Join us for a special screening of PBS’s newly released documentary, Declarations: Black Americans and the Revolutionary War, a VPM production, followed by a conversation with filmmakers, historians, artists, technology leaders, and policymakers.
The innovative film combines rigorous historical scholarship, original artwork, and artificial intelligence to illuminate overlooked stories from America’s founding. Because no visual records exist for many of the people featured in the documentary, the filmmakers used AI to thoughtfully animate original artwork grounded in historical research. The result offers a compelling example of how new technology can help filmmakers bring history to life without replacing the artists, historians, and storytellers responsible for shaping it.
Following the screening, panelists will discuss the stories explored in Declarations and the creative process behind the film. The conversation will examine how the filmmakers collaborated across history, art, technology, and documentary storytelling—and how AI helped them visualize people and moments that traditional archives could not fully capture.
The program will offer an engaging look at how filmmakers can use AI as a supportive creative tool while keeping historical evidence, artistic vision, and human judgment at the center of the work.
Roy L. Austin, Jr
Inaugural Director, Howard University School
of Law’s Artificial Intelligence Initiative
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Roy L. Austin, Jr. is the Inaugural Director of the Howard University School of Law’s Artificial Intelligence Initiative. Previously, he spent four years as Meta's Vice President of Civil Rights and Deputy General Counsel, where he led the company's civil rights strategy and compliance efforts.
Before joining Meta, Austin was a partner with Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP and McDermott Will & Emery, focusing on criminal defense, civil litigation, and civil rights cases. His extensive government service includes serving as a trial attorney with the Criminal Section of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, where he investigated and prosecuted hate crime and police brutality cases, and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in DC, where he focused on sexual assault, homicide, human trafficking, fraud and public corruption prosecutions. Austin has tried thirty jury trials.
As Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division, Austin supervised the Criminal Section and the Special Litigation Section's law enforcement portfolio. He also served as Deputy Assistant to the President in the White House Domestic Policy Council's Office of Urban Affairs, Justice and Opportunity. In this role, he co-authored a report on Big Data and Civil Rights, worked with the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, helped develop the Police Data Initiative, worked on the expansion of reentry assistance, and served as a member of President Obama's My Brother's Keeper Task Force.
Austin received his B.A. from Yale University and his J.D. from the University of Chicago.
Traci Biswese
Vice President & Associate General Counsel,
National Security & Emerging Technologies,
NCTA – The Internet & Television Association
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Traci Biswese is Vice President & Associate General Counsel, National Security & Emerging Technologies at NCTA– The Internet & Television Association, where she leads policy work at the intersection of intersection of digital infrastructure, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, international spectrum, and national security.
Traci represents the broadband and media sectors before the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and other federal agencies. She serves as a member of the FCC’s WRC-27 Advisory Committee and co-chairs a federal sector coordinating council focused on national supply chain security.
She also serves as a trustee of the FCBA Foundation, which supports educational initiatives and public service in the field of communications law and policy.
Before joining NCTA, Traci held senior legal and regulatory roles at Meta (Facebook), RingCentral, and the law firm Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis. She began her career as a federal judicial law clerk and has spent more than a decade translating cutting-edge technology into sound public policy.
Traci holds a JD and MBA from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor’s degree from Clark Atlanta University. She is a frequent speaker on technology policy, spectrum access, and regulatory innovation.
Michon Boston
Founder, Michon Boston Group
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Michon Boston is a writer, producer, and founder of Michon Boston Group Ltd., where she provides strategic consulting on impact campaigns for media makers and organizations. Her work includes engagement and special projects for Firelight Media, ITVS, the Smithsonian, AFI DOCS, PBS, PBS stations, and films distributed by HBO and Amazon. She’s authored discussion guides for documentaries “We Want the Funk,” “Mr. Soul,” “Storming Caesar’s Palace,” and “Becoming Thurgood. Michon also contributed to a 2021 Sundance Institute report on nonfiction storytelling and gun violence. Her play, “Iola’s Letter” about the anti-lynching activist, suffragist and journalist Ida B. Wells is published in Strange Fruit: Plays on Lynching by American Women Playwrights, edited by Kathy A. Perkins and Judith L. Stephens. Michon co-produces/hosts the podcast “Historical Drama with The Boston Sisters®” with her real-life sister Taquiena Boston, now in its sixth season.
