Ximena Amescua Cuenca [she/her] currently works as the Senior Manager of Grantmaking at Firelight Media, a nonprofit supporting nonfiction filmmakers of color in the United States and Latin America. In this role, she manages all aspects of program development and implementation, focusing on Firelight Media’s grant-making initiatives, which include the William Greaves Research & Development Fund for mid-career BIPOC filmmakers in the U.S., Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, and the Impact Campaign Fund, which supports audience engagement and impact campaigns for documentary films. Since 2012, she has worked in the documentary film industry, mostly at nonprofit organizations working at the intersection of human rights, social justice, and art. Her experience includes documentary film production and curation, museum curation, cultural programming and events production, grant and project management, and social impact strategy.

Ximena is a Rockwood Art of Leadership MacArthur 2023 fellow, a Creative Capital "Taller for Latinx Artists" alumna and the director of the short documentary Juanita, which had its premiere at the 2015 Margaret Mead Film Festival. She is a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM) and the Global Impact Producers Alliance (GIPA). Ximena was born and raised in Tijuana, Mexico, and holds a B.A. in Anthropology and Media Studies from Pitzer College, as well as a MA in Cinema Studies with a graduate certificate in Culture and Media from New York University. Ximena lives in Brooklyn, NY.