About Sasha Costanza-Chock, Chris Schweidler, Teresa Basilio, Meghan McDermott, Puck Lo, & Mara Ortenburger

Sasha Costanza-Chock is a scholar and media maker who works in the interrelated areas of social movements and information and communication technologies; participatory technology design and community based participatory research; and the transnational movement for media justice and communication rights, including comunicación populár. He holds a Ph.D. from the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California, where he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate. He is also a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. While living in Los Angeles, he worked on a variety of civic media projects with community-based organizations, including the award-winning VozMob.net platform. More information about Sasha's work can be found at schock.cc.

Chris Schweidler is a long-time practitioner and advocate of research by and for grassroots-led movements for social justice. She works to support social justice advocacy through community-led research and popular education. She is co-founder and co-owner of Research Action Design (RAD), a worker-owned cooperative that partners with grassroots organizations on research, tech and media for their organizing campaigns. She holds a master's degree in history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania, and a master of public health degree in epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley.

Teresa Basilio is co-director of the Global Action Project, which works with young people most affected by injustice to build the knowledge, tools, and relationships needed to create media for community power, cultural expression, and political change. She holds a master's degree in international and transcultural studies from Teachers College of Columbia University.

Meghan McDermott has been a supporter of young people’s positive development through media, technology, and the arts for nearly 20 years. After her tenure as a researcher with the EDC Center for Children & Technology, Meghan led Global Action Project from 2003-2013, leading implementation of its social change mission and strengthening G.A.P.’s position as a national leader in the field of youth media. She has served as an advisor for the Youth Media Learning Network, the Youth Media Reporter, as well as joined grant-making panels for NYSCA, the Smithsonian, and the NEA. Meghan received her masters in education from Harvard and has continued to develop her leadership through participation in NAMAC’s Media Arts Leadership Institute, Columbia University’s Institute for Non-Profit Management, the Rockwood Leadership Institute, and most recently as a Coro Fellow.

Puck Lo writes and makes films about political struggles, diaspora, intersections of race, gender, class — and all things hidden in plain sight. Puck has published work in Al Jazeera America and The Nation, and was a staff producer for two nationally syndicated radio shows. She co-founded the Social Movements Oral History Tour, which recorded the testimonies and reflections of migrant, labor and queer organizers across North America. Puck finished a master’s degree at the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, and is pursuing an MFA in documentary film at Stanford University.

Mara Ortenburger is a researcher at Research Action Design. She holds a master's degree in public health from the University of California at Los Angeles.