WAM! ADVISORY BOARD
Ruthie Ackerman is an award-winning journalist focusing on Africa, women and politics. She has special expertise on refugee issues, post-conflict environments, and security and is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute. She is the founder of Ceasefire Liberia, a blog-bridge for Liberian youth with the mission of promoting citizen journalism and creating a dialogue among Liberians around the world.
DeAnne Cuellar is an independent media maker, and the executive director of the Texas Media Empowerment Project (Texas MEP). After an FCC localism hearing in 2004 she helped to start Texas MEP with the Office of Communication, Inc., and local grassroots organizations in San Antonio, Texas, advocating media justice for historically under-represented communities. She has been actively organizing within the independent music community for more than 15 years, and she currently blogs about music, media, and technology on KrakMyApple. She is a graduate of the Rockwood Leadership Institute, newly elected 2009-2019 Board Member of the Media and Democracy Coalition (MADCO) , and co-founder of the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net) and San Antonio Music Coalition Local782.
Christine Cupaiuolo is a freelance writer and editor specializing in politics, culture and gender. She currently covers women’s health and public policy for Our Bodies, Ourselves and is managing editor of the Our Bodies, Ourselves 2011 edition. Since 2005, Christine has led a double life as a new media consultant, helping individuals and nonprofit organizations tell their stories using blogs and social media tools. She teaches workshops and has presented at numerous conferences, including the annual Women, Action & the Media and Making Media Connections (Chicago).
Ingrid Hu Dahl is a program officer of youth media at the Academy for Educational Development and the editor-in-chief of Youth Media Reporter. She is a musician in the band Rad Pony and a founding member/advisory board member of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls. Dahl holds an MA in women’s & gender studies from Rutgers University and lectures nationally and internationally on women’s leadership and social change.
Kety Esquivel has 14 years of experience in the nonprofit, private and political sectors. Her work has taken her to China and Ethiopia with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. She is a published author and founder of CrossLeft.org. She is co-founder of the Institute of Progressive Christianity and The Sanctuary. She has been a speaker at Netroots Nation, SXSW, Personal Democracy Forum, BlogHer, the Center for New Words and Gov 2.5. She is presently working with O’Reilly Media, Blogalicious, Nonprofit 2.0 Unconference and Gov 2.0 Camp LA. She has been a convener for Web of Change and She’s Geeky and is a past editor of BlogHer. Her commentary has been featured and quoted in stories for the Wall St. Journal Online, HITN, PBS, XM radio, CNN, Televisa and Univision. She is the new media manager for National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and the director of LatISM DC. She blogs at http://ketyesquivel.blogspot.com and the Huffington Post.
Michelle García is a journalist, filmmaker, and native Texan who settled in Harlem. She has produced numerous public radio reports and documentaries along with television and online video segments. Her writing has appeared in various publications including, The Washington Post where she worked for three years until El Salvador summoned her for a Knight fellowship. Her essay, “On the Texas Borderline, A Solid, if Invisible, Wall,” which appeared in the Post and inspired Tell’em Who You Are, her debut documentary film.
Carolyn Ji Jong Goossen is an editor, writer and video producer for New American Media (formerly Pacific News Service), a national association of ethnic media organizations based in San Francisco. She runs a number of ethnic media and youth media initiatives, and is an editor and facilitator with The Beat Within, a weekly publication of art and writing from inside 40 San Francisco Bay Area juvenile hall facilities.
Masum Momaya is a South Asian American feminist and has been a women’s rights activist for 16 years. She recently worked as curator for the International Museum of Women and writes a weekly column for the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, focusing on timely happenings related to women’s rights worldwide. Also, she has served on the board of the Third Wave Foundation and the steering committee of Amnesty International’s Women’s Human Rights Program. Momaya has an honors bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in public policy and feminist studies and a master’s in education and doctorate in human development, both from Harvard University.
Kimala Price is an assistant professor of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University where she teaches courses on women, law and policy; reproductive justice; gender, race and class; and feminist activism. For almost two decades, she has been active in the reproductive justice movement in the United States and is an active member of SisterSong Women of Color Collective for Reproductive Health. Her research and publications focus on U.S. reproductive health policy, and the activism of women of color within the reproductive justice movement. She has also written about hip hop, feminism and activism, and is a founding member of the Progressive Women’s Caucus of the National Hip Hop Political Convention of 2004. Dr. Price holds a Ph.D. in political science and a graduate certificate in women’s studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Melissa Silverstein is a marketing consultant, writer and blogger. She specializes in the area of women issues, with an emphasis on women and Hollywood. Her blog, Women & Hollywood, has become a respected site for issues related to feminism and pop culture. In 2008 it was named by More Magazine as one of the “blogs to watch,” and in 2009 it was named “Best Hollywood blog” by totalfilm.com.
Tracy Van Slyke is the director of The Media Consortium–a network of the nation’s leading, independent, progressive media outlets. Van Slyke is a frequent writer, commentator and consultant on the future of journalism, the use of social media, and the impact of progressive media. In 2009, she commissioned and edited “The Big Thaw: Charting a New Course for Journalism” an influential report that details implications of current and future market trends on journalism and business models and lays out key recommendations for independent media. Van Slyke is the former publisher of In These Times magazine, a national, award-winning monthly magazine of progressive news, analysis and cultural reporting. She is the co-author of Beyond the Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media (The New Press, 2010).
Keri Smith Esguia, is co-founder of Whitesmith Entertainment, a Comedy and Music management firm based in Los Angeles and New York. As head of the comedy division of Whitesmith, Keri manages the careers of groundbreaking comedian and feminist icon Margaret Cho, and developing comics Elon James White, Sara Benincasa, Selene Luna, and Kevin Avery. Additional Whitesmith artists include Brendan Benson (of The Raconteurs), Family of the Year, and Sydney Wayser.
Deanna Zandt is a media technologist and consultant to key progressive media organizations including AlterNet and Jim Hightower’s Hightower Lowdown, and hosts TechGrrl Tips on GRITtv with Laura Flanders. She is the author of Share This! How You Will Change the World with Social Networking (forthcoming: Berrett-Koehler, May 2010). Zandt specializes in social media, and is a leading expert in women and technology. She has spoken at a number of conferences, including the National Conference on Media Reform, Bioneers, America’s Future Now (formerly “Take Back America,”) Women, Action & the Media, and provides beginner and advanced workshops online and in person. In January 2009, Deanna was chosen as a fellow for the Progressive Women’s Voices program at the Women’s Media Center. She also serves as a technology advisor to a number of organizations, including Feministing and The Girls & Boys Projects.
