
Board Member
Joanne Parsont
Joanne Parsont is the Director of Strategy at the EMA Foundation, supporting a dynamic impact network of small social impact organizations and an internal team of rising young professionals. She also oversees the development and management of EMA’s storytelling and learning resources platform, rhizōma.
For nearly three decades, Joanne has worked as a media education specialist and film festival programmer specializing in children’s and documentary films, working with festivals and film arts organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and nationwide, including five years as the first Director of Education at the San Francisco Film Society (now SFFILM) and seven years as the Director of Education at the California Film Institute. In both roles, she designed and managed an array of film education programs serving more than 15,000 K-college students and teachers each year, cultivating media literacy, global awareness, filmmaking skills, and cinema appreciation; and developed a suite of online educational resources for educators and independent filmmakers. She previously served on the Board of the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE).