Peter Coonradt
WRITER, PRODUCER, DIRECTOR

Peter Coonradt has produced scores of documentaries and educational programs with a strong personal style. Many have been shown locally and nationally on public television, and he has won four international awards.

He began filmmaking and film study as an undergraduate at Harvard University in the late 1960s, hanging out in the underworld of auteur film devotees and experimental filmmakers in Ivy Films, the Harvard Film Society and the MIT Film Society. He worked a variety of production and script reading jobs in Hollywood in the 1970s, produced two public television documentaries in Portland, Oregon in 1978, and in 1983 founded the Riverside County Community Health Agency's Media Production Unit, which he continues to manage.

His best known independent work includes Gimme Punta Rock, about the indigenous music of Belize, The Gray Whale Expedition, shot in San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California, and Whose Creek Is It? which looks at conflicting values in relation to the natural world.

Orange Sunrise continues the evolution of Coonradt’s exploration of modern society’s love-hate relationship with everything whose value cannot be measured with dollars. These productions include Mecca (2005), The World Within (2006) and Empowerment Zone (2006).

To contact Peter, visit the Media Production Unit web site.

Bob Knight
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Bob Knight was born in Redlands and raised in an orange grove.  As a restless teenager, the grove was the last place he wanted to be - Upon graduation he headed straight to New York City.  After spending the bulk of 20-odd years overseas working as a telecom exec with AT&T and Lucent, he ironically ended up back in the Inland Empire managing his family's citrus business and raising his own pair of restless teenagers amidst an orange grove.  Proud to be a 4th-generation orange grower but shocked by how quickly Inland Empire groves are disappearing, Bob founded the Inland Orange Conservancy, a group dedicated to saving grove and building an orange-loving community.

Susan Harrington, MS, RD
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

As the Director of Public Health for Riverside County, Susan Harrington has been a leader in bringing together elected officials, planners, developers and community organizations to focus on the health effects of our built environment, particularly with regard to physical activity, nutrition and injury prevention.

Recognizing that community supported agriculture produces direct public health benefits, as well as preserving open space, community identity and cultural heritage, she is working to develop partnerships between leaders in agriculture, public health, education and cultural preservation. Sponsoring the production of Orange Sunrise by the Community Health Agency’s Media Production Unit is one of many Department of Public Health initiatives in the effort to create more Livable Communities.

The Department of Public Health was recognized for these efforts with a 2005 California State Association of Counties (CSAC) Challenge Award, and the 2005 American Public Health Association Blue Ribbon Community Award.

Sherli Leonard
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

After 24 years teaching American History in public schools, armed with a Master's Degree and an Administrative Credential, Sherli has diverged far
from the field of education into the field, literally. For the past five years, Sherli has served as Project Manager and now Executive Director for
the Redlands Conservancy, guiding the 13-year-old nonprofit to expand its focus beyond preserving Redlands' historic built environment to include
conserving its irreplaceable natural environment, especially the endangered citrus groves and wild canyons. Thoughtfully stewarding our land and our
heritage draws out the good in people who then work together to make a better place for everyone, including wildlife. That's Sherli's goal.

H. Vincent Moses, Ph.D.
HISTORIAN

Dr. Moses worked for the Riverside Metropolitan Museum for 27 years, from 1979-2006, and served as Director starting in 2004.  An accomplished speaker and teacher, Dr. Moses has focused upon the diverse cultural history of Southern California, from the citrus era to the modern megalopolis.  His 1995 article in the Harvard Business History Review G. Harold Powell and the Corporate Consolidation of the Modern Citrus Enterprise, 1904-1922 is the definitive account of the early industrialization of the citrus industry.

He has consulted for a number of video and film documentaries on a variety of subjects relating to California history, the West, and overseas immigrants from Mexico, China, Japan, and Korea.  These projects have included HGTV, Restore America, “Two Hundred Years of the Chinese in America” for Chinese World Television, “When They All Still Lived” with UC Riverside, and on KCET documentaries such as the LA History Project, Road Trip to Riverside with Huell Howser, served as primary historian for a multi-series documentary on the development of water delivery in the arid Southwest for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, among others.  Vince is the chief consulting Museum historian for the development of California Citrus State Historic Park in Riverside, California.
He is also working on a book entitled Branding the Sun: California Orange Growers and the Epic Battle for America’s Breakfast Table.

Meta Berkebile
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Meta Berkebile is the Senior Media Production Specialist with the Media Production Unit at the Riverside County Community Health Agency. She studied radio and TV production, along with journalism, at San Diego State University, after which she jumped around the fickle Inland Empire radio circuit, working at OJ Fresh Squeezed Country Hits, KCKC News Radio, X103.9 Alternative Rock, 96.7 KCAL Rock and two radio stations out in the middle of the desert near Joshua Tree. Additionally, she worked at the City of San Bernardino TV station for two years.

Growing tired of the low-pay, no benefits, and yearning for more substantial work, she joined the Media Production Unit in 1998. She produced the monthly half-hour "Pet Parade" cable TV show for Riverside County Animal Services for three years, serves as Videographer and Production Coordinator on other MPU projects, and is Webmaster for the Community Health Agency and Department of Public Health.