NCMR Outreach Committee
Constituencies who are most marginalized by our media system are often under-represented in discussions around how to change media policy.
Each year, Free Press engages an Outreach Committee to help expand the participation of underrepresented constituencies at the National Conference for Media Reform and expand the diversity perspectives at the conference. The Outreach Committee helps recruit participants, administers the scholarship process, recommends outreach and advertising opportunities, consults on the program, and helps welcome and support new attendees at the conference.
As a part of the process of administering the scholarship process, the Outreach Committee is responsible for reviewing applications and allocates resources from our scholarship fund.
Members of this year’s Outreach Committee are:
Andrea Isabel Quijada is a daughter, a sister, and a tía. She is also the Director of Educational Programs for the NM Media Literacy Project where she provides trainings and workshops to students, teachers, healthcare professionals, and community organizers on issues of media literacy and media justice. She is a co-founder of Young Women United, a community organizing project by and for young women of color in Albuquerque, and is the founding organizer of Queer Women's Project. Andrea is currently on the Board of Directors for Enlace Comunitario, which works to end domestic violence in Spanish-speaking immigrant communities while supporting immigrant rights.
Kat Aaron is the Co-Director of People's Production House (PPH), a journalism and media justice organization headquartered in New York City. PPH doesn't create media for its own sake; it teaches organizers to make media in order to change public policy and influence public debate. Kat has extensive experience in print and radio, and has been teaching radio classes since 2005. She began working in radio while still in her teens, and is a contributing producer for Wakeup Call, the morning news show at WBAI 99.5 FM. Until 2005, she was the Communications Director at the nationally-renowned economic justice organization, the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project.
Peggy Berryhill is Native Public Media's Director of Station Services and Planning, with primary responsibility for the Native Radio Summit, an annual meeting of Native radio representatives. Berryhill's media expertise and commitment to community have earned her the American Indian 2005 Local Heroes award from KQED-FM public broadcasting in San Francisco. She is the founder of the Native Media Resource Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to produce educational materials about Indigenous communities and promote cross-cultural understanding and racial harmony. Peggy began her career in broadcasting in 1973. She has been a Program Director at KUNM-FM, KPFA-FM, and KALW-FM, and is the only Native person to have worked as a full-time producer at National Public Radio (NPR), where she worked in the Specialized Audience Programs Department from 1978-79. She is an award winning documentarian.
Silvia Rivera is the 2007 recipient of the Chicago Foundation for Women’s Founder’s Award. As part of her commitment to developing first voice forums for youth & traditionally marginalized communities through media and the arts, Silvia is currently documenting testimonies from women who are emerging leaders & trailblazers in creating a vibrant & robust media & cultural landscape that is inclusive & led by women.
Silvia Rivera is currently General Manager of 90.5 WRTE-FM (Radio Arte), the official radio station of the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA) in Chicago. Since 1997, Radio Arte has had the distinction of being a Latino-owned, bilingual, youth-driven public radio station that trains youth and adults in media production. As a graduate of Radio Arte’s first media training program, offered to youth between 15-21, Rivera has been a key player in Radio Arte’s successful trajectory. As a youth, Rivera produced several news, public affairs, and music programs. Radio Arte has recently been recognized with the 2008 Studs Terkel Community Media Award by the Community Media Workshop.
Rivera is one of the founding members of the Latino Public Radio Consortium & has recently co-authored a “Brown Paper” that calls for Latino inclusion at every level and in every function of the public radio system. Silvia Rivera is an honors graduate of Columbia College in Chicago, and holds a B.A in Media Management. Rivera is on the Board of Directors of the Community Renewal Society and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB). She is also a member of the Burnham Plan Centennial Committee and the Latina Leadership Council (CFW).
Rosa Alicia Clemente is a Hip Hop Activist, Community Organizer and Independent journalist. Born and raised in the South Bronx and Westchester County, NY, she is a graduate of the University of Albany and received a Masters in Education and Africana Studies from Cornell University.
Rosa has written for Clamor Magazine, The Ave. magazine, The Black World Today, The Final Call and numerous websites. She has been the subject of articles in the Village Voice, The New York Times, Urban Latino, and The Source magazines. She has appeared on CNN, C-Span, Democracy Now and Street Soldiers. In 2001 she was a youth representative at the United Nations World Conference against Xenophobia, Racism and Related Intolerance in South Africa and in 2002 was named by Red Eye Magazine as one of the top 50 Hip Hop Activists to look out for.
In 2003 Rosa helped formed and coordinate the first ever National Hip Hop Political Convention that drew over 3000 activists who came together to create and implement a national political agenda for the Hip-Hop generation.
In 2005 Rosa created the R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop Coalition: Representing, Education, Activism and Community an organization dedicated to media justice for the Hip-Hop generation. As an independent journalist, 10 days after Hurricane Katrina ravaged parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama Rosa was the only Hip Hop journalist on the ground. She traveled to the area and reported on independent and mainstream radio and TV stations all over the world, including Air America, NPR, Pacifica Radio, Democracy Now, BBC, Bush Radio in South Africa, Hard Knock Radio and many more media outlets.
Rosa is the owner of Know Thy Self Productions, a full service speakers bureaus, production company and media consulting agency. She is currently on a nationwide speaking tour, entitled Hip Hop and the Presidential Elections.
Erica Williams is Issue Campaigns Manager at Campus Progress. Before joining Campus Progress, Erica served as a field associate at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights where she worked with some of Washington’s most powerful players in progressive politics, implementing and coordinating strategies to galvanize grassroots support & activity in over 45 states for effective civil and human rights legislation at the federal level. Having helped to coordinate grassroots campaigns around judicial nominations, affirmative action, and the successful reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, her work most recently focused on the LCCREF Media & Telecommunications Project which seeks to help the national civil rights community play a central role in the policy debates shaping the nation’s media and communications landscape. Her work has also been divided amongst various other social justice projects including the campaign to secure voting representation for the District of Columbia and pursuing effective federal hate crimes legislation. Erica is a native Washingtonian and a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park with a B.A. in African American Studies and Public Policy.
