INDUSTRY 101 EVENT SERIES
No matter what stage of your writing career you’re in, creative pursuits of any kind are rife with rejection and uncertainty of the professional, creative, and financial variety. This can take a toll on your mental health.
What can help is a support network. This can take the form of a group of friends, like-minded writers or otherwise. But in our wildly atomized times, how do you go about building a community? And what do you do when you’re in a crisis your support network can’t quite handle?
Mental health professionals and writers will join us to discuss these issues during the first event in the 2024 edition of the Industry 101 series.
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
5-6:30 PM PT
Content warning: This webinar may contain topics (e.g. suicide, suicide prevention) that can be difficult for some to participate in. If a guest ever feels the need to take a break from these discussions, either for a short time or for the rest of the session, they may always do so.
THE PANELISTS
Laverne McKinnon
Laverne McKinnon’s journey reflects a sincere commitment to helping individuals and organizations rediscover their capacity for impact and creativity. She balances multiple hats, integrating her experience and expertise as both a Career Coach and Grief Recovery Specialist with her extensive background as a Film & Television Producer.
With an understanding that unaddressed setbacks and grief can erode resilience, Laverne specializes in guiding people and companies to reconnect with their core strengths and aspirations. Her approach is grounded in the belief that clarity of values and purpose lies at the heart of fulfillment and meaningful impact.
As an adjunct professor at Northwestern University's MS Leadership for Creative Enterprises program, Laverne’s highly regarded course on Persuasion & Pitching stands out for its experiential nature, pushing students to engage actively and think on their feet. She imparts the philosophy that pitching is not a contest to be won, but a connection to be made, emphasizing that people invest in individuals before ideas. This philosophy stems from her background as a television programming executive.
A significant portion of Laverne's career was spent on the corporate side, notably as Senior Vice-President of Drama Development at CBS and Executive Vice-President at EPIX. Her involvement in the CSI and CRIMINAL MINDS series highlights her ability to identify and develop highly commercial and financially lucrative franchises. As the inaugural programming chief for EPIX, she earned the platform its first Emmy nominations. Her tenure as Head of Television at Charlize Theron's production company, Denver & Delilah, further showcased her ability to bring projects to life including three direct-to-series orders.
As the Executive Producer of the Netflix series GIRLBOSS and co-founder of K&L Productions with filmmaker Kay Cannon, Laverne's passion for championing marginalized and underserved stories and communities is informed by her Japanese heritage and growing up in a lower-income household. Laverne's academic foundation, encompassing a BS in Radio-TV-Film from Northwestern University and an MBA from Pepperdine, underscores her commitment to being a lifelong learner. Along with certifications as a coach and grief recovery specialist, she’s also a practitioner of cognitive behavioral therapy and neuro-linguistics. She is currently undergoing training to become a Reiki master.
The Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE) is an important part of Laverne’s work. She is the former Co-President and continues her support as a mentor in their New Writers and Leadership Fellowship programs, signifying her desire to nurture emerging talents and contribute to the broader creative community in a meaningful and lasting manner.
Meg LeFauve
Nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar for the Pixar blockbuster Inside Out, Meg LeFauve won an Annie Award for that screenplay. She also wrote Pixar’s Golden Globe nominated The Good Dinosaur, and was a writer on Marvel’s box office hit, Captain Marvel. She wrote the recent Netflix animated film My Father’s Dragon, and has just completed writing on the upcoming Pixar film, Inside Out 2. Most recently she joined a writing team and is currently co-writing, with Joe Forte, a film for MGM, as well as an original TV series. Meg co-created the podcast The Screenwriting Life with Lorien McKenna, which regularly charts in the top film/tv podcasts.
LeFauve began her film career as a producer and President of Egg Pictures, Jodie Foster's film company. As a producer, she was nominated for an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and was awarded a Peabody for the Showtime film, The Baby Dance. LeFauve also produced The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys which won the 2003 IFP Spirit Award for Best First Feature.
LeFauve has been a consultant to Screen New South Wales and Screen Australia and has been a mentor at many writing labs, including The Sundance Labs, Cinestory Script Sessions, and the Meryl Streep Lab. LeFauve taught at AFI and served as co-chair of the Graduate Producers Program at UCLA's School of Film and Television, where she taught master level story and development classes for over seven years.
Raised in Warren, Ohio, LeFauve graduated from the Syracuse University Newhouse School and currently lives in Studio City, California with her husband and two sons.
Sandri Kramer
Sandri Kramer, a founding member of the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Network (LASPN), has over 25 years of experience in suicide prevention/intervention and crisis center work. A native of the Netherlands, Sandri’s first passion was anthropology and her work as an environmental documentary producer took her all around the world—until she settled into directing the oldest suicide crisis line in the U.S. and one of the busiest Crisis Call Centers in the nation. Now, as Didi Hirsch’s Director of Community Relations, she focuses on Program Development, Community Partnerships, and Public Awareness/Training. After many years of grassroots work with law enforcement partners, overseeing the launch of LAPD’s 911 call diversion project is one of her proudest achievements. She is also currently working on expanding SPC’s role in emergency management as a core center of the national Disaster Distress Helpline, strengthening and expanding the center’s collaborative partnerships with numerous law enforcement agencies on alternative crisis response, and the implementation and growth of 9-8-8. She serves on numerous coalitions and task forces, including as president on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Crisis Organization Directors (NASCOD), as a member of the Board of the Emergency Network Los Angeles (ENLA), as an original member of the LA Mayor’s Challenge Team on Suicide Prevention for Service Members, Veterans, and their Families, as a lead trainer for CopLine, and as a member of LA’s Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) Community Partnership Council.
THE MODERATOR
Michelle Sugihara
Michelle K. Sugihara is the Executive Director of CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment), the premier non-profit organization creating opportunities and driving change for Asian and Pacific Islander (API) success in Hollywood. She is a fourth generation Japanese American born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. She graduated with honors from Claremont McKenna College with a dual major in Economics and Psychology and a minor in Asian American Studies, followed by a law degree from UCLA. Prior to joining CAPE, she was an entertainment attorney, film producer, and adjunct professor for the Claremont Colleges’ Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies.
A prolific public speaker, Sugihara speaks across the country on Asian Representation in Media; Women in Entertainment; Diversity and Inclusion; Leadership; and other topics. She is also an associate member of Cold Tofu, the nation’s premier Asian American comedy improv and sketch group. She teaches “Improv for Lawyers” and has performed improv internationally.
Sugihara’s community involvement includes her roles as founding member of the Asian Pacific American Friends of the Theater, former Co-Chair of the Multicultural Bar Alliance of Southern California, member of PBS-SoCal Asian Pacific Islander Community Council, former VP of OCA-Greater Los Angeles, past president of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Los Angeles County, past member of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles’s Executive Advisory Council, and past board member of the Japanese American Bar Association. Sugihara is a recipient of the City of Los Angeles R.I.S.E. (Recognizing Inspiring IndividualS Who Elevate and Empower) Award, KTLA 5 AAPI Visionaries Award, the prestigious National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s Best Lawyers Under 40 award, and the Los Angeles County Bar Association, Real Property Section’s Outstanding Young Lawyer award. She was named a “Rising Star” in Los Angeles Magazine’s Super Lawyer Rising Star section for seven years, an honor bestowed on only 2.5 percent of attorneys in the state each year.
