Nicole Allensworth
Librarian, San Francisco State University
Nicole Allensworth is the librarian for Law, Journalism and Communication Studies at San Francisco State University, where she enjoys teaching information literacy and research methods workshops on topics such as use of Census data for reporting. Nicole holds a BA in English Literature and an MLIS in Library and Information Science. Before becoming a librarian, she spent many years writing and working in the nonprofit sector.
Justin Beck
Multimedia Producer, Lecturer
Justin Beck teaches an introductory online journalism course at San Francisco State University. He previously worked at the San Francisco Chronicle as a multimedia producer and earned a master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley with an emphasis in radio in 2004. Justin lives in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco and is an avid amateur photographer.
Kwan Booth
Co-founder and Senior Community Manager, Oakland Local
Kwan Booth is the co-founder and senior community manager at Oakland Local. He is a journalist, media consultant and trainer for organizations including the Knight Digital Media Center, the Center for the Integration and Improvement of Journalism and Netsquared. He was recently the recipient of a Society of Professional Journalist’s Sigma Delta Chi award.
Eric Castro-Calderon
Librarian, San Francisco State University
Eric Castro-Calderon is the electronic journals assistant at San Francisco State University Library. Over the past seven years, he has worked in various departments at the SFSU Library, such as Collection Access & Management Services, Government Publications, Cataloging and Acquisitions. Eric has participated as a presenter in library and information sciences congresses in Brazil and Costa Rica. In the United States, he presented several times at the American Library Association Annual Congress. In Peru, Eric worked for six years as a librarian in different academic and scientific libraries, including San Marcos National University Library, Tropical Medicine Institute Library and the Military Hospital Library.
Ray Chávez
Staff Photographer, The Oakland Tribune
Ray Chavez has been a staff photographer for The Oakland Tribune for the past 15 years. He has won multiple local, national and international awards during his career, including a number of awards for The Mayan Way project (2008). In addition to working at The Oakland Tribune, Ray does freelance work for various government agencies, private corporations and nonprofit organizations. See The Mayan Way Multimedia Project and Ray’s award-winning portfolio.
Jacob Colker
Co-founder and CEO, The Extraordinaries
Jacob Colker has spent his life using technology to help people engage more effectively with nonprofits, political campaigns and issue-advocacy campaigns. Jacob spent several years on the road managing political field programs in California, Illinois and Maryland, and he was one of the first field directors in the country to leverage Facebook in a major political campaign to win a statewide election. Jacob has also managed issue advocacy campaigns for the International Campaign for Tibet, the 1Sky Campaign and other nongovernmental organizations, both in the U.S. and around the world.
Frances Dinkelspiel
Journalist and Co-founder of Berkeleyside.com
Frances Dinkelspiel worked as a daily newspaper reporter for more than 20 years, and her freelance work has appeared in People magazine, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco magazine. She is the author of the bestselling “Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California.” In October 2009, she and two other veteran journalists started Berkeleyside.com, a hyperlocal site all about Berkeley, California. Berkeleyside.com blends investigative reporting with community news and features to report on the people, issues, events, food and environment of an extraordinary East Bay city.
Sahar Driver
Have You Heard Campaign Coordinator, Active Voice
Sahar Driver draws on her experience working in the film and television production industry in Los Angeles, as well as her education in participatory research, feminist ethnography and cross-cultural alliance building. She holds a B.A. in International Affairs and Environmental Studies from James Madison University and an M.A. in Social and Cultural Anthropology, with a focus in Gender, Ecology and Society, from the California Institute of Integral Studies; she is currently working toward a PhD in that program.
Gerardo Fernandez
Editor, Alianza News
Gerardo Fernandez is the editor and chief videographer for Alianza News of San José. He is also a member of the editorial board of SJBeez.org, a hyper-local hub of multiethnic publications. Gerardo has produced radio shows in Spanish for KKMO and KPFA, as well as for multicultural stations in Seattle. In addition to his work in journalism and communications, he has composed music for film and documentaries, such as the original music for the short film, “Tierra y Pan,” which was the winner of the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 2008, as well as other awards worldwide.
Jesse Garnier
Web Developer & Principal, Stonehopper
Jesse Garnier is the principal of Stonehopper, a media design and consulting firm based in San Francisco. Since 1997, he has created news websites for media organizations including the Associated Press, the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Recent projects include a bilingual multimedia news site for El Tecolote, a Mission District community newspaper, and a redesign for the Central Park Conservancy in New York. Jesse has taught journalism and Web design at San Francisco State University. He is also a member of the Society for News Design and the Asian American Journalists Association.
