LATEST PROJECTS
Project |01
National Conference for Media Reform
April 2013
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At the National Conference for Media Reform, we learned about today’s pressing media and technology issues, met amazing activists from around the country and built new skills — all while experiencing the fantastic programming we at Free Press lined up for everyone. Click on the title to see more of all the amazingness that occurred in Denver.
May 2012
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Exploring Facebook's Relationship to Parental Attachment, Independence, & Academic Adjustment of College Students. Click here for the full text.
Net Impact Consulting Challenge:
Amherst Media as an Apple Authorized Training Center
January 2012
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In this challenge, my colleague, Nick Russo, and I acted as business consultants for Amherst Media over a month long period and developed sound business and internal policy recommendations regarding their status as Western Mass' only Apple Authorized Training Center. We presented our findings and recommendations to six judges in a competition put on by Net Impact, a group within UMass Amherst's Isenberg School of Management MBA program, competing against other teams, and won first prize. Check out the prezi and recorded presentation! And click here to see the official BLOG.
Project |02
Project |03
August 2012
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Before I got hired at Free Press I started as a "Media Action Bootcamp" intern. My mission? To organize meetings between federal legislators and the constituents of their respective states while congress members were back in their home states for summer recess. It was my job to recruit, vet, and coach citizens from Denver, Arizona, New York, and around the country about key media policy issues like municipal broadband and newspaper ownership consolidation so that they could go into these meetings prepared and poised to convince thier representatives to take a stand on these important policy issues. We were able to speak with representatives of nearly every office we reached out to, with some congress(wo)men even pledging their support! Some of the constituents even went on to write blogs for Free Press about thier experience while many others were motivated to become more politically engaged than they ever had. Click here to see a blog from my former colleague and supervisor, Mary Alice, to learn more about Free Press' In-District Meetings.
Project |04
CSS & HTML Coded e-Portfolio Website
May 2013
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Featured here is a simple website I've built, an e-Portfolio, using html coding and a CSS template. It can be viewed in this small embedded window, or more easily in a new window by clicking the blue linked text.
Before going into the field of communication or public policy, I long debated becoming a computer programmer or web designer, wondering to if perhaps I could make an equal or greater impact with such a skill set. It's no wonder my focus became communication and technology policy. Ultimately I chose the policy approach, but why not master both disciplines? After all, it can't hurt to be a nerd in a field I hope to mold and regulate to achieve maximal societal benefit. With this in mind, I took a hands-on course in my final graduate semester and got my feet wet with some database building and CSS/HTML coding. This helped me better understand the back-side of the databases I was already using at Free Press and dabble a little on the back-end of FP's drupal website. I am continuing my coding education through Code Academy online and see great potential in building this skill set over time.
Project |05
Click the title to check out the conference web page!
Database Management System
May 2013
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Another skill I picked up along the way was building relational databases. I have quite a bit of experience using databases like Windows' File Maker and Salesforce, but if needed, I can also build a simple one from scratch. Here is a fully functional database management system (multiple small databases I created that work together) I created for the Amherst Montessori School (for exercise; they already have their own.) It allows the user to enter and keep track of information on accepted students as well as donation information from alumni and friends. It is also capable of creating printable reports with the entered data.
To the left are some screen shots, but if you've got Microsoft Access on your device, feel free to take the database for a whirl yourself by downloading the file below (The password is "password").
Project |06
Mouse over the right edge to slide through pics.
OccupyResearch Survey Working Group
December 2013
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Fellow students and I contributed to the creation and pre-testing of the Occupy Research General Survey (ORGS) which was used to help gain a greater understanding of the then evolving Occupy Wall Street movement and those participating in it.
Project |07
The Cheater: A Short Narrative Film
2010
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Here's a fun little movie I made for a film class as an undergrad. It's not much (not to mention corny and zero budget), but it introduced me to script-writing, storyboarding, staging, camera use, a little directing, and most importantly editing with Final Cut Pro which all helped later on when I worked as a production assistant as an intern with the Media Education Foundation. In fact, check out their film, Flirting With Danger, I'm in the credits!
Project |08
Just a sample of my work. To see more or discuss possible work >>
The Public Economics of Municipal Broadband: A Brief Analysis & Literature Review
2013
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Being a bit of a communication and tech policy nerd and working at Free Press, I grew to become quite a big supporter of municipal broadband. What does that mean? Well, basically we don't need to rely on giant media corporations like Verizon and Comcast to provide us internet service and manage the infrastructure--towns can choose to build and use their own high speed internet networks. And a lot of towns have done so and been able to provide MUCH faster, more reliable, and less expensive service. As part of my job at Free Press we helped fight back against lobbyists from those big companies that were getting laws passed to make it illegal for towns to build their own broadband services. WHY? Well, because Verizon and Comcast are Goliaths and they want to crush the competition. It's not fair and that's why we fought back. To learn more about community broadband networks, go HERE.
Project |09
Reducing Excessive Plate Waste in Holyoke Public Schools
2013
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As policy analysts, my team of fellow Master's candidates and I put together this report for Catherine Sands and the Holyoke School Food Task Force to help them develop ways to increase nutritional intake for the kids within the Holyoke Public School system by providing policy recomendations for within the structure of the school as well as avenues to pursue larger changes in school food policy on the state and federal levels.
The report and the presentation "prezi" are embeded right here!
Project |10
Information Communication Technologies, Inequality, and Civic Competence: A Literature Review and Analysis
2013
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The conclusion of this review argues that by integrating more content into secondary school curricula that focuses on teaching communicaiton technologies as a means for political socialization, adolescents can develop strong civic and political attitudes early on, leading to greater civic competence as they become capable and democratically active adults. A policy driven, systematic approach to integrating ICTs into secondary schools to foster political socialization could also, in theory, reduce civic competence disparities that mirror preexisting social and economic inequalities.
Project |11
"Wilmington W.I.N.s!": A Strategic Communication Campaign Plan.
2013
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This is a a strategic communication campaign plan I drafted to describe what I would do to help Wilmington, MA (my home town) adopt and create a municipal broadband network. It details the process of gaining public support, passing the town law, and how much money it would save over continuing to pay for slowing broadband service from Verizon and Comcast. I used a tool called Spitfire Smart Chart to create this outline. There are no plans in place as of yet to actually push these measures forward in Wilmington, although it could theoretically be undertaken at any time.
Project |12