Casey Venturini
Director, Producer, Writer,
Cinematographer, Editor
The stories we tell are not simply reflective of our reality; they construct our reality. Casey Venturini is passionate about partnering with people living with dementia to tell the true stories of what it means to live with dementia, dismantling stigma in favor of narratives that foster inclusion, reverence, and personhood. This purpose has arisen from over ten years of diverse experience related to dementia, including international ethnographic research, investigations of the molecular genetics of dementia, and perhaps most importantly, personal experience as a family care partner. Since 2019, Casey—who received his Bachelor of Arts in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic and a Master of Arts in Media Innovation from the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR)—has been a member of the Dementia Engagement, Education, and Research (DEER) Program in UNR’s School of Public Health. The DEER Program aims to help individuals, organizations, and communities build capacity for living well with dementia and serves as the institutional home base for the statewide Dementia Friendly Nevada initiative. Presently, Casey serves as the DEER Program’s Engagement Coordinator, striving to share the DEER Program’s transformative work with world and to ensure the genuine leadership of people living with dementia in that work. Casey strongly believes that it is only through the integration of diverse perspectives, the partnership of all stakeholders, and an unrelenting commitment to community that we can achieve a world in which inclusion is truly the norm.
Carla Eben
Associate Producer
Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Member Carla Eben is the Numaga Senior Services Director at the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe in Nevada. The Numaga Senior Services Program operates under 12 different funding sources to support the needs of the Elders of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation. Hired to the position in 2017, Carla was familiar with tribal operations, and hit the ground running. In 2017, she attended a two-part training on dementia and hoarding offered by the State of Nevada . A few days later, Carla reached out to the Dementia Engagement, Education, and Research (DEER) Program at the University of Nevada, Reno. Working together, they began arranging training sessions to educate the elders, the community, and tribal departments. In 2018, she applied for, and received a sub-grant through Dementia Friendly Nevada to launch the the “Pesa Sooname Advisory Group." Pyramid Lake is the only tribe ever to apply for and receive such a grant. Carla is a Mother of four and Grandmother to ten. Carla hopes to increase awareness of elder issues on her reservation, to the tribes across the western Great Basin, and across Indian Country. Planting the seeds of awareness, and now to watch them grow…