Kathryn Buford

Kathryn Buford

Kathryn Buford is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests include social entrepreneurship, the sociology of art and the women and history of the African Diaspora. She is co-founder of Live Unchained, an international arts organization for black women, which she is developing with a group of unchained artists, art lovers and techies from across the world.

She graduated with honors and departmental distinction from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she majored in Sociology, concentrating in African American Studies. Kathryn has also been a McNair scholar at the University of Illinois and University of Chicago. After completing her honors thesis on Afro-Venezuelan activism, she moved to Venezuela where she taught English and studied the Bolivarian Revolution. She has also visited Madrid, Spain to promote Live Unchained and complete research on black activism in Europe.

  Athima Chansanchai 

Athima Chansanchai

Athima Chansanchai is a daily contributor to msnbc.com (writing/editing/producing for the Tech-Sci team and blogs). She is also Founder/President of Tima Media, after almost 10 years as a reporter and editor at the Seattle P-I and The Baltimore Sun. (Follow her on Twitter: @TimaMedia.) She’s also been a columnist for MSNBC.com: “DigiGirl,” and worked at The Village Voice. She began her career in journalism more than 15 years ago at Florida Trend magazine, before receiving a master’s degree in Communications/Journalism at Stanford University. She is the National Secretary for the Asian American Journalists Association, as well as a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Online News Association. TheGIrlsNiteOut.com will be Tima Media’s first member-driven, one-stop website offering a clutter-clearing search engine, reviews and articles designed to give women informed nightlife choices.

Ashley Cisneros

Ashley Cisneros

Ashley Cisneros is an entrepreneurial journalist and creative communications strategist based in Orlando, Fla.  As principal of Ashley Cisneros, Inc., Cisneros delivers high-quality editorial content to publications and companies around the country. Cisneros’ diverse career experiences include working as a public relations practitioner, marketing manager for a chamber of commerce, technical and business communications writer for a government defense contractor, editor at Florida Trend business magazine,  newspaper reporter and copy editor.

While at Florida Trend, Cisneros had the opportunity to write speeches and columns for the former group publisher, and has spoken at the Florida Governor’s Mansion and at several statewide conferences. Cisneros delivered a keynote presentation for a women empowerment banquet at Lewis Clark State College in Idaho, and presented a seminar at Miss Black Florida’s Moving Closer to My Dreams conference.

Cisneros earned a B.S. in Journalism and an M.S. in Entrepreneurship from the University of Florida. She has served on the national boards of Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. and the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations. In addition, Cisneros is a local board member of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs and the Public Relations Society of America. When a close friend was diagnosed with breast cancer, learned she was to be a first-time mom, and subsequently lost her job, Cisneros led a national volunteer effort, resulting in more than $20,000 toward her friend’s cancer treatment fund. Named Outstanding Young Female Leader in 2011 by La Prensa Newspaper, Cisneros received a national award in organizational leadership. For more information, please visit www.ashleycisneros.com.

Jason Frazer

Jason Frazier

Jason Frazer, a general assignment reporter for 10TV News HD, not only knows news but how to run a retail banking branch.

Frazer graduated from Columbia University in 2005.  He started his professional career as a Management Associate with Citibank.

Frazer’s first professional experience as a journalist began as a Web producer for WCBS-TV, New York’s CBS affiliate. He was responsible for editing all wire and staff written stories and publishing them on various section pages. Jason eventually moved onto 1010 WINS, New York’s all news radio station, where he held the same position with similar responsibilities.

Two years after graduating, Frazer was a freelance radio reporter for WBGO-FM in Newark, N.J.  He filed weekly reports for the hourly newscast and news specials on various topics.

In 2007, he left Citibank and then became a branch manager with JP Morgan Chase.  He oversaw $25 million in assets.  Jason was successful at turning one of the lowest performing branches into the top banking center in the district.

The following year, Frazer was hired as a part time Freelance Reporter for News 12 in Bronx/Westchester, N.Y.  During his tenure at News 12, he covered a variety of stories including the high profile case of Sean Bell, a Queens man shot to death by the New York Police Department.

In October 2008, Frazer was hired in Rochester, N.Y. as a reporter at WROC/WUHF-TV.  Some of the stories he covered included a tornado that touched down in western New York and a plane crash that occurred at the Rochester airport.  He was also responsible for the Good Business Report, a bi-monthly segment highlighting the technology developed by Rochester based firms.

In his spare time, Jason enjoys bowling, whitewater rafting, traveling and watching the New York Giants.

