BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Bill Dedmon, Chairman
A native of North Carolina who discovered the magical allure of New Mexico and moved to Taos in 2001, Bill spent his career in investment banking before turning to nonprofits as a fulfilling way to serve the community. Most of his professional interest has centered on science and technology and emerging growth companies. He has a broad interest in the arts and was involved in three film festivals in Taos before joining the board of SFFF. Interest in the environment prompted him to co-found SUSTAIN TAOS (www.sustaintaos.org/) and serve as president for three years. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School, former Allied Member of The New York Stock Exchange, and served as a director of the MIT Enterprise Forum as well as other civic and professional organizations. An ardent skier and hiker, he loves Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico.

Walter Gallegos, President
Walter is a partner in Rio Grande Insurance Services of Santa Fe (www.riograndeins.com/new-mexico-locations.htm), where he oversees the Life and Health divisions. He is married to wife Margaret and has two children, Michael and Anna. Walter also spent thirty-plus years in the hospitality industry and is a Certified Specialist of Wine by The Society of Wine Educators. An active member of the community, he has been a part of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern New Mexico (www.BBBSNorthernNM.org) and was named “Elk of the Year” (2002) by the Santa Fe Elks Lodge.

Michael Pettit, Vice President/ Treasurer
An award-winning writer of poetry and prose (www.michaelpettit.com/), whose honors include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Iowa Poetry Prize, Michael has also been a university professor and administrator of literary programming. He founded and/or directed the Santa Fe Writer's Conference, Mount Holyoke Writer's Conference, and Writer's Conferences and Centers - the national association serving academic and independent literary programs. Before his writing and teaching career, Michael was a cattle rancher; his family came to New Mexico in the 1880s and ran one of the largest open-range ranches in the Southwest, as recounted in his recent book Riding for the Brand. His interest in film springs from the career of his sister Suzanne Pettit, who was an accomplished film editor in New York and Los Angeles before her death from breast cancer.

Susan Ohori, Secretary
A Santa Fe businesswoman and radio personality, Susan founded Ohori’s Coffee, Tea & Chocolate and the home accessories gift shop Casa. A well-traveled folk art collector, she is also Vice President of KSFR-FM (www.ksfr.org/), having spent more than fifteen years programming and broadcasting world music. She founded the Santa Fe Public Radio Association and has been an enthusiastic supporter and board member of the Santa Fe Film Festival since its inception.

Jon Bowman, Executive Director
Associate publisher of New Mexico Magazine (www.nmmagazine.com) and author/editor of seven books, Jon served as guest curator for the Library of Congress National Film Registry Tour (Albuquerque and Santa Fe) and editor of the book 100 Years of Filmmaking in New Mexico. He has written for more than thirty publications. Jon currently serves on the Governor's Council on Film and Media Industries.

Ginny Cerrella
Ginny is an award-winning and produced playwright, journalist, motion Picture/TV/cable writer and documentarian. A two-time NEA recipient, she has pitched, sold and written over twenty-five films and adaptations for  Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount, UA, MGM, and other studios. As a TV writer/producer, Ginny has written MOWs for Fox Broadcasting, NBC, CBS, and other studios. Ginny was executive producer of the short A Piece of Pie, which was the New Mexico Governor's Cup winner at the 2006 Santa Fe Film Festival.  Ginny's feature Sister, Sister opened the Toronto Film Festival to rave reviews and her original USA movie Tainted Blood is one of the most frequently broadcast thrillers on cable. Her musical Swamp Fever had its SRO premiere at The Wings Theatre in NYC, and Laveau has garnered several awards, including the Crystal Music Award for the song "No Siree."  It was named winner of the African-American Playwriting Competition at Louisville and finalist, a first for a musical, in the prestigious Jane Chambers Awards. Laveau was also presented in the Readers' Theatre Series of New Plays at the 25th National Black Theatre Festival. Ginny’s stage comedy His, Hers & God's has been produced worldwide. Ginny recently directed Sappho In Love, the winning stageplay at the Moondance International Film Festival and Getting It Right at the Her-RAH! Festival.

In addition to serving on the SFFF Board of Directors, Ginny is also a Festival Founder.  A former film critic for Santa Fe's THE Magazine and a spokesperson for the Santa Fe Screenwriters Conference, Ginny was on the founding faculty of the College of Santa Fe's Girls' Film School, where she taught the art of screenplay writing.

Eric Davis
Director of Marketing Operations at Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company (www.nacigs.com/), Eric possesses a diverse background in entertainment marketing. He’s been in the business since age seventeen, and worked on some of the U.S.’s biggest live music events, including RockFest '97, CountryFest '96 & '97, and LiveAid.  His employment history includes stints with Time Warner and Billboard Publications, plus numerous record labels, entertainment agencies, and radio stations.  Eric’s journalism credits include pieces in Billboard and R&R, plus columns in various publications. He has booked talent for festivals; managed positioning, brand identity, and event strategies for Verizon Directories Corporation; and worked on Superbowl XXXVII. With the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company since 2003, he has secured and managed sponsorships with The South by SouthWest Festivals, SlamDance Film Festival, North Texas New Music Festival, CMJ Music Marathon, AFI Film Festival, NoisePop Music Festival, Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival, Bonnaroo Music Festival, and the Atlantis Music Conference.

