Gloria Pitagorsky, managing partner of Heard City, the sound design shop behind a ton of the most extensive campaigns in advertising. Gloria is a 25-year industry vet who founded Heard City in 2012 with Phil Loeb and has since turned it into one of the top-performing audio post companies. Heard City offers sound design and mixing for the advertising, television, and film industries and works with brands including Google, Mercedes, Beats by Dre, and Target. Demonstrating her commitment to mentoring and supporting women in production, film, and advertising, Gloria serves on the mentoring committee for She Runs It. This past year, she helped launch a Mentoring Program for AICP to promote Equity & Inclusion in the production industry. Gloria serves as Vice-Chair on the Board of Directors of Food Bank for NYC, NY Women’s Foundation, Advisory Board for Green the Bid, serves as President for AICP East Board and sits on the Post Council Committee and Women’s Forum. She is active member of AICP and continues to support and build community in the industry. She recently joined the Board for the Future of Film is Female, an organization amplifying the voices of all women and non-binary filmmakers via funding, and community programs, including film series at MOMA. Gloria heads the Ambassador Program for Green the Bid, a nonprofit helping leads the production industry to zero-waste, carbon-neutral, sustainable, and regenerative practices. She is a member of Impact100, NYWIFT, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, and She Runs It. She also traveled to Guatemala, her birthplace, as an Ambassador for Every Mother Counts, a nonprofit aiming to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for every mother everywhere. The cause is near her heart since she is a proud mother. On this trip, she brought a group of doulas a birthing chair to use for their center. Gloria ran the NYC marathon as an Ambassador for Every Mother Counts and continues to run races supporting nonprofits, including Committee to Protect Journalists, ASPCA, Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., Center for Reproductive Rights, and The Women’s Prison Association. She’ll be running again soon in support of her favorite causes. She lives in NYC with her husband David, son Jayson and their Bernese, Teddy.

Bri Scalesse advocates for disability representation in the media and air travel rights for wheelchair users. She is a model and viral social media influencer. Bri also has an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from Columbia University in New York City, where she now lives. Recently, she starred in the Academy Award and BAFTA qualifying film “As You Are”, about a young, queer, interabled relationship. She has modeled for Google, Victoria Secret, Sephora, Nike, Adidas, Maybelline, and many more.

DANIELLE SHEYPUK promotes her very real message that people with disabilities are sexy, datable, educated, and glamorous – and that they are integrating more successfully than ever into the social scene. After an explosion of media attention when Dr. Sheypuk became the first model in a wheelchair to “walk” the runway at New York Fashion Week, Spring 2014, her impact on the disabled community and on the way society views this population has been tremendous and universal. Holding a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The New School for Social Research in New York City, Dr. Sheypuk is widely regarded as a “sexpert” and leading commentator on the psychology of dating, relationships, and sexuality for people with disabilities. She established a successful and innovative private therapy practice in 2016 that was one of the first to implement “telehealth” as a treatment platform, which she engineered specifically to make it easier for people with disabilities to attend sessions.

Using her personal story as a central supporting example, including winning the title of Ms. Wheelchair New York 2012, Dr. Sheypuk has received positive responses from social media followers and media outlets around the world. As Yahoo! News stated, “Danielle Sheypuk, a psychologist, can rock a pair of Louboutins, regardless of her wheelchair, and is fighting the stereotypes and stigmas surrounding people with disabilities.” Her approach to life and love as an urban-dwelling professional has been favorably compared to an episode of “Sex and the City.” Media appearances have included segments on PBS, The New York Daily News, Upworthy, Huffington Post, The Daily Mail (U.K.), WCBS Radio, SiriusXM Doctor Radio, WNBC’s Weekend Today in NY, WNBC’s New York Nightly News, ABC News, Yahoo!, POPSugar, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and Elle Magazine, among many others.

Dr. Sheypuk has been the recipient of many prestigious awards and titles.  She has been named an “Outstanding Woman with a Physical Disability” by the Christopher and Dana Reeves Foundation and featured in their Paralysis Resource Guide.  Marywood University, one of Dr. Sheypuk’s Alma Mater, honored her with their Distinguished Alumni Award. She’s also received the 92^nd Street Y Extraordinary Women Award and featured as a “21 Leaders of the 21^st Century,” by Women’s eNews.  Dr. Sheypuk is actively involved in consulting, public speaking, modeling, and advocacy work with engagements for United Cerebral Palsy, Runway of Dreams, the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Association, NYU’s Initiative for Women with Disabilities, Kimberly Clark, Parson’s School of Design, NYU’s Rusk Institute, AHRC of New York City, The New School for Social Research, the Myotonic Dystrophy Association of California, and the Muscular Dystrophy Association among many others.  Dr. Sheypuk has also written columns for several major magazines, including Quest (the national publication of the Muscular Dystrophy Association), SheKnows, Women’s eNews, and Directions (the national publication of the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Association).  She has worked throughout the years and has been a strong supporter of Reelabilities Film Festival
In May 2015, Dr. Sheypuk appeared in her first TEDx Talk, originating from Barnard College at Columbia University. The topic, the changing culture of American sexuality and the mainstreaming of people with disabilities as potential romantic and sexual partners in everyday life, was the first of its kind to be presented at a TEDx event.

