As Executive Director, Paula Smith Arrigoni is dedicated to investing in BAVC Media’s diverse leadership team, advancing BAVC Media’s equity priorities, creating new opportunities for media makers, forging new collaborations with community partners, maintaining a learning and innovation-focused culture, and sustaining BAVC Media as a strong and healthy organization. Prior to joining BAVC Media, Smith Arrigoni co-founded a grantmaking and mentorship program for emerging, diverse narrative filmmakers in the Bay Area, and served as executive producer on a slate of narrative films, including two premiering at Sundance in 2019. Previously, she was COO at Youth Speaks, a national leader in arts education and youth development, where she helped triple its annual operating budget and directed a national field-building initiative called the Brave New Voices Network Initiative. Smith Arrigoni developed her management expertise advising and investing in nonprofits for Nonprofit Finance Fund and the CDFI Fund at the US Treasury Department. She’s been an independent consultant to many Bay Area social impact organizations, training programs, and schools, such as lecturer at UC Berkeley, School of Social Welfare. She is currently a Board member and Treasurer of AIR, and formerly served on the Boards of Reel Stories, Women’s Community Clinic, San Francisco Suicide Prevention and Next Door Solutions. She’s part of National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program (2019-21 cohort). A returning graduate of UCLA, Smith Arrigoni studied sociology, urban planning and film and television producing.