Usama Alshaibi was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1969 and spent his formative years living between the United States and the Middle East. He's an active filmmaker and artist with many short films, documentaries and feature films to his credit. His films have screened at underground and international film festivals, and have been broadcast on television stations across the globe.

Artistic Director and founding member of Kartemquin Films, Gordon Quinn has been making documentaries for over 50 years. Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun Times, called his first film Home for Life (1966) "an extraordinarily moving documentary." With Home for Life Gordon established the direction he would take for the next four decades, making cinéma vérité films that investigate and critique society by documenting the unfolding lives of real people. 

From 2008-2015, Justine led Kartemquin Films as Executive Director as well as being an Executive Producer on each new film. She was responsible, in concert with the Board of Directors, for creating and implementing the strategic vision for Kartemquin. Justine successfully transitioned to the ED role in a historic founder-led organization, and made major strides in building a foundation for long-term sustainability.

Matt Lauterbach is a documentary filmmaker and editor, an educational media developer, and an advocate for accessible media. He crafts engaging non-fiction content for classrooms, museums, and the big screen.

Leslie Simmer is Kartemquin's Director of Editing as well as Senior Editor on staff.

Dinesh Sabu made his first feature documentary Unbroken Glass with Kartemquin. It played at numerous film festivals and was broadcast on America ReFramed’s 5th Season in May 2017. Dinesh was awarded “Best Director” at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in 2017 for his debut feature.

Tristan Hanson is a documentary director, producer and grant-writer. With Kartemquin Films she’s currently Co-Producer on Almost There and American Arab (2013). Previously she’s worked as Associate Producer for On Beauty and The Homestretch.

An Emmy award-winning filmmaker recently named to DOC NYC's "40 Under 40" List, Rachel Pikelny is a sought-after producer whose work has earned accolades and sparked impact, at venues ranging from the Tribeca Film Festival to Capitol Hill.

​Ryan Gleeson is a documentary filmmaker based in Chicago, Illinois. After cutting his teeth on his parents' VHSC camcorder and spending a summer editing Hyphenated Humor with the late Jerry Blumenthal, Ryan spent half a decade at Kartemquin Films involving himself in a variety of ways, including but not limited to film production, workflow planning, tape archiving, event planning, and gallery curation. He rose to be Kartemquin's Post-Production Manager.

Hillary Bachelder is a documentary director, cinematographer, and editor. She is the former Director of Production at Kartemquin Films and earned both editing and production credits on over a dozen of the company’s critically acclaimed films and series, including the Emmy-award-winning Trials of Muhammad Ali, POV’s Raising Bertie, and Oscar nominated Minding the Gap. In 2015, she was selected to participate in the prestigious Sundance Documentary Edit and Storytelling lab as an up-and-coming editor of promise.

For over thirty-five years, Jim Morrissette has had extensive experience as both a professional videographer and teacher, supporting his conviction that sharing and access are instrumental to the vitality of the independent production community.

Tim Horsburgh is an independent producer and consultant dedicated to the development, production, marketing, distributing, and impact of award-winning, impactful documentary films.

Serving on Kartemquin staff from 2009-2021, he was most recently Kartemquin’s Director of Film Strategy, leading the organization's original documentaries through their collaborative production model; industry outreach, strategic initiatives, and brand-building; and serving as the point of contact for Kartemquin Producers and Associates.

Zak is an Emmy and PGA award-winning documentary filmmaker who has made films for over 15 years.

Currently, Zak is producing several feature films: City So Real with producer/director Steve James; Until the Lion Speaks (working title), for Concordia Studio, with co-directors Bing Liu and Joshua Altman; and The Ants and the Grasshopper (working title), a film he is also co-directing/producing with Raj Patel and producer Rachel Wexler.

Ian Robertson Kibbe is a freelance filmmaker, writer, producer and musician with over 10 years experience as a producer, director and editor. Ian was the engagement coordinator for the award-winning PBS documentary, The Calling, and its companion campaign, What’s Your Calling (The Kindling Group) and also the engagement coordinator for the Emmy nominated, designer cult hit, Typeface (Kartemquin Films). Ian is currently working on the upcoming Kartemquin documentaries, Raising Bertie and Unbroken Glass. Ian's work has appeared on PBS, CNN, G4, The Health Care Blog, Billboard Magazine and the Huffington Post.

Shuling Yong is a Singapore-born, Chicago-based documentary filmmaker, sound recordist and DP with a passion for social change. She has worked on films like Radical Grace (Hot Docs, 2015, dir. Rebecca Parrish), America to Me (Sundance, 2018, dir. Steve James), and And She Could Be Next (dir. Grace Lee and Marjan Safinia).

Rachel Dickson is an independent filmmaker based in Chicago with a background in journalism and Spanish translation. She produced ‘63 Boycott with Kartemquin Films, which was named on the Academy Awards shortlist for Best Documentary Short Subject, won the Jury Award for Best Short Documentary at the Nashville Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, and was an official selection of the Museum of Modern Art Doc Fortnight and the DOC NYC Short List.

Suzanne, the Vice President of Finance & Operations at Kartemquin, is a non-profit finance, operations and accounting expert dedicated to building stronger non-profit organizations through better fiscal management and organizational efficiency. Suzanne has a decade of professional experience focused on strengthening the internal capacity of charitable organizations. She believes that navigating the financial challenges unique to non-profits requires a high level of financial accountability, transparency, and integrity. In her role at Kartemquin, Suzanne is responsible for all aspects of the organization’s financial management, general operations, human resources, compliance, information technology, legal affairs and risk management.

Yvonne P. Afable was Kartemquin's Director of Finance from 2004-2012, before transitioning to the Board of Directors. A graduate of DePaul University, Yvonne has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting & Finance. She is a Certified Management Accountant with 16 years of accounting experience. She was an auditor for two years before beginning her career in the not-for-profit industry. She monitored the budget and assisted with investments for the American College of Surgeons before becoming the Assistant Accounting Manager.