Board Members

Tammy Kaitz has been a professional actress for many years and can be seen in Film, Television and on Stage. She received her BA in Theatre at the University of Colorado as well as studied at The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Like most busy moms, Tammy skillfully incorporated her responsibilities as Vice President of the PTA with her career and played an integral role in raising money for the La Canada School District. Little did she know it was preparing her for a much bigger challenge. In 2004, when 14-year-old son Dylan was diagnosed with Germ Cell Cancer, she took on the toughest role of her life as ferocious mom. There was a mass the size of a cantaloupe sitting on Dylan’s heart, pressing on his right lung. His involvement in the Teen Impact program made a huge difference in his emotional recovery of being a teenager with cancer. Dylan successfully survived his cancer after chemo and open chest surgery. He is now a healthy, young 24-year-old man. Three years ago when Dr. Kuperberg asked Tammy to help form a board to raise money for Teen Impact, she jumped at the chance to give back to an amazing program. Tammy and her husband, Steve, live in La Canada and enjoy visiting younger son Seth who is a senior at the University of Colorado. Tammy has a lead in the soon to be released feature, The Bone Garden.

Director, Teen Impact program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles\
Assistant Clinical Professor, University of Southern California

Dr. Aura Kuperberg obtained her doctoral degree in Social Work from the University of Southern California in 1994 and has a dual master’s degree in Social Work and Gerontology from USC. Dr. Kuperberg founded Teen Impact in 1988 when she saw the need to create a special community for teens battling cancer. She has since dedicated her life to her unwavering belief that every teen and young adult survivor should have the opportunity to experience peer-support in a group where they are truly understood.

Alissa Miller is a member of the Akin Gump’s entertainment and media practice. She represents financial institutions and other financiers with respect to their film and television lending. Alissa advises a variety of clients in the entertainment industry including borrowers, distributors, studios, independent production companies, equity investors, high-net-worth individuals, completion guarantors and others involved in a broad range of entertainment-related transactions, with a focus on media finance and distribution. She also advises film and television clients in connection with tax-advantaged financing and co-production arrangements. She is a member of the California Bar and the Entertainment Law Section of the Beverly Hills Bar Association. Alissa received her B.A. magna cum laude from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1998 and her J.D. in 2001 from the University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law.

Devin Arbiter is a certified public accountant and entertainment finance expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In this role he supervises audits for public and private entertainment and technology companies and provides accounting advisory services to early stage VC backed companies. Devin consults with small businesses to aid with strategic planning and financial modeling. He is also a recurring speaker at Really Useful Information corporate finance and film finance seminars.

Debbie Ryan has been a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Specialist for Los Angeles County Office of Education for 35 years. She has a Teaching credential in special education and communications disorders with a Masters Degree from USC. Debbie volunteered as a mentor for Jewish big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles for six years. She is involved in organizing fundraising events at Ohr Hatorah Synagogue. Debbie is married with two grown sons, who are also married, each with a son of their own. She enjoys babysitting for Noah and Jack. When not busy with those activities she can be found playing tennis, golf, hiking, biking, oil painting, skiing, reading for book club, playing mahjong and traveling. On top of this Debbie is learning to play the cello!

Carla Smith Braverman was born in California, spent the majority of her childhood in Plymouth Michigan and attended Michigan State University. Carla moved to the Los Angeles area in 1992 and in 1994 created Hub of the House, an interior design firm. Carla’s highly customized approach to design has attracted a national clientele, and led to projects from California to New York. Her projects have been showcased on television and in prominent design magazines. She was invited to speak at the 2008 West Hollywood Women’s Leadership Conference and has authored blogs on Huffington Post’s website. Carla lives in Beverly Hills with her husband Alan.

Ken Clayman was the Public Defender for the County of Ventura for 24 years. He is a past president of the UCLA Law Alumni Association, and past president of the California Public Defenders Association. He was the founder and president of the Cardozo Society of Ventura County, the lawyers fundraising arm for the United Jewish Appeal. Among other charitable activities, he was for many years on the board of directors for Goodwill Industries of Ventura County. He was also on the board of trustees, and president of the Brotherhood of Temple Beth Torah in Ventura. He resides in Calabasas, home of the Kardashians and former residence of the Beebs. How good can it get!

