ABOUT US

Maria has applied her collaboration and networking skills to all aspects of education, corporate branding, government affairs and community relations. She has been responsible for building capacity through community engagement, promoting sustainability and strengthening strategic relationships for both public and private organizations. Building community and solving problems are core to her approach. Maria holds an MS in management and leadership from Pepperdine University, a certification in paralegal studies from Cal Poly SLO and a BS from Oregon State University.

Suzanne is a local radio host and program director. She’s spent the past 20 years working in broadcast locally including a year at KCBX, our local NPR station, and 19 years in commercial radio with American General Media. Currently, she is programming and hosting for 93.3 KZOZ and The Krush 92.5. Tune in sometime! Her connection to the SLO Film Fest is long standing as she has worked with her company on ongoing sponsorship of the fest, attended as a fan and has entertained festival goers as an emcee at Surf Night and our Music Video Showcase and has proudly presented various awards to our winning filmmakers. Suzanne happily brings her experience in public speaking, events, marketing and her passion for community building to the board.

For the past 20 years, Tom has worked as a writer, producer and director on numerous internationally distributed documentary and educational films. His most recent, the award-winning “Botso”, became the Critics Pick of the New York Times. After graduating from Cal Poly, he received additional training at the Sony Institute and at the American Film Institute in Hollywood.  In 2014, Walters was awarded an Artist In Residence position at the Napa Valley Film Festival. Tom enjoys playing music with The Taproots

Kyle Plummer is an award-winning independent filmmaker based in the beautiful Central Coast of California. His first short documentary Korea Remembered, made at the age of 16, was honored by the Department of Defense in 2013 and was made a permanent addition to their historical records. More recently, amongst many other short and feature length projects, Kyle edited and produced the multi-award-winning short documentary Becoming Rich (2018). He earned a Bachelor of Science in Communication with an emphasis in Digital Film and has returned to SLO to pursue independent production work in both film and video through SuperImage, Ltd.

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Nina is a wine industry veteran on the Central Coast of California.  She has held numerous roles in her career, acting in executive roles at Vina Robles, Ancient Peaks, Justin, and Perinet. Her love of independent film was developed in her youth in the Bay Area, loving books and movies, followed by numerous visits to film festivals including Sundance, SLOIFF, and Santa Barbara Film festival. This path naturally led her to the SLOIFF board in 2023. With extensive knowledge of the wine industry, events, and brand development, Nina brings
a global and local perspective to the board. Nina is a resident of Santa Margarita, where she lives with her husband, Chris, and two sons, Rio and Aksel.