Media Greenhouse Advisors
Michael Chihak
After a distinguished career as a news executive and journalist, Michael Chihak is in the process of reinventing himself by studying at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. Highlights from his journalistic background include working as an assistant national editor at USA Today and becoming editor and publisher of The Salinas Californian in Salinas, California and then the Tucson Citizen in Arizona. Chihak retired in 2008 and moved to San Francisco from Arizona to work for the nonprofit Communications Leadership Institute as the executive director. Currently, he is about five months into the California Culinary Academy program. He frequently blogs about his culinary exploits on ¡Que Aprovecho!, which can also be read in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Chihak said about the Media Greenhouse project: "In media now there are literally milions of websites trying new things, trying to do it differently. Traditional media are trying to convert to new media and use it to their best advantage. The finalists are established programs that have done a variety of things but are also continuing to push the edge to come through this transition."
Laura Efurd
Laura Efurd is vice president and chief community investment officer of ZeroDivide, a California-based foundation that funds technology-based social enterprises with the idea of increasing technology adoption in underserved communities as well as promoting education, economic opportunities and civic engagement. Originally from Hawaii, Efurd moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as the deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison in the Clinton administration. She also served as legislative director to Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink of Hawaii. After D.C., Efurd moved to San Francisco and joined ZeroDivide, where she has worked for seven years. At ZeroDivide, Efurd is in charge of their programs, grantmaking initiatives and policy work. ZeroDivide functions as the fiscal agent of the Renaissance Journalism Center and provides funds and resources for the Center's projects.
Efurd said about the Media Greenhouse project: "We have lots of mutual interests around promoting the use of new techonologies in media in communities. I think it aligns really well with the work that we do. The projects they're looking at really are community-based media organizations that are really trying to find a way to use new techonlogies and create more sustainability. Our work in recent years has been helping community organizations find ways to earn income and really become social enterpirises and not just dependent on grant dollars. The Center asked me to look at the projects from that perspective."
Jon Funabiki
Jon Funabiki wears many hats. Currently, Funabiki is the executive director of the RJC, as well as a journalism professor at San Francisco State University. Previously at SF State, Funabiki served as founding director of the university's Center for Integration and Improvement in Journalism. Before his responsibilities in San Francisco, Funabiki was deputy director of media, arts and culture at the Ford Foundation, where he was in charge of grantmaking initiatives in journalism. His journalistic career highlights include Pacific Rim Correspondent for The San Diego Union, reporting from Japan, South Korea, China, the Philippines and other countries.
About the Media Greenhouse winners Fuanbiki said: "By nature they are high risk. We could have chosen projects that are safe bets but the times require some real innovation. We are rewarding those who wanted to try something different."
Venise Wagner
Venise Wagner is an associate professor and the department chair of San Francisco State University's Journalism Department. She has taught Reporting, Newswriting, Ethics of Journalism, Journalism and the Mass Media and History of Journalism. This semester, she teaches a new course, Social Impact of Journalism, which is about the history, social role and function of journalism. Prior to teaching, Wagner wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner, covering issues in the black community and specializing in stories about development, education. She covered ethics and religion for other California dailies. She has also freelanced for publications including Parade, Mother Jones, and Performing Arts. She is passionate about pushing the traditional boundaries of news and how to reach people who are not often reached in the dissemination of news.
As an advisor of the Media Greenhouse project, Wagner looks forward to watching the grantee organizations experiment: "I was impressed with not just the quality but the forward thinking in all of the projects we reviewed. It's heartening to see organizations reaching out to other members of their communities."
Whitney Wilcox
As program manager of the RJC, Whitney Wilcox works closely with the executive director to implement programs to increase the capacity of individuals in community and ethnic media. Before the RJC, Wilcox was the deputy director of New Routes to Community Health, a grant program of the Benton and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations that supported collaboration between media, immigrant-led organizations and community partners to develop reporting on underreported health issues. Other previous positions include being director of a community television station, working briefly in development in a children’s hospital, and as a press assistant at the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Regarding the winners of the Media Greenhouse program, Wilcox said, "Each of these organizations is reimagining, reinventing, the way they gather and deliver news and information locally. These grants support that risktaking - in the field right now, there seem to be more questions then there are answers – we hope that through these grants, we’ll get to more answers. We’ll have a better idea about what doesn’t work so well, what does work, and how we might get there."