Staff

Co-Founders

Erickson S. Blakney

Erickson S. Blakney is a program officer with the New York-based Pinkerton Foundation. Prior to joining Pinkerton, “EB” spent nearly two decades in the media business as an award-winning writer and reporter for Bloomberg and CBS News. With a deep commitment to philanthropy and social service, EB has managed to amass a wealth of experience over the years. In 2005, he and several friends organized a private “giving circle” to identify, assess and make grants to various educational, social service and human rights organizations. To date, the circle has distributed over $3-million through the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. He is a board member of the DreamYard Project, a Bronx-based arts and education program. He serves on the board of the Lower Mississippi River Foundation, a Clarksdale-based organization devoted to protecting the Mississippi Delta and providing outdoor experiential education. EB is also on the board of the Charleston, MS-based SonEdna Foundation, a literary arts organization.  Blakney is a graduate of Hobart College in Geneva, NY and Maumee Valley Country Day School in Toledo, OH. He is a member of the Park Avenue Christian Church in New York City.

Lee Quinby

LeeQuinby10YLee Quinby, founder of Lucky Find Productions, and co-founder with Erickson Blakney of the True Delta Project, is an award-winning filmmaker and American Studies scholar. She has written and edited seven books on issues surrounding apocalyptic belief and sexuality and gender in American culture. She received her Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1984, taught at Hobart and William Smith Colleges for 23 years, held the Gannett Chair on the Millennium at the Rochester Institute of Technology, the inaugural Zicklin Chair at Brooklyn Colleges and for six years was Distinguished Lecturer at Macaulay Honors College, CUNY until her retirement from teaching in 2014. As film producer, writer and director, she specializes in human interest stories that entertain as they educate.

 

True Delta Team

Michael Scanlan

Michael Scanlan is a New York/New Jersey based photographer.  He has served a wide range of private and commercial clients.  His work has appeared in the Newark Star Ledger as well as numerous non-profit publications in the New York Metropolitan Area.  Non-profit clients have included St. Benedict’s Preparatory School, Newark, NJ; YWCA of New York, New York, NY; South Orange Performing Arts Center, South Orange, NJ. Michael is graduate of Georgetown University. Although primarily self-taught, he has studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York and the Maine Photographic Workshops. After a ten-year career with MBNA America Bank, Michael joined St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark, New Jersey where he currently serves as Assistant Headmaster.  The school has a national reputation for its service to a primarily inner city population. Its students obtain admission to the most competitive colleges and universities.

Ji Hoon Heo

Ji Hoon Heo is a journalism instructor at the University of Mississippi. A graduate of the University of Mississippi with an MA in Professional Journalism, he has interned for the National Press Foundation and Ole Miss Sports Productions while freelancing for publications in Kentucky and Mississippi.

To see more of his work, visit his portfolio website.

Daniel Cowen

Daniel Cowen is an award-winning filmmaker and Director of Photography. He is also founder of CUFF, the City University Film Festival. Daniel has worked as a DP on commercial projects in Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Israel and Portugal. His work has screened at numerous festivals and on PBS. Clients include: PBS / 30 Rock / Makeup Forever / Fashion GPS / NOAA / Director Peter Riegert / The Metropolitan Opera / The New York Youth Symphony / The Knights / American Museum of Folk Art. Please check out Daniel’s show reel.

Daniel Scarpati

Daniel “Danny Boy” Scarpati works in the film, television and media production industry in New York City. In 2015, he graduated from CUNY Macaulay Honors College as a Rudin Scholar for his artistic achievements in his double major of Film Production and TV/Radio. Daniel has always worn many hats: he began studying broadcasting and hosted a public television show in middle school, performed in musicals such as Sweeney Todd and The Phantom of the Opera in high school, worked as a videographer for DeLorean Motor Company in Texas and The True Delta Project in Mississippi during college, and now functions as a production and producer’s assistant on television shows and commercials (Martha Stewart Living, Louis CK’s Horace and Pete, NBC’s The Blacklist). Daniel hopes to grow in his craft of producing entertaining, educational content while traveling to new places away and abroad. To see some of his work, visit his website.

Lindsey Freer

Lindsey Freer is an educational technologist and freelance web developer based in Portland, Oregon.