Staff

Malkia Cyril, Executive Director

Malkia Amala Cyril is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Media Justice (CMJ), launched in 2008 to strengthen the media activism and communications capacity of grassroots social justice movements.  For the past 15 years, Malkia’s award-winning work has empowered local social justice leaders and organizations with the skills and strategies they need to navigate the complex media environment of the 21^st century.  Appearances include News for All the People: the Epic Story of Race and the American Media, the New York Times, Politico, Huffington Post, Media Matters, Democracy Now, Essence Magazine, Village Voice, the Advocate, the SF Chronicle and documentaries including Outfoxed, Broadcast Blues, and MissRepresentation.

For fun, Malkia spends an inordinate amount of time writing short stories, poetry, and blogs when she should be sleeping. Mentored by world renowned writers Audre Lorde and Barbara Smith, Malkia’s creative work has been published in In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers, Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poet’s Café, and Afrekete: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Writing.

Malkia Cyril can be reached at malkia@mediajustice.org, 510-698-3800, x401; on Twitter @culturejedi, and on Facebook.

Kristi Black Solwazi, Deputy Director

Kristi provides internal leadership, supervision, and direction for CMJ staff and consultants as well as serving as a liaison to CMJ funders. With over 15 years of nonprofit management and financial experience, she contributes a unique blend of community capacity building, financial acumen, funding and development skills, and heart and passion for what she does.

An Oakland native, Kristi has experienced firsthand the power and challenges of community building and movements for social change.  Her work as a producer of artistic events for communities of color and nonprofit leadership brings to CMJ a far-reaching vision of social progress that involves local and global activism, especially when art is used as media activism to elicit change.

Kristi’s B.A. studies included Speech Communications, with an emphasis on Intercultural Communication, at San Francisco State University, and a strong interest in African history, sociology, and the healing arts.

She believes her education and work will always be engaged in cultural knowledge, debunking myths and lies, and creating alternate realities through art and media to combat racism and greed. Her husband, children and CMJ make it possible and gratifying for her to try to save the world, and still make it to football practice on time.

Kristi can be reached at kristi@mediajustice.org, and 510-698-3800 x408.

amalia deloney, Associate Director

amalia coordinates the media policy initiatives of the Center for Media Justice and the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net).  She has over 15 years of experience in community and cultural organizing, with a specific interest in human rights, cultural rights and traditional knowledge.  At CMJ, amalia uses her extensive experience for field-building, community-building, and policy advocacy.

Born in Guatemala, she worked for many years at the Main Street Project–a MAG-Net anchor–in her hometown of Minneapolis.  While there, she co-directed a nationally recognized four-state rural Latino capacity-buliding initiative called The Raíces Project.  Nationally, amalia is a board member of the Indigenous Women’s Network, and the Latino Public Radio Consortium.

amalia earned her B.A. in Urban Studies and History from Macalester College and her J.D. with a focus on Social Justice from Hamline University School of Law – as a result, she has huge student loans, which she likes to complain about.

When she is not working, amalia likes to travel, read, watch pretty much anything on TNT, work on her personal blog—or Tweet from the borderlands where she lives, works and plays!

amalia can be reached at amalia@mediajustice.org, 510-698-3800 x403, and on Twitter: @guatemalia.

Karlos Gauna Schmieder, Director of Research and Training

Karlos coordinates movement building strategic communications projects and products at the Center for Media Justice, and currently provides communications services to the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAGNet) and Communities Creating Healthy Environments (CCHE).  He has over 15 years experience as a community organizer, political strategist and communications specialist.

Karlos served as co-chair of communications for the 2007 and 2010 US Social Forums. He has been a featured presenter at national conferences such as the National Conference on Media Reform, True Spin, Netroots Nation, Bioneers, Progressive Communicators Network, and more. Karlos has appeared in most major media outlets around the world, has trained thousands of community organizers in communications, and is a leader in a re-emerging participatory “justice communications” movement.

Karlos has no time for authority and control, and uses his skills as a framer, storyteller and organic working class intellectual to disrupt dominant stories, and to work with others to imagine, strategize and organize for a better future. His mom, Jeanne Gauna, co-founder and longtime director of SouthWest Organizing Project, is his s/hero.

Karlos can be reached at karlos@mediajustice.org, on Facebook, Twitter:  @anotherpundit, and 510 698 3800 x402.

