Center for Community Media

Steven Addair

Steven Addair is an Emmy nominated and award-winning filmmaker, Steven has spent 20 years as a director, producer, DP, writer, and editor. His knowledge and expertise in digital cinema, VFX, animation, 3D, and film has served numerous productions, ranging from studio feature films to large scale advertising campaigns. He is an alumnus of GovState Media Communication M.A. (‘98).

Nuha Abdessalam

Nuha Abdessalam is a Media Studies student in her senior year. She is currently a staff writer for the Phoenix and previously served as a production intern with the Southland Health and Wellness Hour podcast.

Steve Edwards

Steve Edwards is an award winning former reporter, interviewer, and program host whose work has appeared on the BBC, Bloomberg News, PBS, WBEZ, and numerous public media outlets nationwide. He has served as Chief Content Officer of WBEZ Chicago Public Media, Executive Director of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, and as a Board member of the Chicago-based human-rights reporting organization, Invisible Institute.

Summer Fields Hayda

Summer Fields Hayda, Senior Account Executive, Commercial at Movable Ink. She previously served as the Engagement Manager and Growth Lead at Hearken. Summer has roots in the Southland, having grown up in Richton Park (her grandfather, Rudy Banovich, served as the mayor in the 90s) and attended Marian Catholic H.S. before earning her B.A. in sociology from the University of Chicago. Her professional background spans sales, revenue leadership/ enablement, and client success in SaaS/startups. In her capacity as an Advisory Board member, Summer served as a facilitator at the Red Summer: Beyond Conversation community discussion on March 26, 2022.

Julian Green

Julian Green is the Senior Vice President of Communications and Community Affairs at Chicago Cubs responsible for directing the Chicago Cubs corporate and non-baseball communications efforts, while helping to bolster the team’s community relations efforts across the city.

Dr. Deborah James

Dr. Deborah James, Interim Chair, Division of Arts and Letters, College of Arts and Sciences at GovState. Dr. James holds a Ph.D. in Communication with a focus on emerging cross-platform documentaries, the intersection between public memory and transnational lived experience, and women's production practices. She is the founder of the Center for Community Media and the immediate past director. James is a 2019 National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) Faculty Fellow. She is a Part 107 certified FAA Small Unmanned Aircraft Remote Pilot and holds Open Water SCUBA certification with PADI.

Charles Jefferson Jr.

Charles Jefferson Jr. is the Director of Marketing and Communications for the National Setting of the United Church of Christ (UCC) in Cleveland, Ohio. He served as a staff advisor to the Columbia College Chronicle, advised a high school newspaper, and worked in the youth advocacy space. He occasionally writes freelance articles for the Gateway Journalism Review. In his capacity as an Advisory Board member, he serves on the Program Committee and advises the new GSUTV: The place for news, sports, and culture cable show, which started broadcasting on Homewood Public Access TV Comcast channel 19 on May 3, 2022.

Julie Keck

Julie Keck is a filmmaker and communications consultant. She is a Consulting Producer for the Storytelling initiatives of Nia Tero, a global nonprofit supporting Indigenous land guardianship, and a co-founder of Breaking Light Studio (formerly OTV Studio), an incubator for intersectional artists seeking sustainable careers in the film/TV industry. She has produced over 20 web series and two features, as well as being the co-author of Social Media Charm School, a guide to film marketing for creative entrepreneurs, with Jess King. She studied psychology at Knox College and earned her Sustainable Innovation MBA from the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business.

Natalie Bauer Luce

Natalie Bauer Luce is Executive Vice President & Partner of the Chicago-based public affairs firm Culloton + Bauer Luce. Her experience in communications and public affairs includes extensive work at the intersection of government, law, politics, and business, including serving as chief communications strategist for former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. She began her career as a journalist covering government and politics for dailies including the Chicago Tribune and Daily Herald, and as a researcher for CBS-affiliate WBBM’s award-winning investigations team. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and a Poynter Institute Fellow.

Micah Materre

Micah Materre is an Emmy award winning journalist and anchor of the WGN Evening News at Five and Six and the WGN News at Nine and Ten. Before being appointed anchor of the WGN News at Nine in 2009, she was co-anchor of WGN Midday News from January 2003 to October 2009.

Dr. Novia Pagone

Dr. Novia Pagone was appointed Interim Director of the CCM in May 2022. She holds a PhD in Hispanic Studies from the University of Chicago with a focus on cultural studies, feminist media theories/practices, and democracy in Spain and Latin America. Dr. Pagone serves as the principal investigator for the Department of Education Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language grant “Making Spanish and Global Studies Accessible to All.” Before joining GovState, she served as an Associate Dean of Students, academic and career advisor, and worked in Illinois government and politics.

Mago Torres

Mago Torres is an investigative journalist, with a specialty in research and data. She is program director of the Data-Driven Reporting Project (DDRP) at Northwestern University and data editor with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). She has worked for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) as a data researcher on the investigations Pandora Papers, FinCEN Files, Luanda Leaks, and the Pulitzer winner Panama Papers. She also co-led the investigation “El país de las dos mil fosas” and was a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford. She holds a PhD in Humanistic Studies and was a professor of journalism and communication at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City before becoming a full-time journalist.