Staff:
Tom DeVries - Executive Producer and President
Barbara Stuart DeVries - Vice President
Gary Mercer - Director of Photography

Associates:
Lisa Aliferis - Producer
Beth Freeman - Producer
Patricia Steele - Producer
Marcia Izaguirre Vivancos - Producer
Rob Weiss - Producer/Editor
Jim Spadoni - Editor
Herb Bennett - Editor
John Kabasakalis - Cameraman
Tony Mills - Composer & Audio Designer
Jim Reed - Multimedia Designer

Tom DeVries - Executive Producer and President

Tom DeVries began his communications career with the Chicago SunTimes in one of the world's most competitive newspaper towns. He also founded and managed a national educational press service headquartered in Philadelphia. He was a speech writer for the director of the Peace Corps and assistant to the Mayor of New York. He has designed and supervised public opinion polling, and works in Bosnia as a media consultant contracted to the US State Department. In 2002-03 he was Senior Producer for the Ted Turner Documentaries project on weapons of mass destruction.

He has worked for or published in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Examiner, California magazine, Harper's and elsewhere. He has worked as a writer, producer and reporter for many television networks including CBS, Fox, NBC, Discovery, and PBS, and for several major market broadcast stations.

Barbara Stuart DeVries - Vice President

Barbara Stuart DeVries is an attorney with an extensive background in health care, corporate management, human resources, and labor relations. For six years she was Vice President and General Counsel of Occupational Health Services, a health care plan and alcohol treatment provider, learning at close hand the process of nurturing and growing a young company. She also served for six years as Chief Counsel of the State of California, Department of Personnel Administration.

Gary Mercer - Director of Photography

Gary Mercer brings to video photography the eye of a painter, the experience of a network cameraman, and the imagination of a Reno showman. He has traveled around the world and across the United States for us and for an impressive list of broadcasters. He has photographed a documentary about rising waters in the South Pacific, completed his own production about the recruiting and training of urban fire fighters, and recently shot extensively throughout Southeast Asia for the Asia Foundation.

Lisa Aliferis, Producer, specializes in health and medical stories. Lisa joined us after three years at Dateline NBC where she was a staff producer in the health unit. Previously, she was a Media Fellow in Health with the Kaiser Family Foundation in Menlo Park, California, where she reported on issues related to end-of-life care in America. Lisa has won Emmys, one of them national, the Outstanding Media Award from the California Public Health Association, the Award for Excellence in Health Reporting from the American Heart Association, the Environmental Health Award from the International Health & Medical Film Festival, and the Excellence in Medical Reporting award from the California Medical Association.

Beth Freeman, Producer, specializes in health, medical and high tech stories. She was medical producer for KPIX-San Francisco for two years and specialized in medical and high tech stories for The Site, an MSNBC international show. She has also produced for NBC News, PBS, CBS, CNET and others. Beth has won numerous awards, including two Emmy Awards, a National Gold Screen Award, and several Radio & Television News Directors Association awards. She won Best Magazine Show from the American Women in Radio & Television for her work as Show Producer of Marketplace, a weekly program focusing on women's issues.

Patricia Steele, Producer, is a broadcast journalist, an attorney and a Fulbright Scholar in Journalism. She has worked for ABC's 20/20, NBC's award-winning series About Race, and PBS's California Connected. She has won an Emmy for Best Health Reporting and various other awards. In 1993 she was named a Fellow for the Institute for Justice and Journalism at USC's Annenberg School. Patricia practiced six years in civil and criminal litigation at O'Melveny & Myers and O'Neill, Lysaught & Sun before earning an MFA at the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television.

Marcia Izaguirre Vivancos, Producer, was executive producer for four years for Healthy Living with Dr. Joyce Brothers, a show which addressed a wide variety of health issues. She is a native English/Spanish speaker and has produced extensively for Discovery Health Channel, ABC World News Tonight, CBS News, Nightline, Good Morning America and 20/20. She has won a National Emmy Award for Breaking News, a National Emmy Award for Investigative Journalism, a TELLY Award, an ADDY Award and a Golden Baton Award for Investigative Journalism.

Rob Weiss, Producer/Editor, has worked as a staff producer for Good Morning America and produced for NBC, PBS, The Disney Channel, Oprah and The Learning Channel. Rob has edited for PBS's The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and CBS's Day and Date. He is the Bay Area editor-of-choice for ABC's Good Morning America, Oprah, Nightline, World News Tonight and 20/20.

Jim Spadoni, Editor, brings up-to-date, inventive graphics and visuals to our corporate and big-screen event videos.

Herb Bennett, Editor, is the first choice editor of the CBS magazine shows and has cut everything from music videos, IMAX movies and commercials to corporate profiles.

John Kabasakalis, Cameraman, has more than twenty years behind the lens. He has shot for network shows such as ABC's World News Tonight and corporate clients such as Intel and Hewlett-Packard. He has shot many of DeVries Media's biotech stories.

Tony Mills, Composer & Audio Designer, founder of Spark studios, creates music for television and video that is good enough to stand on its own, and makes stories even more compelling.

Jim Reed, Multimedia Designer, designs and authors CDs and DVDs, and creates motion graphics for multimedia presentations and video.