Contact Us
|
General: info@transmissionproject.org Fax: (617) 287-7274 |
Transmission Project CPCS / UMass Boston 100 Morrissey Blvd. Boston, MA 02125-3393 |
Belinda Rawlins Executive Director
Belinda has been active in the community media and technology movement for over 25 years. She started out at an all-volunteer radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she programmed a late night radio show for 18 years and began to understand the importance of community based media in society.
She turned her back on working for The Man and moved on to non-profit work, starting with the Cincinnati Art Museum and moving on to Media Bridges Cincinnati, which she transformed from a traditional public access television model into a media arts education center. Later, Rawlins took on a transitional role as the Executive Director of the New Mexico Media Literacy Project, helping to strengthen the organization during the founding director’s retirement.
But the siren song of community radio was strong drawing Rawlins to the rocky cliffs of Northern California to head up Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, a rural community radio network with six facilities, three frequencies, and 125 volunteers.
Making her grand return to the east coast, Belinda became the Executive Director of the Transmission Project in 2008. Here she loves working with media and technology non-profits across the nation to build their capacity to better serve their communities.
Belinda serves on the Board for the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) and is trained as a facilitator in the Technology of Participation and as an Interim Executive Leader. And she continues as a volunteer programmer, hosting her weekly radio show, Bubbles in the Think Tank.
Ben Sheldon Program Director
Ben served 3 years as an AmeriCorps*VISTA member in a variety of organizations and communities in and around Boston. An engineer at heart, Ben believes in the transformative power of proper planning, practical technology and passionate people within organizations, communities and social-causes.
Billy Brown VISTA Leader East
An Art major from Wake Forest University, Billy went in to the highly competitive stuffed robot business after graduation. Billy soon discovered however, that he much preferred creating things over trying to sell them. After a few months of art and indecision, he committed to a year of service. While searching for a program to join he stumbled upon the Digital Arts Service Corps, a perfect match for Billy since he had a background in graphic and web design. He served his first year in New Orleans at a food pantry and liked it so much he signed up for a second year as a VISTA Leader.
Erica Jones VISTA Leader West
The world of academia has always been a huge part of Erica’s life. She obtained her degree in Media Studies at SUNY in Oneonta, NY and her Masters degree in Communication Studies at Suffolk University. Erica is passionate about media reform, media literacy and community access to media. After stumbling upon the Digital Arts Service Corps, she knew this was a unique opportunity and applied to be a VISTA. For Erica, this has been a wonderful challenge to apply her knowledge while promoting the use of media & technology to alleviate poverty & increase underrepresented voices in the communities, specifically in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Public Access TV Station. This connection motivated her to serve another year as a VISTA Leader.
Howie Fisher VISTA
Howie evaluates the Transmission Project’s ten years of building public media infrastructure. With an eye to the future of service-based models of capacity building in media and technology nonprofits, he conducts research projects that assess the state of the field today and synthesize the accumulated wisdom of Transmission Project’s ten years of work.
Reebee Garofalo Primary Investigator
From the production of benefit concerts to the study of music as a social indicator, Reebee Garofalo has promoted the use of music as a community resource and an educational tool. Since 1978, Garofalo has taught at UMass Boston, where he is affiliated with the College of Public and Community Service and the American Studies Program. His most recent book is Rockin’ Out: Popular Music in the USA. He has written numerous articles on copyright and digital downloading, racism, censorship, the political uses of music, and the globalization of the music industry for popular as well as scholarly publications and has lectured internationally on a broad range of subjects relating to the operations of the music industry. Garofalo has been active in promoting popular music studies internationally, as a member of the Executive Committee and past Chairperson of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music-US, and an editor for several popular music journals, including the Journal of Popular Music Studies. At the local level, Garofalo serves on the organizing committee for the HONK! Festival, an annual gathering of activist street bands in Somerville. For relaxation, he enjoys drumming and singing with the Blue Suede Boppers, a fifties rock ‘n’ roll band, and marching with the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band, a New Orleans-style brass band.