Chandra Simon has been a filmmaker and journalist for over 10 years, so she knows just how effective media can be in creating awareness and provoking change.

Chandra attended NYU film school and studied abroad at the BBC, creating documentaries on complex topics including women on death row, AIDS, genocide, and biofuels. She has been an integral part of the Environmental Film Festival at Yale University, most recently, as Executive Director. She helped the fest grow into the world’s largest student-run environmental film festival and was awarded the Yale Kroon Cup from the Yale Forestry student body for engaging and leading communities in environmental stewardship.

A summer spent working on an organic farm in New York’s Hudson Valley inspired Chandra’s next video project. With the help of her Toyota TogetherGreen Fellowship, she profiled pioneers and heroes of the sustainable farming movement. These videos will fostered a meaningful connection between agricultural practices and food, highlighting the harmful effects of current conventional methods such as ecosystem degradation, water contamination, and greenhouse gas emissions. The documentaries were disseminated across the web and in classrooms to help educate consumers to make better decisions for the health of their families as well as the planet.