Clarisel Gonzalez

Clarisel Gonzalez

Clarisel Gonzalez is the editor and publisher of PRSUN Communications, an independent multimedia social entrepreneurship with a growing portfolio of new media products and photo services focusing on the Puerto Rican and US Latino market. She is a veteran journalist with a background as an editor and reporter. She has served as a journalist in New York, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico. PRSUN Communications has a business and social mission of informing, empowering and building community with a multimedia approach.

PRSUN produces several media and art projects, including Puerto Rico Sun, a cultural news and art blog, Bronx Latino, a lifestyle blog, and Clarisel’s Photo Place, a photo project. In addition, Clarisel’s other services include freelance writing for publications and clients and curating and participating in art shows as a photographer.
She recently added social media consulting services and teaching journalism/photojournalism and social networking workshops.

Yvonne Leow

Yvonne Leow

Yvonne Leow (@Yvonnereports) is a multimedia journalist with a passion for visual storytelling.

She has worked for news organizations, such as ABC, NBC, Shanghai Daily, The Seattle Times and is currently the west regional video producer for the Associated Press. She helps coordinate news, sports and entertainment stories across 13 states.

Fascinated by the intersection of digital media and storytelling, she is an innovator by nature and a reporter at heart.

broaden what people believe.

 Caroline Li

Carolyn Li

Caroline Li is the founder and “mastermind” of Earthwalkers Magazine and Social Network. As a journalist, she seeks to educate and inspire through innovative storytelling. She believes this involves the creative arts, technology and traditional journalism communities. Through Earthwalkers and her involvement in the music scene, she is currently working to bring her vision of next-generation journalism to life.

While working on putting all the pieces to her master plan together, she is also the Executive Editor of Go Hard. Superstar. Magazine, which is focused on the indie music and art scene, and pays tribute to those who are on great journeys to pursuing their passions. She has lived the “Go Hard. Superstar.” mentality all her life and uses her experiences and knowledge to help others who have chosen to take the same path. In 2011 she took on the co-manager role at Smokey Robotic, a Vancouver and NY based indie band that also aims to change how we see the world through innovative story telling and art.

Caroline’s reporting roots are not in music, but in community. Her early journalism career was focused on minority issues, Asian American pop culture, and politics. She has worked in newsrooms in Seattle as well as Hong Kong, and also spent several years in corporate PR and advertising.

Her personal time is spent with organizations like SafeFutures Youth Center, where she sits on the board of directors. SafeFutures services at-risk youth with gang violence prevention programs and caseworkers. She is also the youngest board of directors at Take Back Your Time, which was responsible for The Paid Vacation Act of 2009, legislation that would have been the first to make paid vacation time a requirement under federal law. They are currently working on the Happiness Survey, which aims to start a conversation about expanding our use of the Gross Domestic Product to wider measures of wellbeing.

Caroline has been an AAJA member since she was 18 years old and is currently the Seattle Chapter Co-Vice President. Her combined journalism, advertising, philanthropy, and business skills has set her up to be someone to watch in entrepreneurial journalism.

Cynthia Liu

Cynthia Liu

Cynthia Liu, Ph.D., is a writer and advocate for public schools who comes from a family of teachers. She trained as a literary scholar to teach undergraduates multi-ethnic American literature and composition.

She currently has a son in elementary school.

A member of today’s social media savvy generation of parents, she’s used blog posts, Facebook, viral videos, and Twitter to reach diverse audiences, shape public opinion, and move people to greater civic participation. Her education news startup is K12 News Network and it merges the power of citizen media-making with Gov2.0 tools to make government at all levels more responsive to everyday people.

Mekahlo Medina

Mekahlo Medina

Mekahlo Medina is the founder and CEO of MeNow, a mobile content app that aggregates news, information and deals based on your current location.  MeNow makes content relevant to users at the moment it is the most important — where they are at any given time.  It connects original content created by MeNow journalists, content available online, social media and deals based on the location of your mobile device. Medina is also currently the Emmy award winning social media/tech digital anchor/reporter for KNBC in Los Angeles and has 14 years of experience in the television industry as a multi-platform journalist breaking national and international stories like the Wen Ho Lee spy scandal and the first arrest of a U-S Bishop.  He also extensively covered U-S/Mexico immigration, Mexican drug cartel wars and his share of forest and wild fire in the West. While at KNBC, he developed, produced and anchored the country’s first digital news channel for KNBC and received an Emmy nomination for the work accomplished on the channel.

