Kirk Denson, Founder of the MEMa Foundation, is an Emmy-nominated film sound editor and designer, known for his work at Lucasfilm’s Skywalker Sound on Monsters, Inc. and Punch-Drunk Love. He has worked for Stevie Wonder, Kirk Franklin, Kool & The Gang and New Edition. His own career started with an arts education he was given as a young person. MEMa exists to give that same start to teenagers who would not otherwise get near it.

William Nealie is CEO of DarkFader A/V Engineering & Consultancy, and has built broadcast systems into vehicles: a mobile recording studio inside an SUV for BBDO, and Red Bull’s PlayStation game pod. He built the first three broadcast facilities for Riot Games’ League of Legends, two in Los Angeles and one in Berlin, linked by four 10-gigabit dark fiber circuits. He was technical producer for the OGN E-Sports Network, and has mixed live for Gladys Knight and Tracy Chapman.

George E. Peterson Jr. brings three decades of leadership across entertainment, healthcare, and higher education to board stewardship. At Skywalker Sound, he worked on Star Wars: Episode III, The Incredibles, and Monsters, Inc. He holds an 18-year academic governance record at Berkeley City College, managing a $240,000 budget. An Avid Certified Pro Tools Instructor, George serves on the Game Audio Institute Advisory Board.

"Bassy" Bob Brockmann has mixed over 2,000 singles and his records have sold more than 250 million copies. He has been nominated for more than 50 Grammy Awards, three of them personally for Best Engineered Album, and holds over 25 wins. He mixed Faith Hill's "There You'll Be" for Pearl Harbor, an Academy Award nominee for Best Original Song. His credits include Christina Aguilera, The Notorious B.I.G., Babyface, Herbie Hancock and Sting.

Nelson Robinson, a Founding Supporter of MEMa, is a Grammy-winning freelance audio engineer based in Chicago with 18 years’ experience. He is the Production and Tech Director for Salem Baptist Church of Chicago and House of Hope. Nelson has handled sound for artists like Jennifer Hudson, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, and Dave Chappelle. His event credits include the FIFA World Cup, NBA/MLB All-Star Games, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Grammys, and the BET Awards.

Bobby Sparks II is an 18-time Grammy-winning organist and producer, and has been a member of Snarky Puppy since 2016. He was Kirk Franklin’s musical director from 1992 to 2005 and played in Roy Hargrove’s RH Factor. His parents were teachers and musicians: his mother, a church organist, started him on piano at three, and he was given a Hammond B-3 at sixteen. He released Schizophrenia: The Yang Project in 2019 and produces at his studio in Mesquite, Texas.

J. Kevin Swain grew up in South Central Los Angeles and became one of the early architects of the West Coast music video movement, shaping the imagery of Tupac Shakur, N.W.A. and Ice Cube. He has filmed live performance from Coachella to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and his documentary work includes The Hippest Trip in America: The Soul Train Story. Music has been at the center of everything he has made.

Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon played Hammond B3 for Kirk Franklin before becoming a 7-Time Grammy-winning songwriter and producer for Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake. He shares Best R&B Song Grammys for "Drunk in Love" and "Pusher Love Girl." Accepting one of them, he said: "Let's support our school system and the arts programs because we are losing it." He has since founded five music scholarships in his name.

Ron "Yonni" Ferebee is a Grammy-winning mixing and mastering engineer and an eight-time Grammy-nominated producer. He mastered Durand Bernarr's BLOOM, winner of Best Progressive R&B Album at the 2026 Grammys, and produced Trey Songz's "Say Aah." His credits run from Lil Wayne's Tha Carter II in 2005 through Nicki Minaj, Sean Paul, Missy Elliott and Chris Brown. A Cleveland native now in Los Angeles, he runs Skelatune Muzik.

Steve Bracey has worked on more than 400 projects as executive producer, record executive, producer, manager, mix engineer and recording engineer. Those projects have won over 10 Grammy Awards and more than 50 Stellar, Soul Train and Dove Awards between them, and one was nominated for a Tony. He has more than 270 episodes of The Mo'Nique Show and BET's Sunday Best to his credit, plus twenty years with Yolanda Adams, from the Grammy stage to the White House.

