Marco Villalobos
San Pablo,CA
Summary
Exquisite writing and production from a precise and consistent creative thinker across platforms. Critical engagement and inspired solutions cultivated from two decades of tenacity as a writer, producer, and editor.
Overview
26
26
years of professional experience
Work History
Communications Specialist
UCSF Action Research Center for Health Equity (formerly the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations)
01.2022 - Current
- Directed a rebrand of the center from internal development through Academic Senate approval; coordinated participation of 46 faculty to identify common goals, and unified diverse interests into a new brand identity and renewed mission
- Lead website overhaul to establish and promote the center's new name and visual identity according to UCSF Brand Guidelines; facilitated iterative processes throughout the UCSF matrix of Website Services, the Department of Medicine, and the Division of Health Equity and Society
- Initiated Weekly Notes, a running internal digest of work by the center's faculty and staff to showcase ongoing research, new publications, events, and opportunities; Currently evolving into a monthly, outward facing newsletter
- Conceived and producing an original podcast series to spotlight research by faculty leaders in their fields, creating educational and promotional content for the web, social media, peers, and funders
- Managed hybrid faculty lecture series; identified series themes, coordinated dates and venues, ultimately activated collaborative networks of policy-informing research and shared best practices
- Engaged a variety of internal and external news, media, and communications professionals to amplify and disseminate the center's diverse work to inform policy, programs, and practices.
Writer for Print, Film, and Television
Independent
01.1999 - Current
- Craft narratives to promote increased visibility on behalf of historically marginalized audiences for clients including, Time of Day Media, Netflix, DreamWorks, and Annapurna Pictures
- Writer of screenplay for feature film, The Last Thing He Wanted; adapted from the novel by Joan Didion, directed by Academy Award nominee Dee Rees, starring Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, Willem Dafoe, and Rosie Perez
- Associate producer, Spanish language screenplay writer, and B-camera operator, for Sundance premiering short film, Una Hora Por Favora, directed by Joey Soloway
- Have partnered and published cultural news pieces for a variety of publishers and publications, including Hachette Filipacchi Custom Publishing, Complex magazine, Atlantic Records, Village Voice Media, Code magazine, The Fader, and Dazed & Confused.
Producer/Writer/Director of Photography
Independent
01.2002 - 01.2022
- Produced and directed photography for Emmy-nominated documentary series focused on teenagers in solitary confinement for Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, and the PBS NewsHour
- Director of photography for Imagen Award-winning, “Black and Latino” short video about anti-blackness in the Latinx community for Telemundo's Mun2 bilingual channel
- Produced short form news video for The Economist
- Piloted a wave of community-based arts coverage centered on Black and Latinx representation in print, radio and video for PBS San Francisco's, KQED
- Pitched and produced short form videos for NBC Los Angeles, profiling the people and venues that make Los Angeles a center of world culture
- Produced music documentary Beyond La Bamba for PBS World, spotlighting the cultural contribution and personal sacrifice of Afro-Mexican immigrants to the US Midwest
- Director of photography for L'esprit de Madjid (FESCAPO, Panafrican Film & Television Festival of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) Designed, produced, and lectured at the UC Berkeley Latinx Research Center's symposium on Afro-Mexicanidad.
Communications Specialist
The California Endowment & RYSE Youth Center
01.2014 - 01.2016
- Developed, wrote, and edited briefs, press releases, reports, and primers for internal and external use that highlighted the work of health researchers, grassroots organizers, and youth filmmakers focused on amplifying vanguard trauma-informed care and restorative justice practices in under-resourced communities of Richmond, Oakland, Sacramento, and Salinas, California
- Ghostwrote and placed stories in a range of media outlets, including The San Francisco Chronicle, Telemundo, The Eastbay Times, and Colorlines
- Directed video documentary and media workshops for California Endowment grantees in northern California.
Producer/Dir./Dir. of Photography
Beyond La Bamba
01.2010 - 01.2015
- Conceptualized, secured funding, directed, and produced 26-minute music documentary about Mexico's Afro-descended son jarocho music
- The film aired nationally on PBS World from 2015 through fall of 2020; with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Latino Public Broadcasting, The William J
- Fulbright program, and the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture.
