BOARD OF DIRECTORS

DEAN BATALI
Dean was a writer on "That 70s Show" for seven years, serving as an Executive Producer during the show's final season.  In addition to writing for the first two seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (WB), he was a staff writer on NBC's Hope and Gloria and wrote for Duckman, Bruno the Kid, Mickey's Campfire Tales, and Nickelodeon's The Adventures of Pete and Pete.

JAMES SCOTT BELL
James Scott Bell is the best-selling author of Presumed Guilty, Sins of the Fathers, Breach of Promise, and several other thrillers. He is a winner of the Christy Award for Excellence in Christian fiction and is currently fiction columnist for Writer's Digest magazine. His book Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure is from Writer's Digest Books. Jim teaches writing at numerous writers conferences and at Pepperdine University.

DICK LYLES
Dick Lyles, Ph.D., is the former CEO of Relevant Radio®, a leading operator of community Catholic radio stations.   He now serves as President and CEO of Leadership Legacies, a company that focuses on developing a new generation of leaders.   Dick has been an active speaker and management consultant with an international clientele for more than thirty years.   His client base has included numerous cities and countries, various departments of the U.S. government, and Fortune 500 companies, including Exxon and Hughes Aircraft.   Dick has published seven books, including the best seller Winning Habits:   4 Secrets that Will Change the Rest of Your Life and the soon-to-be-released Achieve Leadership Genius.   His books have been translated into thirty-six languages.   He writes a column for the Catholic Business Journal online magazine and has hosted a weekly radio program.

AVA MEMMEN

DAVID MCFADZEAN
David created and executive produced the ABC hit television show Home Improvement. Prior to that he served as executive story editor on the premier season of Roseanne. He has executive produced and co-created television shows with Carol Burnett, Ed Asner, Haley Joel Osment, Dave Chappelle, and Dan Aykroyd. In film, David produced Where the Heart Is, starring Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd, and What Women Want, starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. Recently, he executive produced Walker Payne, starring Jason Patric and Sam Shepherd, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. David has a B.A. in theater from the University of Evansville and an M.A. in Theater from Illinois State University. He and his wife Elizabeth have two children: Meredith, age 24, and Court, age 20.

BARBARA NICOLOSI (Founder; Chair, Board of Directors)
Nicolosi has an MA in Film from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. She has been a director of development, a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and a consultant on many film and television projects. She wrote The Work, a full-length feature set during the Spanish Civil War, for IMMI Pictures of Beverly Hills and has been hired to write Polosuasion for IMMI.  She writes a media column for the National Catholic Register , is on the executive committee of the City of the Angels Film Festival, and the board of Catholics in Media. She frequently addresses writers' conferences on screenwriting and the arts.

PATRICIA PHALEN
Patricia Phalen is an Associate Professor and Assistant Director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.  She has an MBA from Boston College, and a PhD in Radio/Television/Film from Northwestern University.  Dr. Phalen worked in media planning at Foote, Cone & Belding and audience research at WTTW in Chicago.  Her primary research interest is the socio-economics of media industries, especially the role of audience information in shaping media organizations .  She has written two books, The Mass Audience: Rediscovering the Dominant Model, with James Webster, and Ratings Analysis: the Theory and Practice of Audience Research, with James Webster and Lawrence Lichty.  Dr. Phalen has also published articles in several top scholarly journals.

KAREN THOMPSON
Karen Thompson is an attorney with legal, business and creative experience in entertainment industry.   Currently with SonyBMG Music Entertainment, she handles music publishing matters for LaFace/Zomba Music Group, L&BA (for artists such as Usher, Outkast and Avril Lavigne). Prior to SonyBMG, she was the transactional and litigation associate for Pantaleoni Govens & Weiss LLP, an entertainment law and litigation firm to film and music industry clients.   Karen has been a Project Attorney for Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison and Cravath Swaine & Moore. Karen is a cum laude graduate of New York University's Music, Business & Technology Program and earned her law degree from Albany Law School of Union University.   Karen served as an Adjunct Professor at NYU, where she taught a class focused on Intellectual Property law and the entertainment industry. She is an active member of New York Women In Film & Television and the ABA/Entertainment and Sports Law Forum.

CHARLES B. SLOCUM
Charles B. Slocum is assistant executive director of the Writers Guild of America and chair of Act One's board of directors. He has worked in the entertainment industry for almost 20 years in a variety of financial and strategy positions. He has worked for Paramount Pictures in television finance, for NBC as a game show judge, and for ABC in audience research. He has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Television/Radio from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. He is pursuing a Masters in Theology and the Arts from Fuller Theological Seminary.

STEVE VINSON
Steve has been leading churches for 14 years, and writing stories since he could hold a pencil.   He has a B.A. in Bible from Florida Christian College and an M.A. in Theology from Cincinnati Christian University.   He has been Lead Minister at Scottsdale Christian Church, in the Phoenix Valley, for 8 years.   He has been working on screenplays since October, 2000, and was able to attend one of the initial Before Act One Classes (Malibu, 2001).   Steve and his wife Lisa live in Scottsdale, Arizona, with their two daughters Charlee and Darynn.