A team that understands you and the people you serve.
We’re public health professionals who know how to leverage the power of digital media.
Kenny Neal Shults, Principal
Since returning to consulting full-time with Connected Health Solutions in 2010, Kenny Shults has focused on using digital media and positive youth development strategies to engage young people as co-creators of campaigns that address the issues most important to their well-being. His work sits at the intersection of storytelling, behavioral science, and youth empowerment—helping organizations translate complex social issues into media that is both emotionally compelling and practically useful.
Having served nonprofits throughout his career, Kenny designs and delivers programs that accomplish multiple goals within a single, integrated experience—helping organizations maximize impact without adding unnecessary complexity. His approach blends participatory media-making with skill-building frameworks that strengthen young people’s self-efficacy, communication skills, and social-emotional and cognitive-behavioral capacities, while also generating high-quality media assets organizations can use for outreach, education, and fundraising.
Over the past 15 years, Kenny has collaborated with hundreds of young people across the country to produce hundreds of short films, digital campaigns, and branded media pieces in partnership with healthcare systems, public health agencies, schools, and youth-serving organizations. These projects are designed not only to reach audiences, but to support the young people involved in clarifying their values, developing professional skills, and seeing themselves as capable contributors to change.
In addition to creative production, Kenny regularly trains staff, educators, and facilitators on participatory media practices, trauma-informed engagement, and ethical storytelling. His work is particularly well suited to organizations seeking thoughtful, systems-aware approaches to youth engagement—especially those focused on mentorship, scholarship, leadership development, and long-term investment in young people’s futures.
Today, Kenny continues to work directly with youth while consulting with organizations that want to pair meaningful social impact with clear, effective communication. Across projects, his goal remains consistent: to help institutions listen more carefully, help young people see their own power more clearly, and create media that reflects both lived experience and possibility.
Francisco Solorzano, Creative Director
Originally from Far Rockaway, NY, Francisco is an award winning Latino filmmaker and actor committed to inclusion and diversity in the arts. As its Producing Artistic Director, he has led the multicultural, critically acclaimed Barefoot Theatre Company he founded in 1999 along with its sister co., Barefoot Studio Pictures. He most notably wrote, directed and starred in the first ever stage adaptation of DOG DAY AFTERNOON (Off-Broadway, NYC), and is currently developing a television series along with several socially relevant film projects. His theatrical work spans across the US and internationally and has collaborated with organizations such as Youth Communication, Stella Adler Conservatory in NYC, 303 Theatre in Chongqing, China, and The Art of Acting in Los Angeles creating free theater and serving marginalized teens through the art of storytelling. Francisco is a proud Lifetime Member of The Actors Studio, Actor's Equity Association, and SAG-AFTRA and Adjunct Professor in Theater at CUNY’s Brooklyn College. Francisco brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the process of making art and films with vulnerable youth populations. Moreover, he brings his identification with the youth our clients serve, making his engagements not simply instructional, but an authentic collaboration.
Emily Picon, LCSW-C
is an experienced bilingual psychotherapist, who has worked with children, adolescents, and adults. She is an experienced clinical therapist specializing in working with children and families with a history of maltreatment, adults with chronic and severe mental illnesses, and providing evidence-based, trauma-focused interventions to individuals in need. Throughout her education and career Emily has focused on the social influences on community, organizational and group dynamics, and practical approaches to facilitating change.
Austin Chang
Austin Chang is a producer and filmmaker. Austin has focused on developing and producing visual content in the nonprofit and cause-based sector with the belief that we must prioritize giving voices to those unheard and tell stories in an authentic, truthful and impactful way.
Austin founded his film production company, Creative Class 6 in 2018. It is his strong belief that the way the people behind the camera experience their working environment directly informs the quality of what they capture in front of the lens.
As a multi-racial artist, Austin strives to tell stories of universal appeal that bring people of different backgrounds together to observe life through a common lens. Having started out as a camera assistant on episodic television, feature films and commercials, he is always searching for unique ways to photograph each project. Austin holds a BFA in cinematography from the School of Visual Arts and has been a member of the International Cinematographers Guild since 2014.
Kesten Migdal
Kesten Migdal is a cinematographer and storyteller. He is an alumnus of the Pixar story department and has crafted narratives for clients that include Bumble, Salesforce, the Culinary Institute of America, Annie’s Homegrown, Sutter Home, Hass Avocado Board, and many more. He’s filmed everything from cowboys to tech execs, goats, cows, hawks, walnuts, avocados, blueberries, teenagers doing wheelies on the Bay Bridge, and more. He has been in the industry for 16 years and has worked in dozens of international locations from India to Oaxaca. The recent documentary he filmed, By My Side, has been selected in over 30 film festivals and has won nine awards.