Raymond Telles’ thirty-five year career in film and television includes numerous documentaries and segments for PBS, ABC, NBC, Nat Geo, Discovery and Univision. Documentaries produced and directed include: Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer’s Journey (American Masters), The Storm that Swept Mexico (PBS), The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers’ Struggle (PBS), Children of the Night (Frontline/PBS) Inside the Body Trade (National Geographic) and The Peril and The Promise – and PBS series “Latino Americans.” Among the honors these programs have received are the Columbia DuPont, Peabody, Emmy and Alma awards. Telles is an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies and Artist in Residence at the Latinx Research Center and Affiliated Faculty at the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2018 he was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award, Division of Social Sciences, College of Letters and Science.

Jacob Fox joined Homes for Good in 2013 and became Executive Director in 2015. He is passionate about transforming organizations in order to better serve communities. Jacob began his career in the mid-1990s and is a national leader and advocate for affordable housing.

Jacob has worked for three different housing authorities in numerous capacities including resident services, property management, asset management, development and executive management. Before joining Homes for Good, Jacob worked for the City of Portland where he directed investments in ending homelessness, affordable homeownership and affordable housing developments. Jacob is active in housing policy deliberation and legislative advocacy at the local, state, regional and national levels.

He feels strongly that housing is a basic human right and he believes in our ability to create stronger communities by linking affordable housing residents with health care, education, employment and other supportive services. When Jacob isn’t working he enjoys traveling, and fishing in Alaska.

Homes For Good website HERE!

Ellen Jovin is an internationally acclaimed grammar and language expert. Her most recent book, called Rebel with a Clause: Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian, was published by HarperCollins in 2022 and quickly became a national bestseller. The paperback edition came out in May 2025.

Ellen has written three other books on writing/grammar (Hachette) and is a co-founder with Brandt of the communication skills consulting and training firm Syntaxis. Ellen has studied more than 25 languages with a total of nine different writing systems, which she blogged about for years as part of a project she called “Words & Worlds of New York.”

Earlier in her career, she worked as a freelance reporter and taught writing at New York University and other area colleges. She has a B.A. in German studies from Harvard University and an M.A. in comparative literature from UCLA.

th care, education, employment and other supportive services. When Jacob isn’t working he enjoys traveling, and fishing in Alaska.

This is Brandt Johnson’s feature film debut. Before this project, he was the writer, director, and star of Brad Advice, a comedy web series — the New York Daily News raved, “Brad Advice knocks it out of the park.”

Brandt has written and produced three plays (the New York Times praised his “sharp writing”), and he is the author of the book Practical Presentation Skills: Authenticity, Focus & Strength (Hachette).

Brandt is a co-founder with Ellen of the communication skills consulting and training firm Syntaxis. A former investment banker and speechwriter, he has trained executives of major corporations around the world. Also a lifelong athlete, Brandt played professional basketball in Europe and on tour against the Harlem Globetrotters.

He graduated from Williams College with a B.A. in mathematics and earned an M.B.A. in finance from the NYU Stern School of Business.

Michael Lee grew up in Eugene and played double bass in the Eugene Symphony. For 31 years he chaired the Musicology Department at the University of Oklahoma and has taught courses on the History of the Symphony. He retired recently and returned to Eugene to haunt the Art House and Broadway Metro at every opportunity.

Andrea Plesnarski, Board President of the Eugene-Springfield Youth Orchestra and principal oboe with the Oakland Symphony who has performed the Ninth many times.

Greg Sutherland landed his dream job at the House of Records 39 years ago; now he’s the owner. His first encounter with Beethoven happened at the record store when he listened to Zubin Mehta’s sluggish recording of the Eroica Symphony, and he walked away thinking maybe Beethoven wasn’t for him. But just a few months later, he heard George Szell conducting the Eroica; it was a life-changing experience from which he learned a great truth about Classical music: performance matters. Now Greg loves Beethoven so much that he’s written an unpublished biography about him aimed at young adults. The book has earned him no money, but it has brought him very close to Beethoven.