The Democracy Mission:
News by, for, or with neglected communities — not about them for other audiences.
I’m a thought leader, strategist and educator. I leverage deep experience to grow support for civic media and participatory journalism practices in local, place-based communities.
With frontline insight from 20 years in a collapsing industry, I pursue journalism’s 21st c. evolution through writing and research, consulting, media organizing and policy. As an educator, I reform curricula and program operations to be of actual civic use to place-based communities and students, too.
I have master’s degrees from the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism (CUNY) in New York City and in gender and international development from the London School of Economics. I was born and partly raised in rural Barbados, W.I. and brought as a child to Queens, NY. Two years later the trajectory of the rest of my life changed for a second time; I became a scholarship kid at an Upper East Side private school. Metabolizing those early cultural extremes fuels my drive to show that our pluralist multiracial democracy can work for everyone. I live in Brooklyn.
Services & Expertise
Advising journalism support organizations (JSOs), Media, Donors, Legislators + Place-based Community Leaders
I respond to public distrust of “the media” and academia. I consult on/co-create interventions that catalyze public demand for the pursuit of truth by advising on strategy, landscape and cultural analysis and cross-sector collaboration.
Reforming J-Education to Promote Civic + Information Literacy for All
I design institutional and popular education curricula, and help J-programs evolve beyond the irrelevant 20th c. content model. In addition to being informed by the 21st c. market, I refined my approach through teaching, curriculum development and J-program stewardship at Rutgers University-Newark as well as Boston College and Lehman College-CUNY.
Civic leadership
About the American Mainstream
Students plugging local news gaps isn’t sustainable
Local news for the people: A policy agenda for meeting civic information needs
‘Leavers’: results from a survey of 101 journalists of color (research)
Multiple Mainstreams
Youth Media Workshop, Part of Ongoing Partnership Effort With Local Journalism Outlets
Democracy is an information group project.
Join me in the national News Futures network; explore our charter. Invest in digital media literacy and civic information at community colleges. Mobilize applied research to assist place-based communities. Support public libraries.
Reach out. Let’s co-create the information ecosystem that our pluralist multiracial democracy needs.