Scroll down past the photos to read more about our speakers… [LBS] Debra Rogers has worked in Community Media since 1982. She is the Executive Director/CEO of Falmouth Community Television, a position she has held since 1996. Through her ongoing involvement with the Alliance for Community Media (ACM), a national trade and advocacy organization, Debra works to advance the cause, and garner support for community media on the state, region and national level. She currently serves on both the ACM/FACM National and Northeast Region Boards of Directors, serving as national chair from 2009 – 2012. She is currently the co-chair of the Northeast Region Conference Committee and the Region Representative to the National ACM Board.
Lauren Brenner is a highly-experienced HR Generalist and Consultant who brings to clients 25+ years of experience. Her accomplishments include:
- Advancing organizations in a variety of industries as restaurant, retail, manufacturing, health care, IT, communications, property management, and educational industries in for-profit and non-profit environments.
- Using her interpersonal skills to enable people and organizations to grow and develop, thereby meeting their business needs and personal goals.
- Providing observant analysis and detailed assessments to assist organizations with their business challenges.
- Creating and redesigning HR Departments to assist the business operations of companies.
- Developing and implementing programs in the areas of Employee and Supervisory/ Management training, innovative recruitment, employee relations and retention, safety/worker’s compensation, employment law and compliance, training and development, compensation and benefits.
- After receiving a Bachelor of Science Degree in Labor Relations and Personnel Management from SUNY/Brockport and prior to joining the HCR Group, Lauren spearheaded the HR Department for leading furniture & automotive retailers and a printing manufacturer in New England. They include Jordan’s Furniture, Boch Enterprises & Automotive, and Quebecor World RPC. Lauren has been providing HR consulting services for over 10 years and is Principal and President of the HR Services for Telamon Insurance and Financial Network.
- Lauren has been asked to present information on a variety of HR-related topics to HR Professionals and non-HR Professionals for organizations including Chambers of Commerce, Legal panels, and the New England Human Resource Association chapters. In addition, Lauren is an Approved Provider through the Human Resources Certification Institute which enables certified HR professionals to receive credits for attending Lauren’s presentations.
Chuck Sherwood is a Public Sector consultant providing service to local franchising authorities in the preparation of community needs assessments for the cable franchise renewal process and the development of nonprofit cable access management organizations for the provision of PEG Access/CMC services to local communities. Additional consulting services are in the development and implementation of strategic work plans and public policy positions in a converging telecommunications landscape. The review of existing PEG access programming services and bringing those services into the new digital production and distribution environment that adds the Internet to the traditional cable channels. Sal Russo has been involved in all aspects of video production for over thirty years. After receiving degrees in aerospace and industrial engineering, Sal went on to earn his masters in “media and technology” from Boston University. He was the supervisor of the video production department at General Electric in Lynn, Massachusetts from 1978 to 1987. Then Sal became the president of VALED Video Services in 1987 when he started his own corporate video production company. Sal has always been committed to staying on the cutting edge of technology, and in 1998 co-created Arcamedia Inc., a company that produced all aspects of multimedia productions. In 2002, Sal left the corporate world to successfully do freelance video and multimedia productions. Sal has been the Executive Director of Salem Access Television (SATV) in Salem, Ma. since January of 2003. Sal has been a visiting professor at Salem State University since 2005 teaching Studio Production I, Studio Production II and Video Basic Editing classes for the Media Production major in the Communications Department.
William H. Solomon, Esq., is the Special Cable Counsel and Town Attorney for Stoneham, MA. He will speak at the workshop, “Techniques and Strategies for a Successful Cable License Renewal.”
