EFFY 2018 Jury
Babz Rawls Ivy
Babz Rawls Ivy, is currently the Editor-in-chief of The Inner-City News, a 26 year old Black owned weekly print publication in Greater New Haven, CT. And a popular on-air Radio Personality on 103.5 FM WNHH Community Radio as host of the daily morning show LoveBabz LoveTalk; and twice a month co-host of Criminal Justice Insider with Jeff Grant, Executive Director of Family ReEntry.
She holds a BS in marketing from a HBCU and is a National Urban Fellow with a Master’s degree in Public Administration.
Babz served on The Editorial Board for the book Justice Imperative: How Hyper Mass Incarceration Hijacked The American Dream. And was the Co-Online Editor/Content Curator of The Justice Imperative blog for Malta Justice Initiative.
She is a community activist, a popular blogger, and social media strategist on various social media platforms, allying like-minded folks against intolerance, ignorance and raising social consciousness of racism, sexism and environmental injustice.
John Lucas
John is a filmmaker and visual artist whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. His ongoing collaborative series of video essays entitled, Situations is a collaborative series with the poet Claudia Rankine. These short films have been exhibited in several venues including the Smithsonian Institution and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
John’s recent feature length documentary, The Cooler Bandits, won the Best Documentary Award at the 2015 Harlem International Film Festival and screened in over 30 prisons across the country as well as for the US Department of Justice. In 2016, John received the Impact Award from the Ohio department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, highest Award given to civilians for their impact on the inmates and staff of the ODRC.
He lives and works in New Haven, CT.
Cathy McConnell
Cathy is an Emmy award-winning producer and screenwriter who graduated with an MFS from Yale’s FES, where she introduced video production as an important tool for environmental communication. After graduation, Cathy did groundbreaking research with Dr. Stephen Kellert on the impact of natural history films on viewers’ attitudes and knowledge of wildlife and conservation. She went on to work for the PBS series NATURE, where she developed, wrote, produced and oversaw dozens of productions as Series Editor, while the series accumulated several Emmys. Next she moved to National Geographic Television as Head of Natural History Coproductions, while also producing and writing some National Geographic Specials of her own. Her NGS Special, THE NEW CHIMPANZEES, won the award for Best Animal Behavior Film at the prestigious Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, as well as the Genesis Award from the Ark Trust for increasing understanding and empathy for animals. Her NGS Special HEROES OF THE HIGH FRONTIER, about the scientific exploration of the rainforest canopy, won the Emmy for Outstanding Informational or Cultural Program, Best Documentary from the New York Film and Television Festival, as well as Best of Festival at the Explorers Club Documentary Film Festival and several international awards.
After taking some time to raise her twins, Cathy has continued to mentor new filmmakers, develop films and write scripts for NGTV, PBS, Discovery, The Science Channel, and other platforms. She is also working as a grassroots organizer, trying to build the political will to pressure governments at all levels – local, statewide and national – to take action on climate change.
Kendall Barbery
Kendall Barbery is a graduate of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies ('14 MESc) and is an EFFY alum. While at Yale, Kendall contributed to three consecutive environmental film festivals as a public outreach coordinator ('12), co-director ('13), and festival advisor ('14).
Kendall is a commercial fisher, green infrastructure designer, and design/build enthusiast. After graduating from F&ES, Kendall took her skills back to the water to learn about regenerative ocean farming. In her role as programs manager for non-profit GreenWave, based in New Haven, she runs the largest kelp seed nursery in the United States and directs a training program for emerging kelp and shellfish farmers in southern New England. When she's not out on the Sound, Kendall can be found tinkering with nursery equipment, spinning yarns with other fisher folk, or brushing up on the ways kelp and other seaweeds attenuate the impacts of ocean acidification.
