Learn teaching and organizing strategies for media literacy, technology and communications-training for communities that lack access to established or emerging media. The panel will also discuss collaborations between technology innovators, community organizers, media educators and do-it-yourself media producers. Explore the tensions between media insiders and marginalized groups around misrepresentation and sustainability, and the power relationships in projects that strive to serve low-income and disenfranchised communities.

- Eloise S. Lee, Program Director, Media Alliance

- Kami Griffiths, Community Technology Network-Bay Area

- Renee Yang-Geesler, Co-Director of the First Voice Media Action Program

- Luz Ruiz, co-founder of COMPPA, Coalition of Popular Communicators for Autonomy

- Moderator: Dorothy Kidd, Associate Professor, University of San Francisco

Renee Yang-Geesler is a community media activist and producer. As the Co-Director of the First Voice Media Action Program, Renee has been involved in bringing women and people of color into media and works in partnership with Pacifica community radio station KPFA and other community media outlets, both locally and nationally. Renee currently manages a two-year program that provides comprehensive media skills training using video, audio, and web content and design. The mission of the First Voice Media Action Program is community development and creative empowerment, and to preserve the stories of communities and ensure that skills are passed from generation to generation. She is also a contributing producer for “Crossing East” the first Asian American History series on public radio and the recipient of a Peabody Award.

Kami Griffiths is a devoted community technology activist with a decade of professional experience working on behalf of under served communities. Through teaching computer skills, connecting volunteers to individuals in need of technology skills and equipment, and facilitating adult literacy classes, Kami has emerged in recent years as a national leader in the battle to combat the digital divide and expand technology access for all Americans. She is the Executive Director of the Community Technology Network, an SF-based nonprofit that providies training, mentorship, networking and volunteers to underserved communities.

Dorothy Kidd (Moderator) teaches Media Studies at the University of San Francisco, where her research focuses on grassroots efforts to democratize the media in the US and internationally. She is also a veteran community media trainer and producer, including work at Vancouver Cooperative Radio, Okalakatiget Communications, the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation and Wawatay Native Communications. Her own video productions include "La Piel de La Memoria/Skin of Memory," the documentation of a community arts project in Medellin, Colombia; "Counting our Victories," which documents a popular education training cycle in Vancouver, Canada, and "Ikajurti: Midwifery in the Canadian Arctic," made with the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation and the Inuit Pauktuutit (Women's) Organization in Canada.

Eloise S. Lee is the Program Director at Media Alliance in Oakland, CA - a 33 year-old media resource and advocacy center for media workers, non-profit organizations, and social justice activists. Eloise coordinates the Raising Our Voices (ROV) Media Training Program - a project that supports the development of a more democratic public sphere through the creation and circulation of media content from working class communities and immigrant women of color in the Bay Area. Eloise is also a steering committee member of the Bay Area Community Technology Network (CTN). Originally from Hawaii, Eloise holds a BFA in Film and Television Production from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and an MA in Asian American Studies from San Francisco State University.

Luz Ruíz is co-founder of COMPPA, Coalition of Popular Communicators for Autonomy, where she works as a media and popular communications trainer in the Mesoamerican region. A founding member and member of the general assembly of the Chiapas Independent Media Center, she has been involved in independent media and indigenous radio since 2001. She is also a freelance radio journalist covering Mexiican, Central and and SouthAmerican grassroots, peasant, and popular movements, and has worked as correspondent for Free Speech Radio News, as well as Interworld Radio News and The National Radio Project. Originally from Mexico, she holds a BA in Communication from Iberoamericana University, and an MA in Women's Studies from SFSU.