About GlobalGirl Training Academy 2011
The 2nd GGM LA Academy is taking place in July 2011 at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. This year, GGM LA is training 10 high-school-age girls in Los Angeles, sourced from various East/Downtown L.A. High Schools, many coming from broken homes or otherwise at-risk environments, and from diverse communities. Reporting in Spanish and English, the girls will participate in an important cultural exchange, building an educational and professional media network, while acquiring valuable life and marketable skills, helping to create a sustainable Los Angeles for themselves and their community.
GGM LA links under-served girls with seasoned broadcasters and journalists. Through the establishment of subsequent GlobalGirl News Bureaus, qualified graduates of GlobalGirl Academies will become GlobalGirl Reporters, who will develop and produce video content for distribution via cell phone, internet, and digital technology.
TRAINERS
STAFF
Carly Wasserman, Office and Production Manager
Carly recently graduated magna cum laude from University of California, Santa Barbara with a focus on Sociology and Feminist Studies. She is thrilled to be working with GlobalGirl Media since it directly relates to her passion for women and girls’ empowerment!
Kate Mason, Photography and Web Operations Intern
Kate is a recent graduate from the University of Southern California where she studied Journalism and Cultural Anthropology. She is very excited to be working with GlobalGirl Media, because she shares GGM’s belief that women have a unique voice and perspective that can shed new light on many critically important (and often untold) stories.
Mayly Tao, Social Media Networking Intern
Mayly is currently attending University of California, San Diego with an interest in Communications and more specifically, Broadcast Journalism. Besides running her local bakery, Dk’s Donuts in Santa Monica, she is constantly tweeting and facebook-ing about GlobalGirl Media’s constant progress for women and the power of their voice throughout the world!
GUESTS
A number of journalists, filmmakers and digital media experts are guest-lecturing this year. They include:
Shannon Arvizu
Shannon Arvizu (aka: “Miss Electric”) is a clean-tech strategist and educator who helps young women build an eco-conscious movement through video storytelling. She creates, writes, and hosts web video productions for clean technology. Two of her most recent pilot projects include, “Generation E” a show that highlights the youth movement for sustainability (www.livingeco.org) and “Grrls” a program that follows young women as they investigate electric vehicle technologies (www.evgrrl.wordpress.com). Shannon’s aim is to inspire and lead a global sustainability movement that provides real benefits for real people. She believes that innovation and entrepreneurship are key tools in this process. During her workshop, the Global Girls will have the opportunity to ride in a Chevy Volt and produce their own EV campaign video about clean, green machines and their benefits for our schools, workplaces, and communities.
Tabby Biddle
Tabby Biddle is a writer, teacher, and feminine voice advocacy leader dedicated to helping women changemakers get their messages out. She is the author of the The Goddess Diaries blog and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post on issues affecting women and girls. Tabby provides writing, editing and coaching services for women authors, entrepreneurs, and organizations committed to empowering women and girls. She has a private coaching practice in Los Angeles where she guides women in the process of writing non-fiction books, and leads Goddess Workshops in New York and Los Angeles. Tabby’s work has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, NPR, Current TV, Gaiam and other popular online media sites. For more information, visit www.tabbybiddle.com.
Andrea Buchanan
Award-winning filmmaker, director and writer Andrea Buchanan is a fun face on the speaker circuit, writes a weekly blog called “Note to Self” and has appeared in dozens of media outlets including Good Morning America and Oprah, sharing insight and advice on how women can overcome tough times and triumph. She believes that we can overcome trouble, fears and complexities to live the life of our dreams, and continues to share a message of hope, strength and success for women everywhere. As a filmmaker, Andrea’s work is diverse. She is best known for her work on the critically acclaimed series, VH1: Behind The Music. She has produced and directed documentaries for various television networks which have taken her all over the world filming black bears, flying over active volcanoes and profiling some of the country’s most prolific artists and well known political leaders.
