Empowering Democracy through Community Media, A #BHeard Town Hall

Mike Wassenaar is the President and CEO of the Alliance for Community Media and its Foundation. He advocates on behalf of community media operations before the FCC, Congress, and state legislatures, and supports the educational and professional development of community media operations across the United States.

Mike has worked in community media for thirty years in both television and radio and got his start in media working in youth radio. Prior to the Alliance, he served as Executive Director at SPNN in St Paul MN, where he built projects supporting digital literacy, youth development and media empowerment and diversity and community voice.

Mike currently works and lives in the Washington DC area.

Errol Louis is the National Political Anchor of Spectrum News, where he hosts “The Big Deal with Errol Louis,” a weekly look at the issues shaping American society during the race to the White House. He also hosts "Inside City Hall," a nightly prime-time show about New York City politics, featuring interviews with top political and cultural leaders.

Louis has conducted interviews with leading political figures including ex-presidents Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton and presidential candidates including Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. He has moderated dozens of debates between candidates for state and local offices in New York and in 2016 was a questioner in the final presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

Louis is a longtime CNN Contributor and writes regularly for CNN.com, as well as a weekly column for New York Magazine on a range of political and social affairs.

Astrudge McLean has been a longtime community producer at BRIC, since its earlier days when it was known as BCAT. At BRIC, she is best known for producing, directing, and editing the Adopting Teens and Tweens show, for which she received a BRIC producer award. She also participated in the BRIC Short Doc Program, which led her to produce two documentaries.

When she is not juggling various jobs to make a living like all artists do, she currently works as an independent stage manager and, in the field of talent logistics for a variety of television shows. These shows include The Grammy, VMA, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, American Music Awards, CNN Heroes, Global Citizen, Black Girl Rock, BET Honors, Grammy Salutes, Spike TV award, TV Land Awards, Tony's Award, Emmy's Award, Steve Harvey New Years Eve, and Teen Choice among others. Moreover, she also holds the position of Director of the NYC Horror Film Virtual Festival, which has been held every December in NYC from 2020 to 2023, Additionally and she is responsible for designing many of the associated marketing materials.

Leon Taylor began his 21-year public access career in December of 2002, driven by a passion for being part of a media organization that purposefully impacts people in a positive way. His journey in public access started at BCAT, which then became BRIC, Brooklyn’s public access television station. Starting as a Traffic Assistant, Leon went on to serve the Brooklyn community in various roles, including Program Coordinator, Senior Liaison for Community Producers, and Manager of Community Producer Services. During his 15 years at BRIC, Leon worked to ensure that community members were valued, had the support they needed, and were celebrated in their use of the community media services provided at BRIC. One of the most notable initiatives enacted by Leon was the “B Scene” screening series, the first public screening series featuring work produced at BRIC by public access producers. “B Scene” highlighted LGBTQ producers, women in media, African American filmmakers, and other members of the diverse community creating content at BRIC.

In 2018, Leon left BRIC to join Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) as the Manager of Production and Facilitation. In this position, Leon was responsible for scheduling production spaces and MNN production personnel to ensure that community media makers were supported and successful in creating media. During New York City’s COVID lockdown, Leon established “create from home” media experiences for MNN producers, keeping them producing media and innovatively involving his staff in engaging with the community in productive ways during this difficult period. This included staff-produced short videos focused on community media makers, highlighting their journey as MNN community producers, and interviews documenting their experiences during COVID. These initiatives kept MNN community producers engaged in production and created content that was uniquely local, diverse, and reflective of the value of public access in the media landscape.

In September 2023, Leon returned to BRIC as the Director of Community Media. In this short time, Leon has worked with the BRIC team to begin designing BRIC’s Community Media Future. Since September, BRIC’s Community Media team has restructured classes to provide community users with faster access to media resources and begun evaluating upgrades for equipment and platforms for content distribution.

Leon has always been uniquely focused on community service. This dedication stems from two key experiences. The first is the respect and dedication shown to him by a teacher who diagnosed him with dyslexia in grade school. Leon has always “paid forward” that kindness in how he treats every community member he has encountered at a public access station. The second is his background from a community that is often in the media but has traditionally had very little access to media education and production tools. Leon works in public access to provide all communities with a media space that can make a difference, empowering people who don’t traditionally have a voice in media.

Maritza Carmona is a dynamic leader and passionate advocate within New York City’s vibrant arts & culture sector. She has over a decade of experience working with cultural, media and parks organizations.

Currently, she leads BRIC Arts Media’s government affairs department, overseeing all city, state, and federal relationships, fundraising and partnerships, which bring in approximately $12M each year. She leads BRIC’s community media and arts advocacy strategy and is working tirelessly to elevate the profile of community media across New York City and New York State.

Prior to her role at BRIC, Carmona oversaw the government and community affairs portfolio at Friends of the High Line where she raised over $15M for the renovations and expansion of the iconic park. Maritza began her career at El Museo del Barrio where she worked at the intersection of cultural organizing, programming and community development in partnership with the public and private sectors.

As a proud NYC native & resident, Carmona serves on the Queens Community Board 5 representing the neighborhoods of Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth, and Middle Village. Drawing from her lived-experience as the daughter of Colombian immigrants, Carmona believes in the power of cultural diplomacy and media to connect, educate and empower communities. Maritza graduated from the City University of New York.

Garry Pierre-Pierre, a Pulitzer Prize-winning multimedia journalist, is a leading voice on Haiti, the Haitian diaspora and community media. Pierre-Pierre founded and serves as publisher of The Haitian Times, which provides quality, nuanced information about Haiti and its diaspora. He was also a Sulzberger Executive Leadership fellow at Columbia University, where he explored ways to serve the Haitian diaspora worldwide.

A former reporter at The New York Times, where he won a Pulitzer Prize, Pierre-Pierre is a recognized leader in media entrepreneurship circles. He is the co-founder and first executive director of the Center for Community Media at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. In 2011, he was elected president of the New York Press Association, the first person of color to serve in that role.

Pierre-Pierre’s works include “30 Seconds: The Quake that Destroyed Haiti,” a book of photography about Haiti’s 2010 earthquake. His contributions have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Miami Herald, Essence, The Griot and The Root – among countless outlets. Pierre-Pierre is a fixture on major TV and cable networks, often called upon to provide context and nuance about Haiti. His weekly column appears on haitiantimes.com.