Writing for Children: Telling Delightful and Diverse Stories for the Screen

Presented by the WGAE Black Writers and Asian-American Writers Salons

The WGAE Salons are proud to present: “Writing for Children: Telling Diverse and Delightful Stories for the Screen.” The panel event will take place on Monday, 10/3, from 6:30 to 7:30pm ET. It will be moderated by SESAME STREET writer Geri Cole, and co-hosted by the WGAE Asian American and Black Writers Salons.

This event is open to all WGAE members.

Meet the Panelists

Geri Cole is a writer and performer based in New York City. She is currently a full-time staff and interactive writer for SESAME STREET and co-chair of the WGAE Black Writers Salon. Geri wrote THE POWER OF WE: A SESAME STREET SPECIAL that focused on racism and aired to critical acclaim on HBO. Her work has earned her four Emmy Awards, a NAACP Image Award, a Producers Guild Award, and a Writers Guild Award.

Joon Chung was a Sesame Writers Room fellow in 2017. Since then, he’s gone on to write for children’s television series like DANIEL TIGER’S NEIGHBORHOOD, GET ROLLING WITH OTIS, and BUTTERBEAN’S CAFE. He’s dabbled in development with Nick Jr. and 9 Story as well as worked as an associate producer for Nick Jr.’s Play Along team. He’s currently the script coordinator for ‘Lyla Loops,’ a bridge series about computational thinking. In between, he managed to get married and learned to surf! Previously, he was a standup comedian in New York and video editor in digital journalism for places like HuffPost Live and G/O Media.

Kevin Clark, PhD has extensive experience in higher education, digital technology, and children’s media. Kevin is professor emeritus (retired) of Instructional Technology from the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University, where he founded and directed the Center for Digital Media Innovation and Diversity. Kevin is currently a program director at the National Science Foundation in its Division of Research on Learning (DRL), where he manages grants focusing on the use of digital technology and media in STEM learning. Kevin has served as a consultant and producer on many children’s media projects. Most recently, Kevin was director of preschool animation at Netflix, where he sourced, evaluated, and guided the development of children’s television shows.

Dr. Knatokie Ford is Founder and CEO of Fly Sci® Enterprise, an education and media consulting organization focused on leveraging the power of storytelling to promote social change, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. A dynamic and inspiring speaker, Dr. Ford is an international advocate for equity and inclusion in education, media, and STEM careers, and has shared her work and compelling story throughout the United States and around the world.  As a biomedical scientist and social entrepreneur, she has worked with a number of leading organizations. She served as a science consultant on Netflix’s ADA TWIST, SCIENTIST, and consulted on development of EUREKA! on Disney Junior.

Jay Francis is Vice President, Current Series and Diversity, Disney Television Animation (TVA). He is responsible for managing the creative direction of production on current series for Disney TVA and working closely with the development and recruitment teams to identify, secure and mentor diverse creative talent for Disney TVA and Disney Junior. Francis joined Disney TVA in 2007. During his tenure, he has overseen creative direction on a multitude of original animated series including Disney’s five-time Emmy® Award-winning PHINEAS AND FERB, Emmy® Award-nominated BIG CITY GREENS, AMPHIBIA  and most recently the upcoming Disney+ original animated adventure movie PHINEAS AND FERB THE MOVIE: CANDACE AGAINST THE UNIVERSE.

Susan Kim has worked as headwriter, story editor, and writer on over 50 children’s series – live action and animation, nationally and internationally. She was story editor on HELLO, NINJA (Netflix) and Nickelodeon’s WELCOME TO THE WAYNE (Emmy nominations for Best Animated Series in 2018 and Best Writing in a Children’s Series in 2017), as well as headwriter on CREATIVE GALAXY (Amazon). She also served as story editor on Sprout’s ASTROBLAST! and PBS’ DRAGON TALES.She has received six Emmy nominations and four Writers Guild Award nominations for her work. Susan leads the Sesame Writers’ Room, which trains diverse writers in writing children’s television. In its sixth year, it is a program she helped develop with Sesame Workshop.