Council
2022-2023 WGA East Officers & Council
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, President
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen is a TV writer, author and journalist. She is currently in an overall deal with Universal TV, under which she is developing several drama series. Lisa has developed drama pilots for Apple, Netflix, ABC, NBC, CBS, A&E and Warner Bros.; her pilot “The Ordained” was produced by CBS. She has served as co-executive producer on NBC’s “The Endgame” and consulting producer on “Law & Order: SVU,” and is a graduate of the WGAW Showrunner Training Program. Lisa works to represent marginalized writers as co-chair of the Committee for Inclusion and Equity and founder of the Salon network of affinity groups; she also started and runs Diverse Writers of the East, databases of underrepresented WGAE and Pre-WGA writers. For her service to the Guild, she was awarded the 2020 Richard B. Jablow Award. Previously she worked as a foreign correspondent and staff writer for TIME magazine, and has published two books.
Erica Saleh, Vice President, Film/Television/Streaming
Sara David, Vice President, Online Media
Sara David is a writer and editor on the Paramount+ digital team working on unscripted series. She was formerly at Netflix and VICE, where she was a member of VICE Union’s bargaining and labor-management committees. She’s an organizer of the WGAE industry-wide organizing committee and a 2015 Lambda Literary nonfiction fellow. You can follow her on Twitter at @SaraQDavid (external – opens in a new window).
Kathy McGee,
Vice President, Broadcast/Cable/Streaming News
Kathy is a writer/producer at WCBS-TV/CBS New York where she’s worked since 2005. She’s been a WGA East member since 1997 and shop steward at CBS since 2007. Kathy was first elected to Council in 2014 and served as Vice President from 2019 to 2021. She is also a member of the Committee for Inclusion and Equity and the Black Writers Salon. As a member of the CBS bargaining committee, she helped negotiate several CBS News contracts.
Her career in broadcast journalism started more than 30 years ago and she’s worked in television newsrooms across the country as a producer and manager. Kathy joined the WGA East in 1997 as a newscast producer at WABC-TV.
She strongly supports an inclusive workplace, and as a writer for CBS New York advocates for diverse news coverage.
Christopher Kyle, Secretary Treasurer
Christopher Kyle is a screenwriter whose credits include Serena, Alexander, K-19:The Widowmaker, and The Weight of Water. He previously served on Council from 2014-2020 and is a member of the WGAE-WGAW Screen Credits Review Committee. For the past 13 years he has been deeply involved with the Writers Guild Initiative, the charitable foundation of the WGAE, working as a mentor in writing workshops with disabled veterans, caregivers, COVID nurses, and others whose voices need to be heard. A longtime member of the WGI board, he now serves as its treasurer. In addition to his work in film, he is also an award-winning playwright whose plays have premiered at Playwrights Horizons, Broken Watch Theatre Company, Charlotte Rep, and many other theatres.
Film/TV/Streaming
Sofia Alvarez
Monica Lee Bellais
Monica Lee Bellais is a screenwriter/producer who bridges policymakers and filmmakers. She worked for James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, Jeffrey Katzenberg at DreamWorks, Warner Bros. Records, Discovery Channel, Smithsonian Networks, PBS, and TeleProductions International. She is a talented crisis management communicator. Monica has substantial production experience in Canada, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Monaco, Pakistan, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates. The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention partnered with her to create “Recommendations for Depicting Suicide” in media. As a former Board Member, she now serves on the Advisory Committee for Women in Film & Video in Washington, D.C. Monica holds a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communications. Her memberships include BAFTA, PGA, National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, SAG-AFTRA, The National Press Club, and the WGAE.
Kaitlin Fontana
Kaitlin Fontana is an Emmy-nominated TV and film writer, director, and producer, and a National Magazine award-winning essayist. In a not-so-distant past life, she was a music journalist. She was the host of the WGAE’s podcast OnWriting for seasons 4-6.Kaitlin’s feature film script, GIRLFRIEND ON MARS, is on the 2019 Black List. She is a 2018 NYTVF Development Deal recipient (Audible) as well as a finalist in the 2018 HBOAccess Directing Fellowship. Her directorial debut, FRANCHESCA, was an official 2018 Sundance Film Festival selection. She was a Field Producer on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Kaitlin was a 2018 WriteHer List Honoree, an inaugural 2017 WGA/Made in New York Writers Room Fellow, 2017 Showtime Tony Cox Award winner, 2017 Nantucket Comedy Colonist, and 2017 Bitch List Honoree.
Kaitlin sits on the Writers Guild of America, East council and believes in the power of collective action. She lives in Los Angeles, CA and was born in Fernie, British Columbia, Canada, a distinction she shares with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson.
