meet the team
Sydney Scotia - DIrector
“I was extremely inspired to tell this story and bring awareness to the silent epidemic of traumatic brain injury in domestic violence.”
Sydney Scotia is an award-winning actor, producer, singer/songwriter and dancer. She believes that media should be used to elevate important issues and champion social change, and her maturity, drive and compassion help her take projects from suggestion, to storyboard, to screen. As director and producer of This Hits Home, she draws on her experience both in front and behind the camera to tell a story about a silent epidemic that will no longer be silent.
Francis Tesmer - executive producer
Francis Tesmer, economic senator of the German Senate of Economy, is a global entrepreneur and philanthropist.
With over 25 years of outstanding international business, leadership and humanitarian commitment, Francis Tesmer’s inspiring professional journey reflects her lifelong passion for social justice, economic growth, affordable education, and commitment to making the world a better place.
Tesmer’s global career began with her leadership role in her family’s companies, primarily focused on international oil, shipping and logistics and development. As a young leader, Tesmer was almost always the only woman involved in key decisions, and this shaped her lifelong passion for women’s empowerment.
Throughout her distinguished global career, particularly in her prominent role as the President of the United Nation World Trade Point Federation (WTPF) of Hamburg, Germany, Tesmer has and continues to play an instrumental role in forging uniquely lucrative and long-lasting partnerships in the international arena by successfully enabling companies to take their concepts, products and services to the global market.
With her passion for feminism, Tesmer continues to advance women’s access to education, economic opportunity, and professional enrichment to end the systematic misogyny that depresses women’s wages, degree attainment, and upward social mobility.
As part of an ongoing mission to educate, support and empower women, with over a decade of substantial investment, Tesmer has launched the first ever Associates of Applied Science in Beauty and Wellness, and Bachelor of Applied Science in Health, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation with an emphasis on personal care, creating generational transformation for the beauty industry workforce of 8 million (over 90% women). `
Tesmer has partnered with global beauty giant, L’Oréal, (L’Oréal USA PPD), and prestigious colleges and universities to launch this innovative, modern, cost-effective higher education degree program in multiple countries, creating leaders for the future of the most powerful, and fastest growing industries in the world, the beauty industry.
Although appearance and style are to be admired and celebrated, Francis believes the beauty industry has a responsibility to do so much more than just focus on outward appearance. Tesmer strongly believes the world of beauty must also educate and empower women to build self-esteem by honoring their inner beauty, power, and impact, creating happier, safer, and financially rewarding lives. Tesmer is clear-eyed about how the over $500-billion-dollar beauty industry has the highest obligation to positively impact the world and its workforce, overwhelmingly made up of women. https://leadinstitute.degree/
Tesmer supports and collaborates with Global Ties U.S., consisting of over 100 nonprofit organizations across 44 states and 13 countries that connect leaders in U.S. communities with leaders from all around the world. Tesmer continues to focus on furthering international connections with U.S. cities and sister cities in Europe facilitating global investments in businesses and non-profit organizations. Additionally, Tesmer sponsors and supports local, national, and international charity organizations.
Tesmer continuously focuses on implementing solutions for both today and tomorrow’s economic, social, and environmental challenges by collaborating with top academia, business leaders, and politicians who are committed to make a positive change worldwide.
tim lorenz - executive producer
Tim Lorenz is a founder and Managing Partner of Lorenz & Kopf, LLP | LKGLOBAL, an international intellectual property law firm of more than 50 attorneys-at-law and patent attorneys that maintains offices in multiple U.S. states and European countries.
In addition to a law degree and admissions to multiple state and federal courts, Tim holds a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Arizona with an emphasis in device physics. He returned to school to study law after working several years as an engineer developing flight software for an upper stage of a medium-lift launch vehicle. His legal experience includes positions with general practice and intellectual property boutique law firms and an in-house position with a Fortune 500 company. In 2001 he was one of three founding shareholders of an intellectual property law firm in Arizona, which has evolved into LKGLOBAL, a Euro-American law firm.
