Ann Theis

Executive Director
Film Liaison for the City of Raton

Community-based Media has been an intrinsic part of Ann’s life ever since she attended Antioch College to become a documentary filmmaker. Discovering the importance of community media under pioneers in the field, she learned that teaching people to express their own voice was more important than merely documenting them. Ann started her career at Manhattan Neighborhood Network as a Production Assistant and was promoted to Director of Production and Education. Later Ann guided the Open Media Foundation's media efforts with Denver Open Media and its user-driven tools that minimized staffing and operations costs for twelve years. At Brookline Interactive Group and the Public VR Lab, she managed station operations, educational programming for adults and youth, community outreach, grant-writing, reporting, and project management. Now she is working with Better City as an adviser to assist communities with engagement, grants, and innovative plans so they can become sustainable, profitable, and great places to live, work and play.

Youth Media has been her passion, mentoring hundreds of youth over the last twenty years. Since 2020, Ann has been volunteering for El Raton Media Works to bring economic and workforce development to Raton, including mentoring local youth filmmakers and working with the community to engage them in the economy of filmmaking. She is also the 2019 recipient of the Dirk Koning - George Stoney Award for Humanistic Communication and the 2021 Hats Off Award from Steps to Success for her dedication to Steps to Success programming and efforts towards improving educational outcomes for low-income students living in Brookline.