Welcome WildSiders!

I am so excited you have decided to join the WildSides team. Together we can work to change the way the world views human-wildlife conflict. Our projects are YOUR projects.

We want to provide YOU with the stories, depth and detail YOU want. We highlight the conflicts, show the different perspectives, and search for similarities among people and wildlife on different sides of the issues. But we want to give you a voice and a window into the process.

You will be part of a movement in which you explore with us and experience human-wildlife conflict like never before. This new adventure will be fun, educational, challenging and unique. Search around the website, check out our amazing Advisory Board below and sign up to take part. Are you ready? I am. Let's do this!

Best Always,

Jeff

Our dream: to provide more understanding through in-depth coverage of differing perspectives, policy, science, economics and more through film, podcasts and web content. 

Join us in this adventure, take part in the projects directly and be part of the WildSides team!

WildSides is an award-winning 501c3 non-profit multimedia organization that films and produces stories, provides information, creates multimedia educational products that drive awareness, and offers a means for collaboration and understanding regarding human-wildlife interaction and conflict. Our mission is to provide the most depth possible about the conflicts we cover, engage the public and highlight the similarities among stakeholders on different sides of the issues in order to breed understanding of opposing viewpoints. We hope our efforts will provide a place for proactive discussion about solutions, collaboration and compromise.

How do we do this?

• Identify the conflict 
• Engage the public
• Present the conflict
• Allow those impacted to explain the conflict in their own words
• Delve into lives of people on different sides of the issue to create human connections across conflict
• Gather and provide myriad resources relevant to human-wildlife conflict, as well as other topics relevant to the personal stories of the people we film
• Encourage viewers to experience the lives of people involved in a conflict
• Highlight similarities among stakeholders on multiple sides
• Offer collaborative space for discussion about solutions
• Finally, we encourage others to provide data and information, speak directly with us, share their thoughts and ideas, and take an active role in helping us tell these stories

Scroll down to meet some of our team

Why and How I Got Here

Since I was a child I have been enamored with wildlife. My entire professional and educational careers have been oriented toward understanding and communicating stakeholder perspectives on all sides of many issues to find solutions. Now I get to apply that passion and all my experiences, along with my film and multimedia skills, to explore human-wildlife conflict issues with you, to meet all of the experts and people out there and to tell their stories. Join me on my dream journey and join WildSides as we take documentary projects to a new place!

Jeff Mittelstadt

Jeff is the founder and President of WildSides. His goal is to use his background in policy, economics, business, higher education and documentary journalism to cover human-wildlife conflict issues like they've never been covered before. He has worked in many different sectors and has always emphasized stakeholder engagement and understanding.

Jeff was Davidson College's first Director of Sustainability. He worked for the U.S. EPA's Office of Inspector General in Research Triangle Park evaluating national air quality programs. He was a vice president and senior analyst at Bank of America working on green building, sustainable purchasing, green cleaning, renewable energy and more. Jeff designed, implemented, and managed a national sustainable manufacturing initiative for a D.C. nonprofit, the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing. The U.S. Department of Commerce appointed him to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Advisory Expert Group on Sustainable Manufacturing and Eco-Innovation.

Jeff earned a master's degree in journalism and mass communication at UNC-Chapel Hill where he worked on the 2011 Powering A Nation team to make the award-winning interactive documentary Coal: A Love Story. Jeff has served on boards such as the Davidson Farmers' Market and the start-up incubator Project for Innovation, Energy and Sustainability (PiES) in Davidson, NC. He also holds the following degrees: B.A. 1999, Psychology, Davidson College. M.E.M. 2003, Resource Economics and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Science, Duke University. M.B.A. 2007, Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Enterprise, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. M.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Awards and Film Festivals

North Atlantic Right Whale

• Award for Best Conservation Message at the Beneath the Waves Film Festival in Savannah, GA
• Official selection for the Beneath the Waves Film Festival, played at festivals in Savannah, GA; Lisbon, Portugal; Santa Cruz, CA; Boston, MA; Coastal Carolina University; University of South Dakota; Brewster, MA; Providence, Rhode Island.
• Official selection for the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in Manhattan, NY.
• Official selection for the 40Fathoms Film Festival in South Africa.
• Used in the New Bedford Whaling Museum, North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, and the Audubon Society of Rhode Island’s Environmental Education Center.
• Played at local film event in Cape Cod, MA.

