Founding President of Evolve Strategies and the Evolve Foundation, the company's philanthropic arm (which supports efforts to increase citizen participation in government), Rob Stuart is a famous "early adopter" who's been leading the way in Internet media and network strategy for numerous political and advocacy organizations since 1995.

His focus is to deepen and widen the capacity of non-profits to use technology that motivates and engage those who are sympathetic to their causes. Rob is president of Philadelphia's Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Rob also helped found NPower PA, TechRocks (a supporting organization to the Rockefeller Family Fund), and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. He is former Chair ofTaxpayers for Common Sense, and serves on the boards of PennEnvironment, Free Schuylkill River Park and the Eastern Environmental Law Center.

Rob was a Paul Robeson Scholar at Livingston College and graduated with Honors in Political Science from Rutgers University. Rob can be contacted at 215-825-4018 or by emailing rob@evolvestrategies.net.

Tara Nurin: Director/Producer

Emmy-nominated documentary producer Tara Nurin is making her directorial debut with “Free the River Park.” After leaving her job as an on-air Philadelphia news reporter, Tara has produced documentaries for some of the region’s most highly respected filmmakers. She is currently producing a feature-length documentary entitled “The Barrel of a Gun” about the world’s most infamous convicted cop-killer: Mumia Abu-Jamal. Directing the project is Tigre Hill, a Philadelphia filmmaker who has been recognized by the national media and numerous political organizations as one of this decade’s pre-eminent political documentarians. In 2006, her feature documentary, “Hard Coal: Last of the Bootleg Miners,” was nominated for Best Documentary in the Philadelphia Film Festival.

Aside from her production work, Tara also writes articles for regional and national magazines, newspapers and websites, and won 2nd place for best Magazine Feature Writing by the New Jersey Society for Professional Journalists in 2008. Further, she designs and executes writing and public relations campaigns for diverse clients, and serves as the suburban correspondent for the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation.

As a college student at Tufts University, Tara earned a dual degree in International Relations and Sociology, during which time she was chosen for a highly competitive internship at Boston’s WCVB-TV, named the Radio and TV News Directors Station of the Year in 1998. After volunteering as a reporter for a Latin American affairs show on the Pacifica Network’s WBAI radio station in Manhattan, Tara headed to Chicago to attend graduate school. At the prestigious Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, she served as the sole student–faculty liaison and won a rare full scholarship to the national Journalism and Women Symposium in 1998. As part of her studies, Tara covered the Cook County Criminal Court for various Chicago-area newspapers and, during a quarter in Washington, D.C., worked as the congressional correspondent for Time Warner’s Manhattan-based New York One TV station and an FM radio station in the Florida Keys. In Washington, Tara also won the Society of Professional Journalists “Excellence in Reporting” award for her contributions to a TV series about skin cancer.

After graduation, Tara spent ten years reporting, anchoring and producing newscasts for television stations in Charlottesville, VA, Memphis, TN and at Philadelphia’s CN8. In Memphis she used her fluency in Spanish to develop a weekly news franchise that explored issues facing the region’s growing Latino population. In Philadelphia she received an Emmy nomination for her part in covering the beginnings of the Iraq war.

To contact Tara Nurin, please call 856-964-0216 or email her at tara@eyesontheworld.us 

Chad Jenkins: Director of Photography

Chad Jenkins, owner/operator of CHP Productions, specializes in video and film production, from documentary to television. Some of his broadcast credits include: The Biggest Loser, E! True Hollywood Stories, NASCAR, ESPN, and many others. Currently Jenkins is shooting Tigre Hill’s feature-length documentary film, “The Barrel of a Gun.” He was featured in the April 2008 issue of Digital Content Producer, a national trade magazine. Chad can be contacted at 215-620-5122 or by emailing chad@chpproductions.com.