Consulting Editor
Open Society Institute, Think Tank Fund
01.2007 - 01.2012
- Delivered core communications support to multi thematic agencies in a Think Tank Fund portfolio encompassing more than 40 grants in 15 European countries
- Refined relevant research and dialogue regarding policy response to populism and threats to open society, in support of inclusive policy making processes that are open, transparent, and responsive to public interest
- Sustained non-European Union agencies' English language communications aimed at identifying and analyzing policy options, consulting with government, and advocating their recommendations, involving stakeholders outside government circles in policy debates, and making their findings widely available to the public.
Producer/Writer/Facilitator
Viajes Personales
01.2005 - 01.2006
- In cooperation with the U.S
- Department of State's, Western Hemispheric Bureau of Cultural Affairs, conceptualized and executed a multi-country series of exhibitions, lectures, and documentary workshops focused on self-actualized storytelling, community reporting, and video production in Afro-Latinx communities throughout the U.S
- And Latin America
- Facilitated trainings and workshops in Columbia, Mexico, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic.
Producer/Director/Writer
African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth
01.2004 - 01.2006
- Designed and produced a touring photography, film and book exhibit focused on amplifying the history and living voices of Afro-Mexican in order to achieve popular support for inclusion in the Mexico's census
- Co-produced, wrote, filmed, and edited original film work for gallery setting, and original book publication
- Secured gallery and philanthropist funding to turned social visibility into hard representation and mobility for Afro-Mexican communities in Mexico's Pacific coast and in the U.S.; Procured institutional funding and international attention for Afro-Latinx communities where previously there was none.
Education
MFA - Poetry
Brooklyn College, City University of New York
01.1998
BA - Literature
University of California, Santa Barbara
01.1995
Skills
- Analytical Thinking
- Creative Strategies
- Relationship Building
- Creative Writing
- Team Collaboration
- Story Telling
- Brand Promotion
- Multilingual Communication
- Internal Communications
- Adaptability and Flexibility
- Media Relations
- Podcast Production
- Self Motivation
TEACHING & CAPACITY-BUILDING
- 2013: Creative Writing and ESL instructor at Five Keys Charter School, San Francisco County Jail
- 2012: Creative Writing course designer and instructor, Saint Catherine University, St. Paul
- 2007-2008: Digital storytelling instructor, Streetside Stories Inc. San Francisco, California
- 2006: Visual Storytelling instructor, Public School I.S. 352, Bronx, NY
- 2005-2006: Viajes Personales digital media training workshops in collaboration with US Embassies in Santo Domingo (the Dominican Republic), Juarez and Monterrey (Mexico), Managua (Nicaragua), Bogota (Colombia), Caracas/Barlovento (Venezuela)
- 1997: Poet in the Schools, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, New York, NY
- 1997-2000: Adjunct Professor, City University of New York
- 1997-2000: Adjunct Professor, Eugene Lang College, New School for Social Research
- 1998: New York City Ballet, Lincoln Center, Poet in the Schools
Awards
- Sundance Film Festival, World Premier, 2020, Screenwriter
- Latino Public Broadcasting Fellow, 2016, Film Postproduction Grant
- Latino Public Broadcasting Fellow, 2011, Film Production Grant
- National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Grantee, 2010, Film Research
- William J. Fulbright Scholar, 2009, Film Research and Production, Veracruz, Mexico
- UNESCO-Aschberg Laureate, 2003, Residence, CAMAC, Marnay sur Seine, France
Languages
Spanish
Professional Working
Timeline
Communications Specialist
UCSF Action Research Center for Health Equity (formerly the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations)
01.2022 - Current
Communications Specialist
The California Endowment & RYSE Youth Center
01.2014 - 01.2016
Producer/Dir./Dir. of Photography
Beyond La Bamba
01.2010 - 01.2015
Consulting Editor
Open Society Institute, Think Tank Fund
01.2007 - 01.2012
Producer/Writer/Facilitator
Viajes Personales
01.2005 - 01.2006
Producer/Director/Writer
African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth
01.2004 - 01.2006
Producer/Writer/Director of Photography
Independent
01.2002 - 01.2022
Writer for Print, Film, and Television
Independent
01.1999 - Current
MFA - Poetry
Brooklyn College, City University of New York
BA - Literature
University of California, Santa Barbara
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