Meet the Team
Heather Courtney - Director/Producer
Heather is an Emmy-winning director and producer, and a Guggenheim, Sundance, and Fulbright fellow. Her film WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM won an Emmy, an Independent Spirit Award, and a SXSW Jury Award. Her films have been funded by the Ford Foundation/Just Films, the MacArthur Foundation, the Sundance Documentary Fund, Chicken & Egg, and ITVS, among others. They have screened and won awards at SXSW, Slamdance, Tribeca, Full Frame, Silverdocs, and others, and have broadcast nationally on PBS, including POV, Independent Lens and America ReFramed, and streamed on Netflix and the Washington Post. Her short documentary FOR THE RECORD recently premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Fest, and her ITVS, Ford, and IDA-funded feature BREAKING THE NEWS premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival in June. She comes from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and is proud to call herself a Yooper. She now lives in Los Angeles with her husband P.J. and her 14-year-old rescue pit bull Meeps.
Paul Stekler - Producer
Paul Stekler’s documentaries about American politics and history have won multiple Emmys, Peabodys, and du-Pont-Columbia Journalism awards and have all been aired nationally on PBS. His films include Sundance Special Jury Prize winner George Wallace: Settin’ the Woods on Fire, Vote for Me: Politics in America, a two-night national special directed and produced with Louie Alvarez and Andy Kolker, two of the Eyes on the Prize civil rights history series films, and three films aired on PBS’s independent documentary series POV, Last Man Standing: Politics Texas Style, Louisiana Boys: Raised on Politics, and Getting Back to Abnormal. He has a doctorate in American politics (Harvard ’82), ran the University of Texas’s film program for many years, his opinion pieces have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and USA Today, and Killing Custer, a book he co-wrote with James Welch, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
Karen Skloss - Editor
Karen Skloss’ films have been shown on HBO, in the MOMA, in wide theatrical release, and in film festivals internationally. Her work as an editor includes the acclaimed dramedy, “Support the Girls” (dir. Andrew Bujalski) which was listed as a top movie pick by former president Barack Obama. She began her career with the celebrated documentary, “Be Here to Love Me: The Story of Townes Van Zandt” (dir. Margaret Brown). Recently she co-produced and edited, “Have You Got It Yet?” (dir. Roddy Bogawa) about Pink Floyd’s legendary Syd Barrett, to be theatrically released in the summer of 2023. She began her career in film as a child actor and made her narrative directorial debut with the psychedelic coming-of-age film, “The Honor Farm,” which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival. “Sunshine,” her first documentary feature as director, was nationally broadcast on PBS's Emmy Award-winning series, Independent Lens.
Karl Stieg - Finishing Editor
Karl Stieg is an editor based in Long Beach, CA. Originally from Philadelphia, Stieg moved out to LA to study film at USC and has been working in non-fiction for 10 years. He has a special love for cinema vérité and using the craft of editing to place audiences into someone else's shoes.
Alice Quinlan - Red Owl Impact Producer
Alice is an impact and engagement consultant with more than eight years of experience using storytelling to drive social change. At Red Owl, she leads campaigns with responsive strategies and an eye for creative partnerships and community-based work. Previously, as the Director of Community Engagement and Education at POV, Alice developed strategic national engagement campaigns for POV documentaries, produced resources around POV's features, shorts and digital projects, and facilitated 700+ free screenings nationwide every year with her team. Prior to joining POV in 2014, she founded the KRTS Youth Media Project in Marfa, TX, a part of PBS Student Reporting Labs, and managed the American Graduate campaign at Marfa Public Radio, a project of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Her reporting work has appeared on Monocle Radio, Marfa Public Radio, PRX: ReMix with Roman Mars, Fronteras: The Changing America Desk and in Wherever Magazine and The Big Bend Sentinel. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a degree in Philosophy.
Madeleine Claire Kelly - Red Owl Impact Producer
Madeleine comes from a background in impact and community engagement in theater, and worked previously for The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, whose mission is to humanize global politics through performance by cultivating a community of artists, activists, and citizens to create art that sparks transformation and change. Her theater-making, artistic learning facilitation, and production work has engaged her with diverse global communities in differing contexts. Madeleine holds an MFA from the NYU Graduate Acting Program, and a BA from Georgetown University.
Lily Donnell - Red Owl Impact Producer
Lily Donnell works as an impact coordinator for Red Owl. She holds a B.A in French Language and English Literature from Lewis & Clark College and spent a year studying at Université de Strasbourg in France. After moving back to her hometown of Los Angeles, Lily interned briefly in the legal field before transitioning into impact coordination for films like Roll Red Roll and on Red Owl's various projects. These experiences have solidified her interest in working on documentary films with a social issue focus. A new voice in the documentary space, she continues to broaden her knowledge and experience in social impact and engagement strategy while contributing to impact campaigns as a part of the Red Owl team.
Coral Worley - Social Media/Website Manager
Coral Worley is a writer/director, creative entrepreneur, and producer originally from Portland, OR. Her passion for storytelling thrives on collaborating with talented creatives to weave narratives that are both intimate and character-driven, masterfully striking a delicate balance between humor and drama. Currently serving as the Executive Producer of the global music docuseries, Yūgen, Coral directed the pilot episode featuring artist Lucia Tacchetti in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her film, When We Were Friends, was honored with a Best Drama nomination at Cannes Shorts Awards. Coral gravitates toward stories that delve into the intricacies of coming-of-age, mental health and the human condition. A graduate of Emerson College, she holds a BA degree in Media Arts Production, complemented with an Entrepreneurship minor and is a candidate for Columbia University’s MFA in Screenwriting & Directing.
