Julie Frechette; Massachusetts, United States; President
Julie Frechette, Ph.D., is Professor of Communication at Worcester State University, Worcester, MA. Her book, Developing Media Literacy in Cyberspace (Praeger Press, 2002), was among the first to explore the “new multiple literacies” approach for the digital age. She is the author of numerous articles on media literacy and feminism, and is co-author of the book Media In Society (Bedford/ St. Martin, 2014). With Rob Williams, Julie is co-editor of Media Education for a Digital Generation (Routledge, 2015).

Ben Boyington; New Hampshire, United States; Vice-President
Veteran high school teacher and consultant Ben Boyington, M.Ed., founded his high-school media studies work on the idea that skepticism and activism are essential to citizenship. He believes that depth of understanding comes from integration, design, and teaching others, and that heutagogy is more important than pedagogy. Boyington has presented on media literacy education and related topics at conferences on both coasts of the United States. He is also the coordinator of the Global Critical Media Literacy Project. His research into the 1:1 screen initiative (wherein each student in a school is supplied with an Internet-enabled screen) is published in Media Education for a Digital Generation (Routledge, 2015).

Kendra Hodgson; Massachusetts, United States; Secretary
Kendra Hodgson is the Director of Marketing & Distribution at the nonprofit Media Education Foundation (MEF) in Northampton, Mass., where she has been employed for 17½ years. She oversees all aspects of marketing, distribution, and acquisitions at MEF and is intimately involved in managing operations. She has conducted media literacy workshops at various conferences and schools and has served as a media literacy consultant for schools in Western Massachusetts. From 1997 to 2001, she was a high school English teacher at Punahou School (Honolulu). While there, she taught an elective called Identity & Culture, which she redesigned to include a heavy emphasis on media representations of race, gender, and class and their impact on individuals and society. She has worked with adolescents in various contexts —- as a ropes course instructor, a wilderness trip leader, a track/cross-country coach, an Eating Disorder Awareness Week coordinator, and a faculty advisor for Punahou School’s peer helping camp program. Kendra received her B.A. in English with a concentration in Urban Education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997 and is currently working on a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and Philanthropy at Bay Path University. She is passionate about social justice — particularly in finding innovative ways to challenge institutional racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia — and healing the effects of personal and collective trauma. And she is deeply committed to building the capacity of nonprofit organizations and scaling social impact.

Andrea M. Bergstrom; South Carolina, United States
Andrea M. Bergstrom completed her Doctorate of Philosophy in Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2011) and is currently an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies in the Department of Communication, Media, & Culture at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C. Dr. Bergstrom is coauthor of multiple journal articles examining media literacy and media representations. Additionally, she is coauthor of the book The O.C.: A Critical Understanding (Lexington Books, 2013) as well as multiple encyclopedia entries and book chapters. Dr. Bergstrom has presented her work on media literacy, media effects, and representations within popular culture at regional, national, and international conferences. In addition to media literacy, her research interests include communication and identity formation, media effects, and media representations of gender, race, class and sexuality.

Lori Bindig Yousman; Connecticut, United States
Lori Bindig Yousman, Ph.D., is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Communication Studies in the School of Communication, Media, and the Arts at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. She earned her doctorate in communication and an advanced graduate certificate in feminist theory from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research, presented widely and published in a variety of journals and texts, focuses on critical cultural studies and media literacy, particularly the construction and commodification of young femininity. Dr. Bindig Yousman is the author of Dawson’s Creek: A Critical Understanding (Lexington Books, 2008), Gossip Girl: A Critical Understanding (Lexington Books, 2015) and coauthor of The O.C.: A Critical Understanding (Lexington Books, 2013) as well as co-editor of Gender, Race, and Class in Media, 5^th edition (Sage, 2018).

Allison Butler; Massachusetts, United States
Allison Butler is a lecturer-advisor and the director of the Media Literacy Certificate Program in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she teaches courses on cultural studies, critical media literacy, and representations of education in the media. Butler directs the grassroots organization Mass Media Literacy, where she develops legislation, teacher training, and curriculum for the inclusion of comprehensive media literacy in Massachusetts K-12 public schools. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from New York University. She is the author of numerous articles and two books on media literacy, Media Education Goes to School (Peter Lang, 2010) and Majoring in Change (Peter Lang, 2012).

Gordon Glover; Vermont, United States
Gordon Glover is a critical multi-mediator who has taught students at every level from pre-kindergarten through graduate school. Formally schooled as a fine artist in film and animation, he has gravitated to memetics and media studies. He has been an Open Society Institute Fellow, founding board member of Wide Angle Community Media, and Pioneer of Media Activism at Towson University, Champlain College, and Burlington College.

Nolan Higdon; California, United States
Dr. Nolan Higdon is a History and Media Studies Lecturer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Higdon is the co-host of the podcast Along The Line and an author of numerous book chapters, articles, and blog posts. He is a co-author of the 2019 United States of Distraction with Mickey Huff. He is a former co-host of the Project Censored radio show. He sits on the boards of the Media Freedom Foundation (projectcensored.org), the Action Coalition for Media Education, and the Northwest Alliance For Alternative Media And Education (http://naame.org). He is a co-founding member of the Global Critical Media Literacy Project (www.gcml.org). He is a longtime contributing author to Project Censored, a member of the Union for Democratic Communication steering committee, and a former advisor to the Media Literacy and Digital Culture graduate program at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. His academic work focuses primarily on news media, propaganda, critical media literacy, and social justice pedagogies. He has been a guest commentator for news media outlets such as The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Univision, CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox.

Sherell A. McArthur; Georgia, United States
Sherell A. McArthur, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia. She strives to shape the national conversation on educational justice for Black girls, who have been historically underserved, and to support the next generation of university students who are seeking practical and intellectual pathways to meet some of the most pressing challenges encountered in urban schools. She specifically argues for the critical importance and value of educators utilizing critical media literacy to educate students and themselves on their biases. She sits on the Board of Directors for Fertile Ground, a nonprofit mentoring organization for girls, is the Program Chair for the Hip Hop Theories, Praxis & Pedagogies special interest group for the American Educational Research Association, and regularly facilitates critical media literacy collectives for Black girls. She has published several book chapters and peer-reviewed articles, and speaks on a national platform on the socioemotional wellbeing, identity construction, and influence of popular culture on Black girls.

Bill Yousman; Connecticut, United States
Bill Yousman, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication, Media, and the Arts at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.  He is the former managing director of the Media Education Foundation and he has published numerous journal articles and anthology chapters on media literacy and popular culture. Bill is the author of Prime Time Prisons on U.S. Television: Representation of Incarceration (Peter Lang, 2009) and The Spike Lee Enigma: Challenge and Incorporation in Media Culture (Peter Lang, 2014), and a co-editor of Gender, Race and Class in Media (Sage, 2017). He earned his doctorate in media studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.