Cara currently serves as Founding Director of the International Resource for Impact and Storytelling (IRIS), a donor collaborative focused on supporting creative visual storytelling and narrative analysis in the public interest internationally. Throughout her career as a nonprofit executive, award-winning executive producer and producer/director, broadcast programmer, curator, teacher, and writer, Cara has championed the leadership role of artists in society, and worked to harness the power of cultural expression—with an emphasis on nonfiction storytelling—to amplify awareness and accelerate progressive change.

As Operations Manager, Adeola propels IRIS forward from the ground up. Adeola has built a career creating impact using a well-rounded set of skills across the operations realm, including expertise in strategic communications, marketing, member recruitment, partnerships and database and project management. At IRIS, Adeola manages operations in a myriad of ways including budgeting, vendor and procurement management, hiring, personnel, team information management, grant writing and reporting and scheduling.

Maya Luz Soto (Boriken Taino and Settler [European]) resides in Yanaguana/Somi Se’k (San Antonio, TX), the traditional homelands of the Coahuiltecan, Estok G’na, and Lipan Apache. Her work is grounded in Indigenous knowledge systems, collective care, and community-led futures. Maya’s approach is shaped by years of engagement in Indigenous-led networks focused on ecological knowledge, cultural revitalization, and relational accountability.

With long roots in international development and research, Mia Deschamps has spent a career starting up innovative initiatives around the world. From a background in literature, public policy and data visualization has emerged her passion to leverage data storytelling for social good. She brings a passion for transformational data storytelling and visual analysis tools across her work in international development, philanthropy, and independent media.

Miso Jeong builds elegant systems, strong relationships and generative work cultures to maximize organizational capacity for creating the liberatory futures we most need and desire. In addition to their work at IRIS, Miso is devoted to co-creating liberatory relationships with people and place through ancestral, spiritual and storytelling practices in collectives of queer and displaced folks. Miso has a Master’s in Art History from Sorbonne Université (Paris IV) and a BA in Art History from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.