Aaron Glantz
Editor, New America Media
Aaron Glantz is an editor at New America Media and author of two books on the Iraq war: “The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans” (UC Press) and “How America Lost Iraq” (Tarcher/Penguin). He is also co-author with Iraq Veterans Against the War of “Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations” (Haymarket). He has been a fellow at Columbia University Teachers College and the Carter Center in Atlanta.
Nasser Halteh
Technology Consultant, ZeroDivide
Nasser Halteh is the contract “Tech Circuit Rider” at ZeroDivide, where he is responsible for tech support including network, hardware and software issues. He has extensive experience with multiple operating systems, such as MacOSX, UNIX, Windows and Windows Server Platforms. Nasser has a strong background in software engineering and is acquainted with using C++, Java, and MS Visual Environment. He has over four years of experience with creating windows applications and software testing, creating and testing win32 and Web-based applications. Passionate about network security and prevention, Nasser is also skilled in multimedia production from software and Web design, to media audio/video engineering.
Cristi Hegranes
Executive Director, The Press Institute
Cristi Hegranes is the executive director and founder of The Press Institute, an international organization that trains and employs women in developing countries to be ethical investigative reporters. The recent recipient of the Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism, Cristi has crafted a series of unique and inspiring media curricula that empowers journalists to live up to their potential and create ethical journalism, and allows readers greater access to information. Cristi is the winner of a Clarion Award for Investigative Journalism, a Lifestyle Journalism Prize and numerous other honors. She served as a fellow-in-residence at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg and is a lecturer in the English department at Loyola Marymount University, where she received her bachelor’s degree. Cristi also teaches News Entrepreneurship at San Francisco State University.
Jake Hubert
Global Communications and Public Affairs, Google, Inc.
Jake Hubert is a communications manager for search at Google, based at the company headquarters in Mountain View, California. In this capacity he writes and talks about search on a daily basis, including the basics of how search works, new features and broader themes in information technology. Before joining Google in 2007, Jake worked in politics as a policy analyst during the 2006 California gubernatorial primary. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, with majors in Political Science and Legal Studies.
Ben Ilfeld
Co-founder, Sacramento Press
Ben Ilfeld co-founded Sacramento Press and Sacramento Local Online Advertising Network. Ben focuses on operations and defines the business and technology road map for the organization. He is continually refining the hyperlocal media model to empower community engagement. He also develops and implements processes to recruit new writers. Prior to his current position, Ben founded No Snakes Agency and managed Brooklyn-based rapper/producer P. Casso. He previously interned with California State Assembly Member Darrel Steinberg, who is now Senate President pro tem.
Rachele Kanigel
Associate Professor of Journalism, San Francisco State University
Rachele Kanigel is an associate professor of journalism at San Francisco State University, where she advises Golden Gate [X]press student publications and teaches writing, reporting and multimedia courses. She worked as a daily newspaper reporter for 15 years for The Oakland Tribune, the Contra Costa Times and The News and Observer of Raleigh, NC and has written for magazines and websites, including U.S. News & World Report, TIME, Health, CNN.com and Reader’s Digest. She is currently working on the second edition of The Student Newspaper Survival Guide. For the past two years she has led multimedia study-abroad programs in Urbino, Italy (2009) and Perpignan, France (2011), and plans to take another group of students abroad in 2011.
J.D. Lasica
Strategist, tech entrepreneur, writer, blogger, trainer and consultant
J.D. Lasica works with corporations, startups and nonprofits as a social media strategist and workshop leader. He is widely considered one of the world’s leading authorities on social media and the revolution in user-created media. He is founder of Socialmedia.biz, a social media strategies and news site, and of Socialbrite.org, a learning hub to help nonprofits and social cause organizations master social media. His book “Darknet,” which coined the term “personal media revolution,” explores the emerging media landscape. In March 2005 he co-founded Ourmedia.org, the first grassroots media hosting and sharing site. In a previous life, J.D. was an editor at the Sacramento Bee and editorial manager of several Silicon Valley startups.
Ytaelena Lopez
Independent Investigative Journalist, Community Liaison and Spanish Translator
Ytaelena Lopez is an independent investigative journalist, community liaison and Spanish translator. She freelances with El Mensajero. Her specialties include investigative reports, community liaison, academic research, social design of virtual networks, and promotion of understanding between cultures.
Mike Malero
Contributing Videographer, Oakland Local
Mike Malero is an Oakland Local contributing videographer, audiophile, 1960s world music junky, blogger and pirate radio show host. Mike finds inspiration in creative and positive movements in the community and beyond.