Marty P. Feldman is vice-president of THE CAMERA COMPANY– BROADCAST & LIGHTING, a Norwood, Massachusetts-based reseller and systems integrator serving the New England broadcast, cable, educational, religious and video production community. He has held senior management positions in the company since 1989. Feldman was retail advertising manager for the former Camera Enterprises and Underground Camera retail chains during the mid-seventies. He has also worked in major-market radio, having been public affairs assistant at Boston’s WJIB-FM after winning top prize in their radio documentary competition in 1972. Feldman is a three-time recipient of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Certificate of Administrative Merit, a seldom bestowed award that was achieved during his tenure as a Public Affairs Officer in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. He attained the position of Branch Chief, Public Affairs/National (BC-PAN) in 1980, serving in that post until 1982.While studying broadcast journalism and TV/Radio production at Boston’s Grahm Junior College, Feldman gained valuable technical knowledge while working as a master control technician in the college’s television station. He credits this experience with fostering his success in the more technical side of the industry. Feldman is currently in his third term as Chairman of the New England Section of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), is technical advisor to the New England Professional Videographers Association and is an associate member of the Audio Engineering Society. He is currently the audio recording technician for The Metrowest Symphony Orchestra and Concord Chamber Music Society, where he has recorded members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and world- renowned chamber groups. Feldman’s wide-ranging avocations include photography, bicycling, vocalizing and overall music appreciation. He resides in Framingham, MA with his wife, violinist and musical educator Judean LaSalle Feldman.
For over ten years Jason Daniels has worked at the intersection of education, technology and community building with a passion for open source software. Currently, he is the first executive director of Easton Community Access Television in Easton, Massachusetts. Jason has also served on the Alliance for Community Media National Board and the Alliance for Community Media’s Northeast Region Board of Directors. Prior to his work in Easton, Jason worked in Medfield and Lowell, Massachusetts at community media stations. Jason has produced a number of short format 100-second film festivals and worked at Avid Technology.
Cor Trowbridge has been the executive director of BCTV since 2006. Previously, she worked in Community Development for the Town of Brattleboro. A lover of all things public access,
Roland Boyden has been working at BCTV in Brattleboro, VT since 2006 during which time he’s overseen much of the stations technology upgrades including the installation of a new HD broadcast studio in 2011. His latest undertaking has been to bring full HD video to the station’s live remote broadcasts using a combination of new consumer and professional products.
Andrew Crawford (no photo) is Systems Administrator/Tech Director of CCTV Productions, Vermont. He will be speaking at the workshop “Evolving from Community Media Center to Broadband Access Center.”
Karen Hayden is the Executive Director of Methuen Community Television in Massachusetts for the last 12 years. A graduate of Fitchburg State College, Karen worked in the corporate media world for Filene’s department store and DMA Inc. before venturing into PEG Access media. She spent 13 years with the cable TV company in Andover, MA, where she finished as a Studio Supervisor with eight studios reporting to her. Taking a break from PEG, Karen served as an Events and Fundraising Coordinator for CLASS Inc. -which serves individuals with disabilities- and learned more about how organizations work. Karen is married to Jim Hayden for 29 years. Their daughter Sarah is married and has made them grandparents (YAY!) while their son Ian is a senior studying media production and sustainability at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire.
Nancy Richard has been with PACTV for seventeen years. She manages a staff of 16, many of whom have been with PACTV for over ten years. She has served on the state, regional and National ACM boards during her 21 years in access, and is a recipient of the Buske Leadership and the Chuck Sherwood Leadership Awards. For 15 years, she has conducted an annual salary and benefits survey. Last year, well over 100 access centers across the country participated. The survey has become a standard management tool for budgeting, and analyzing current trends in salaries, positions and benefits for access center staff.
Jim Horwood is a partner in the Washington, DC law firm Spiegel & McDiarmid. He has over 40 years of practice specializing in matters covering a wide range of communications and energy law. Jim advises local governments and nonprofit organizations on all aspects of telecommunications, including cable franchise renewal and enforcement, PEG access issues, and municipal ownership and operation of infrastructure. He has served since 1990 on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Community Media as special appointee for legal affairs.
Steve D’Onofrio (no photo) has been the Director of Photography/Cameraman & Audio Technician for This Old House & Ask This Old House since 1998. Nominated for Eight National Emmy Awards, Steve has also produced 80+ cooking videos for Simply Ming with Chef Ming Tsai. Through his company, Creating Television, Steve has produced many videos for corporate and famous athletes including Robert Kraft, Tom Brady and Derek Jeter. Steve also served as President of the Board of Directors for North Andover Community Access Media.
