Emergence, Convergence and Empowerment:
Media Cultural and Global Issues

Bios

Jean Donohue
Media Working Group Inc.
9 Bayside, #1 Boston, MA 02125
617-282-5677
www.mwg.org
jdonohue@mwg.org

Jean Donohue is an organizational development professional who has extensive experience working with rural and traditional communities, regional organizations, and local government bodies providing organizational development, community media planning and technical assistance. She is also a media arts educator and works with her MWG colleagues to develop and implement teacher professional development, in-service, media residencies and media literacy institutes.Donohue is currently working with UNESCO's International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa in Ethiopia to provide video production training and the integration of HIV-AIDS education across the curriculum for teacher educators and educational television producers. She is also the Program Development officer for Media Working Group and is co-director of their Digital Literacy programs.

Donohue is an award-winning documentary producer whose films have appeared on public television regionally and nationally; The Learning/Discovery Channel and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC 2). She is currently living in Boston, MA and is a founding member of Media Working Group

Nettrice Gaskins
Director
Commonwealth Broadband Collaborative (MA)
nettrice@onebox.com
PowerPoint

Nettrice oversees the administration and development of all aspects of the Commonwealth Broadband Collaborative, otherwise known as the CBC, including digital media production and distribution, the project website, steering committee coordination, and project development, fundraising and promotion as well as CBC responsibilities in helping publicize and do outreach for the MetroBoston Earned Income Tax Credit project. Nettrice has over ten years experience in multimedia/digital media, education/training, leadership, youth work and program development, most recently as the director of the Multimedia Center at Boston Neighborhood Network (BNN). She founded DigitalArt Communities and provided resources to nearly 20 community media and technology centers across the United States interested in creating their own local digital art youth programs, including several HUD Neighborhood Network sites and the BNN Multimedia Center. Nettrice has been a member of the CBC steering committee since its inception, is on the national board of CTCNet, and has developed and taught online community media and technology courses for UMass Boston/College of Public and Community Service.

Fred Johnson
University of Massachusetts Boston
Faculty, Community Media and Technology Program
College of Public and Community Service
100 Morrissey Ave
Boston, MA 02125
617-287-7174
www.mwg.org
fjohnson@mwg.org

Fred Johnson is a media educator, documentary maker, writer, and communication policy analyst. Johnson, who is a member of the University of Massachusetts Faculty in their Community Media Program, consults in telecommunications policy and community development with government, non-profits, educational and community groups. He is a former telecommunications policy associate for the National Telecommunications Consumer Coalition. As a recipient of the Fulbright Fellowship for the Television and Film Arts he produced and directed documentaries for the British Broadcasting Corporation in London. Recently he directed the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture's Digital Directions project, a national planning process, funded by the Ford Foundation, that focused on the impact of digitization on the media arts. Johnson is a co-founder of Media Working Group, a media arts production, education and research organization. His latest documentary, Coal Black Voices, featuring the Affrilachian Poets recently aired on regional Public Television.

Dirk Koning
Executive Director, Community Media Center
711 Bridge St. NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49504
(616) 459-4788 ext. 101
dirk@grcmc.org

Dirk Koning has been Executive Director of the Community Media Center (dba Grand Rapids Cable Access Center, GRTV, WYCE, GrandNet, Pulse 98) since 1981. In no small amount the success of the Community Media Center can be attributed to the dedication and hard work put forth by Mr. Koning. With his guidance, the organization has grown from a US $50,000 a year public access cable television station, to a US $2 million per year operation including two television stations, a radio station, a computer center, civic network, media archive center and research institute. Mr. Koning recently guided the Community Media Center in a 3 million dollar relocation project to a rehabilitated building in the heart of the WestSide, the oldest neighborhood in Grand Rapids. Mr. Koning lectures extensively on community media issues, serves on several national boards and edits Community Media Review magazine.

Felicia Sullivan
Felicia Sullivan is Director of Community Programming of Lowell Telecommunications Corporation, a community media and technology center in Lowell, MA. She also directs the Lowell Communtiy Technology Consortium. During her tenure at LTC, she has worked to promote open communication networks within community environments. She is a leading member of Community Technology Centers Network (CTCNet) and sat on its board from 2001-2004. She holds a Masters in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research and has worked in community media and technology programs for the last fourteen years. Prior to joining the staff of LTC, Ms. Sullivan was the Education Director at the Boston Film / Video Foundation in Boston, MA. She is a founding member of the youth sub-committee of Boston Cyberarts, Inc., a member of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, and a member of the Lowell Cultural Council. She has received artists support from the Massachusetts & Lowell Cultural Councils. She is currently working on two online community arts projects (http://www.2000days.com and http://www.LivingLowell.com).

Other URLs for Felicia:
http://felicia.ltc.org
http://www.ltc.org
Blog for Felicia http://extendmedia.blogspot.com

Karen Toering
Executive Director of 911 Media Arts Center
117 Yale Ave N
Seattle, WA 98109
206.682.6552 X 24
karen@911media.org

Karen Toering is Executive Director of 911 Media Arts Center, Washington State's premiere non-profit organization supporting the creative use of media for both communication and artistic expression. She is an active independent media advocate and organizer serving on various collaborative projects that primarily focus on civic engagement through media. Karen is also a short-form documentary filmmaker and the founder and principal of the Gryphon Group, a strategic media communications and development firm.