Documentaries to Inspire Social Change, NFP (DISC) was designated a not-for-profit organization by the State of Illinois in October 2008. DISC was granted 501(c)(3) status in June 2009. DISC was created to educate people through documentary film and accompanying curricula about various social injustices such as the land dispossessions that occurred in South Africa during the Apartheid era. The films and curricula are designed to inform and educate all ages, especially primary and secondary school students, civic and community organizations.
If you would like more information about the organization, then e-mail us at admin@discwebsite.org
DISC Officers
Wei Anton - CFO
Wei Aniton received a BA from Wittenberg University and earned a MBA from Loyola University-Chicago. She is also an Illinois licensed CPA. Wei has fourteen years of experience in business and finance management, with expertise in strategic planning, M&A, business development, and finance and accounting operations. Her diverse background includes management and executive positions in telecom, manufacturing, consulting, and other service- related industries.
Bernadette Atuahene - CEO
Bernadette Atuahene is an expert in how new democracies can deal with the current consequences of past displacements. She is a property law professor at Chicago-Kent School of Law with a JD from Yale and a Masters from Harvard who has published numerous law review articles and several newspaper opinion editorials on the topic. She recently spent 9 months in South Africa on a Council on Foreign Relations Fellowship working with the Land Restitution Commission to conduct a study where she interviewed over 150 people whose families were displaced from their homes and property by the Apartheid government and who were compensated under the new democracy. The American Bar Foundation is providing support for Professor Atuahene to write a book based on this research. Professor Atuahene is also the President of DISC.
Board of Directors
Sonya Anderson
Dr. Sonya Anderson has been in the field of education since she graduated from Yale University in 1992. As part of the Mississippi Teacher Corps, Dr. Anderson spent two years teaching in rural Mississippi where she taught high school French and history. After her time as a teacher, she served as a Program Associate with the Ford Foundation in New York City where she supported grant making in the fields of service learning, higher education reform, and international studies. Following her tenure at the Ford Foundation, Dr. Anderson worked as a Senior Associate at Creative Associates International in Washington, DC where she co-directed the implementation of education development projects in West Africa and the Caribbean. Dr. Anderson then went on to join the Oprah Winfrey Foundation as the Education Program Director, where she oversaw the development of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa and managed the Foundation’s other domestic and international education projects. Dr. Anderson is currently with the Ounce of Prevention Fund, a non-profit advocacy organization that works to implement programs and policies that support high quality early childhood services for at-risk children.
Prior to joining the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, Professor George served as a law clerk for Judge William T. Hart on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, as a litigation associate for the law firms of Jenner & Block in Chicago and Coudert Brothers LLP in New York City, and as a fellow and later consultant to Human Rights Watch. In connection with her work with Human Rights Watch, Professor George conducted investigations in South Africa on women’s rights, children’s rights, violence, the right to education, and abuses related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. She wrote a book-length report, Scared at School: Sexual Violence Against Girls in South African Schools, which received widespread media coverage in South Africa and internationally. She currently serves as special counsel to the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch.
Paul Getto
Paul Getto is currently a member of the Business Development and Strategic Planning team of Universal Studios’ Motion Picture Group. He obtained his undergraduate degree in economics and film studies from Columbia University in New York. He will complete his MBA at the UCLA Anderson School of Management in the spring of 2012. His background includes production executive positions with Focus Features in New York and Participant Media in Los Angeles.
Agnes Mabotja
Agnes Mabotja is a qualified lawyer. She received her BA and LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and LLM from Notre Dame University USA. She is a former Nurse with a Diploma in General, Community, Psychiatry and Midwife which she obtained from Lebone College of Nursing (South Africa). She is currently employed as a Legislative Drafter and Researcher at a Director level in the South African National Department of Health since February 2004. Her experience includes working as a Legal Researcher for the current Chief Justice, Chief Justice Ngcobo at the Constitutional Court of South Africa since 1999 to 2002. She has also worked at the South African Human Rights of South Africa and participated in writing the South African Human Rights Commission’s 2001-2002 Social and Economic Rights Report in which she contributed 4 Chapters to the Report, included in her contribution was the “Introduction” of the report itself. Her international experience includes doing internship with the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, an intergovernmental quasi-judicial body created within the African Union (former Organization of African Unity) which was established in 1987 to ensure the promotion and protection of human and peoples’ rights within the African continent. She also did six months internship with the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania, Arusha. The Tribunal was created by the Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. It was established for the prosecution of persons responsible for the genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994. She is currently Chairperson of the Board of Lefika la Botshabelo OVC Centre (orphaned and vulnerable children).
Nicole Norfles
Dr. Nicole Norfles is currently consulting with Norfles and Associates, LLC. She previously served as the Education Program Officer with the Oprah Winfrey Foundation where she was involved with supporting education program initiatives in South Africa and worked with the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. Prior to that role, she served as a Policy Consultant with Casey Family Programs where she focused on issues affecting youth and children in foster care. However, a large portion of her policy experience in Washington, DC was as Special Assistant to the President of the Council for Opportunity in Education and Fellow in the PELL INSTITUTE for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education where she advanced research on issues surrounding educational opportunity for low-income and first-generation potential college students as exemplified in the Pell Institute’s Lumina Retention Study. More specifically, Dr. Norfles' research focused on the expansion of educational opportunity for low-income and first-generation college students both nationally and internationally to include undergraduate and graduate college persistence issues, technology use and access, student financial aid and general indicators of educational opportunity. Dr. Norfles has co-taught a South Africa study abroad course with Michigan State University and courses in educational foundations, leadership and supervision while at the George Washington University. She has presented on numerous national and international conferences, as well as authored various reports and publications. Dr. Norfles received her doctorate in Higher Education Administration in 2002 from The George Washington University in Washington, D. C.
Emanuel Nunn
Emanuel Nunn is a marketing and strategic management professional with over eight year's of professional experience. He has influenced a number of brands in a broad set of categories ranging from automotive and insurance to spirits and beer. Emanuel has come to enjoy bringing his passion for creativity and innovation together with his thirst for analytical rigor and business development. Truly inspired by film, music, art and the overall intricacies of the creative spirit, Emanuel has a genuine appreciation and respect for the arts. A Chicago native, Emanuel attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champain with a focus on communications and is also a 2012 MBA graduate of The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Currently, Emanuel also serves on the Associate Board of Directors for the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and is a level two practitioner of Krav Maga mixed martial arts.
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