Center for Media Justice Board of Directors

Jeff Chang

Jeff Chang has been a hip-hop journalist for over a decade. He has written extensively on race, culture, politics, the arts, and music. In 1993, he cofounded and ran the influential hip-hop indie label SoleSides, now Quannum Projects, helping launch the careers of DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, and Lateef the Truth Speaker. After being politicized by the anti-apartheid and anti-racist movements at the Univerity of California at Berkeley, he worked as a community, labor, and student organizer, and as a lobbyist for the students of the California State University system. He was an organizer of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention and serves as a board member for several organizations working for social change in youth and community organizing, media justice, culture, the arts, and hip-hop activism. He is the author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: The History of the Hip-Hop Generation and the editor of Total Chaos: The
Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop.

Malkia Cyril

Malkia Cyril is the Executive Director and founder of the Center for Media Justice. With more than 15 years’ experience as a community organizer, policy advocate, and communications strategist, Malkia has led local and national campaigns for racial and economic justice and is the author of numerous essays and articles on media, marginalization, and movement-building.

Malkia is the recipient of the Media Leader award from the Alliance for Community Media, the Emerging Leader award from the Media That Matters Film Festival, and other awards from the Media Justice Fund, Rock the Vote, and others; with appearances in Democracy Now, Hard Knock Radio, Breakdown FM, Free Speech TV, the documentary Outfoxed, the documentary Broadcast Blues, the SF Weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the New York Times, the Village Voice, and others.

Agustín Luna

Agustín Luna is an administrative manager with over 20 years of experience.  He has worked with professional non-profit arts organizations such as the Hollywood Bowl, Cal Performances, and South Coast Repertory. Agustín has also taught college students in UC Berkeley’s Student Music Activities Department; he also chaired the Arts Management Department at the Oakland School for the Arts. He has the essentials and fundamentals of arts administration, including artist-presenter management, fiscal management, grant writing, production management, and front-of-house/box office management. Agustín was formerly with the Movement Strategy Center as their Operations Director (May 2007-June 2009), and then as their General Manager (July 2009-May 2010), guiding their finance, human resources, and fiscal sponsorship program. He continues to consult on their facilities and operations matters.

Agustín is also an avid salsa dancer and instructor, and is the occasional presenter of salsa events through his company Agustín Luna Presents.  He has danced Bomba y Plena with Bay Area Boricuas, assisted them in their initial organizing as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, and briefly served as their Managing Director.  Agustín is also the Company Manager of Savage Jazz Dance Company, where he initially became involved as their tour manager for the 2006 Rome Jazz Festival. Agustín is one of the last beneficiaries of California’s elementary school music program and has played his trumpet continuously since 1982. He hopes that music in the schools does not disappear and supports efforts to keep it alive.

Hye-Jung Park

Hye-Jung Park is a media and community activist with more than a decade’s experience in local, national, and international media organizing. Previously, she was a Program Officer of the Media Justice Fund at The Funding Exchange and served as the Director of Youth Channel at Manhattan Neighborhood Network, after working as Director of Programs at the Downtown Community TV Center (DCTV) for eight years. She has served on the boards of several artist and community organizations, including the National Coalition of Independent Public Broadcasters, Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, the North Star Fund, the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC), Videazimut (an international coalition of community media), and the Alliance for Community Media. An award-winning film producer, she has produced several documentaries, which include The Women Outside, Homes Apart: Korea, and The #7 Train: An Immigrant Journey. She has also designed and taught courses on Asian- and African-America.

Steven Renderos

Steven Renderos is a Media Justice Organizer at Main Street Project; he leads their media justice and community-building efforts, including the Justice 2.0 training project and their collaborative work with the nationwide Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net). He brings more than five years of community organizing and training experience and more than eight years of filmmaking and media production experience to his work.

Prior to joining MSP, Renderos served as Project Coordinator of the Minnesotano Media Empowerment Project, an initiative of the Department of Chicano Studies at the University of Minnesota focused on improving the quality and quantity of media coverage and representation of Latinos in Minnesota. He currently serves on the boards of Headwaters Foundation for Justice, Organizing Apprenticeship Project, Alliance for Metropolitan Stability, and La Asamblea de Derechos Civiles.

Jen Soriano

Jen Soriano is a co-founder of the Center for Media Justice.  She worked on staff as media advocate, communications strategist, and associate director from 2002 to 2008. Working with CMJ, Jen strengthened dozens of campaigns for juvenile justice, education reform, health care reform, community development, affordable housing, and immigrant rights, and helped develop CMJ’s core strategic communications models and curriculum. As a journalist, Jen has written for Mother Jones, the Center for Investigative Reporting, Filipinas magazine, Free Speech Radio News, Free Speech TV, and the Christian Science Monitor.  She is currently communications coordinator with the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, a national alliance of community organizing groups connecting local campaigns to international movements for human rights, economic justice, and global well-being.  She is also a contributor to Organizing Upgrade and a columnist with War Times.

Joe Torres

As Free Press’ Government Relations Manager, Joe Torres works closely with the policy and research staff to create Free Press’ legislative agenda, lobby in Washington, D.C., and in the states, and build new coalitions that broaden the base of the media reform movement. Before joining Free Press, Joe worked as deputy director of communications and media policy at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and was a journalist for eight years.