Kevin Ellman first learned the value and impact of volunteerism through his participation in the Big Brother/Big Sister program during high school, and has been committed to improving the lives of children ever since. Following his work as a Big Brother, Kevin spent countless hours at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute assisting children with autism. Over the years, Kevin has also participated in numerous events for Teen Impact at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Although Kevin is probably best known for setting up frisbee golf courses at Teen Impact retreats, he also spent 7 years as an Advisory Board member (2003 – 2010) collaborating to create unique experiences for patients. Children have also been the focus of Kevin’s professional career. Following graduation from law school, Kevin took a position with Disney Channel, where he worked as an attorney and business affairs executive for over 11 years. He currently works as attorney and business affairs executive at Nickelodeon. Kevin lives in Los Angeles with his wife and cat, and enjoys tennis, camping and guitar.

Lisa Filipelli has been engrossed in the world of talent and Social Media for over seven years. Beginning her career as a casting assistant at Nickelodeon and then transitioning into a role as an Agent Trainee in the Commercial Endorsements Department at CAA, Lisa has worked to grow and expand in the field of talent management and Social Media. Lisa was able to carve a path while at CAA after realizing there was an advertising market within the Social Media landscape. She worked on many of the initial Twitter/Celebrity Endorsement Deals. After leaving CAA, Lisa delved deeper into the digital world and served as the Director of Talent at DanceOn, one of the original funded YouTube Channels, which is still around today. While there, she learned the ins and outs of YouTube as well as social media, SEO and the analytics system that is essential to Google’s success. Lisa is currently the VP of Talent at Big Frame, a leading media company in the YouTube entertainment space, which was recently acquire by Dreamworks. Big Frame builds sustainable media brands around YouTube’s most influential channels, and connecting advertisers with their highly engaged audiences.

Deborah Lynn Irmas is an artist, personal fitness trainer, wife, and mother of two sons. She studied fine art at UCLA. After graduating, she became interested in graphic arts and eventually started her own graphic design firm. She then pursued studies in textile design, earned another degree from UCLA, and spent the next twenty years as a graphic design artist using her knowledge of various disciplines. Eventually she went back to her roots as a printmaker and painter. In 2008 Irmas channeled her athletic abilities into helping others by becoming an ACE-certified personal fitness trainer. She enjoys working with her clients and remains an avid runner, swimmer and bike rider. She also volunteers her time to the community and serves as Dinner Co-Chair for L.A. Family Housing’s Annual Gala. Irmas’ is a past board member of Otis Institute of the Arts.

Michele Linse Jeffers has spent the past 20 years working as a visual effects producer and coordinator to create visual effects for feature films, television and theme park attractions. Her biggest challenge was producing a multi-million dollar 11 minute animated film for the Beatles for a theme park ride based on the “Yellow Submarine” film. A native of Chicago, she began her career as a technical editor working with artists in the graphics department of a large engineering firm. After an 8-year tenure, she took a hiatus from the corporate world and went to study filmmaking for a semester at Richmond College in London. While overseas, she traveled throughout Europe, the Soviet Union and the Middle East and 18 months later finally landed back in New York where she lived for 4 months before moving to Los Angeles in 1993. She is a stepmother to Heather and Josh and, along with husband Scott, is a foster parent to 2 teenage girls. Michele earned a BA in Marketing and communications from DePaul University in Chicago, IL and continues her education in child development. She is a member of the Producers Guild of America.

Ernesto Jimenez is the eldest of six siblings, four brothers and one sister born to Mexican immigrants who came to this country in order to forge a better life for their children. He grew up in the city of El Monte a predominantly Latino suburb located in the San Gabriel Valley and eventually went on to graduate from South El Monte High. Ernesto graduated from Rio Hondo College with honors from both Alpha Gamma Sigma (Statewide Community College Honor society) and Phi Theta Kappa (Nationwide) honor societies. In the Fall of 2002, shortly after being admitted into UCLA, Ernesto was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer. He endured an emotional and physical battle with cancer. Eventually he went on to graduate from UCLA with both college and Latin honors (Cum Laude) and received his Bachelor’s of Arts in both History and Chicano Studies. Since then Ernesto has been working with Enterprise Rent-a-Car. His time is spent volunteering for not this board, but Padres Contra El Cancer, assisting to secure several grants. Ernesto enjoys playing disc golf, cycling, hiking and spending time with family and friends.

Casey Kim has worked in the Office of Advancement at Harvard-Westlake School since 2007 and is currently a Major Gifts Officer. She has a broad range of responsibilities which include campaign strategic planning, prospect management, event planning and volunteer engagement. After graduating from UCLA, Casey taught dance to children in grades K-5 at PS 28x in the South Bronx as a Teach for America corps member and then moved on to become the Business Manager of KIPP Academy of Opportunity in Los Angeles. Casey and her husband John reside in Manhattan Beach with their two sons, Jake and Parker.

