Verona Fonté, Executive Director of Iris Arts, has the digital media skills, the ability to mentor emerging digital artists, and the capacity to provide nonprofits with socially relevant projects with digital media products such as: websites, videos,  graphic design and photography that supports their projects.  She is currently the President of the Digital Artists Collective at Berkeley City College, and is on the Advisory Board of WEAD (Womens Eco Arts Dialog), where she was previously a Board Member.

Verona  worked as a psychologist for over twenty years in academic, clinical and organizational settings. She was Academic Dean at the Saybrook Institute, had a private practice for over 20 years, worked with the beginnings of the managed care programs, organizational trauma teams and consulted with organizations. 

In 1994, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Olympia Institute, Verona participated in a conference focusing on the impact of war trauma in Dagestan, a region of the the Soviet Union in the Caucasus. A Russian cinematographer that was filming this event, mentored her in her first efforts to film. While in Dagestan they met and filmed some of the major political players as this region approached their first democratic elections. One day the cinematographer told Verona his story about being hospitalized and medicated under the Soviet regime when he refused to go into the military. On hearing this story Verona decided she could no longer listen to people’s stories in confidentiality as a psychologist, rather she wanted to be part of the group of people that helped get important narratives out into the world. The dynamics of diversity and the tension of potential violence in post Soviet, pre-democratic Dagestan (still a region of Russia) inspired her to make her first film “The Peaceful Warrior”. 

Soon after this she decided to quite her work as a psychologist and become the Director of Iris Arts & Education Group, a nonprofit with a mission to produce and support socially relevant media, educational and artistic products. She continued her work with trauma and peace through producing of several shorts including , “We Must Not Forget the Children” for Balkans YouthLink 1997 about the crisis in Kosova; worked on a trailer for a feature length filmed in Italy, “Children of War” with Kim Shelton about the tales of children from different regions of the form Yugoslavia; and “Quest for Justice”, about the Korean Comfort Women - 2001, among others. 

Through Iris Arts she worked with the art of artist.  She  made two films for the Ansel Adams Gallery.  She was also one of the early artist  that "mashed up" different art forms creating  innovative videos using  the paintings of individual artists she deconstructed and then animated with original music (often from friends) and interesting narratives that are visually stunning, psychologically, politically or spiritually relevant. 

In addition, through Iris Arts she has contributed to the efforts of other socially relevant projects by making websites for non profits organizations, consulting with organizations about their digital presence on the internet, and training youth leaders in developing the digital media skills needed so they can become the change makers and present their visions and stories to the world.  All of this has been a "give away", her way to support art and socially relevant efforts.

From 2007 Iris has worked in Costa Rica with the nonprofit, Voz Propria Foundation and Guadalupe Urbina, Director of Voz Propia Foundation, and providing digital media products that support Voz Propia developing a public platform which enables them to present: 1) their sustainable social programs with socially challenged children, 2) their ongoing work with the social programs in conjunction with the co-operative Long Mai Sonador in San Isidro, Costa Rica. Voz Propia has a history of starting local programs that have spread throughout Costa Rica and Central America.

For the past few years Verona has turned to developing her own arts, using her digital media skills, occasionally painting, often drawing; finding her ways to express  herself, and perhaps becoming a bit more public.  Her recent work has been to produce, animate the Afro-Cuban Yoruba Creation Myth with a group of Cuban artists.  The Spanish version is almost complete/ the English version will follow.  She describes herself as post capitalism, post consumerism, and the focus of her creative  work has been to bring attention to those issues that are socially relevant through creative and educational endeavors. (june. 2020)