Staff
Deepa Fernandes, Senior Journalist, Executive Producer
Deepa Fernandes, is an award-winning journalist who has reported from a dozen countries, from South Africa to Cuba to East Timor. Fernandes has traveled where few journalists go, reporting from inside rebel-controlled prisons during a Haitian coup, slum villages in Mumbai, and immigration jails across the U.S. During the last ten years she has been a lead anchor for the Pacifica Radio Network, regularly hosting election year special broadcasts, Supreme Court nomination hearings and major congressional investigations. Fernandes is well-known in NYC for her years as the host of the morning program, Wakeup Call, a daily magazine news program on WBAI, 99.5fm. Fernandes is the author of Targeted, Homeland Security and the Business of Immigration, where she writes about immigration policy and history, published by Seven Stories Press in December 2006. Deepa was a Puffin Writing Fellow at the Nation Institute. Her reporting has appeared in the Village Voice, the Nation Magazine, Public Radio International, BBC, ABC, Mother Jones magazine, and more. She has an MA from Columbia University. In 2001, Fernandes founded Radio Rootz, a youth journalism training program which grew into the national media training and production center, People’s Production House, aimed at diversifying the press corps and the range of voices heard in the media.
Marisa Jahn, Executive & Creative Director
Of Ecuadorian and Chinese descent, Marisa Jahn is an artist, community organizer, and writer who has worked with grassroots advocacy organizations such as Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center, I-Witness Video, and was recognized by UNESCO for her dedication to working with under-served youth. Her work has been covered in The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Clamor, Discovery Channel, and more; her work has been exhibited/presented at venues such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, MIT, UNESCO, ICA Philadelphia, The New Museum, The Power Plant Toronto, the MIT Museum, and more. She is the editor of two books about art and in 2009 co-founded REV-, a non-profit organization dedicated to socially-engaged art, design and pedagogy (www.rev-it.org). A graduate of MIT and a 2007-9 critic in residence at MIT’s Media Lab, Jahn was recognized as a leading educator by UNESCO in 2006 and as a CEC Artslink cultural ambassador to Tajikistan, Estonia, and Russia.
Leigh Ann Caldwell, DC Director
Leigh Ann is the Washington DC editor for the nationally syndicated newscast Free Speech Radio News. She is one of the few women to hold the top position of Editor in the lively and complex media market of Washington, D.C. As a former instructor for Rootz in New York who believes in its lessons and philosophy, she felt the youth of DC deserved media justice and was instrumental in the launching of Rootz DC in 2006.
Ramona Persaud, Marketing & Communications
Ramona brings over a decade of sales and marketing experience. She’s worked with corporate clients such as BMW, Toyota, The Discovery Channel, The Globe & Mail, The CBC, Yahoo, and AOL where she was responsible for account management and business development. Ramona has also worked with startups, SME’s, and nonprofits refining their business proposition, conducting market research, developing marketing plans, developing marketing collateral, developing public relations strategy, writing and distributing press releases, coordinating interview requests, conceptualizing, developing and launching events, and recommendations incorporating social media into overall marketing strategy. Ramona is also a documentary filmmaker, writer, and photographer.
Sylvia Guerrero, Radio Rootz Program Co-Director
Born in El Salvador, Sylvia Guerrero is a Hofstra University Graduate with a B.A. in Communication. She is currently one of the Co-Directors for our Youth Program, Radio Rootz, and a freelance reporter. Always interested in the role of the media, Sylvia teaches media literacy and radio production in New York City public high schools and hopes to inspire youth to become a part of the same media that influences them.
Akeel Ali, Radio Rootz DC Program Associate
Akeel Ali is a painter, sculpture, photographer and filmmaker. He and Radio Rootz DC found each other at Bell Multicultural High School where Akeel wore many hats, including after school coordinator and video production teacher. Before that, Akeel worked primarily as a videographer and photographer. He was the first African American to receive a budget from NASA for a documentary. The film, “The Sun Earth Connection” was on the ancient civilizations use of the sun and astronomy to create their calendars. He also worked for Nike as lead grassroots filmmaker and photographer, and his fashion photography has been published in numerous high fashion magazines. Akeel is a native of Washington, DC and attended the University of Maryland.
Kristal Graham, Radio Rootz Program Associate
Kristal co-teaches media production at public schools in NYC. By participating in Radio Rootz, Kristal has helped teach the art of radio and media literacy in high schools in New York City, produced radio segments on WBAI, and reported for PPH from the World Social Forum in Detroit 2010. She was an honor roll student throughout high school and aims towards a career in broadcast journalism.