Manuel Maqueda
Journalist and Founder, Nuestra Voz
Manuel Maqueda is an experienced online communicator, with a focus on technology, online journalism and online activism. He is the director for the Americas of Periodismo Ciudadano.com, the world’s leading news source and resource on citizen journalism, and the founder of Nuestra Voz, is a nonprofit organization helping Spanish speakers participate actively in the online conversation, with a focus on citizen journalism and social media. To learn more about Manuel, visit http://manuelmaqueda.com/
Susan Misra specializes in designing, managing and evaluating capacity-building initiatives. At TCC Group she has worked with more than 100 nonprofits to conduct organizational assessments and develop strategic capacity-building plans. She has also coached board-staff leadership teams on building organizational capacity and presented on topics including organizational life cycles, change management, board development and strategic planning.
Philip Neustrom
Co-founder, DavisWiki
Philip Neustrom is a software engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is currently directing the LocalWiki project, an effort to bring community-owned, living information repositories to every community. A graduate of University of California, Davis, he co-founded DavisWiki.org in 2004. For the past several years he has worked on a variety of nonprofit efforts to engage everyday citizens. He oversaw the development of the popular VideoTheVote.org, the world’s largest coordinated video documentation project, and was the lead developer at Citizen Engagement Laboratory, a nonprofit focused on empowering traditionally underrepresented constituencies.
Anne Simmons
Project Manager, Neighborhood News Network, Bay Area Video Coalition
Anne Simmons got her start in television in 2002, at her hometown PBS station in Tucson, Arizona. Because of her early start working with talented, community- oriented news producers, she quickly developed a taste for educational and informational programming. In 2006, she moved to the Bay Area to pursue an M.A. at San Francisco State and work in production at San Bruno’s government channel. Currently, Anne works with the Bay Area Video Coalition and Access SF, developing a Neighborhood News Network program that will bring video equipment for live cablecasting into local cultural centers around San Francisco.
CB Smith-Dahl
Filmmaker and Community Media Manager, Oakland Local
CB Smith-Dahl is an artist, filmmaker, teacher and community media manager for Oakland Local. CB specializes in working with at-risk youth and using visual arts as a tool for intervention, reflection and community building. She has an MFA in film and video production from the University of Southern California.
Marc Smolowitz
Executive Producer, Media & Technology Consultant
Marc Smolowitz is an Academy Award-nominated film, television and new media producer (“The Weather Underground” 2003, “Trembling Before G-d” 2001) with 20 years of diverse management-level experience across all aspects of the entertainment business. His forthcoming film and media projects include: “The Power of Two,” a feature length broadcast documentary and multimedia content endeavor about organ transplantation and Cystic Fibrosis, based on the memoir by Isabel Stenzel Byrnes and Anabel Stenzel; and “The HIV Story Project,” a short film compilation that will mark the global 30th anniversary of HIV/AIDS in 2011 by bringing together leading Bay Area filmmakers to work in creative collaboration with people living with HIV/AIDS. Most recently, Marc was the producer at TellyTopia, a Silicon Valley new media start up specializing in IP-TV and VOD product functionality for cable companies. Currently, he is on faculty in the Digital Film Making and Video Production program at the Art Institute of California, San Francisco.
Sharon Vaknin
Technology News Writer, CNET.com
Sharon Vaknin is a technology news writer at CNET.com and a broadcasting student at San Francisco State University. She is happily addicted to social media and sushi.
Kelvin Vuong
Viet2010 Project Coordinator, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP)
Kevin Vuong is the project coordinator of AAPIP’s Vietnam Involvement and Engagement Tour 2010 (Viet2010), a multifaceted effort to invest in the leadership of young Vietnamese Americans to improve the quality of life, environment and health in Vietnam, and to engage the Vietnamese American community in civic participation and community philanthropy toward policy solutions. VIET2010 strives to be a positive example of how to move forward and build bridges between Vietnam and the diaspora community. This model utilizes current media and technology to facilitate community activism and philanthropic giving.
Christopher Wimer
Associate Director, Collaboration for Poverty Research, Stanford University
Christopher Wimer is the associate director of the Collaboration for Poverty Research at Stanford University. He is currently studying the impact of the recession on American life, how hunger and food insecurity are changing in the Bay Area as a result of the Great Recession, and how poverty and inequality impact families and children. Christopher also serves as senior editor of Pathways, a magazine on poverty, inequality and social policy, published out of the Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality. He graduated from Harvard University in 2007 with a Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy.
