THE TEAM

Jack Ballo

Producer / Director / Writer

Jack Ballo launched Ultravision Films in 2007 after working in video production for over 20 years. He has produced several award-winning humanitarian films and documentaries. His first film, Wrong Turn (2008), was followed by Elio (2010) and then Before You Leave (2012). Ballo co-wrote the screenplay The Doo Dah Man (2015) Flatiron Pictures, based on his own life experience. He produced the critically acclaimed Tent City documentary Destiny’s Bridge (2016). His last film, Brothers (2018) was screened in eight different countries, winning film festival awards around the world. His wife, Barbara is the great niece of Joseph Pisinski, one of the soldiers killed in the Rohna attack. Ballo found letters in their attic that Sgt. Pisinski wrote home to his mother that led him to learning about the Rohna.

Michael Walsh

Producer / Story Consultant

Michael Walsh is a video producer with over 35 years of experience in producing programs that have won Aegis, Telly, Golden Slate and IFCA awards. He became involved with the Rohna story when his step-father took him to a Rohna Reunion in 2001. His interest in the story led him to writing two books, Rohna Memories I and Rohna Memories II, about the sinking of the HMT Rohna. Walsh has interviewed and filmed over 60 survivors, rescuers, experts and relatives of serviceman who were aboard the Rohna on the day of the attack. He's a historian; researching original materials, letters and the formerly classified Rohna documents preserved at the National Archives. Walsh has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Rhode Island and a Master of Science degree from Rhode Island College.

Hayley Bricker

Producer

Hayley Bricker is a recent Rowan University graduate with a BA in Radio, Television and Film with a concentration in Production as well as Film Studies. She has a minor in Anthropology and a Certificate of Undergraduate Studies in Italian. She has worked freelance for
independent filmmakers in the Philadelphia area as a Production Assistant, Cinematographer, Director of Photography and 1st Assistant Director. Her Great Uncle, Harold Bricker, was a member of the 853rd Engineer Battalion aboard the Rohna, and was a casualty of the attack.
Hayley is very excited to begin her career post college here with Rohna Classified!

Cynthi Stefenoni

Consulting Producer

Cynthi Stefenoni has been an assistant director member of the Directors Guild of America since 1987. Her credits include numerous television shows (e.g. Sisters, Lois and Clark, JAG, Boston Legal, Zooey 101), TV movies (including, PeeWee’s Playhouse Christmas Special (1988), Cagney and Lacy (1991) Return to Mayberry (1997) and films (e.g. Dear God (1998), Waking Madison (2007), Torn (2008), The Fixer/ Burn Country (2015)). In addition, she has taught at the San Francisco Digital Film School as well as lectured at the American Film Institute. She has been a consulting producer on various films and has produced the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival--named one of Movie Maker Magazines 25 coolest film festivals--since 2012. She currently serves on the Board of The Rohna Survivors Memorial Association where she has been the assistant producer of the TRSMA reunions since 2012. She is the daughter of Rohna survivor Alfred Stefenoni.

Ann Good

Research

Born in England to a former RAF bomber pilot and a Women's Auxiliary Air Force flight mechanic, Ann Good was raised in Canada. Following a career in the field of international development, Ann learned about Rohna Classified as the result of a genealogy course assignment; her mother's older brother, Private Henry William Bly of the Royal Medical Army Corps, was lost in the Rohna tragedy but the family knew very little about the incident. Since becoming involved in the project, she has uncovered new information to tell the British perspective of the story. Working from her retirement post in Ottawa, Ontario, Ann has been collaborating with a British military historian and a Canadian genealogist, based in London, England, who have access to the British National Archives in person and have helped identify key sources of WWII documentation relevant to the Rohna.

Janice Pumelia

Education Outreach Coordinator

Janice Pumelia has over 40 years teaching experience in English and Humanities in the NYC public school system. As an assistant principal of English for the last 12 years of her teaching career, she served as the department head of Midwood HS, a large urban HS in Brooklyn, NY. Additionally, for the last 18 years she has taught student teachers at Brooklyn College providing practical training in the English Language Arts in order to receive teacher certification in grades 7-12 in NYC public schools. She is the daughter of Rohna survivor Anthony Pumelia and has served as a board member and secretary to TRSMA since 2014.