Board of Directors

Alesia Crosby-Johnson

Alesia Crosby-Johnson is CEO and Founder of Kids Video Connection. She is a media educator with over 15-years of experience writing and producing educational programs and services for children and adults. Johnson started her career working as a producer for Fulton County Government & Educational Station in Atlanta, GA. She worked for over 10 years at Georgia State’s Decatur Campus in the Instructional Technology Department and Learning and Tutoring Center. She has a passion to help people learn especially through media. She received a Proclamation from DeKalb County Government and the DeKalb County Arts Visionary Award for starting KVC and for her innovative and creative way of teaching children through the Arts.

Dr Amy Aidman

Dr. Amy Aidman is an expert in the area of children and media research. Senior Lecturer, Emerita at Emory University’s Department of Film and Media Studies, she has developed and taught classes on children and media and other media-related topics and was the Director of the Media Studies degree programs.  She currently serves as President of Kids Video Connection Board of Directors.

Elton Johnson

Elton Johnson is CFO of Kids Video Connection. By profession, he is an electrical engineer for Siemens Industry, Inc. He has received five U.S. patents for designing circuit breakers and battery chargers for electrical cars. He has over 30-years of experience as an electrical and audio engineer. He attended Georgia Tech University. Elton was the first president of KVC and helped built a strong foundation that has empowered the organization to grow.

Fran Burst-Terranella

Fran Burst-Terranella is an EMMY-winning independent film and television director and producer whose work spans four decades and totals more than 700 productions. Her documentaries have aired nationally on ABC, TBS and PBS and her work has garnered more than 100 honors including Tellys, CINE Golden Eagles and recognition at film festivals from Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Atlanta to Australia, Scotland, Spain and Canada. A multi-faceted director with the ability to quickly build rapport with everyone who appears in front of her camera, her newest project is “The 12 Lives of Sissy Carlyle” – a darkly comic indie feature film.

Frank Mastogiacomo

Frank Mastrogiacomo is a media arts professional with close to 40-years of education and media production experience. As a media arts teacher at the DeKalb School of the Arts, ranked the second-best high school in the state of Georgia, he has a passion to teach students media arts, the production process, and the effect of technology and social media on society. As a Creative Arts Therapist for 10 years in a special education setting, Frank incorporated music, dance and drama to teach and motivate youth to learn. He has worked with Kids Video Connection for over the past 10 years; he conducts workshops, provides photography and video for promotional programs for KVC. As former president of KVC, he was instrumental in refining KVC workshops.

SHELBIA L. JACKSON

Shelbia Jackson is the founding director of DeKalb County’s TV/Film, Music and Digital Entertainment Office also known as the DeKalb Entertainment Commission tasked with the implementation of the DeKalb Entertainment Strategic Plan. Over the last five years, she has secured and managed cumulative budget of $1.5M, worked with over 500 production companies to process over 1K film permit applications that generated over $1M direct film permit revenue. She has hosted or participated in over 700 cumulative meetings, presentations, events, panels, and conferences over last the five years. Under her leadership her office has had a direct positive impact on DeKalb’s creative economy estimated by the Atlanta Region Commission to reach $1.377B economic output by 2023.

She has helped established a unified consistent film administration process across the 13 cities and unincorporated areas of DeKalb to successfully establish DeKalb as the premier location for entertainment and film production. A few of these critically acclaimed projects include: Bad Boys 3, Raising Dion, The Passage, MacGyver, Doom Patrol, P-Valley, Green Leaf, Black Lightning, Love Craft Country, Ozark, Star Girl, Dynasty, Legacies, Stranger Things, Venom, and Black Widow.

Phebe Dowels KVC

Phebe Dowels is a writer, producer and young entrepreneurial. She has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of Dallas; and a bachelor’s degree from Georgia State University in Journalism and Film/Video studies. At 15, she began her video production career as a student at Kids Video Connection. After taking several video production workshops at KVC, and acquiring experience as an intern with KVC, she became a teen producer at Comcast Studios. Due to her hard work and experience, she won video and writing contests while a teenager. She acquired numerous college scholarships because of her writing and editing skills. Currently, she resides in Dallas, and she writes and produces promotional videos for businesses. In addition, she is an admission counselor at Texas Tech.

Benton L. Aladin

Benton L. Aladin is the Founder & President of TAG Studios which is an award-winning web design, graphic design, and television broadcast production firm in Atlanta. Also, he is the director of media for House of Hope Atlanta. He is responsible for the development, expansion, and operations of the Media department and Broadcast ministry.

Charlene Kalka

Charlene Kalka is a multi-media instructional design and communications expert with more than 30 years of experience. She began her career in public education teaching effective communication, drama, debate and mathematics. She has designed and led communication strategies and multimedia learning programs for several public school systems and in the private sector. She provided training in grant-writing though the Polaris organization to educators and non-profit organizations in more than 30 states. Charlene served as the Director of Technical Learning for Ceridian Dayforce technologies where she developed multi-media training and communication programs for employees and customers. She has worked with KVC for more than four years lending her media, education and grant writing expertise to the organization.

Phillip Saxton

Phillip Saxton is the Founder of Small Business Samaritans. He has a wealth of experience and knowledge starting and operating small businesses. He was formerly Vice President and National Director of eBusiness for the Unisys Corporation. He has worked for IBM in various sales management and corporate management positions. In addition, he was Sales Director and Business Development Manager for Digital Equipment Corporation. He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to help KVC maintain growth and sustainability

Jay Pelissier

Jay Pelissier is one of the most creative production designer in the country. Currently, he works for Marvel Studios, and he has worked for Warner Brothers Studio and Dreamworks Pictures. He was the production designer on top movies, which includes Black Panther, Sweet Home and Fast & Furious. Also, he has worked as Art Director for HBO and ABC Studios.

Franklin Kimble

Franklin Kimble is an Outreach & Business Consultant, Coach and Author. A seasoned and dynamic business professional, Franklin has over 20 years in the life and health insurance industry, hospitality and hotel industry. He also spent over 20 years working with faith-based organization and small businesses.