Kim Bui
Kim Bui is a digital journalist and self-professed nerd. She manages KPCC’s ongoing commitment to social media and engagement on and off the Web, including OnCentral.org, a collaborative reporting site covering South Los Angeles. Her experience in web journalism includes major newspapers as well as news start-ups. She co-founded #wjchat, a weekly Twitter chat for web journalists and was named one of Poynter’s 35 people in social media. She is originally from Des Moines, Iowa and graduated with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Iowa State University. When not in front of a computer, she’s exploring L.A.’s vast food network and is a perpetual yoga student.
Mandalit del Barco
As a general assignment correspondent for NPR West, Mandalit del Barco has reported and produced radio stories on everything from street gangs to Hollywood, police and prisons, marijuana, immigration, race relations, natural disasters, Latino arts and urban street culture (including hip hop dance, music, and art). Her reporting has taken her throughout the United States, including Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York and Miami and around the world to Haiti, Mexico, Argentina, the Philippines, and China. A fourth generation journalist, del Barco was born in Lima, Peru, to a Peruvian father and Mexican-American mother. She earned a Master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
Juan Devis
Juan Devis is a Public Media artist and producer, whose work crosses across platforms: video, film, interactive media and gaming. His work, regardless of the medium is often produced collaboratively allowing for a greater exchange of ideas in the production of media and art. Devis is currently the Director of New Media Production at KCET, PBS Los Angeles, in charge of all original online content and special projects, including; Webstories: Cultural Journalism in Southern California, the interactive documentary series Departures and SoCal Connected Online, and CPB‚ gaming initiative Participation Nation. Devis has also collaborated with a number of non-profit media arts institutions in Los Angeles serving as producer, director and educator.
Jacqueline Fuentes
Jacqueline Fuentes is a classical singer from Chile. An intense experience and fusion of love, awareness and revolution, audiences are mesmerized by the power of her voice and the beauty of the lyrics that she pens herself. Raised on the romantic sounds of her father’s popular radio broadcasts, Jacqueline made her debut at the age of fourteen with the National Folklore Ballet of Chile, performing solo before an audience of thousands at the prestigous Viña Del Mar festival. Crossing the boundaries of language, religion, and geography, her album Amo La Vida (Love the Life), brings an awakening of love, in order to create change in the world, and encourages us to make the first change within ourselves.
Carolina Garcia
Carolina Garcia joined The Los Angeles Daily News in April 2008 and oversees coverage of the San Fernando Valley, including its many diverse and expanding communities. Before joining the Daily News, Carolina wwas the executive editor of TheMonterey County Herald for five years. She was managing editor of the San Antonio Express-News from 1998-2003. Prior to joining the Express-News, Carolina worked at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for 16 years. She covered several journalistic beats and held numerous leadership positions, including assistant metro editor, state editor, Sunday editor and assistant managing editor.
Cristi Hegranes
Cristi Hegranes is an award-winning journalist and a renowned international journalism trainer who founded the Global Press Institute, a nonprofit media organization that trains and employs women across the developing world to become ethical and investigative journalists. The recent recipient of a Jefferson Award for Public Service and the Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism, Cristi believes that journalism is a development tool capable of creating direct and lasting social change. Cristi is also the winner of the SPJ Journalism Innovation Prize, a New Media Web Award, Clarion Award for Investigative Journalism, a Lifestyle Journalism Prize and numerous other honors. She holds a master’s degree from New York University, served as a fellow-in-residence at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg and received a Bachelor of Arts from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Cristi teaches News Entrepreneurship at San Francisco State University and international media courses at California State University. She has served as chair of the Small Newspaper Committee and the Diversity Committees of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and served on its board of directors for three years. She was recently reelected to the board. Carolina served as a judge for the Pulitzer Prizes in journalism. In addition, she was recently recognized by the California Chicano News Media Association for career achievement on issues of diversity while working with ASNE.
Iris Ichishita
Iris Ichishita is a freelance creative producer. She received a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California and a Masters in Motion Picture Broadcasting at the Peter Stark Producing Company. She currently works as a producer at Nothing New Productions. She has experience producing television shows, music videos, narrative shorts, documentaries and new media.