JP Fortier lives in Farmington with his wife, Rachel, and their three children. Originally from the coastal town of Wiscasset, JP traded in his deep sea fishing pole for a fly rod when he was hired by MBTV in the fall of 2000. He has been involved in community television since he was in high school, serving on the Board of Directors of Lincoln County Community Access TV. JP enjoys teaching video productions to anyone interested. JP is proud of the accomplishments made at MBTV. MBTV started from a one-room station in the basement of the community center and is now a fully operational facility, complete with three edit suites, cablecast room, and television.
John Hauser is an independent consultant and digital media archivist from Eureka, CA working part time with Access Humboldt. He established the Community Media Archive, in partnership with the Internet Archive and Access Humboldt, where Community Media Centers can archive their video and have them automatically transcoded into MPEG2, MPEG4 and OGV formats. The CMA has grown to 35,000 videos from 42 access centers in 17 states around the country. He has spoken at five national ACM and several ACM Regional conferences about the Community Media Archive and how to work effectively with the Internet Archive.
Jim Jones: Known to his friends as Dr. Jones, Jim has over twenty years of extensive experience in technology development in the sectors of education, television/radio, and human relations/payroll; consulting for businesses and organizations all across the United States. Currently the Operations Manager for DoubleACS in Attleboro, Massachusetts; Jim oversees more than 300 staff productions on a yearly basis each requiring multiple levels of distribution and archiving. Jim is also a featured speaker of JVC, speaking at seminars about point-to-point and streaming video technology for the broadcast industry.
Jonathan B. Barbato has a passion for community media. He is currently a Mass Access Board Member and is employed as Arlington Community Media Inc.’s Production Coordinator. He also works as a freelance filmmaker focusing on education with the Harvard Kennedy School and the Mass Literacy Foundation. Jonathan had previously been a member of I.A.T.S.E. Local 161 as a Script Supervisor based out of New York, working with some well known clients, including Hasbro, HGTV, MTV, PBS, Showtime, the Boston Red Sox, the New England Revolution, and others. Before that he worked with Stoneham TV as its Programming & Training Coordinator. He is pleased to be working again in Public Access Television and serving Massachusetts by promoting media literacy. You can contact Jonathan at jonathan@acmi.tv.
An investigative journalist and filmmaker, Jane Regan is news director at Somerville Neighborhood News, a hyper-local broadcast and online news service powered by students and community volunteers at Somerville Community Access Television (SCATV). Prior to that, Regan lived and worked in Haiti for most of the past two decades. Winner of multiple awards, Regan’s work has been featured by PBS, the Miami Herald, Associated Press Television News, BBC, Inter Press Service and numerous others. Regan served as executive director of SCATV from 2000-2002, has also taught a several universities.
Tarsha Stacke is a Community Representative to the Board of Directors of Somerville Community Access TV and she is also one half of the mother daughter team behind “Mother Daughter Productions” with the goal to “enhance and foster culture, education and peace for all humankind.” You will often find her at the station with her husband Denys working on stage plays. She is also sometimes co-anchor of Somerville Neighborhood News.
Ian Bauer is a videographer and web designer on staff at Northampton Community Television, a nationally recognized community and public media center in Northampton, MA. He runs ParadiseCityPress.org, a citizen-journalism project of the station. He also trains high-school and college interns in video production and journalism. Ian graduated from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting in 2011 and went on to work in community media and freelance video. He also appeared on the fourth season of NBC’s America’s Got Talent.
Ashley Kang has worked as the director of The South Side Newspaper Project / The Stand since 2009. She is the main point person for interested contributors and works to coordinate all content seen on the website and print publication. She also sells ads, maintains a community calendar, runs board meetings and coordinates community journalism workshops. She holds a bachelor’s degree in magazine journalism as well as a master’s degree in higher education, both from Syracuse University.
