Board of Directors
Wendell Benedetti
Vice President
Current Term commenced 2015
Wendell Benedetti (UCLA) began his photojournalism career covering winter sports for a variety of newspapers and magazines, including the Santa Monica Evening Outlook, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, North County Times (Oceanside Blade-Tribune), Los Angeles Daily News, Tap-Online, Skiing Magazine, and City Sports Magazine.
Following that his coverage of photography and digital imaging topics appeared in Petersen’s Photographic Magazine and Website, in addition to Professional Photographer, Photo Electronic Imaging, Rangefinder, and Focus on Imaging magazines. He was co-editor of the Prodigy Photography Forum.
His writing and photography has also appeared in the Orange County Register, Snow Country Magazine, and Powder Magazine, among others. He was the past president of the Southern California Ski Writers Association and national board member of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association (NASJA). He was Technology Editor at Newswatch Feature Service.
TIffany is a Kansas City native who developed a passion for historic preservation while growing up working after school, weekends, and holidays helping to rehabilitate historic buildings her family purchased in their hometown. She watched her parents become leaders in the community by restoring and reactivating their buildings, and being part of the revitalization of downtown, not realizing the impact this would have on her. Summer vacations and spring breaks were filled with explorations of Savannah and Boston, Charleston and Washington D.C. lending to the strong sense of history her parents instilled in her.
Growing up, there were season tickets to Starlight Theatre every Summer and hunting for abandoned theatres on road trips to places like Chicago and Minneapolis with her mom. She loved peeking in the windows to see if they just up and left it as is one day or if someone had come to gut anything of monetary value. They would create stories about what happened to the theatres and who loved them before they shuttered. When she was in her early 20s, she followed the preservation efforts of a historic Kansas City theatre that really became the catalyst for her interest in helping to save these community venues of storytelling and entertainment, and how to bring them back to life. She watched as the theatre was neglected and yet saved from demolition every few years by the city before eventually being purchased and renovated in to a thriving movie theatre in a revitalized downtown district, proving to her that anything is possible even when the odds don’t seem to be in your – or the building’s – favor.
Her interest in Los Angeles preservation advocacy began with the demolition of the Ambassador Hotel before becoming involved in preservation issues in West Hollywood. She is a founding member of the West Hollywood Preservation Alliance, formed in 2012. The same year, she was introduced to the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation as a volunteer and immediately fell in love with the organization, the mission, and the passionate people she regularly meets through the organization’s advocacy and events. She has served on the Board of Directors since January 2015 and currently oversees the organization’s development and special events.
Tiffany works as an executive and producer in the entertainment industry. She and her fiancé currently reside in Toluca Lake and enjoy traveling as much as their schedules allow. When not traveling or visiting family, you’re sure to find her in a historic restaurant or theatre somewhere in the city.
April Wright has lived in Los Angeles for thirty years, but grew up outside Chicago going to drive-ins and movie palaces, which inspired her to make documentaries about these topics. Part of her fascination with these places was the ornate architecture and spectacular marquees which were mostly run-down back then, but she could imagine what they might have been like in their heyday.
April now speaks out about the value of saving, preserving, maintaining, and frequenting these community gathering places. Through her filmmaking and travels, it’s become clear when they are demolished the community often suffers in the long run.
April is honored to serve on the board of the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation, and brings her non-profit and volunteer-based leadership experiences, having previously worked as the Foundation Manager for Women in Film, and as President of the Northwestern University Entertainment Alliance in Los Angeles.
In addition to being an award-winning filmmaker, April has an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern.