Board Members
Diana Newton
Interim Board President
Diana Newton is currently the Principal of Falling Apples Consulting, where she focuses on developing individuals and teams to achieve superior results in the areas of leadership, management, and team development. In addition to consulting and training, Diana spent a number of years as a psychotherapist in private practice. Her interest in filmmaking began as a writer and producer of training films that explore the complex interpersonal dynamics between managers and their employees. She has recently authored a business history book and produced a companion video about the 75-year development of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.
Diana is also currently producing a personal documentary film, Two Forms of I.D., which examines how her brother's change in gender identity tests the "ties that bind" in her Southern family.
Laurie Bley
Bio Coming Soon!
Greg Garneau
Greg is a retired Executive Director of the National Press Photographers Association. As a management consultant, he worked with numerous for-profit and not-for-profit organizations in North Carolina. Greg has served as a Director, Board Officer and consultant for various non-profits. Currently he volunteers for other organizations focused on transportation alternatives. A graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles, he holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Columbia University. A one-time resident of New York City, he worked at Anthology Film Archives and has a working knowledge of video production and digital photography -- particularly in relation to the new media and journalism.
Jim Haverkamp
Board Treasurer
Jim Haverkamp is a Durham filmmaker and freelance editor. His short documentary and narrative films have screened at more than 50 film festivals around the world. Jim received a Filmmaking Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council in 2000. He has also served on the selection committee of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and is a former organizer of the Flicker Film Festival in Chapel Hill.
Cicero Leak, III
Cicero is a native of Durham, NC where he attended North Carolina Central University. After obtaining a degree in Political Science, Cicero gained invaluable experience while working with one of North Carolina's most accomplished sports agents and attorneys. During that time he co-founded RDU919 Music & Films, LLC and is Executive Producer of the award winning documentary Welcome to Durham, USA (www.welcometodurhamusa.com). Leak has directed several successful ad campaigns in multiple industries while taking RDU919 to a reputable level of notoriety in the music and film industries.
Cicero's professional attributes include currently serving as Managing Partner of the Turner Leak Agency, a sports & talent agency he co-founded located in Durham, N.C. with offices also located in Washington, D.C. and Charlotte, N.C., he also served as Director of Marketing for both the Durham Bulls, the AAA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and North Carolina Central University. In both roles his marketing initiatives have been considered innovative and garnered much success.
Beverly Meek
Beverly Meek is Assistant Director for Marketing and Audience Development for Duke Performances. In this capacity she is responsible for all aspects of marketing for more than 50 events in the Duke Performances season each year. Previously she was an Assistant Dean and Marketing Coordinator in the division of Student affairs at Duke University, Program Administrator for the North Carolina Arts Council, Touring and Presenting Program, Company Manager for the African American Dance Ensemble, and Assistant Director, Presenting Services for the Durham Arts Council. She holds a MA from Duke University, a BS from Cornell University and completed the UNC-Chapel Hill Arts Management Institute. She is currently a board member of the North Carolina Presenters Consortium, the City of Durham Cultural Master Plan Board and serves on the Duke University Martin Luther King Celebration Committee. Beverly is a southerner by birth, having grown up in rural northwest Georgia, and currently resides in Durham, NC.
Scott Misner
Scott Misner is an experienced communicator and instructor. He produced a weekly television news-variety show and is a graduate from Purdue University and the University of North Carolina. Scott launched a public relations firm in 2001 and works with statewide and national media in the court of public opinion. He serves as chief strategist for this idea factory that helps N.C. organizations find their creative voice. Fifteen years of broad experience enables him to tell good stories and know how to participate as a brand with consumers.
Fun happens each of the past six years he has taught in the UNC Journalism School's top-ranked public relations department. We can thank his students for the ideas used to promote the SDF documentary, Durham: A Self-Portrait. In his free time, Scott's a yogi, cyclist, swimmer and downtown advocate who likes animals and refuses to eat them.
Tom Whiteside
Tom Whiteside has been making, curating, and exhibiting film since 1979, when he graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in Radio, Television and Motion Pictures. Interests include experimental film, regional film history, and the intersection of motion pictures with music and fine arts. He worked as a Visiting Artist in the North Carolina Community College system for four years, and was an Artist-in-Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California. He was an Arts Administration Fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, DC in 1990. Founder and director of Durham Cinematheque, he has presented more than 60 unique film programs in downtown Durham since 1991.
His short film Conjure Bearden was part of the Romare Bearden exhibition at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in 2006, and was screened at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in 2007. He works as an audio-visual technician in Technical Services at Duke University.