Reginald A. Seigler serves as a community board member of The Stand and also contributes a regular entertainment column called “A Friendly Five.” His column highlights the music and history of Syracuse’s local music scene. He works for the Syracuse Housing Authority, is an active member in the Tucker Missionary Baptist Church and serves as the bandleader for Soft Spoken Band.
Tony Campos is the Executive Director of Central Vermont Television, a non-profit community media and technology center located in Barre, Vermont. Tony has developed a high-definition (HD) digital studio connected with Charter Communication Cable. CVTV’s mission is to provide local citizens with access to training and state-of-the-art digital video tools as a means of personal, political and artistic self-expression. During his career, Tony has worked with organizations like Turner Sports to stream Vermont Frost Heaves games and the ABA National Championship over the Internet. From the Turner Sports, Tony recognized the market was moving towards the Internet– and that the public was upgrading to smart phones for mobile access.
Bill Simmon is the Director of Media Services at VCAM in Burlington, VT. He’s also an award-winning filmmaker and teaches film and video at local colleges. Bill emphasizes the importance of storytelling techniques when teaching students about media creation in any medium.
Nina Ridhibhinyo is the Education Group Programs Manager at the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center in Burlington, VT, coordinating their school, summer camp, and overnight programs. Prior to ECHO, Nina was an after school site leader for the Burlington School District’s 21C Champlain Elementary School site. She has a ScB in Environmental Science from Brown University and is currently enrolled in a Masters of Science Education program with a focus on Free-Choice Learning through the Oregon State University’s e-campus.
Drew Frazier is interested in bringing a more curatorial and innovative approach to content distribution in PEG, without compromising our value of equal opportunity. There are more tools than ever before to facilitate this shift. How can we start to seriously compete for our community’s attention on the viewership end?
Cara Lisa Berg Powers is Co-Director of Press Pass TV in Boston, MA. Her presentation will be at “Making an Impact through Youth Media & Storytelling.”
Mike Wassenaar is President of the Alliance for Community Media, the organization which supports, promotes and defends Public, Educational and Government Access television in the United States. He regularly leads seminars and lectures on community-based media organizations throughout the United States, and has made presentations for before Congress, the FCC and other national and regional media organizations. Mike served thirteen years as Executive Director of Saint Paul Neighborhood Network, a community media center in Saint Paul, MN. During that time, he worked as lead partner in the Community Technology Empowerment Project, an AmeriCorps program promoting digital literacy in the Twin Cities. Mike has worked in community television and community and public radio for over thirty years in Minnesota and Wisconsin. He got his start in radio working in a youth media program as a high school student in Minneapolis. He produced news and public affairs and entertainment programs with community volunteers at KFAI Minneapolis and WORT Madison, and was a reporter and radio host with Wisconsin Public Radio.
Joe Torres is Senior External Affairs Director, Free Press (www.freepress.net).
Paul C. Rapp, Esq., is an intellectual property lawyer and writer who lives and works in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts and represents musicians, indy labels, studios, music promoters, as well as artists of all types and businesses in the creative economy. Paul writes the column “Rapp on This” for the Albany, New York weekly Metroland, and appears regularly on Northeast Public Radio’s VoxPop program as a copyright expert. Paul lectures widely, including recent appearances at the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit in Washington and at the School for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He’s also the drummer for the band Blotto and has the distinction of being the first person to appear on MTV wearing a Speedo.
Kathy Bisbee has a successful track record of over twenty years in creating empowered communities, businesses, non-profits, and individuals through innovative use of media, civic engagement, digital storytelling, and communications coaching and technology training. As executive director of CMAP.TV, Kathy has increased fee-based services, developed successful partnerships with schools, youth programs, local government, donors, and business partners, and created regional collaborations that have helped protect community media services, and developed a consulting arm, the Convergent Media Alliance, to support improved relevancy and efficiency in community media. Currently, Kathy and her team have reinvented the operations, management, technology infrastructure and volunteer program at CTV in Santa Cruz, CA, to create a long-term sustainability strategy in a post-apocalypse world without community media operating fees from cable companies. On December 1st of 2014 Kathy will begin her new role as executive director of Brookline Interactive Group in Brookline, MA. She has used NVC to streamline workflow, develop successful community partnerships, and to build more productive teams and boards. Kathy served for four years as a national board member for the Alliance for Community Media (ACM), has received numerous awards for her video production work, and won a “Best Documentary” award for her recent documentary “Don’t Cost Nothin’ to Dream” featuring youth in Latin America who are using hip hop as an instrument of hope and change, found at www.bisbeefilms.com. Originally from western Maine, Kathy can be found kayaking among sea otters in Monterey Bay, CA and having some wicked snowball fights in MA.
