Board of Directors

Alison Brzenchek, Vice President

Alison Brzenchek is a doctoral student in communication at University of Massachusetts and the founder of RECLAIM Media Literacy Services. Prior to starting her work as a doctoral student, Alison taught for three years as an Adjunct Faculty member in the Women's Studies Department at the University of Michigan. Ms. Brzenchek has presented at regional and national conferences regarding her prevention research and media literacy programming.

Bill Densmore

Bill Densmore is director/editor of the Media Giraffe Project at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The MGP, launched in March, 2005, is an effort to find and spotlight individuals making sustainable, innovative use of media (old and new) to foster participatory democracy and community.

Josh Golin

I am Program Manager of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a national coalition that counters the harmful effects of marketing to children through advocacy, education, and research. (CCFC is a member of ACME and vice-versa.) I’ve also worked several years in the media industry (for Miramax Films) and spent year teaching first grade in New York City. I have a Master’s in Film Studies from the University of Iowa and am currently finishing up a 2nd MA in Child Development and Urban and Environmental Policy at Tufts University.

Bob McCannon, Co - President

A founder and the Executive Director of the New Mexico Media Literacy Project for 12 years, I developed their ground-breaking media skills, analysis, and prevention curricula as well as building the organization to eight employees. I presented and did workshops in every NM school district, almost all of the 50 states and many countries. When I retired from NMMLP in 2005, I left it with eight employees and $800,000 in cash assets. Seeing the need for an action-oriented media education organization that was free of Big Media, I co-founded ACME in 2002 and am very active as Vice-President. I do workshops and keynotes on a selective basis.

Kendra Olson Hodgson

Kendra Olson Hodgson is the Operations Manager & Marketing Director at the Media Education Foundation (Northampton, MA). She has been with MEF since 2001, her credits including Associate Producer of MEF films "Captive Audience: Advertising Invades the Classroom" and "Beyond the Frame: Alternative Perspectives on the War on Terrorism," as well as Author of the study guide for Jean Kilbourne's popular film "Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising's Image of Women." Kendra lives in Springfield, MA and takes long walks with her husband and dog every day that it is possible. She and is also a Certified Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy Practitioner.

Veda E. Renfrow, Treasurer

Veda E. Renfrow is a musician, songwriter, poet, artist, performer, activist and media creator. Veda is a graduate of the University of New Mexico, receiving a BA in Media Arts, baccalaureate honors of summa cum laude and a Michael Costello Award in Media Arts. Veda’s approach to media literacy and media education is one from the standpoint of “connection.” To understand the impact of media in our consumer culture, Veda believes “one must first understand one’s own connection to, and participation in, that media culture.” In Veda’s senior year at UNM, she was a teaching assistant in a class that focuses on gender variant representation in cinema.

Veda’s video work has been screened at numerous events including TromaDance NM, 2004 Southwest Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, IDKE6 in Chicago, IDKE7 in Winnipeg and the Southwest Center Student Film Festival (winning 2004 Best of Show).

Veda serves on the board of ACME: Action Coalition for Media Education, dating back to the 2002 Founding Summit where she assisted the conference coordinator. At the 2004 Summit when voted on as Board Member, Veda was the coordinator of the Indy Film Screenings and assisted the Summit coordinator with events and planning.

While living in New Mexico, Veda was the office coordinator for New Mexico Media Literacy Project (NMMLP) from 2002-2004, contributing to the organization’s Catalyst Institutes by organizing and facilitating discussions about televised professional wrestling and popular culture. Veda is co-producer of a video at NMMLP about the impact predatory lending, including payday and title loans, has on NM communities.

Veda’s professional background includes office and entertainment management, bookkeeping and marketing. Veda’s musical talents are available on CD, tape and vinyl with an assortment of bands, as well as self-produced recordings. Working to bring her passions together, Veda has recently been creating soundtrack and score work on a variety of video productions. Veda’s writings have been published in NMMLP’s newsletter, The State of Media Education; “Music & Media Literacy” (co-authored with Bob McCannon) and “Free Speech? Free Media? The SuperBowl, CBS and MoveOn”.

Returning to North Carolina, Veda is still submitting work to various film festivals around the world, playing in the music duo Girls Make Messes and currently teaching video and television production at a public magnet school in Raleigh, NC.

Phyllis Scrocco Zrzavy

Dr. Phyllis Zrzavy is a professor of media studies and American studies at the Fitzwater Center of Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, New Hampshire, where she teaches courses in media literacy, gender criticism, and media theory. In addition to her work in media education, she is an advisory board member to Granny's PACE, a non-profit group supporting the work of Doris "Granny D" Haddock, a New Hampshire grandmother who, in 2000, finished her walk across America to bring attention to the issue of campaign finance reform.

Sara Voorhees, Secretary

Sara Voorhees was a nationally syndicated film critic for 22 years until her retirement from television in 2002. She is on the board of directors of the Broadcast Film Critics' Association, She continues to write film reviews, and appears on television on an emergency basis. She is the author of "The Lumiere Affair" which will be published by Simon and Schuster in 2007.

Rob Williams, Co - President

Dr. Rob Williams (www.robwilliamsmedia.com) is a Vermont-based musician, historian, consultant, and media educator/maker who teaches F2F and online history and media studies courses at Champlain College and Sacred Heart University, runs a media education/video production organization called MemeFILMS (www.memefilms.org), and has served as board president of the Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME at www.acmecoalition.org) since 2002. When he is not playing with his two children, he roams the countryside with his guitar and laptop, singing and delivering multimedia keynotes and workshops on a wide variety of media-related topics.

Bill Yousman

Bill Yousman received his M.A. in Communication from the University of Hartford in 1999 and his Ph.D. from the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 2004. He has published essays in anthologies on media and popular culture as well as in several communication journals. He is the Outreach Coordinator for the Media Education Foundation and a faculty member in the Department of Communication at Central Connecticut State University.