Part of Powering A Nation team that created CoalALovestory.com

• The Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment.
• Winner of 1st place Green Dot Award in the media category.
• Named to Los Angeles Times Best of the Web on July 29, 2011. 
• 1st place College Photographer of the Year for large group multimedia project.
• South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Awards champion in the student category.

WildSides Action Board

We have put together an all-star Board of Advisors! We call it the WildSides Action Board.  

Penny Abernathy

Penelope (Penny) Muse Abernathy, a journalism professional with more than 30 years of experience as a reporter, editor and media executive, became the Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the UNC School of Media and Journalism July 1, 2008.

Abernathy, a Laurinburg, N.C., native and former executive at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, specializes in preserving quality journalism by helping the news business succeed economically in the digital media environment. 

At Carolina, Abernathy focuses her expertise on 21st-century economic models that will improve the ability of journalists to produce news in the public interest. Her book, Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability was published by UNC Press in 2014 and is based on five years of research, involving more than two dozen newspapers around the country.

As a senior executive, Abernathy oversaw the launch of new enterprises and helped increase revenue at some of the nation's most prominent news organizations and publishing companies, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Harvard Business Review. Prior to joining the school, she was vice president and executive director of industry programs at the Paley Center for Media in New York City. 

Before moving to the business side of the industry, Abernathy served as a newspaper reporter or editor at several daily newspapers, including The Charlotte Observer, The Greensboro News & Record, The Dallas Times-Herald, The Wichita Eagle-Beacon, The Fayetteville Times and The Laurinburg Exchange.

She has a BA in History from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and MBA and MS from Columbia University.  She attended the School of Journalism at UNC at Chapel Hill, also.

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Laura Hajar

Laura created and runs her own photography business: Laura Hajar Photography. She attended the Salt Center for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine, where she developed her love of story-telling through photography.

She spent the next 5 years shooting for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. While living in Memphis, Laura also worked with world-renowned fine art photographer William Eggleston and launched her freelance career. A trip to El Salvador to document pediatric palliative care options in the developing world inspired Laura to pursue a master's degree in Public Health at Boston University. Laura completed her MPH in 2012 and continues to photograph issues around public health and social justice for various non-profit organizations.

When she's not behind her camera, Laura can be found spending time with her silly dog Utah.

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Nora Krol

Nora earned a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and International Business from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) and worked as a Commercial Loan Officer for 5 years. She then obtained certification in Elementary teaching from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and taught Elementary and Middle School Spanish. 

Nora now teaches fifth grade at Oxford Elementary in her hometown of Oxford, Michigan. Recently, she earned a Master’s degree in Educational Studies through Oakland University. She was part of an International Baccalaureate Cohort there and applies the inquiry-based, student-centered teaching methods in her classroom. She has been inspired by the deep thinking and conversations that WildSides’ documentaries have inspired in her students, as well as by the action that her students desire to take to make this world a better place. 

She and her husband Gary are also kept busy enjoying life with three amazing and talented teenage children.

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Henry McKoy

Henry McKoy is a seasoned professional in community and economic development, policy, government, finance, corporate, and nonprofit leadership. He is the former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for the state of North Carolina. Prior to entering government, Henry was an award-winning business and banking leader with more than fifteen-years of banking experience and community financial development at the local, regional, and national levels. He spent more than a decade as an executive with Central Carolina, National Commerce, and Suntrust Banks, as they grew from small regional state banks to one of the top 15 largest financial institution in the United States.

Since leaving Suntrust (National Commerce) in 2004, Henry has served as founder and President of a national consulting and financial advisory firm. Henry has served on over three dozen public and charitable boards and commissions from the local to the international level including the NC Economic Development Board, the NC Energy Policy Council, Stop Hunger Now, the Durham Workforce Development Board, the Southern Growth Policies Board, NCCU Business School Board of Visitors, and the White House Business Council, among others. He is considered a thought leader on social entrepreneurship, sustainability and impact investing, being invited by various organizations from local chambers to the White House to discuss the topic. 

In 1999, Henry co-founded a nonprofit think tank (OneVoice Institute of Business and Entrepreneurship – OneVibe) focused on educating and introducing low-income and underrepresented youth to entrepreneurship careers after completing research on the incredible disparity and gaps between investments and operations of minority-led firms versus non-minority-led firms. Over the years he has worked with the National Science Foundation, numerous school systems and universities, organizations like the YMCA, and public housing authorities on these efforts, along with major corporations like Cisco Systems, SAS, private equity firms and banks. 

