Candace Schermerhorn got her start at Northern Light Productions in Boston, MA where she became a staff producer, working with clients creating films and projects from educational documentaries for Children’s Television Workshop, Sesame Street, and PBS’s American Masters. As a producer, director, writer, and project manager, her expertise and passion lie primarily in first person narrative and documentaries addressing contemporary issues. Her credits include work for Children’s Television Workshop, the National Park Service, Massachusetts Council for the Humanities, Harcourt Brace Publishers, American Masters, and Turner Broadcasting. Her work for Harcourt Brace’s “Meet The Author” series won Gold and Silver Hugos. Candace produced, directed, and wrote for Children’s Television Workshops and for Sesame Street. Her 3-minute, live-action documentaries, sensitively focus on understanding children with differing abilities and how they are challenged and grow in their everyday lives. You Don’t Know Dick was Candace’s first independent documentary film. It chronicles the lives of 6 individuals struggling with gender identity. Dick has been approved for library distribution by the American Library Association and has won many international awards including National Educational Media Network’s Golden Apple Award and a GLAAD nomination. Schermerhorn was the Associate Producer on the award-winning Coming to Light: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indians and joined the Santa Barbara International Festival in 2001 as the documentary programmer. As Director of Programming over the last 6 years she has championed diverse independent cinema from around the world, working from the premise that film offers as experience of disparate cultures, challenging stories, and an array of styles. She taught documentary filmmaking at Santa Barbara City College for 10 years and also taught at Antioch University. She wrote, produced and directed The Naked Option about Niger Delta women who use to cultural taboo of stripping naked in public to protest the destruction of the land and livelihoods by multinational oil corporations operating in their communities. The award-winning film has traveled the film festival circuit, is screening at festivals throughout Africa and has been sold to NETA, National Educational Television Association. Currently, Candace is the Manager and Producer for the documentary team at lynda.com where they make short films about artists and innovators doing exciting work that is an inspiration to others.