UCDA Creative Summit

Kate Bingaman-Burt mostly draws, letters, documents, and collects, but she also does a lot of other things that involve energy, conversation, and exchange. Kate is a full-time educator and makes illustrations for all sorts of clients all around the world. Since 2008, she has worked at Portland State University and now holds the rank of Professor of Graphic Design. She opened Outlet in 2017, which hosts workshops, pop-up events, and a fully operational risograph print studio. Kate She also sits on the board of Design Portland and has been scheming with them since 2012. She updates instagram WAY more than her websites, so if you want to see what I am working on, please check out http://instagram.com/katebingburt and http://instagram.com/outletpdx.

Lora DiFranco is the founder of Free Period Press, a self-care publisher based in Cleveland, Ohio. She's previously worked at Little Jacket, American Greetings, and LAND studio. Lora studied environmental studies at Oberlin College and has an MBA from Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management.

You can visit Free Period Press here: https://freeperiodpress.com/

Ken Lashley is a comic book veteran and one of comics go-to cover artists. Ken has always loved comics from when he was a young boy growing up in Toronto. His mother bought him his first book…Black Panther. Ken is pretty sure his mom never read the issue before she gave it to Ken…it was the Black Panther vs the KKK. A few years into his career Ken was given the opportunity to draw Black Panther with Hollywood producer Reggie Hudlin doing the writing. It was considered one the best runs in Black Panther history.

Ken has been a comic book veteran working on such titles as Excalibur, X-caliber age of Apocalypse, Black Panther, Xmen, Spiderman, Flash, JLA, Superman, Superman- DOOMED, and others. Outside of comics ken has worked for Hasbro, Lucasfilm, Mattel, and Fox Sports, creating designs for such lines as G.I Joe, Transformers, Spiderman, Avengers, and Star Wars. The work created for Fox Sports was nominated for an Emmy.

Rudy Valdez is an Emmy Award-winning Michigan-raised, New York City-based filmmaker committed to creating social, cultural, and political stories through a cinematic and meaningful lens. He got his start in film as a Camera Operator on the Peabody Award-winning, Sundance series Brick City and went onto direct a true passion project, The Sentence (HBO). Shot and directed by Valdez over the course of a decade, this feature documentary tells the very personal story of his sister’s plight in the criminal justice system while tackling subjects like mandatory minimums and sentencing reform. For this work, the filmmaker won the 2019 Primetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, US Documentary Audience Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and was a 2018 Critics Choice Documentary Awards Best New Director nominee.

Prior to The Sentence, Valdez has worked as a Cinematographer on a multitude of projects including: The Last Patrol (HBO), directed by Academy Award-nominated Director Sebastian Junger; Whoopi Goldberg presents Moms Mabley: I Got Something To Tell You (HBO) produced and directed by Whoopi Goldberg, premiering at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival; Remembering the Artist, Robert De Niro, Sr., (HBO), premiering at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival; The Conversation Series, a New York Times OpDoc; the series Second Coming?: Will Black America Decide the 2012 Election? (BET); Prison Dogs, directed by Primetime Emmy Award-winning Director Geeta Gandbhir and Perri Peltz, premiering at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival; Buried Above Ground, directed by Ben Selkow, premiering at the Woodstock Film Festival; as well as, The Talk (PBS), directed by Academy Award-nominated Director Sam Pollard.

Valdez’s most recent project, ReOpening Night, a feature film about The Public Theater’s staging of a beloved New York City institution, Shakespeare in the Park, following the COVID-19 pandemic. It will premiere on HBO Max December 20. This summer, Breakaway, a feature film following WNBA superstar, Maya Moore and her fight for criminal justice reform, premiered on ESPN in July 2021 (produced by Rockin’ Robin Productions); and its complementary short, Make Him Known, premiered at the 2021 Miami Film Festival and made appearances at the Sarasota Film Festival, The Brooklyn Film Festival, Minneapolis Film Festival, and Nantucket Film Festival. His four-part docu-series, We Are: The Brooklyn Saints (produced by Imagine Documentaries), is currently streaming on Netflix. He also co-directed the premiere episode of Through Our Eyes (HBO) alongside Academy Award-winning director, Geeta Gandbhir, a four-part docu-series from Sesame Workshop that explores the lives of American families from the perspective of children; how they navigate their circumstances with their families and the world at large. He is also in production on the definitive feature documentary of Carlos Santana (produced by Imagine Documentaries) and Disney +’s CHOIR, a docu-series following the Detroit Youth Choir after their star turn on America’s Got Talent (also produced by Imagine Documentaries). Valdez’s repertoire now extends into the scripted arena as he recently sold a genre TV series he created to Amazon that is loosely based on his family and life experiences.

Cymone Wilder is a lettering artist and designer at Simon and Moose—building brands through custom lettering and design. I’m represented by Co-Loop, a fresh, artist-forward agency built on the foundation of collaboration, community, and diverse creative content

Currently, Cymone is full-time at Simon/Myers. Formerly, SmileDirectClub. Even formerly-er, She Reads Truth/He Reads Truth. She is fiercely passionate about producing meaningful and long-lasting work. In Cymone’s spare time she enjoys ~pretending~ she’s super outdoorsy, and laughing with friends around bonfires. She doesn’t enjoy running (in fact, she hates it), but does it a lot anyway.