Henry studied computer science, economics, and business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; holds a Master’s Degree from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment; and is currently ABD towards a Doctorate in Economic Development and Impact Investing at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Eric Mittelstadt

Eric Mittelstadt served General Motors for 29 years in various engineering, planning and general management positions for the Corporate Engineering Staff, Chevrolet, and the Overseas Group. The latter included Director of Car Product Planning for Europe and Managing Director of GM Uruguay, which was essentially a stand-alone business. Because he took the latter company to industry leadership, he was asked in 1982 to be the founding CEO of GMFanuc Robotics.  With a culture of “Trust through Caring, Sharing, and Respect”, he also drove that joint venture to become the industry leader in 1984, which it remains to this day. 

He retired as Chairman Emeritus in 1999 to consult and serve on the boards of several companies and volunteer organizations. As president of Mittelstadt Associates, Inc., he has helped both profit and non-profit organizations achieve success in leadership, planning, strategy and implementation, member/customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and financial performance. In 2005 to 2010 he was CEO of the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM), a non-profit policy research/awareness organization in Washington, DC. NACFAM works with all stakeholders to develop recommendations for government actions to improve US manufacturing competitiveness. 

He has been Chairman of seven non-profit boards, and a Board member for seven other non-profits and six for-profit corporations. Mittelstadt has a BME from General Motors Institute, MBA from Wayne State University, completed the Tuck Executive Program at Dartmouth, and was listed in Who’s Who in Manufacturing and Who’s Who in Entrepreneurs.

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Emmett Weindruch

Emmett Weindruch is an intellectual property attorney at Moore & Van Allen.  His work focuses on helping clients, which range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, protect and obtain value from their ideas, inventions, and technology.  He is frequently involved in a wide variety of business transactions that have an intellectual property or technology component and also assists clients with trademark and copyright matters.

Before becoming a lawyer, Emmett was a high school physics teacher in his hometown, Washington, D.C.

Emmett earned a BS in Physics from Davidson College, where he conducted research on the efficiency of solar cells.  He has a law degree from Boston College Law School, and after graduating law school, worked at an international intellectual property law firm in Boston.

Emmett lives in Charlotte with his wife and two daughters. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to live music and spending time outdoors with his family.

Will Witherspoon

As a 12-year NFL veteran, Will provided invaluable leadership as a linebacker for St. Louis Rams. The versatile defender was a sideline-to-sideline player who was remarkably durable over his 12 years in the NFL. Career highlights include producing 32 double-digit tackle games, a career-best 16 tackles in Super Bowl XXXVIII and in 2007 was named the Rams MVP after leading the team with 136 tackles and tallying a career-high 7 sacks. Will also played for the Philadelphia Eagles and the Tennessee Titans. He was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the third round of the 2002 NFL Draft from the University of Georgia. As a captain with the NFL Players Association he coordinates and assists current and former players in their transition from the game and into life both during and after football.

Will dedicates his time to his business and passion, Shire Gate Farm. As owner of this 500-acre, grass-fed cattle farm in Missouri, Will is vocal about producing organic and healthy products. Shire Gate raises cattle the way nature intended, on grass, and without growth hormones, antibiotics or other unnatural additives. Shire Gate is certified by Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) and has gained notoriety for its use of sustainable farming techniques.

Additionally, Will has been taking MBA classes at George Washington University, is a devoted father to three daughters, has spoken at Congress briefings about the routine use of antibiotics in livestock production and was named one of the 50 Sexiest Environmentalists by Rodale Publishing group in 2012!

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Amazing Partners

Mandy Barrett

Mandy designed our new logo and branding. She worked diligently and patiently with us as we honed in on the perfect design. The name WildSides conveys our wildlife focus and the attention we give to the many sides of human-wildlife conflict issues. We decided on the play button to illustrate the film and multimedia aspects of our work. Mandy brilliantly led us through this process and provided us with our beautiful logo. Thank you, Mandy!

Prior to launching her own design agency, Mandy worked in the publishing field, in packaging design, and at a marketing agency. 16 years of experience, plus an innate ability to identify her clients’ objectives, has helped cement her agency as the go-to favorite for her many clients. Much of Mandy’s success can be chalked up to a single factor: She absolutely loves what she does. It’s more than her career; her desire to create beautiful things is simply part of who she is.

Mandy Barrett Design website

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