Grace Khang - director

As an investigative journalist reporting on social justice issues for three decades, Kahng has been recognized with journalism’s highest honors including numerous National Emmy Awards, The Robert F. Kennedy Award for International Broadcast, George Foster Peabody Awards, The Sidney Hillman Award for Social Justice and the Amnesty International Journalism Award. She has produced and reported for the leading women in broadcast journalism: Judy Woodruff, Diane Sawyer, Connie Chung, Maria Shriver, Katie Couric, Meredith Vieira and Natalie Morales.

From PBS NewsHour to Primetime Live, Harpo, Dateline, 60 Minutes and the Today Show Kahng has dedicated her career to investigating human rights abuses domestically and abroad. She has also edited two WSJ best-selling books on leadership, including BETTER TOGETHER: 8 Ways Working With Women Creates Extraordinary Products and Profits.

Her groundbreaking investigative reporting from Iran Contra to the heroics of United Flight #93 on 9/11 has led to significant shifts in policy and reform at the highest levels of government. After 9/11 coverage, she founded Santoki Productions which provides premium content to all major broadcast and cable channels.

Recently, Grace was thrilled to learn that her coverage of Michael Jordan was featured throughout the ESPN/Netflix documentary series, THE LAST DANCE. Traveling with Jordan following the Chicago Bulls' first three-peat remains one of her career highlights from her.

Other career highlights include exposing US government malfeasance in the rape and torture of an American nun in Guatemala, the illegal dumping of military toxic waste by the Pentagon, and the '92 groundbreaking reporting on the largest case of priest pedophilia and cover-up by the Catholic church. In 2005, Santoki Productions began its human trafficking series Sex Slaves in America, with a mission to raise awareness and expose the explosion of the black market sale of sex based on the enslavement of women and children in the US

Raised by Korean pioneers in West Central Minnesota, Kahng studied at Medill and received her degree in Radio/TV/Film at Northwestern University. In 1993, The University of Chicago awarded her a William Benton Fellowship. She lives in San Francisco with two sons who attend Middlebury College and UC Berkeley, and their dog, Archie.

 

DAVID WRIGHT - HOST/CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER PODCAST

David Wright is an award-winning journalist who began his career in public radio in Boston and San Francisco before eventually moving on to television. As a correspondent at ABC News for 20 years, I have reported from 6 continents, interviewed 6 US Presidents, and covered a broad range of stories at home and abroad. He was in the first wave of reporters in Afghanistan after 9/11, work recognized with a George Foster Peabody Award. I have reported extensively from Iraq before, during, and after the US-led conflict there.

His stories from Iraq and Darfur won several Emmy Awards. Wright led ABC's coverage of 2 papal transitions and has traveled extensively with Pope Francis. His domestic news coverage of him has been recognized with several Edward R. Murrow awards. In 2008, Wright covered Barack Obama and John McCain's Presidential campaigns. More recently, he I led ABC's weekend coverage of the Trump White House and was lead reporter on impeachment for Nightline. Since leaving ABC News, Wright has been doing feature stories for public television out of Rhode Island. A graduate of Harvard and Oxford, he currently lives in Quebec with his wife, their 3 daughters, and their German Shepherd Dog.

MARK OLTMANNS-


PRODUCER/SHOOTER/EDITOR

Mark is a producer, shooter and editor based in the Bay Area. I have received a master's degree from UC-Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism in 2012 with a focus on broadcast television and documentary filmmaking. Mark grew up in Chicago, completed his undergraduate degree at UW-Madison in 2006 and then lived and worked in Southeast Asia (Thailand and Cambodia) for six years before moving to the Bay Area. Mark is the French-speaking member of the team that is particularly helpful on sting operations involving native French-speaking John's who try to feign a lack of knowledge about American laws and language.

bill ward - editor

Bill is a seasoned Videographer and Video Editor with 30 years professional experience creating high-quality content on tight deadlines for broadcast television and social media. My expertise is in Forensic Documentary and my credits include... Eight seasons as Videographer and Editor for the Emmy-nominated A&E documentary series Cold Case Files; Six seasons as Videographer and Editor for the CNBC documentary series American Greed; Six seasons as Videographer and Editor for the MSNBC documentary series Sex Slaves in America; Co-Director of the film Conviction, winner of Best Short Film at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in 2008. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1987.

ADDISON MCNAUGHTON - SUPERVISING PRODUCER

Addison joined the Santoki Productions team in 2010. Since then, he’s helped manage several video and promotional projects for Santoki Productions. Addison also owns and operates Hella Grip, an action sports brand focused on manufacturing scooter parts and accessories.

IZZY FLEMING-

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Izzy started working with Santoki Productions in 2017. She first joined the team as the researcher for the WSJ best-selling book, BETTER TOGETHER: 8 Ways Working With Women Creates Extraordinary Products and Profits. Since then, she has assisted on a variety of investigative projects. Most recently, she is credited on Final Justice: The Stanford Murders as an associate producer . Izzy has experience across TV, audio and film production – from New York, California, and London. You can find her teething between roles in story development, research, casting, and production coordination. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and currently lives across the pond in London.

DYLAN BERGESON - EDITOR

Dylan Bergeson is a digital journalist and award-winning filmmaker in Oakland, CA. He previously worked as a senior producer at Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, where he developed audience strategies for social video. He cut his teeth as a producer at AJ+, where his daily reports of him netted more than a half-billion views. Dylan studied Media Literacy with a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at Fairhaven College. He went on to earn his Master's in Journalism from UC Berkeley, where his thesis film was recognized with the Margaret and Will Hearst Award for Excellence in Documentary Film.

LOI AMEERA ALMERO - WEB PRODUCER


Loi is an investigative producer and editor of award-winning documentaries in the United States and the Philippines. She has worked on at least 35 documentaries and features of diverse topics for national and international broadcast, including the update to the Emmy-nominated film Rape on the Night Shift; PBS Frontline's Trafficked in America, a 2019 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting finalist; HBO's Agents of Chaos, a 2021 Writers Guild Awardee; and Hale, the Student Academy Gold Awardee for Documentary in 2017

LUCY GRINDON - RESEARCHER

Lucy Grindon is a student at Columbia Journalism School, where she is pursuing an MS degree and focusing on audio journalism. She has previously reported on religion, migration, and culture for The National Catholic Reporter and Commonweal Magazine . She graduated in 2019 from Middlebury College, where she served as an opinion editor for the campus newspaper, hosted two radio shows, and studied history and Arabic.