Visit daniellesheypuk.com for more information and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @daniellesheypuk.

Charlotte Mangin is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with over 20 years of experience, and the creator, executive producer, director and writer of UNLADYLIKE2020, an innovative multimedia series for American Masters in honor of the centennial of women’s suffrage. She began her career with five years on the production staff of National Geographic Television & Film, followed by five years as a Story Producer for PBS’s award-winning international affairs series Wide Angle. Mangin was the Series Producer for America By the Numbers, a PBS public affairs series telling underreported stories about America’s changing demographics, and for Humanizing America, a digital shorts series profiling the diversity of the American experience, distributed by NBCNews.com. She served as the Interim Executive Director of the multimedia nonprofit organization Futuro Media in 2016-2017 and 2021-2022.

Violeta Ayala stands as an award-winning filmmaker and a trailblazer in creative technology, recognized as the first Quechua member of the Oscars. Her work bridges storytelling with groundbreaking technologies. Her latest project, “Las Awichas,“ an XR film experience developed in collaboration with King’s College London, is currently on display at The Strand, one of London’s most famous streets. This exhibition, part of the esteemed GLoW project, celebrates the pivotal contributions of women to the evolution of technology.

Her prior work, “Prison X” (2021), an interactive VR animation, garnered critical acclaim at Sundance and Cannes XR, marking a significant achievement in the realm of spatial storytelling. Ayala’s documentary credits include “La Lucha” (2023), “Cocaine Prison” (2017), “The Fight” (2017), “The Bolivian Case” (2015), and “Stolen” (2009), which have premiered at major film festivals including Sundance and Toronto, showcasing her prowess in narrative skills. These documentaries have been broadcast on global platforms such as PBS, World, Amazon Prime, and The Guardian, earning Ayala more than 50 awards and nominations, including a Walkley (Australia’s Pulitzer), and nominations for prestigious accolades like the IDA (Los Angeles) and Rory Peck (London).

In 2023, Ayala’s “Woven Worlds” was honored with the XR Innovation Award at the Games for Change festival, a recognition of her excellence in XR medium ideation and execution. Additionally, her creation of a metaverse space in Voxels was acknowledged with an overall honorable mention at Yale University’s Indigenous Futurism Model-Making Competition. Her co-design of Expylab, an XR Lab in Paraguay, was selected for Meta’s community grant, demonstrating her leadership in expanding the XR community’s reach.

Ayala is actively engaged in developing a personal documentary on her journey to build a Feminist AI, alongside working on “Cyberpunk Tinkus,” a Sci-fiction feature, and creating films and experiences in immersive worlds with AR/VR. Her role as one of the leading voices in “Creating Futures: Art and AI for Tomorrow’s Narratives” at the Salzburg Global Seminar underscores her influence and commitment to shaping the future of storytelling. She is a co-founder of unitednotions.film and koa.xyz.

Faye Ginsburg is co-Director of the Center for Disability Studies and Director of the Center for Media, Culture & History at New York University where she is the Kriser Professor of Anthropology. She is author, with Rayna Rapp, of the just released book Disability Worlds, and co-editor of the forthcoming How to be Disabled In a Pandemic, and has been the President of the Familial Dysautonomia Foundation for over a decade.

Jillian is a writer, content creator, and advocate for dwarfism and disability awareness based in New York City. She has written articles for Betches Media talking about disability representation in fashion and entertainment along with highlighting current events in the disability space. In addition she has consulted with brands and organizations about disability inclusion. She is the host of the podcast Always Looking Up where she talks to little people, disabled people, those that are disability-adjacent and allies about living in a world that was not necessarily designed for them.

Marc Winski is a dynamic and creative actor, speaker, and content creator specializing in disability representation in entertainment and media.

 As a person who stutters, he is known for his unique and engaging content. His videos, which often feature his musical talents, comedic timing, and his knack for storytelling, have helped create a dedicated and diverse community in which he motivates and offers a space for others in the world to “Speak Their Truth.”

As actor in Broadway and television, he has worked with HBO, ABC, MSNBC, and many stage productions around the globe. He seamlessly blends his passion for performing arts with his social media presence, creating a unique and vibrant experience.
His authenticity and relatability allows him to connect with his community on a personal level.