Kyra Lawson, Radio Rootz Program Associate
Kyra got involved with Radio Rootz while she was in high school in 2005, and has progressed into an integral part of the program. During a normal week you can catch Kyra co-teaching for Radio Rootz in public schools, at office editing audio, or on the street reporting. When not working with Radio Rootz, Kyra is an aspiring rap artist. She is a strong believer that change and empowerment comes through Music, Community organizing, and Grassroots media. Kyra is also the current Summer Media Organizing Project Coordinator.
Carlos Pareja, Training and Policy Director
Carlos Pareja is a media activist, educator and filmmaker who has worked with both adult and youth populations teaching video production and media literacy and organizing around media access. Previously, Carlos has worked with Paper Tiger Television, the Educational Video Center, Indymedia and Brooklyn Community Access Television. His documentaries have screened as part of The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, Whitney Biennial and the Museum of Modern Art. He is a firm believer that access to media creation tools, knowledge of media production technique and open distribution platforms are key to a functional democracy.
Abdulai Bah, CNPI Program Associate
CNPI’s Program Associate, Abdulai is a NYC-based freelance reporter. He has reported for public radio shows around the country as well as the daily newscast of Pacifica Radio. Following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulfcoast, Abdulai traveled there to report on the victims of New Orleans and Gulfport. He has also reported on immigration detention centers. Abdulai is the producer of a live monthly radio show in NYC.
Rob Robinson, CNPI Outreach Coordinator
Community Organizing Outreach Coordinator. Rob is the former housing campaign leader and board member of Picture the Homeless. He graduated from the Community News Production Institute in the fall of 2008. Rob is a member of the national Take back the Land Movement and the Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights. As a member of US Human Rights Network, his work has taken him around the globe working in Budapest Hungary, Rio de Janiero, Brazil and Geneva Switzerland. He served as New York City Chairperson for the first official visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing and will continue working internationally through the Universal Periodic Review which takes place November 2010 in Geneva.
Renee Feltz, CNPI Senior Instructor
Renee entered journalism via the Pacifica radio network when she co-founded the news department at KPFT in Houston, Texas. Her focus on under-represented voices led her to interview more than 25 men and women on Texas Death Row. During Hurricane Katrina she coordinated national coverage for the network. She graduated in 2008 from the Columbia School of Journalism, where she was a broadcast concentrator and a fellow in the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. Renee and her colleague, Stokely Baksh, produced an award-winning multimedia investigative masters project, www.TheBusinessofDetention.com, which examined the main company detaining undocumented immigrants set to be deported. She has also reported for the BBC, NPR, CBC, FSRN, Air America, Making Contact, Indymedia, The Indypendent, Columbia Journalism Review, The Texas Observer, NACLA: Report on the Americas, Mother Jones and the New York Times. She is also a senior producer at Democracy Now!
Anjum Asharia, New Media Coordinator
A native Texan, Anjum studied philosophy at Wellesley College, where she hosted a weekly radio show at the campus station, WZLY. She has previously worked with the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights, and the Family Literacy Involvement Program at the Children’s Museum of Houston.
Marc Shavitz, Associate Media Producer
Marc Shavitz recently finished his joint-degree in Law and City Planning from Brooklyn Law School and the Pratt Institute, where he wrote his masters thesis on the topic “food deserts” and the New York City Green Cart program.
Stephanie Rothenberg, Teaching Artist
Stephanie Rothenberg is an artist and educator using performance, installation and networked media to create provocative interactions that question the boundaries and social constructs of manufactured desires. She has lectured and exhibited at venues including the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA), Zer01 Festival, Banff New Media Institute, Hallwalls Media Art Center, ConFlux Festival, Amsterdam International Film Festival and the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing. In addition to her work as an exhibiting artist, she has assisted with design for visual campaigns and public art projects for several non-profit organizations and activist groups in New York City and Western New York including Retail Action Project, Buffalo-Niagara Riverkeepers and the Coalition for Economic Justice. Recent awards include a 2009 Creative Capital, 2008 New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist award (NYSCA), a 2007 Eyebeam Artist-in-Residence in NYC and a free103point9 Artist-in-Residence. She received her MFA in 2003 from The Department of Film, Video and New Media at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently Associate Professor of Visual Studies at SUNY Buffalo where she teaches courses in Communication Design and Emerging Practices.