Richard “Rico” Gonzales has mixed monitors for Stevie Wonder for over twelve years and for Lizzo for the past four, and front of house for Jon Batiste, PJ Morton, Kirk Franklin and the Black Eyed Peas. In 2025 Solid State Logic put him in front of three masterclasses at InfoComm. He came up through the audio department at The Potter's House in Dallas, where MEMa's founder first worked with him.

Phoenix Ballentine is a Chicago lighting designer with more than 25 years in theater, live performance and worship. She is Lighting Director for Salem Baptist Church of Chicago and Progressive Baptist Church of Chicago, where she oversees lighting design and execution for worship services, special events and productions. Her recent work includes the Harold Washington Cultural Center, M.A.D.D. Rhythms, Cinque Cullar and 3rd Dimensions Theater Group. She will also teach in the TechKno Academy Shadow program.

Eugene Bush III is the founder of E-Tre Productions and the creator of Eugenius, a growth platform for entrepreneurs, creators and small organizations. A DePaul computer science graduate who began his career in IT before moving into film, he has produced and directed for Grammy winners J. Ivy and Tarrey Torae, Jill Scott, Chester Gregory, Jordan Brand, Hennessy, Heineken and the NAACP. A single Instagram campaign he built raised more than $11 million, and E-Tre's work earned a 2024 Telly Award.

Mark Tutson Jr. is a producer, director, cinematographer and video editor with nearly two decades in television, film and live production, including work connected to FOX, ABC and BET. He grew up on Chicago’s South Side and found storytelling through the church. He is Marketing and Media Director at Elizabeth Baptist Church in Atlanta and co-founded 1357 Agency with his wife, Ashley. He believes young people need the tools and the hands-on time, not just the exposure.

Tony Green spent his career in marketing, management and technology, starting as a computer programmer at AT&T and rising to Director of Product Marketing at Lucent Technologies. He moved into film as Vice President of Business Development at Film Life, Inc., where he learned distribution from founder Jeff Friday, and helped produce the American Black Film Festival for two consecutive years. Born in New Jersey, he is based in Madrid.

LaShaunn “LT” Tappler is an entrepreneur and communications strategist, and CEO of Faith-Based Communications, where she helps organizations reach the communities they serve through culture, media and live events. Twenty-five years across communications, entertainment and production taught her how many careers exist behind the scenes.

I am here to make those careers visible to Black youth, so they can see themselves in industries they had not imagined.

Shiloh Hobel builds teams. More than two decades of music production management and vocal recording have put her work on dozens of gold and multi-platinum records, for Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand and Santana. At Ex'pression College for Digital Arts she was Senior Director of Industry Relations and Career Development, connecting students to working careers. She has served on the boards of the Recording Academy's San Francisco Chapter and the Game Audio Network Guild.

Dr. Herald "Chip" Johnson served as Chief of Schools for Chicago Public Schools and retired from the district as Chief Officer of Family and Community Engagement. He started out teaching music, toured with the Fisk Jubilee Singers, and holds a doctorate in education alongside master's degrees in education and choral conducting. He chairs the Board of Trustees at VanderCook College of Music, consults for urban and suburban districts, and still works as a pianist and organist.

April D. Patterson-Adams founded 80p Virtual Assistant, LLC in 2020 after six years at Bain & Company, where she supported senior leadership and co-led Blacks at Bain. Three decades in executive administration and operations span consulting, retail, entertainment and nonprofits. She volunteers in underserved communities and is often asked to speak on healthy work environments and the gap between executives and the teams that support them.

“I believe in equipping the next generation of creative storytellers and technical leaders with the real-world skills they need to thrive.”

Cedric Lathan spent 28 years as head sound engineer at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, running audio for dance, theater, music and corporate work, including several Apple product launches, and hosting SFJAZZ before it built its own hall. He came up through McCune, the West Coast audio-visual house that trained a generation of Bay Area engineers, and through IATSE Local 16. He retired in 2022.

Bernarr Ferebee Sr. spent his career in live sound with Cleveland's Eighth Day Sound, touring with Earth, Wind & Fire among others, and is a bass player. Now mostly retired from the road, he is CEO of Beyond the Access, LLC, the artist management company through which he manages his son, Durand Bernarr, who won the Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album in February 2026 and in May released BERNARR., an album named in tribute to his father.