Impact storyteller
About
Lacey Schwartz Delgado is an award winning writer, director, producer, storyteller, and outreach strategist who uses the power of narratives to build community and impact change on personal, familial, institutional, and societal levels. Lacey’s work stems from the belief that storytelling is the one of the most powerful tools we can use to reclaim our sense of self, and bridge societal divides. Her mission is to give voice to difficult truths that are widespread but rarely talked about to change the normative narrative. Lacey is best known for writing, directing and producing her nationally and internationally recognized personal documentary Little White Lie.
As a woman and person of color, Lacey's personal experiences with marginalization informs the narratives she tells and shapes the aesthetic approach she brings to her craft. Her goal is to create art that engages the public in a deeper conversation about cultural change and challenges audiences to rethink the way we see the world. Lacey’s innate and transformational resilience has led to an incredible gift of truth telling that inspires her audiences to engage with each other and the world through the lens of authenticity and transparency. An extraordinary storyteller and sought-after speaker, Lacey captures the essence of humanity through the body of her visual work.
Work
Lacey is currently a writer/director/producer at Truth Aid - an independent media creative enterprise with a for-profit and non-profit arm she co-founded over a decade ago with her business partner Mehret Mandefro. Truth Aid produces inspiring and empowering multi-media content by translating research into story, then story into action in order to affect social change. Lacey and Mehret work together to create a culture of truth telling with a global perspective that cuts across interdisciplinary perspectives ranging from public health to anthropology to social justice. The content they make aims to shift culture and push audiences to discover the world from a new point of view. They refer to their approach as visual medicine because they believe stories can heal the world. Integral to their work is the development of public engagement and community outreach campaigns in partnership with diverse stakeholders that further the impact of their media in tackling broader social issues. Lacey’s Truth Aid credits include the Sundance and Berlinale Audience Award winner Difret, the New York Times Critic’s Pick Little White Lie, and the Webby Award nominee for Best Digital Series, The Loving Generation. Under Truth Aid, Mehret and Lacey have collectively run all levels of strategy and creation, from the initial development of ideas to physical production and the editing process through distribution and outreach strategy, including deep dive consulting.
Her creative talents are seen in her vast past work experiences ranging from the ACLU and PBS to AARP and NASCAR and include MTV, Pepsi, GM, L’Oreal, Red Bull, BMW, Be’chol Lashon, Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, and the Sundance Channel. She has also consulted on diverse issues including issues of racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity, workforce development in the media industry, and self-care and wellness.
"
I genuinely experienced what it is to be black and what it is to be white.
/ lacey in the ny times /
Recognitions
Lacey is a Tribeca Film Institute All Access Promise Award recipient and a Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellow. She has been selected to participate in many film and community programs, including the Sundance New Voices Lab, IFP Week Spotlight on Documentary, Reboot, ROI Community, Dialog, The Conversation, and Summit. Lacey has toured extensively as a selected filmmaker with Film Forward, an international cultural exchange program that is an initiative of the Sundance Institute and The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Film Forward uses film and conversations to create greater cultural understanding and foster a global community by exploring the impact that stories can have on individuals, issues and societies.
The U.S. State Department, in partnership with U.S.C. Film School, also chose Lacey to be a cultural diplomat representing the U.S. at embassies and diplomatic missions around the world for their American Film Showcase. Made up of screenings, master classes, workshops and press engagements, the Showcase brings award-winning contemporary films and film experts to audiences around the globe, highlighting the value of film in fostering understanding and cooperation, dialogue and debate.
Lacey is a mentor for the Sundance Ignite Fellowship, which identifies and supports new voices and talent from the next generation of filmmakers and fosters fresh audiences for independent storytelling, and Three Dot Dash. Most recently, Lacey was appointed by the Librarian of Congress to the Library of Congress’s National Film Preservation Board. Representing the film industry, archives, scholars, filmmakers and others who comprise the diverse American motion picture community, the Board works to ensure the survival, conservation and increased public availability of America's film heritage.
Family
Raised as an only child with a very close relationship to her parents and extended family, Lacey is simultaneously fiercely independent and extremely family oriented. She has been married to Antonio Delgado since 2011, although it took them over a decade after meeting and dating briefly at Harvard Law School to reconnect and own that they were truly soulmates. A native of Woodstock, NY, Lacey now lives in Rhinebeck with Antonio and their identical twin sons, Maxwell and Coltrane, who both have the creative spark and wild intensity that their parents share. All four of the Delgados are voracious readers and deeply committed to public service.
In more recent years, Lacey has taken on a new title as a “political spouse” after her husband’s successful, albeit incredibly challenging, campaign for Congress to represent the area in Upstate NY where they both grew up. Lacey spent the greater part of two years dedicating her time, energy and spirit to the campaign through fundraising and as a political surrogate in order to live her chosen motto to be the change she wanted to see and to work to rebuild the connection between politics and community. With the help of a disciplined self care regime that includes both meditation and morning pages, Lacey’s continued ability to use the creative process to engage and navigate the personal and political with diverse audiences is distinctive.
Lacey’s Journey
Lacey started her educational trajectory at Kingston High School where she was an Interstate Mock Trial Champion, followed by a year at Ulster County Community College. She then went on to receive a BA from Georgetown University where she began a lifelong journey of combining social change with creative endeavors, majoring in Government with a minor in Studio Arts, while serving as the Technical Director for the Black Theater Ensemble. After college, Lacey spent two years figuring out where to focus her energy with an eye towards cultivating a life of purpose. During this time, she held a variety of disparate positions, from a legal assistant for a corporate law firm to a New York City public high school math and theater teacher to DJing for an arts organization and band, as well as private parties, to waiting tables and working in clothing retail.
Lacey would find her voice as a filmmaker during her years at Harvard Law School, where Lacey was a founding member of the Dean’s Committee on Diversity. It was there that she full realized how telling entertaining and engaging stories is one of the most effective ways to make change. After convincing the school to allow her to make a film in lieu of the required third-year law school paper for graduation and after taking an undergraduate film class, Lacey wrote, directed, edited and produced her first two films; Schvartze, a short autobiographical film, and Legally Black, Brown, Yellow and Red, a feature-length documentary on marginalized experiences at Harvard Law School. Post law school and after becoming a member of the New York State bar, Lacey devoted all her professional energy into a career in media focusing on impact-oriented projects nationally and internationally. Lacey has continued to use her law degree in non-traditional ways, such as practicing empathetic accountability and turning traditional moments of debate into dialogue.
Lacey started her career after law school working for Drive Thru Pictures, a company that produced documentaries about political and social issues aimed at youth audiences. She also worked in development for @Radical.Media on a variety of branded entertainment projects, before moving on to produce the BETJ series My Two Cents, a semi-weekly talk show addressing issues affecting the African- American community. She then went on to become COO for Max Siegel Inc (MSI), a marketing and media agency, where she managed the Universal Music Group gospel record label iD Music Group, coordinated Nascar’s Drive for Diversity Program, and produced the related BET series, Changing Lanes.