Our Team
Sam Powers, Founder
Sam began his career working with youth from a young age as a tutor in East Los Angeles while enrolled in college. After graduating, he became a residential counselor at Boys Hope Girls Hope of NY, the city's only college-access, urban boarding program dedicated to serving at-risk youth. An avid photographer and filmmaker, he started teaching classes to students after school, planting the seeds for Lens on Life Project. He holds a Masters of Science in International Relations from New York University.
Jack Powers, Founder
Jack currently works as the Director of Community Outreach at Youth Justice Network. Leading what's called the "Shifting Gears" initiative, he manages a team of outreach workers who engage and enroll justice-involved youth in New York City's low-income communities to bring them into a pipeline of education and employment. As a former director at Boys Hope Girls Hope of New York, he has spent his career focused on social justice and youth development, concentrating on direct service work and developing mentorship protocol and community building techniques. He holds a Masters of Science in Nonprofit Organizational Management from Columbia University and is currently an associate instructor in the program.
Trevor Gordon, Chief Financial Officer
Trevor graduated from Boston College with a Masters of Science in Accountancy and entered the public accounting sector with PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 2018, he joined the American Prairie Reserve in Montana, working to create the largest nature reserve in the continental United States. Jack presented Trevor with the opportunity to join the team as our financial advisor. As Lens on Life grew, this role blossomed organically into the Chief Financial Officer for the team. Through this alternative pursuit, Trevor found passion in empowering those without a voice.
Creative Advisory Committee
Photo: John Dean
Regina DeLuise
Regina is an artist, photographer and educator currently based in Baltimore. She is a Guggenheim Fellow and has received fellowships at the Bogliasco foundation, MASS MoCA and is the recipient of the 2019 Meredith Moody Residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY. Regina has traveled the world with her 8 x 10, large format view camera and produced work with communities in Europe, Nepal, India, and Bhutan. Her work is included in private and public collections including the Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Museum of American History, Houston Museum of Fine Art, and The Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. Since 2007, she has been on the full time faculty at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).Regina was born in Brooklyn, NY, received her BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MA from Rosary College, Graduate School of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy.
Paolo Pellegrin
Paolo is one of the world’s leading photojournalists who has documented many of this generation’s major disasters and conflicts. He wishes his work to “create a bridge…to use photography to say something that goes beyond the surface, that vibrates, that resonates.” This approach has lead him to photograph in Lebanon, Iran, Palestine, Romania, Afghanistan, Libya, Cuba, the US, Mali, Egypt, Algeria, Haiti, Tunisia, and Indonesia. He was born in Rome and studied photography at L’istituto Italiano di Fotografia. Paolo has been published in many leading publications including TIME magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek and the New York Times Magazine, where he has photographed more than ten cover stories with reporter Scott Anderson. He is a winner of many awards, including ten World Press Photo awards and numerous Photographer of the Year awards, a Leica Medal of Excellence, an Olivier Rebbot Award, the Hansel-Meith Preis, and the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award. In 2006, he was assigned the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography.In 2001 he became a Magnum Photos nominee and a full member in 2005.
Gillian Laub
Gillian Laub is a photographer and filmmaker based in New York who has spent the last two decades investigating political conflicts, exploring family relationships, and challenging assumptions about cultural identity. Her works include the book Testimony (Aperture, 2007) and the book and HBO film Southern Rites (2015) and she received a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in 2019. Her work is collected internationally and included in the various Museums. She continues to contribute to many publications, including The New York Times Magazine, TIME, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker.
Philip-Daniel Ducasse
Philip-Daniel Ducasse is a professional photographer and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. Born in Canada and raised in Haiti, his work focuses mainly on immigrants (like himself), and the unrepresented. Photography is the medium of choice for Phil's creative expression. He’s excited about the power and magic of photography and sees his work as a means of providing a platform for “those people to be celebrated for their culture and many talents that they possess.” While his photographic subjects vary widely, he finds himself repeatedly drawn to landscapes and things from the past such as cars, and lifestyles.
Michelle Heimerman
Michelle is currently the photo editor at AFAR Magazine. Previously, she was the Senior Visuals Editors at Bon Appétit Magazine and the photo editor and contributing photographer at Saveur Magazine. Michelle has shot, produced, directed, and reported food culture and travel stories across the globe for print and digital content.
Jed Heuer
Jed is a creative director based in Brooklyn, New York. He has worked on projects for Nike, Spotify, The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and The New York Times among others. During his years with Wieden+Kennedy his work has won awards from Cannes, The One Show, Clios, and the Type Director’s Club.
