Ethan van Thillo is the Executive Director and Founder of Media Arts Center San Diego. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin American Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. For the past 19 years, he has established the San Diego Latino Film Festival as an international event and developed technologically innovative youth programs throughout the State of California and Baja Mexico including the Digital Story Station, Mobile Stories, and the acclaimed Teen Producers Project. Fluent in Spanish, he appears weekly on Despierta San Diego discussing current film releases and has been a popular speaker at national conventions including National Association of Latino Arts & Culture (NALAC) and National Association of Media Arts & Culture (NAMAC). Ethan has served on various funding panels including San Diego Commission for Arts & Culture, Latino Public Broadcasting, the national nominating committee for Rockefeller Foundation's Film and Video Fellowships and the National Endowment for the Arts' funding panel for Media Arts.