Raymond Kurshals
Founder of Pilates Santa Fe (www.pilatessantafe.com/), an International Wellness Center located in Santa Fe since 1995, Ray is considered one of the most experienced Wellness teachers in the country. Currently, Mr. Kurshals consults for private clients and corporate spas and fitness centers throughout the world. As a professional dancer he is the only dancer to have danced with Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, and Merce Cunningham. In film and television, he has worked in front of and behind the camera as a writer, director, actor, choreographer, and dancer. He is an Olympic coach and has worked with major and minor league sports teams and athletes.

Tom Maguire
Tom Maguire's career in music and the arts spans more than forty years as a performer, arranger, conductor, and arts administrator. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, his performance career included twenty-five years as principal percussionist with the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra, where he also served as an assistant conductor, and six years as percussionist and four years as timpanist with the Santa Fe Symphony (www.sf-symphony.org).  He has performed in or conducted orchestras in the United States, Mexico, Italy, and Costa Rica. And, as arranger/conductor for the New American Ragtime Ensemble, he has performed over 300 concerts of traditional ragtime music on tours throughout Central and North America. Tom has also played in the pit orchestras of many Broadway and off-Broadway theatres and has toured with Broadway National Companies and major pop music artists.  As an arts administrator, Mr. Maguire has guided ballet companies, symphony orchestras, and numerous small ensembles and is a Founder of the Oklahoma Arts Institute (www.okartinst.org/), a multi-disciplinary arts camp for teenagers, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2007. Mr. Maguire has served as the executive director of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale (www.desertchorale.org), administrative director of the Institute for Spanish Arts (www.mariabenitez.com), and director of development of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival (www.sfcmf.org). In 2003, Mr. Maguire joined the City of Santa Fe as Culture, Arts and Tourism Planner and currently directs Culture and Heritage Tourism for the City of Santa Fe and is the senior planner for the UNESCO International Creative Tourism Conference in the fall of 2008. Mr. Maguire is a 2004 recipient of The Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts from the City of Santa Fe.

Sharon Maloof
Deputy Cabinet Secretary for the New Mexico Tourism Department (www.newmexico.org/), she earned her promotion to the post after serving for many years as the department's director of international marketing. Sharon belongs to a longtime New Mexico family prominent in both the political and business spheres.

Lee Munson
Lee is Chief Investment Officer at Portfolio LLC (www.portfoliollc.com/), an Albuquerque-based asset manangement and life planning firm which produces customized wealth strategies and manages investment portfolios. Previously, he worked at Charles Schwab, Bear Stearns, and Prime Charter in New York. After his investment work in New York, he returned to New Mexico, where he had attended St. John’s College and worked at the Andrew Smith Gallery in Santa Fe. A Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Financial Planner, he is a board member of the New Mexico Estate Planning Council and New Mexico Financial Planning Association. Lee lives in Albuquerque with his wife and daughter.

Kathleen Kenney Peters
Owner of MuseMedia (www.musemedia.tv/), a video, film and web production company in Santa Fe, she and her husband Gerald Peters are owners of the Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe and Dallas. In addition to serving on the board of the Santa Fe Film Festival, she also is a board member for the Coalition for Quality Children's Media, the College of Santa Fe, and the Governor's Council on Film and Media Industries.

Christopher Webster
Chris Webster coordinates the activities of WEBSTER ENTERPRISES (www.webster-enterprises.com), a real estate and investment firm founded in 1972 on the westside of the historic Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Chris has an extensive background in real estate including appraisal, investment analysis, development, and consulting, as well as marketing and sales of prominent residential, ranch, and commercial properties primarily in New Mexico, Hawaii, Mexico, and Western Europe. Sotheby's International Realty acquired the Santa Fe brokerage company, Christopher Webster Real Estate, in 1998 as its first acquisition of a Sotheby's affiliate company worldwide. Chris is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), the National Association of Realtors (NAR), and serves as the President of the New Mexico Council of the American Chapter of the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI).  Chris is also a managing partner of SYNTHESIS REALTY GROUP (SynthesisRealty.com), a company coordinating and directing development, marketing, and sales activities of select and extraordinary communities worldwide.

Christopher Webster Art Investments was founded in 1972 as a brokerage, procurement, and appraisal business for Native American indigenous art and artifacts of the Americas, as well as Spanish Colonial antiques and vintage Western paintings and photography. Subsequently a collection was assembled that today consists primarily of representative examples from Mexico, Peru, and the American Southwest, the lands of Spanish exploration during the Age of Discovery. Timeless Integrity - The New World Collection and a complimentary library may be viewed by appointment in a space emulating a Mexican Colonial-era hacienda in the WEBSTER ENTERPRISES westside Plaza office.

Chris and his wife, Patti, have three children and live in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Kealakekua, Hawaii.