Gina Gionfriddo
Josh Gondelman
Tian Jun Gu
A.M. Homes
A.M. Homes is currently serving her 2nd term on the WGAE Council. She is a television and feature writer, novelist, journalist and professor. Homes is the author of 12 books, including May We Be Forgiven, winner of the International Orange/ Women’s Prize and the best-selling memoir, The Mistress’s Daughter. She adapted her novel, Jack for Showtime and her story collection, The Safety of Objects was made into a feature film. Homes was Co-Executive Producer of Falling Water on USA and David E. Kelly’s/Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes. Previously she was a writer/producer of the television show, The L. Word and has written pilots for CBS, ABC and HBO. Currently, Homes is developing new series for both AMC and FX and is actively involved with the adaptation of her novels, This Book Will Save Your Life/SunnyMarch and Music For Torching/Julie Bowen. Homes often collaborates with artists in other forms; in 2019 she worked with Experiments in Opera and six composers to create a new opera, Chunky In Heat and is currently writing The Monument Project, an opera for The Kennedy Center’s 50th Anniversary. Her work has been translated into twenty-two languages and she writes frequently on the arts for publications such as Art Forum, Granta, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker and the New York Times. She is a Contributing Editor to Vanity Fair, Bomb and Blind Spot. Passionate about being involved in one’s community, supporting work across disciplines and bringing attention to underrecognized voices, Homes is active in the literary and TV/film community serving on the Boards of Yaddo, Poets and Writers, The Elizabeth Dance Foundation, The Writers Fund of PEN, the Advisory Council of The New York Foundation for the Arts and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University.
Liz Hynes
Greg Iwinski
Greg Iwinski is an Emmy-winning comedy writer and no-award-winning performer whose writing includes Last Week Tonight and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. He recently finished writing the first season of Game Theory With Bomani Jones on HBO, and can be found on Twitter@garyjackson.
Sarah Montana
Sasha Stewart
Online Media
Caitlin Cruz
Caitlin Cruz is a journalist who specializes in coverage of abortion, reproductive healthcare, politics and gender. Currently, she’s a senior reporter at Jezebel. Previously, she worked at digital upstarts Snapchat, Fusion, Gizmodo Media Group, Bustle Digital Group as well as traditional newspapers, including The Seattle Times, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune and The Arizona Republic.
She is a proud member of the GMG Union, which represents Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Kokatu, Lifehacker, and The Root. As a member of the bargaining committee, she helped organize the first open-ended strike in digital media history in February 2022.
Sie Morley
Susan Rinkunas
Jessica Schulberg
Jessica Schulberg is a senior reporter at HuffPost, covering the criminal legal system. She is the recipient of a 2022 Deadline Club award for her story about how a school shooting in Oregon has been used to justify juvenile life without parole sentences in the state. Her work has also appeared in the New Republic and the Washington Post. She volunteers with Empowerment Avenue, helping incarcerated journalists publish their work in mainstream outlets.
She is a proud member of HuffPost Union, the second online media shop to organize with WGAE. She helped bargain HuffPost Union’s second contract and is currently part of the bargaining committee negotiating their third contract.
Samantha Smylie
Broadcast/Cable/Streaming News
Justin Raffael DiLauro
Justin Raffael DiLauro is an Emmy nominated, award-winning writer / producer. He started his television career in the 90’s at Sports Channel America, then helped launch The Food Network, produced sports entertainment and docu-dramas for ABC/ESPN, Spike and TruTV, only to find himself shortening all copy when he moved to promos with Cablevision, MSNBC, CNBC, WCBS, BBC America, to name just a few…. and now CBS Network News. In all Justin has worked for over 10 TV networks and all three broadcast companies. In addition to TV, Justin sits on the board of a 501c charity theater company in Connecticut where he writes State grants and helps with marketing & production. He earned his BA from Hofstra University where he met his wife. They have three children together and split their time between Astoria NY and Lordship CT. Since 2010, Justin has been an active member of the WGA East, including the 2022 contract bargaining committee where all members united to make serious gains and fought off destructive concessions.
For more info on Justin go to: IMDb (external – opens in a new window) and/or LinkedIn (external – opens in a new window)
Elizabeth Godvik
Elizabeth Godvik is a newswriter/producer at WBBM-TV in Chicago where she’s worked since 2004. She is a union co-steward in her newsroom and has served on 3 negotiating committees for CBS News contracts.
She is an Emmy Award winner who works with future journalists as an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University.
Follow Elizabeth on Twitter @GodvikNewzgirl(external – opens in a new window)
Gail Lee
Gail Lee is writer/producer at CBS News who has been involved in Guild activities for many years. Her credits include 7 terms as WGAE Secretary/Treasurer as well as serving on the Finance, Awards, Real Estate and multiple WGA-CBS News Negotiating Committees. Gail was the recipient of the Richard B. Jablow Award for Devoted Service to the Guild. She has also won WGA, RTNDA and Peabody Awards for her work.