spaces and pipelines for interdisciplinary artists, communities, and creative teams to experiment and create meaningful innovative content.

A black and white photo of John Biewen

John Biewen

Audio Program Director/Instructor

John Biewen (he/him) is audio program director at CDS and host of the Center’s audio documentary podcast, Scene on Radio. During a thirty-plus-year career as an audio journalist and documentary-maker, he has told stories from forty American states and from Europe, Japan, and India.

Harlan Campbell

Harlan Campbell

Photography and Digital Arts Associate

Harlan Campbell is the photography and digital arts associate at the Center for Documentary Studies. He has a degree in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Tin type photo of Allen Creech

Allen Creech

Systems Administrator

Allen Creech has been a systems administrator for the the past eighteen years, thirteen of them at the Center for Documentary Studies. He also serves in that capacity for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and for Duke's MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts program. Originally from Cary, North Carolina, Allen is a graduate of North Carolina State University.

Jamila R. Davenport

Jamila R. Davenport

Operations Specialist

Jamila R. Davenport is an emerging multimedia documentarian who shares narratives digitally across internet platforms.

A photo of Alexa Dilworth

Alexa Dilworth

Publishing and Awards Director; Senior Editor, CDS Books

Alexa Dilworth (she/her) is publishing director and senior editor at the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University, where she also directs the awards program, which includes the Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize.

A photo of Kelsey Favret

Kelsey Favret

Assistant Director of Development

Kelsey Favret (she/her/hers) is the assistant director of development at the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS), where she is responsible for the planning, coordination, and implementation of comprehensive annual giving, engagement, and stewardship programs. 

A head shot of Emily Foster

Emily Foster

Associate Interim Festival Director; Marketing Director, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

Emily Foster is the Marketing Director at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Before joining Full Frame, she held the position of Communications & Press Manager at Milwaukee Film.

Mara Guevarra

Mara Guevarra

Digital Marketing and Projects Manager

As Digital Marketing and Projects Manager, Mara (they/she) works in social media management and digital content creation as part of the Center for Documentary Studies’ Communications Team. They are particularly interested in using immersive technology in order to document the future and propose new realities.

A portrait of Michael Gulley

Mike Gulley

Development Director

Mike Gulley is the development director at the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS). He has more than eighteen years of experience and expertise in nonprofit fundraising, organizational growth, and relationship management. Mike has helped to grow capacity and fundraise for a number of organizations both here in the Triangle and also during his time living in California’s Bay Area.

Caitlin Margaret Kelly

Caitlin Margaret Kelly

Director, Power Plant Gallery

Caitlin Margaret Kelly is an artist, runner, and devout coffee drinker. She is Director of the Power Plant Gallery at Duke University.

EB Landesberg

EB Landesberg

Program Director, Hine Fellows

Elizabeth (EB) Landesberg is a filmmaker, multimedia artist and educator. In addition to co-directing the Lewis Hine Documentary Fellows Program, she is a producer and facilitator for Another Kind of Girl Collective, an expanding global media collective for young women living in displaced communities.

A headshot of Katelyn Liu.

Katelyn Liu

Programming Manager, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

Katelyn Liu is the programming manager at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Starting in 2018, Katelyn has been involved with the festival in different ways—as a volunteer, member of the selection committee, programming assistant, and now, in her role as the programming manager.

Xaris A. Martínez

Xaris A. Martínez

Executive Assistant

Office

1317 W. Pettigrew St. L302

Phone

(919) 660-3610

Email

xaris.martinez@duke.edu

 

A photo of Lynn McKnight

Lynn McKnight

Strategic Advisor

After a career in journalism, Lynn McKnight returned to her Duke alma mater in 1998 to join the CDS team building a dynamic place devoted to the documentary arts.
First serving as communications director, over the years she added external relations, program planning and management, and development to her duties. She has degrees from Duke University (public policy) and the University of Mississippi (southern studies) and has completed graduate studies in communications at the University of Florida.

A head shot of Leesa Moore

Leesa Moore

Development Manager, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

Leesa Moore joins our Full Frame family as our new Development Manager. Leesa was born and raised in Durham, and majored in Film and Media Communications at North Carolina State University.

A photo of Stephanie Owens

Stephanie Owens

DocX Director

Stephanie Owens' background stretches from creator to curation. Her experience as a filmmaker, photographer, and film festival programmer has equipped her with insight into various forms of storytelling and the multifaceted needs of filmmakers and artists.

Dan Partridge

Dan Partridge

Production Co-Director, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

Dan Partridge is the production co-director for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. He has served as the research associate for the Jazz Loft Project at the Center for Documentary Studies, beginning in 2003. From 2000–2002, he was the CDS exhibitions and public programs assistant.

Liz Phillips

Liz Phillips

Communications Director

Elizabeth (Liz) Phillips (she/her/hers) is communications director at the Center for Documentary Studies. This is her second stint at CDS; in 1993, while working as a writer/editor at a government-issue government job in D.C., a friend told her about a new magazine starting up at a place called the Center for Documentary Studies.

A photo of Courtney in a T-Shirt that reads "This is what a documentarian looks like"

Courtney Reid-Eaton

Exhibitions Director / Creative Director, Documentary Diversity Project

Courtney Reid-Eaton is a culture worker, creative engine, spouse, mother, and Black Feminist. She has been the exhibitions director at CDS since 2001, overseeing the selection, scheduling, curation, design, and installation of exhibits in all of the Center’s galleries and organizing related public programs; she also serves as the creative director of CDS’s pilot Documentary Diversity Project. 

Chris Sims

Christopher Sims

Undergraduate Education Director/Associate Professor of the Practice, Fall 2017 Lehman Brady Fellow

Christopher Sims is the Undergraduate Educator Director at the Center for Documentary Studies and a Lecturing Fellow in Documentary Arts. He has worked as a photo archivist at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and, at CDS, has coordinated the exhibition, awards, and web programs.

Photo of Shameeka

Shameeka Thomas

Night Manager

Shameeka Thomas is a night manager (front desk attendant) and event manager at the Center for Documentary Studies.  She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with a Master of Business Administration degree in 2013.  She also has a Bachelor of Science degree with an emphasis in IT.

Sadie Tillery

Sadie Tillery

Interim Festival Director; Artistic Director, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

Sadie Tillery is the artistic director of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Sadie joined the programming department in 2005 and became director in 2008.

A photo of David Wong

David Wong

Accounting Specialist

David is responsible for various accounting functions at CDS: paying vendors, paying employees, booking credit card receipts, depositing checks, and the like. He is a grad- uate of the University of Virginia with a degree in music, and by meanderings came to administrative work.