Fred Kuperberg is an accomplished general counsel and media executive with over 22 years of experience managing the business and legal affairs for The Walt Disney Company’s cable networks. In 2010 he founded Schuyler Road Advisors, and currently advises and counsels select client in the entertainment industry. In addition, Mr. Kuperberg is a certified Senior Mediator with Entertainment Mediation Institute and is also is on the select panel of Approved Arbitrators of the Writer’s Guild of America. He arbitrates complex matters between the Guild and Studios, Networks, and Production Companies. Prior to joining Disney, Mr Kuperberg was Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for Group W Productions where he handled syndicated programming for domestic and international territories. He previously worked at Paramount Pictures Corporation working in Domestic Distribution and managed the legal and business affairs for many of its top rated programs, including “Entertainment Tonight”. He also was a Deputy Public Defender at the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office and started his legal career at Loeb and Loeb in Los Angeles, where he was a litigator working on copyright and intellectual property matters. Mr. Kuperberg has guest lectured at many Universities and Law Schools including UCLA, USC, Cal Berkeley, and Pepperdine. He is a graduate of UCLA where he majored in Political Science and the UCLA School of Law where was a member of the Law Review and received his JD degree.

Peter Marcus is a partner with the law firm Berkes Crane Robinson & Seal LLP in downtown Los Angeles. His practice focuses on business litigation, with a concentration in intellectual property. He has spoken around the world about counterfeiting, piracy and other intellectual property issues and is a frequent writer about intellectual property law. He also writes the well-respected IP blog trademarcus.com. In addition to serving on this board, Peter serves on the boards of Temple Israel of Hollywood as well as the human rights organization Jewish World Watch, where he helps combat mass atrocities and genocide in Darfur, Congo and other troubled regions around the world. Before attending law school he worked as an editor with St. Martin’s Press and the West Publishing Company, and authored the script for the award winning documentary, The Nixon-Kennedy Debates, released in association with the Smithsonian Institution. He lives in Los Feliz with his wife, Zoë, and their two boys, Eli and Charlie.

Producer Guild of America member Salvy Maleki just produced two independent feature films, a feature length music video and a short documentary. Tapped for her international skills and extensive background in production and distribution, as well as her strong relationships with filmmakers and exhibitors worldwide, Salvy has held several positions for various companies including the EVP, Business Development for GDC Technology as well as GDC Digital Services. With a background in visual effects and special effects, Salvy’s early production credits include studio mega-hits VOLCANO, GODZILLA, ALIEN RESURRECTION, SCORPIAN KING, STUART LITTLE and HOLLOW MAN, among others. Salvy has also worked in development for Steve Oedekerk’s O Entertainment and ran David Caruso’s Greta Films. Salvy hails from Germany and attended UCLA. Besides serving on the board of Teen Impact Affiliates, she is passionately involved with the Chelsea’s Light foundation in enforcing Chelsea’s Law across the US.

Holding a diverse background as strategic planner, brand marketer and content producer, Brad has overseen the development and implementation of creative campaigns across entertainment (Sony Pictures, American Film Institute), pro-social (Product (RED) campaign) and digital advertising industries. Born, raised and educated in Ohio, he currently resides in Los Angeles with wife, son and two dogs.

Jeff Shapiro began his professional career working with the iconic television writer and producer Norman Lear’s production company directly out of college. He worked his way up through the company ranks, starting out as a driver and eventually achieving a post as feature film production executive. Later Jeff headed development for ECA, a small startup company engaged in feature films and television projects, and then founded his own production company, Shapiro Entertainment. Along with his creative partner, Oscar nominated writer, Mark Andrus, the two have worked on multiple projects. In 1997, Jeff left the entertainment industry to pursue a career teaching English in the inner city. He has taught in the Los Angeles public school system for the last 17 years. He also has worked as a teacher and served on the advisory board of Ruby’s Bridges, a program founded by the first African American child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South, whose first day of school was commemorated in the Norman Rockwell painting The Problem We All Live With. Ruby’s Bridges connects students, parents, and
educators from different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Lori Soroko has been a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Specialist for Los Angeles County Office of Education and Santa Monica Malibu School District for 35 years. She has a Specialist Credential in Education and a Masters in Communication Disorders. She has been involved in several charities and was a board member of Amie Karen Cancer Fund for Children at Cedars Sinai Hospital for 20 years. Lori has also worked as a grief counselor at Our House, and taught Mommy & Me classes at Stephen S. Wise Temple and University Synagogue. She is married and has two adult children, and a son-in law. In her spare time Lori enjoys traveling, painting watercolors, tennis, tap dancing, skiing, cycling, reading for her book clubs, and playing Mahj Jongg.