Shelley Fashan, Co-Founder (Emerging Lens Film Festival) 

Co-founder and Festival Producer of the Emerging Lens Cultural Film Fest, has a lengthy history of community involvement, activism and volunteerism. She was the first African Nova Scotian woman who served on the East Coast Music Association and the first African Nova Scotian woman on the Nova Scotia Arts Council, which was responsible for creating the Portia White Prize. Shelley is a founding member of the first Nova Scotia Arts Council, the Nova Scotia Mass Choir, and the African Nova Scotian Music Association. She ran for municipal office in the 2016 election and for MLA in 2016