Our Collaborators

Renaissance Journalism collaborates with a broad range of mainstream and community news media outlets, nonprofit organizations, and leading trainers and consultants with expertise in social media, technology, multimedia and new media. Here is a partial list of our collaborators and partnering organizations.

Amara Aguilar is an assistant professor of multimedia at Pierce College in Los Angeles, specializing in multimedia storytelling, podcasting, online journalism and media design.

Tanja Aitamurta, is a visiting researcher at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford and a blogger for Huffington Post.

Nicole Allensworth is a librarian for Law, Journalism and Communication Studies at San Francisco State University, specializing in data journalism.

Staci Baird, a new media specialist, is the Internet and social media strategist for the Stanford School of Engineering.

Frank Bass is the data editor in Bloomberg News’ Washington bureau and author of the e-book, “Health Is Everything: Using Data to Report to Great Stories on Your Community Health.”

Justin Beck is a multimedia producer and lecturer at San Francisco State who specializes in real-time reporting, photography and radio journalism.

Kwan Booth is a co-founder of Oakland Local, where he leads the Oakland Local Academy. He is a journalist, media consultant and trainer for the Knight Digital Media Center and Netsquared.

Sean Connelley, a design technologist at Stamen Design, is a photojournalist, interactive storyteller and front-end programmer.

Amy Gahran is an independent journalist and media consultant.

Jesse Garnier, a senior Web developer at Stanford University’s Simbios, is a former lecturer in Web design and multimedia at San Francisco State University.

Robert Hernandez is an assistant professor of professional practice at USC Annenberg’s School of Communication and Journalism, specializing in Web journalism and crowd-sourcing.

JD Lasica is a social media expert, online journalist, blogger and founder of Socialbrite, which consults with nonprofits and social change organizations on social media strategies.

Michelle Levander is the director of the USC Annenberg California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships; editor of ReportingonHealth.org; and co-editor of the Boyle Heights Beat

Eva Martinez is the former executive director of El Tecolote/Acción Latina. She is currently a freelance writer, editor and consultant.

Manuel Maqueda is the founder of Nuestra Voz, a nonprofit organization that helps Spanish speakers participate in the online conversation and director for the Americas of Periodismo Ciudadano.com, a leading news source and resource on citizen journalism.

Susan Mernit, innovator, media entrepreneur and consultant, is the founder and editor of OaklandLocal.com, a news and community hub.

Beth Renneisen is an award-winning graphic and information designer who teaches publication design and visual storytelling at San Francisco State. A registered Adobe and Apple developer, she has created an interactive magazine app for the iPad.

Ellen Schneider is the founder and executive director of Active Voice and the former executive producer of PBS’ documentary series, P.O.V.

Marc Smolowitz is an Academy Award-nominated film, television and new media producer (“The Power of Two” 2011, “The Weather Underground” 2003, “Trembling Before G-d” 2001) and a lecturer in the Film and Digital Media Department at UC Santa Cruz.

De Tran is the founding publisher and editor of VTimes, a Vietnamese-language newspaper in Silicon Valley. Previously he was the founding publisher and editor of Viet Mercury, the Vietnamese-language weekly published by the San Jose Mercury News.

Sharon Vaknin is a video host and editor at CNET, where she covers technology tutorials and guides. She has appeared as a tech expert on The Today Show, CBS News, NPR, CBS Radio, and ABC Bay Area.

Yumi Wilson, is an assistant professor of journalism at San Francisco State University, where she teaches a variety of writing courses. She is a blogger for SFGate and a former reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle.

 

Partnering Organizations

AAPIP (Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy) AAPIP is a national membership and philanthropic advocacy organization dedicated to advancing philanthropy and Asian American/Pacific Islander communities.

Active Voice, communications strategists who harness the power of film, television and multimedia to spark social change.

Aspen Institute strives to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society; and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues.

BAVC (Bay Area Video Coalition) provides training and access to emerging media technologies for public media producers, independent artists, at-risk youth and other non-profit organizations.

Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism, a program at San Francisco State University, seeks to make journalism more inclusive by developing programs and conducting research aimed at recruiting, retaining and revitalizing journalists and journalism educators.

Communications Consortium and Media Center is a public interest media center dedicated to helping nonprofit organizations use media and new technologies as tools for public education and policy change.

New America Media is the country’s first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2,000 ethnic news organizations.

Nuestra Voz is a nonprofit organization that helps Spanish speakers participate actively in the online conversation, with a focus on citizen journalism, multimedia and social media.

Oakland Local, a hyper-local news site serving Oakland, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media and capacity-building educational organization that promotes civic engagement and discourse on local issues.

San Francisco State University Journalism Department

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism