STAFF
George Shirk, Editor
George’s 30-year career includes reporting for the Des Moines Register and Tribune, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, San Jose Mercury News and San Francisco Chronicle. Online, he assumed executive roles as founding Content Director at the leading metro-news Web site SFGate.com, and as Editor-in-Chief at Wired News, the online news arm of Wired magazine. His work with Wired sent him overseas to set up bureaus in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Tokyo and Taiwan. More recently, he was Regional Content Director for Examiner.com’s San Francisco office; as part of a four-person SEO and network-building team, he helped Examiner.com win an August 2009 Neilson rating as the nation’s fastest-growing news Web site. He is also on the Professional Advisory Board at the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and has taught at City College of San Francisco and the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.
Josh Wilson, Publisher
Josh is one of the co-founders of Independent Arts & Media, a San Francisco nonprofit organization that expands dialogue in our democracy by supporting independent media producers and culture makers. He also founded Newsdesk.org, a commercial-free journalism project covering “important but overlooked news.” He is a longtime producer, DJ and host at the award-winning community radio station KUSF-FM, and held various positions there, including Community Affairs Director and Program Coordinator. A professional journalist and editor, Josh has worked for SFGate.com, Meredith Corporation, and Wired magazine, and as a freelancer for the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and other publications. He is a 2010 WeMedia fellow, a 2009 Ashoka Changemaker finalist, a 2008 Writer-in-Residence at the Mesa Refuge on Tomales Bay (topic: “New Public Media”).
Clarisa Morales Roberts, Executive Director, Independent Arts & Media
Clarisa has worked in the nonprofit sector since 2000. Prior to leading Indy Arts, Clarisa was Director of Vallejo Community Access Television. She specializes in project and organization development, and has worked as a staffmember and consultant for many nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area. She is a graduate of Sonoma State University with a B.A. in Liberal Arts, and attended Graduate School at San Francisco State University where she studied Humanities, focusing on Community Narrative. Prior to her work in nonprofits, Clarisa served in the United States Army for 9 years, where she received training in linguistics, communications and media development.
BOARD OF ADVISERS
John Coate
General Manager/Executive Director, KZYX-FM/Mendocino County Public Broadcasting; Founder/former General Manager, SFGate.com.
Susan Mernit
Project Director, Oakland Local; online strategist & consultant.
Chris Paterson
Senior Lecturer, Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds, U.K.
Dr. J. Michael Robertson
Professor of Communications, University of San Francisco; former reporter, San Francisco Chronicle.
Barry Parr
Founder, The Mercury Center (now MercuryNews.com); Founder and Editor, Coastsider.com; former consultant, Jupiter Media; Principal, MediaSavvy.com.
Jon Rochmis
Journalism Lecturer, City College of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, Skyline College; freelance journalist and editor; former Editor-in-Chief, Wired News; former editor, SFGate.com.
Ricardo Sandoval-Palos
City Editor, Sacramento Bee; President, Northern California Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists; Vice-Chair, SPJ International Journalism Committee.
Tom Stites
President, The Banyan Project; former publisher, UU World (Unitarian Universalist magazine); consultant, Center for Public Integrity; Various editorial positions with The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Kansas City Times, Newsday, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Michael Stoll
Project Director, The Public Press; Journalism Lecturer, University of San Francisco; former Program Director, GradetheNews.org; former City Editor, San Francisco Examiner.
Yumi Wilson
Professor of Journalism, San Francisco State University; former reporter, editor and Assistant Ombudsman, San Francisco Chronicle.