Patricia Nazario

Patricia Nazario

Patricia Nazario has nearly 20-years of broadcast news experience.

Her insightful and investigative reporting has won national and international recognition.

Patricia was in the graduate journalism program at Columbia University in New York City when terrorists attacked the twin towers on September 11th, 2001.

She began filing radio reports about the tragedy and its aftermath for WFUV at Fordham University in the Bronx.

That was her introduction to NPR-style analytical storytelling.

Roxanne L. Scott

Roxanne L. Scott

The Who’s World Media Project explores the hidden treasures of Black history and culture around the globe. With a natural curiosity about the world around her, Roxanne left her job (and her beloved Queens, New York) at the age of 24 to begin exploring the world. With a drive to become bilingual (having an affinity for the Spanish language) she packed her bags and moved to Costa Rica where she spent a year teaching English and traveling to Nicaragua, Panama, and Colombia. Wanting to take the teaching craft more seriously, Roxanne found herself in Mexico as an elementary school teacher where she would spend the next two years. Through her travels Roxanne became inspired by the beauty and history of the Black/African influence in Latin America and other regions of the world not much discussed. She created The Who’s World Media Project in June 2010 wanting to highlight the Black global experience. Roxanne currently calls Beijing, China her home where she is an elementary school teacher. She is also the Arts and Culture contributor to the Society HAE Beijing Town blog.

Roxanne holds a B.A. in Political Science from Temple University and is currently working on her M.Ed from George Mason University with a focus on International Education. She is a proud member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Kelly Virella

Kelly Virella

Kelly Virella is a journalist turned entrepreneur who recently founded the news organization, Dominion of New York.

Prior to starting this project, she was a magazine and web editor and writer who had worked as a journalist for 11 years, specializing in investigative and literary journalism during the past four. At City Limits magazine and website, she served as the deputy editor and website content manager, making her second in charge of editorial. She managed reporters and interns, assigning, developing, editing, reporting and writing investigations. In addition, she helped raise money for the organization.

Since 2000, she has also worked as a reporter for AlterNet, the St. Petersburg Times and the Chicago Reporter magazine and freelanced for publications in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Chicago, including the EastBay Express and the Chicago Reader. She has won several awards and fellowships, including an Academy for Alternative Journalism Fellowship in 2007, a Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism in 2009 and 2011, a Herman Kogan Award in 2010 and a New U Fellowship in 2011.

Her investigative journalism has impacted the policies of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. In addition, her work has won individual grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism and the Nation Investigative Journalism Fund. She has appeared on television and radio programs in New York City, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Her favorite part of the job in recent years has been training young journalists in literary and investigative journalism techniques. She has trained about a dozen and recently helped one get her first journalism job.

Sherbeam Wright 

Sherbeam Wright

Sherbeam Wright is a blogger and communications, brand and social media consultant, with a deep understanding of the tech and Internet industries.

Ms. Wright has extensive experience working with journalists, authors and writers in using social media, PR and online marketing to develop and grow their brands.

This work has given her insight into their professional needs, and the tools that will enable them to be more competitive in an increasingly crowded market.

She has a degree in Communications / Broadcast TV, and a background in corporate and sales communications.

She is a member of NABJ.

Jeff Yang

Jeff Yang

Jeff Yang is a veteran communications professional whose career in media and marketing has spanned over a decade and a half, and included multiple successful media and marketing startups. He was the founder of magazine: Inside Asian America, which grew into Asian America’s largest and most influential English-language media institution, and of aOnline.com, one of the first Asian American content and community sites on the web.

Yang was Vice President and principal global strategist at Iconoculture, a leading consumer insights firm, where he directed the company’s research activities in Greater China, Japan and Korea. His research focus at Iconoculture included such topics as the use of mobile and social networks among younger generations, the social impact of technology, and the shifting nature of identity, both on and offline.

For the seven years, Yang wrote Asian Pop, a biweekly column on Asian and Asian American media, entertainment, technology and culture for the San Francisco Chronicle; in October 2011, he launched a new weekly column, Tao Jones, for the Wall Street Journal Online.

Yang has also authored and edited a number of bestselling books, including Eastern Standard Time; I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action (the international action hero’s official autobiography); Once Upon a Time in China; and the new graphic novel collection, Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology. Volume two of Secret Identities is scheduled for a Fall 2012 release.

Yang lives in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife Heather and their two sons, Hudson and Skyler.