Producers

Assistant Vice Chancellor of the Academy for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Nicole uses communications, storytelling and strategy to drive toward systems-level transformation. Her career has been spent working at scale on high-profile, unprecedented, highly complex and nationally relevant brands, initiatives and projects in industries ranging from Broadway to government. Nicole recently joined the administration at Washington University in St. Louis as assistant vice chancellor of the Academy for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. As the academy’s inaugural leader, she is working on the design and launch of the academy, which is charged with being the primary forum for changing climate and culture on the university’s campuses. Hudson is a graduate of Northwestern University.

Chief Storyteller, Story First

Eric Ratinoff, AB ‘93, is the founder of Story First, a strategic storytelling firm that helps organizations get clear about their story and tell it to impact change. Story First works with a range of corporate and non-profit clients, including the City of St. Louis, Forward Through Ferguson, the St. Louis Integrated Health Network, and the Regional Arts Commission (RAC) of St. Louis. Eric is also a co-founder and principal in The Mouse and the Elephant, a diversity and inclusion training and consulting firm. He served as the executive editor for the Ferguson Commission report, and is a co-author of “A Seat at the Table,” an award-winning column on diversity and inclusion in the New Hampshire Business Review. He previously taught technical writing in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University.

Creative Director, Story First

Bradley Fann is a multidisciplinary designer and editor with skills in a variety of design disciplines, including video editing, animation, information graphics, typography, logo design, web development, color grading, audio mixing, graphic design and layout.

His video work as editor, animator and colorist has earned him multiple Telly Awards, and his graphic design work has earned him recognition from AIGA St. Louis. Fann is a graduate of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Demond Meek Photography

Demond Meek is a commercial-advertising photographer and director. Aside from his time attending the University of Arkansas Fayetteville to study architecture, when he discovered a passion for photography, he has lived most of his life in St. Louis. Demond has collaborated with numerous corporations and has assisted in the creation of award-winning ad campaigns across the United States. Known for the stoical nature of his commercial portraiture, he gained international attention with his personal photo project, #SlumBeautiful, which began as a way to photographically document some of St. Louis’ oldest and most endangered architecture, and turned into a project that challenges the way people perceive, document and live within their urban environments. Demond’s work has been displayed in group gallery exhibitions and has been collected by private art collectors around the world.