Stacey L. Holman
Film Director
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Stacey L. Holman is a Harlem-based filmmaker who has directed and produced several award-winning PBS. Her latest project for PBS, Declarations of Independence: Black Americans and the Building of a Nation will premiere in 2026 for the 250th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
She is also co-directing another PBS documentary Harlem: Soul of a Nation with Stanley Nelson. Additionally, she is a producer for the podcast Queen of the Yard based on her scripted series with the same title. Previously, Stacey series produced and directed three documentaries hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: GOSPEL, The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song, and Making Black America: Through the Grapevine. She also produced episodes on the duPont-award winning series Reconstruction: America After the Civil War and Buffalo Soldiers for The History Channel.
Other credits include Producer on the critically acclaimed documentary Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities directed by Stanley Nelson. Stacey has directed/produced award-winning shorts and content for cable TV (Red Heeled). Her documentary Dressed Like Kings, which garnered the Tribeca Film Festival All Access Award, is currently streaming as part of Black Public Media's AfroPop digital shorts series.
Mansoor Khadir
Associate Vice President of External Affairs
NCTA
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Mansoor Khadir is a policy professional on the External Affairs team at NCTA – The Internet & Television Association. He specializes in telecommunications and broadband policy, focusing on WiFi advocacy, broadband affordability, and digital equity initiatives. Mansoor coordinates high-level meetings and briefings, cultivates relationships with third-party organizations and advocacy groups, and plays a key role in advancing spectrum and connectivity policy discussions.
Prior to his tenure at NCTA, Mansoor held several leadership roles at the Democratic National Committee, including Northeast Director, 50-State Strategy Director, Senior Advisor to the Political & Organizing Department, and Director of Special Projects. During this period in the party’s history, he helped build and scale the DNC’s organizational infrastructure, guiding teams through complex nationwide programs.
Mansoor also spent time with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as a member of the national Field Team and gained international experience as a Political Parties Trainer with the National Democratic Institute in Cairo, Egypt.
Mansoor is currently pursuing an Executive Master’s in Public Policy Leadership at Georgetown University, building on an academic foundation from Iowa State University.
The Honorable
Dr. Sesha Joi Moon
Co-Founder, The JXN Project
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The Honorable Dr. Sesha Joi Moon is the Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia — serving as a Cabinet Official for Governor Abigail Spanberger. Her prior roles include Chief Impact Officer for Girl Scouts USA, Chief Diversity Officer for the National Institute of Standards & Technology at the U.S. Department of Commerce — and most notably, Chief Diversity Officer for the U.S. House of Representatives during the 117th & 118th Congresses. She has received the Washington Government Relations Group's Champion of Diversity Award, Martha’s Vineyard Chief Diversity Officer Summit's Trailblazer Award, Commerce Bronze Award for Superior Performance, and Commerce Spirit Award.
In addition to executive education programs at Harvard University, where she received the DEI Pioneer Award, Dr. Moon earned a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Old Dominion University, as well as a B.A. and M.S. from the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government & Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University — receiving the VCU Black History in the Making Award and VCU Alumni Stars Award. She maintains endowed scholarship funds at VCU alongside Virginia State University, Virginia Union University, Norfolk State University, and Richmond Public Schools. She is a Senior Research Fellow with The Conference Board’s Engagement Institute and Senior Fellow of the Excellence in Government Fellowship Program with the Partnership for Public Service.
Dr. Moon is Co-Founder of The JXN Project, which has been documented by TIME, The Washington Post, and 2021 Pulitzer Prize Winning Richmond Times-Dispatch and is a grantee of the Mellon Foundation, Airbnb, and Nike — and developed a film titled "Declarations: Black Americans and The Revolutionary War" on PBS.
Dr. Moon, who has been highlighted by the likes of CNN, ESSENCE, and Forbes, is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and the WNBA's President's Circle with the New York Liberty and Washington Mystics. She was recognized at the United Nations as “100 of the Most Influential People of African Descent" in 2023. She was named "2023 Top 40 Under 40" by Style Weekly and Axios named her and her sister as the second "Most Powerful Richmonders of 2022."
Dr. Moon resides in the Washington, DC area with her cockapoo, Benji, but hails from Richmond, VA as the proud daughter of Dr. Michon Moon and the late August Moon.
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