Savva Svet
Savva is a documentary filmmaker from Brooklyn who is dedicated to creating inspiring, entertaining, and thought-provoking films. His clients include Nike, Universal Records, The Home Depot, Under Armour, and NatGeo. Over the past decade, Savva has toured with Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Florence + The Machine, and Lemmy, trailed deep into the jungles of Peru with Werner Herzog, and lived with indigenous tribes in Brazil. His travels and experiences have led him to believe strongly in giving back and empowering communities to take action and make a difference in their world.
Azadeh Shladovsky
Azadeh is a Los Angeles-based artist who materializes her longstanding interest in the human sense of sight and our visual consciousness through a cohesive body of work spanning fine art, functional art, and design. Beyond supporting the creation of material work, Azadeh’s studio rests upon engagement, community building and philanthropic programming. Azadeh is also an advisory board member of Prison Arts Collective.
Advisory Board
Naomi Cohen-Thompson
Naomi is a New York State licensed and board certified Art Therapist and artist and works and practices out of Brooklyn, New York. She has spent the last decade focused on clinical work with adolescents and families and works for the School of Visual Arts as a clinical supervisor in their art therapy department. Presently she is acting as the Director of Wellness and Therapeutic Services at Boys Hope Girls Hope New York where she aims to incorporate art therapy, wellness support services and therapeutic structure to the youth and staff within the residential community.
Stewart Lunanga
Originally from Bukavu DRC, Stewart graduated with a BA in Rural Development from the Higher Institute of Rural Development, in Goma. Following the eruption of Mt. Nyiragongo and ongoing wars, Stewart worked with his sister Christine to start the NGO Camme in Goma. He is also the founder of the Amani Language Initiative which operates an adult-education school in Goma that tutors English, French, and Swahili. In 2017, Stewart was selected for the prestigious Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Mandela Fellowship by the United States Department of State, representing CAMME and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the US and across the continent.
Brad Zervas
Brad has spent over thirty-years dedicated to the advancement and development of urban children as the Director of The Boys’ Club of New York and then Boys Hope Girls Hope of New York. As a community activist, author and veteran administrator, Brad’s primary focus has been of the restoration of families and the advancement of policies and practices that promote greater access and equity across all sectors of public-service. Zervas has served on numerous local, regional, national and international boards. His has produced groundbreaking programs promoting student exchange, professional development and institutional advancement and community enrichment. Brad lives in Bluffton, SC with his wife, Dr. Leticia Zervas-Gaytan. They have two adult children and five terrific grandsons.
Ehab Al Katub
Born in Kirkuk, Iraq, Ehab arrived in the US as a refugee in 2007 and began working at a law firm as a project coordinator to assist other refugees. He currently works as a Senior Associate at a high-tech firm, that uses artificial intelligence to discover critical events worldwide. He pursued a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University and joined the UNHCR to help develop programs for internally displaced persons. He continues to be involved in high-level initiatives regarding migrant communities at forums such as Aspen Institute and has spearheaded efforts to bring policymakers’ attention to the moral obligation regarding refugees.
Jenard Brown
Jenard has worked in social services for nearly two decades. He currently serves as the Program Director for the consolidated apartment program at the Institute for Community Living (ICL), one of the largest social services non-profits in NYC. Prior to his work at ICL, Jenard was a residential manager at Boys Hope Girls Hope NY. Jenard has worked extensively with at risk populations, including persons struggling with mental illness and substance abuse and persons involved in the criminal justice system. Jenard studied sociology at Bowie State and earned his Masters in Social Work from Fordham. Jenard lives in Brooklyn with his wife and infant son.
Shauna Aaron
Shauna advises Lens on Life on strategic initiatives, including fundraising, expansion, and corporate governance. After beginning her career at several arts nonprofits, Shauna has since devoted significant time to the arts and women's empowerment. Shauna earned a J.D. from New York University and a B.A. in the History of Art, with a minor in Economics and certificate in Photography, from the University of Pennsylvania.
Sarah Cohen
Sarah Cohen has been working in the for-profit and nonprofit art world for over 25 years. Her career began as the director of contemporary art galleries, including Friedrich Petzel and Andrea Rosen in NY and Regen Projects in LA. Sarah pivoted to the nonprofit sector in 2011 where she joined the development department at LACMA and then moved to MOCA as Director of Individual Giving. In 2017, she became the Chief Advancement Officer at Thrive Scholars, a nonprofit college to career accelerator for high-achieving underserved students. Sarah is currently an independent consultant delivering marketing and campaign strategies, capacity building, and board development in the arts and culture, technology, and education sectors. She is passionate about supporting social justice nonprofits impacting communities around the world through creative expression.