P. Al Williams is Executive Director of Northampton Community Television – www.northamptontv.org – with over 17 years of experience working in all aspects of community media. Al has served on a number of local and national boards related to work in nonprofit, media, and the arts including the national board of the ACM, Mass Access, and Shape and Nature Press. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Boston College and is a graduate of the NAMAC Leadership Institute. Al is a harmonica player and visual artist primarily in the aerosol medium. He believes in play, results oriented approaches, educated agility, mistake as opportunity, and the intersection of technology, community, and creativity. Al also loves beets.
Jim Lescault was born and raised in Holyoke, Ma. During the mid- 1970’s he began to incorporate video production work into community issues confronting low-income residents of Holyoke; first working with inner-city teenagers. His community organizing work expanded into issues concerning housing, anti-arson, police/community relations and education. Mr. Lescault pursued and obtained a BA degree in Community Planning from the University of Massachusetts College of Public and Community Service (CPCS). While studying he became the Executive Director of the Boston based, national non-profit consulting agency, Urban Educational Systems.As an independent video producer, Mr. Lescault has numerous credits servicing community-based organizations, as well as unions, museums and city government. Mr. Lescault assumed his duties as the Executive Director of Amherst Media, a PEG Access organization, in October 2007. Since that time the organization has undertaken a radical reorganization, expanding the traditional roles of access to include on line distribution. Amherst Media has opened their tent to soft and hardware developers, gamers, journalists, screenwriters, photographers, designers and most recently Maker Space opportunities and Citizen Scientists. For more information go to www.amherstmedia.org.
Mike Swatko is a lifelong maker and technologist with a great depth of experience creating game-changing consumer products and expertise with multimedia publishing and imaging (digital imaging, analog photography, large format and darkroom.) He has two US patents pending in the field of digital photography. When exposed to sunlight Mike enjoys hiking and rock climbing. His current fascinations are nixie tubes and fabricating works with MakeIt Labs’ plasma and laser CNC machines. An avid software developer since back in the day when floppy disks were floppy, Mike is now Director of R&D at Innovative FOTO, a small consumer-oriented technology company in Salem NH.
David Dvorchak (no photo) is Communications Director of AS220 in Providence, RI. He will speak at “Intersections of Doing: Community Media, Maker Spaces, Arts Collectives.”
Matt Newton promotes New Hampshire as a destination for film, television, and other media projects and works to support the in-state film and video industry. Newton is a 1997 graduate of the film program at Keene State College in Keene, NH, where he returned to teach production in 2003 and 2004. He was Production Coordinator and Editor at C.2K Entertainment, a commercial production company in Los Angeles and has worked on feature film and television projects on the West Coast. Newton is co-founder of the NH High School Short Film Festival and has served as chair of Concord Community Television. He’ll be presenting Breaking the Mold: (re) visioning the new Access Center Producer and Fostering New Partnerships in the Film & Media Industry (How to Tap into Film Resources).
Robert Haigh has been with Access A/V of Concord, NH as their product and facilities specialist for the past five years. Robert brings 21 years of television management to the company, having been General Manager of WCAT in Wakefield, MA for 16 years and 5 years at the helm of LTC Lowell’s Community Media Center. He worked for a time as the SQA Manager at Broadcast Pix and has attended certified seminars at NewTek for the TriCaster Pro line of Switchers and for Panasonic’s new line of DLP projectors. Robert is a licensed private pilot and is graduate of Emerson College. He also attended Delaware State College and Marshall University. Access A/V is a dealer for the DJI line of products of quadcopters and UAVs.