PRESIDENT & CEO, CREATIVE WOMEN WORKSHOPS ASSOCIATION PRODUCER, THE WOMEN IN THE DIRECTOR’S CHAIR WORKSHOP CAROL WHITEMAN West Vancouver, BC

A two-time Governor General’s Award-nominee, winner of the UBCP/ACTRA Sam Payne Award, Women In Film and Television Vancouver CBC Sharon Gibbon Lifetime Member Spotlight Award and the Women In Film and Television Toronto Crystal Award, for her work promoting women’s equality in Canada, mentoring and developing new talent, Carol is a co-creator of The Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) Workshop and has continued to develop and produce the program since its inception in 1996/97.  She produces the eight short films (works in progress) shot at the WIDC workshop each year, facilitates workshop sessions and provides personal coaching for the director participants in developing their career plans for after the workshop.  Through her role at Creative Women Workshops, Carol provides program follow-up, coaching and mentorship for director graduates, maintains a network of actor and crew alumnae, and publishes the annual WIDC Newsletter which includes a growing alumnae update section heralding the career progress of the more than 150 women directors that have attended WIDC.  In April 2004 she traveled to the New Zealand-hosted Women In Film and Television International Summit to deliver a specially designed WIDC Mentorship Session to a group of international women filmmakers, and moderate a sold-out Director's Chair panel discussion with acclaimed writer / director Niki Caro and her creative team from the feature film WHALE RIDER.  The trip netted additional rewards, including mentors for the WIDC program (iconic New Zealand filmmaker Gaylene Preston and TV3 Head of Drama and Comedy Caterina De Nave) and the seeds of expansion of the WIDC program into the international arena with the awarding of a coveted WIDC director's chair to one New Zealand women director. From 2007 to 2010, under the auspices of CWWA, Carol produced the Telefilm Canada Feature It! program, a professional development Official Languages program initiative designed to advance the feature film careers and projects of Anglophone writers and producers in Quebec. A graduate of York University’s Theatre Performance Honours BFA program, Carol began her career in the early 1980’s in Toronto, Canada, acting professionally in local and regional theatre, television and film productions.  After she migrated to the west coast where she now lives, she was elected to the local and national councils of ACTRA where she played a key role in the reunification of the BC and the national bodies of ACTRA.  She became an active advocate for women’s issues as chair of ACTRA’s BC Women’s Committee as well as through her involvement with Women In Film and the Canadian and BC Federations of Labour.  She was the vice-chair of the National ACTRA Women’s Committee from 1996 to 2003, is a member of a variety of industry organizations, serves on seven industry advisory committees and is a graduate of the Alliance Atlantis Banff Television Executive Program.  Fall 2011, Carol began her doctorate in Transformational Change in Education at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.