Tim has been involved with the American Migraine Foundation for many years, supporting national and global awareness, advocacy and research into Migraine and other disabling craniofacial pain disorders affecting 39 million Americans.
Kenneth Shubin Stein, MD, MPH, CPH, CFA - EXeCUTIVE producer
Dr. Ken Shubin Stein is the Founder, CEO and Chairman of Spencer Capital Holdings, Ltd.
He is a graduate of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he completed a 5-year medical and research program with a focus on molecular genetics. He graduated with a B.A. degree from Columbia College with dual concentrations in Premedical Studies and Political Science. Ken completed his orthopedic surgery internship at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and he graduated from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health with a Master's in Public Health. The National Board of Public Health Examiners has recognized Ken as Certified in Public Health (CPH). He holds the CFA designation and is an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business where he teaches the Advanced Investment Research course.
Ken is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Crutches 4 Kids, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing crutches and other mobility devices to children in need around the world. Ken is also co-founder of the International Concussion Society which provides a central resource for accurate and scientifically vetted concussion research. He graduated with a certificate from the Owner/President Management Program (OPM) at Harvard Business School in March 2018, and he is a member of YPO and Chairman Emeritus of YPO Manhattan.
Jerome Carlson- Executive producer
Jerome was raised on a farm in Minnesota, attended music school and became a successful business entrepreneur. He has written and recorded a number of songs, one of which earned him a gold record entitled “Spirit of Christmas”. Presently retired, he and his wife Linda have 13 grandchildren.
AJ Raitano - cinematographer
Entering into the film industry in 1992, A.J. Raitano first worked with the visual effects crew of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. Finishing work on the spin-off shows “Deep Space 9” and “Voyager”, A.J. left the company Image G and began working as an assistant cameraman. He worked for companies such as Digital Domain and Sony Imageworks on projects like: FIFTH ELEMENT, STARSHIP TROOPERS and ARMAGEDDON. Moving up the ranks of the camera department, A.J. worked as VFX UNIT camera operator on films like AVIATOR and THE DEPARTED.
In 2003, A.J. started using his industry experience as a cinematographer. His first feature film was shot on super16mm film format, and distributed in 2006. Since then, A.J. has embraced the evolving technology that has grown from film; from high definition, to Ultra HD and 8k, and even into virtual reality canvases.
Keeping up with advances in the movie industry, A.J. worked on James Cameron’s film AVATAR. On AVATAR, A.J. had the challenge of working as a cameraman, in a virtual environment with motion capture technology. He has worked on other ‘mo-cap’ films such as, REAL STEEL directed by Shawn Levy, THE ADVENTURES OF TIN TIN directed by Steven Spielberg, Jon Favreau’s THE JUNGLE BOOK; as well as the current Avatar sequel.
Erik rojas - cinematographer
A graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication, Erik began his filmmaking career with extensive work in visual effects and color-grading at Rock Paper Scissors in Los Angeles. He then moved into feature films, working on projects for Sony Pictures and HBO. This brought him around the globe, gaining knowledge in every facet of production. He has worked on documentaries such as Making a Murderer(Netflix) and The Defiant Ones(HBO) and feature films such as Alpha(Sony Pictures)
Scotia Entertainment
Scotia Entertainment's mission is to create powerful, intelligent, and groundbreaking content for a large variety of audiences and platforms. Driven by a creative passion and love for film, Scotia Entertainment seeks to engage and entertain. From emotional social impact documentaries and story driven feature films, to episodics for television and more, the sky’s the limit. This Hits Home, a documentary on the intersection of domestic violence and traumatic brain injury, is the first of many important stories to come.
YAKKETY YAK MARKETING
Yakkety Yak is a Chicago-based, full-service content marketing agency that produces custom written content for businesses, including blogs, website copy, case studies, newsletters, social media marketing, public relations and more. Our goal is to be an extension of each client’s marketing team, helping connect them to end-users and decision influencers, based on the principle of one common voice, for one target audience. Yakkety Yak was built on the principle of writing for a specific audience, so that the customized content reaches the right consumer. With our client’s target audience in mind, we generate custom written content for any organization trying to stay relevant and send a clear message.
