Stewart has worked at Federated Insurance since 1983. He is currently a 1st Vice President and Director of Special Account Marketing at Federated Insurance. Federated is a national insurance company that specializes in business insurance programs and is headquartered in Owatonna, Minnesota.

Born and raised in Florida, Stewart attended Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, where he played football and baseball. He graduated with a Business Administration degree and immediately went to work with Federated in a sales position back in Florida. He moved into sales management and eventually ended up in Atlanta, Georgia, where he and his family lived for 10 years before moving to in Owatonna, Minnesota in 2007. After eight years in Minnesota, he and his wife recently relocated to Woodstock, Georgia.

Stewart married his wife Gloria in 1985. They have two children. Their daughter, Carlee, graduated Magna Cum Laude from University of Northwestern with a Music Education degree in 2011 and is teaching at Westminster Schools of Augusta in Augusta, Georgia. Their son, Will, graduated from Bethel University with a Physical Education degree in May of 2015 and got married in July 2015. Currently he is teaching and coaching in Hastings, Minnesota.

Stewart has had numerous leadership roles in several of the churches he and his family have attended. He also helped establish an FCA huddle in Owatonna at the high school his son attended.

Ann Sorenson serves as a Film & Media Professor and program director for the Five16 Film Festival at the University of Northwestern – St. Paul. She pioneered the film track, which is a thriving part of the communication department, and teaches classes on storytelling, scriptwriting, and single camera production.

She received her M.F.A. in Film from Columbia University. During her time in New York City, she received a New York Women in Film nomination and a Directing the Actors Fellowship from Columbia University.

Her love and appreciation of stories propelled her professional life, beginning in television at KSTP-TV and KARE-11 and then serving as the Theater Director at Minnehaha Academy for 12 years directing theater productions.

Sorenson’s latest film, My First Funeral, screened at the 11th Annual Burbank International Film Festival, the Iowa Independent Film Festival, the Salty Earth Film Festival, and the Canadian International Faith and Family Festival. It was a semi-finalist at the Burbank International Film Festival and the Canadian International Faith and Family Festival and won Best Comedy Short at the Salty Earth Film Festival.

She is a founding member of Minnesota Women in Film and Television and was inducted into the Minnehaha Academy Fine Arts Hall of Fame.

In addition to film and all things related to story, she enjoys traveling, reading, hiking and spending time with her husband, daughter, family, and friends.

Specialty Areas

• Film production
• Script writing
• Visual narrative

Department and Teaching Responsibilities

• Advisor to NW Productions
• Intro to Film
• Story Structure
• Single Camera Production
• Script writing