Tricia Delp Ireland
Executive Director
Tricia Delp Ireland is the owner of Coastal Select Properties Real Estate, the very first sponsor of the festival in 2017! She also serves on the Board of The Carolinas Chapter of the Marty Lyons Foundation, granting wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses and is a member of the Womens Impact Network of New Hanover County, She has worked on several films in her town of Wilmington, North Carolina as a producer, director, and first assistant director. In 2020, Tricia became Executive Director of the UpTilt Film Fest. Tricia splits her time between the historic district of Wilmington, Topsail Island, Asheville, Long Island and Palm Springs. She is a lover of all cats and loves to travel, cook & drink wine. She belongs to at least 3 book clubs with good intentions but often fails to finish a book!
Pam Gonzalez
UpTilt Board of Directors
Born in Oregon, raised in Louisiana, Pam worked most of her adult life in South Florida. As an officer in the merchant marine, an air traffic controller, a certified financial planner and a farmer, she has brought her varied experiences to the Board of Directors of UpTilt Film Festival.
Mariah Kramer
UpTilt Board of Directors
Mariah Kramer is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Cinema and Media Arts at Vanderbilt University, with a passion for storytelling that stretches far beyond the classroom. A co-founder of UpTilt Film Fest, Mariah is also a proud board member, dedicated to supporting women’s voices in film. When she's not teaching or giving back to the film community, she's making her own mark as an independent filmmaker. She’s been fortunate to have her work screened at festivals across the country, from Bend Film Festival to Cucalorus Film Festival, with her short documentary This Is My Home Now even making its premiere on PBS and the World Channel.
Her latest project, Shirley, dives deep into family history, telling the poignant tale of her maternal grandmother, who passed away from polycystic kidney disease at just 36, leaving behind six young children. Mariah’s work is inspired by the belief that while each of us has moments that feel uniquely personal, they are often deeply universal. Through her films, she explores the resilience of the human spirit, always aiming to capture the shared experiences that connect us all.
Patricia de la Sota
UpTilt Development Team Member
Patricia was born in Argentina and is a proud immigrant to the US. She grew up in Worcester, MA, graduated from Boston University, and had a wonderful, 30-plus year career at the Central Intelligence Agency, where the work she performed protected the United States, its people, and its values. She additionally spent 10 years helping to strengthen the US federal, state, local biodefense posture through a non-profit in Washington, DC.
Patricia loves diversity – people, ideas, food – and she loves to travel. She is a firm proponent of Mark Twain’s quote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness …” She has traveled to all seven continents, some many times over.
As a “jubilarian” (a much better way to say “retired person”!), Patricia volunteers her time and efforts on topics about which she is passionate: making education accessible to all, supporting victims of domestic abuse, and encouraging greater participation of women in the film-making industry. She is a volunteer scuba-diver at the local aquarium, a lover of all kinds of animals and a responsible steward of our earth. Patricia and her husband, Jerry, live in coastal North Carolina with their rescued Lab, Riley.
Rachael Silberman
UpTilt Development Team Member
Rachael Silberman is an independent filmmaker and Associate Digital Communications Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific in Wilmington, North Carolina. At a young age, Rachael was fascinated by storytelling culture and was forever reaching for the lens, a paintbrush or a pen to express her internal dialogue.
After graduating with a B.F.A in Film and Television from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2012, Rachael worked in various production settings as a creative producer, director, camera operator and editor; including independent narrative films, documentaries, live events, studio production, reality television and sports broadcasting for the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes.
Having produced four independent short films thus far, Rachael continues to hone her craft with local creatives in Wilmington, North Carolina and passionately promotes the arts in her community.
Deborah Covington
UpTilt Development Team Member
Deborah is a former healthcare and pharmaceutical research executive whose studies focused on providing safe abortions, preventing domestic violence, and evaluating the safety of pharmaceutical products used to treat pregnant women. Her current mission is to enjoy life while continuing to support her community through volunteer work. She enjoys travel, live music, film, theatre, walking her exuberant 8 year old Lab ‘puppy,’ and playing the ukulele! While you’re not likely to see her driving it, she still has her very first car – a 1973 Carolina blue VW bug convertible.
Mary Burke
UpTilt Development Team Member
Mary Burke is the Director of Educational Services at the Land Trust Alliance, the national leader in policy, standards, education and training for the land trust community. Mary leads the Alliance’s work on Land Trust Standards and Practices, serves as the executive editor of education publications, and supervises its online resources and training programs. Mary has served in a number of volunteer positions, including most recently as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Maryland Environmental Trust, the Forever Maryland Advisory Board, and the State of Maryland’s Rural Legacy Advisory Committee. In a past life, Mary taught literature and writing at the University of Maryland where she also earned her Ph.D. in English Literature. Mary also holds a master’s degree in English Literature from Georgetown University and a degree in journalism from the University of Texas.
Suzannah Moore
Communications Manager
Suzannah is a Toronto-based writer and filmmaker. Early in her career, she was a selected participant in the Canadian Media Producers Association mentorship program. While working production jobs on set, she continued to hone her writing craft in the University of Toronto Screenwriting post-grad, the Second City Sketch Writing Conservatory and most recently the Professional Writing and Communications program at Humber College. Additionally, she has worked in script development for various companies and independent writers (Marble Media, Coverfly, Wildling Pictures). She is elated to bring her passion for film and writing under one umbrella as UpTilt Film Festival’s Communications Manager!
Nancy Sandy
UpTilt Tie Creator and Volunteer Coordinator
Born and raised outside of Philadelphia (Go Birds), Nancy learned to paint by watching her father, an accomplished artist. She attended the University of Alabama (Roll Tide) in Tuscaloosa where she lived and worked as a nursing administrator until her retirement 10 years ago. She moved to Downtown Wilmington, NC after retirement, affording her more time to pursue her art. Her artwork has been displayed in various art shows, galleries and downtown boutiques. Her cat, Caesar, is the unofficial mascot of UpTilt Film Festival. On a seriously fun note, Nancy's favorite holiday is Squirrel Appreciation Day, which she vigorously celebrates every year on January 21st by putting out nuts around her home. And you should too!