Melanie Klein
Melanie Klein is an Associate Faculty member at Santa Monica College, where she teaches courses in Sociology and Women’s Studies. She is also a blogger for Feminist Fatale, Ms. Magazine, WIMNs Voices (Women in Media and News) and Adios Barbie. She specializes in the intersectionality of popular culture, media literacy, and body image. She is committed to raising consciousness, promoting media literacy, and facilitating healthy body images and healthy body relationships for women.
Kamala Lopez
Kamala Lopez, founder of Heroica Films, is a filmmaker, actress and Yale graduate whose award winning feature film debut, A Single Woman, is about the life of first US Congresswoman, noted pacifist and co-founder of the ACLU, Jeannette Rankin. Other award winning films include: Filet of 4, Ese Beso, Legal Affairs, among others. Born in New York City to an Indian mother and a Venezuelan father, Kamala is known for her many roles in television and film, such as Sesame Street, Deep Cover, Born In East LA and I Heart Huckabees. She recently hosted the PBS series Wired Science. And is a frequent blogger for the Huffington Post. Kamala is a fellow of Film Independents Director‚ LA Writer’s Lab. And sits on the Advisory Board of The Women’s International Film and TV Showcase.
Nomi Morris
Nomi Morris, originally from Toronto, Canada, has 27 years of journalistic experience, with a specialty in international reporting. She was the Berlin correspondent for Time Magazine and the Middle East correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers (now McClatchy) before arriving in California a decade ago. Since then she has written for Newsweek, the Santa Barbara News Press, and most recently the Los Angeles Times, for which she wrote features on religion and spirituality. This fall, Nomi will be teaching a Writing for Mass Media class at California Lutheran University.
Lisa Napoli
Lisa Napoli is a journalist and author who has worked as a reporter for the National Public Radio program Marketplace, and who has covered the Internet revolution and the cultural impact of technology as a columnist and staff reporter for the New York Times and as a correspondent for MSNBC. Her first book about helping to start a youth-oriented radio station in Bhutan, Radio Shangri-La, was published this winter.
Abigail Sims
Abigail Sims has been working in the area of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse intervention and prevention since 1995. Abigail focuses on engaging individuals and communities in creating programs and spaces that support survivors of violence and abuse to experience their fullest potential through the implementation of community-based educational and advocacy services. Abigail is an experienced facilitator and trainer who works extensively with teens, adults and professionals in a variety of settings, including youth and family-serving organizations, health care settings and academic institutions.
Jonathan Skurnik
Jonathan is an award-winning filmmaker whose documentaries have broadcast on television in the United States and Europe and been screened in more than thirty film festivals and art galleries. Recent projects include: The Thick Dark Fog, about the legacy of Indian Boarding Schools; The Youth & Gender Media Project, a series of short documentaries about gender non-conforming youth that won the Audience Award at Outfest; The Elevator Operator, documentary about a Ukrainian immigrant who runs a manual elevator in Manhattan that won Best Documentary at the Urban TV film festival in Madrid and had its broadcast premiere on PBS and Ukrainian TV; the award-winning Spit It Out; and A Day’s Work, A Day’s Pay, which won the prestigious Harry Chapin award for films about hunger and poverty.
Carla Yarbrough
Carla Yarbrough is a professor at California State University Long Beach and a documentary filmmaker. She teaches courses in broadcast journalism, television production, online news writing, and courses relating to minorities and the media. Ms. Yarbrough worked in broadcast television for 15 years. She was the Director of Special Programs and Community Outreach for WTNH-TV8 (ABC) in New Haven, Connecticut. During her tenure at News Channel 8, she supervised production teams, which included directors, technical directors, AVID editors, graphic artists, and photographers. She was also the host and producer of What’s Goin’ On, a community affairs program focusing on educational, business, culture, performers and events in Connecticut for four years. Ms. Yarbrough is the Principal/Executive Producer of TenOutOfTen, LLC. Production Company.
About the Kick It Up! LA Project 2010
KICK IT UP! LA trains high-school-age girls in Los Angeles to become participant digital video journalists for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The project links under-served girls with seasoned broadcasters and journalists. Through the establishment of subsequent GlobalGirl News Bureaus, qualified graduates of the first GlobalGirl Academies will become GlobalGirl Reporters, who will develop and produce video content for distribution via cell phone, internet, and digital technology during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