 

Betty Yu, Membership Organizer

Betty coordinates the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net) where she manages our national media justice network of over 100 grassroots community organizations, coordinates nine regional chapters and curates the media justice learning community. She has over 15 years of community organizing, media activist, and filmmaking experience.

Betty has additionally worked as a labor organizer for the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, an immigrant rights workers center in New York City’s Chinatown. She is also co-founder of National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS), a 15 year-old multi-racial workers center. Betty is a board member for Deep Dish TV and Third World Newsreel, two media organizations that nationally distributes radical videos and films.

Betty has appeared on several local and national news outlets, and has been featured in such publications as the New York Daily News, the Financial Times, Stress magazine, Brooklyn Bridge, and City Limits.

When she is not working Betty can usually be found talking about her love of Brooklyn (born and raised), working on her creative projects, or finishing her MFA in Integrated Media Arts.

Betty can be reached at betty@mediajustice.org, and 510-698-3800 x404.

Oshen Turman, Program Assistant

Oshen coordinates all program operations, including event logistics, database management, support for MAG-Net operations, and general program administration.  She has been involved in social justice work for over a decade.

An East Oakland native, Oshen has spoken on panels about issues involving homophobia in the Oakland public school system.  She also co-authored a resource guide for queer-identified youth and their allies.  Oshen worked for six years with a youth development organization in Oakland on issues including reproductive justice, health and wellness education, political development, grassroots organizing, and organizational development.

Oshen is a writer, artist, and student of healthy living.

Oshen can be reached at oshen@mediajustice.org, 510-698-3800 x405, and on Twitter: @oshenfloor.

 

Brandi Collins, Communications and Marketing Manager

Brandi is responsible for driving organizational identity, branding, communications, and marketing for CMJ.  She has over five years experience in nonprofit strategic communications, branding, public policy advocacy, and project management.

Formerly Public Policy Associate for Safer Foundation in Illinois, Brandi has crafted state and national recommendations and statements on workforce development, community capacity building, and prisoner reentry.  These were included in reports and publications for the American Correctional Association, the Obama-Biden transition team, the Illinois Poverty Commission and Illinois Human Services Commission, among others.

Brandi earned her B.A. in History (with an emphasis on 20^th century US immigration and migration) from Agnes Scott College, and her J.D. from University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.

In her spare time, Brandi likes nerding it up- she can be found watching documentaries, reading non-fiction books, tweeting indignantly, and blogging her feelings.

Brandi can be reached at brandi@mediajustice.org, 510-698-3800 x409, and on Brandi Sink or Swim.

Alison Roh Park, Training and Technical Assistance Coordinator

Alison coordinates the CMJ communications training and technical assistance initiative, tailors communications curricula and tools and works with CMJ staff and the Associates Network to and provides communications services and special contracts to CMJ clients, members and partners.

Alison has over 6 years of experience in media relations, marketing, branding and strategic communications, working with non-profits and grassroots groups engaged in social movements to end domestic violence, the prison industrial complex, crimimmigration enforcement, policing and other neoliberal projects. Alison has appeared on Univision and Telemundo and has been quoted in national media venues talking about international human rights, gender (in)justice and institutional racism. Alison, a Pushcart-nominated poet, has used the arts in her organizing, activism and cultural work for over a decade.

When she’s off the clock, you might find Alison busy repping her native Queens, NY neighborhood, going on local adventures with her canine companion, eating, and cooking.

Alison can be reached at alison@mediajustice.org and on Twitter: @handsoffmymedia.

 

Steven Renderos, National Organizer

Steven came to CMJ from the Main Street Project, a MAG-Net anchor organization, where Steven lead Main Street Project’s media justice and community building efforts, including the Minnesota Digital Justice Coalition and the collaborative work with MAG-Net. He brings more than seven years of community organizing and training experience, and more than ten years of filmmaking and media production experience to our organization.

Prior to joining Main Street Project, Steven 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 Organizing Apprenticeship Project, La Asamblea de Derechos Civiles, and Center for Media Justice. Steven (aka DJ Ren) also hosts a show called Radio Pocho at a community radio station in Minneapolis and spins at various venues in town.

Steven can be reached at steven@mediajustice.org, 510-698-3800 x411.