Natalya Murakhver

Directing

Born in Odessa, during the soviet occupation, Natalya and her parents immigrated to the United States when she was only six, arriving on December 27,1977 for fear of persecution due to Jewish heritage. Her early life isn't documented but by the time she graduated High School she was enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts English and Writing at New York University, it is unknown when she completed this degree but she was an Editor for the school magazine "Tisch News" , for three years between 2002-2005. She then went on to complete a Master of Arts in Food Studies & Food Management in 2007 briefly becoming ceritified as a Sommelier by the American Sommelier Association and a Wine Consultant. From 2006 she has worked as a freelance writer and founded a business called Apple to Zucchini in 2012 a business for Sports & Performance Nutrition. Her involvement in children's health became more prominent in 2017 when she produced the NYU Exposome and Family Health panel and partnered with the New York City Healthy School Food Alliance to improve school food for New York City public school children. In 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped organise #KeepNYCSchoolsOpen and brought a lawsuit against the city to reopen publich school. She founded in 2021 the #MaskLikeAKid campaign to raise awareness to the prolonged restrictions placed on children in the name of safety. In January 2022 she worked with an international team of scientists and pediatric,infectious disease, emergency and ICU doctors to launch Urgency of Normal Toolkit an advocacy and health organisation for children, in the same year launching Restore Childhood an organisation also working to support children and families from the ramifications of COVID-19. She went on to Direct 15 Days: The Real Story of America's Pandemic School Closures in 2025.