Our current board consists of 17 members:
Marilyn Cohen, Executive Director, was one of AME’s founding members. Marilyn has been actively involved in curriculum development, training and research focused on media literacy education since the early 90s. She also currently serves as the Director of the Northwest Center for Excellence in Media Literacy, College of Education, University of Washington. Through her work with AME and the NW Center, she has taken a leadership role in organizing and implementing a number of media literacy-based initiatives designed to grow the media literacy movement, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.
Michael Danielson, AME’s Chairperson, has been a teacher at Seattle Prep for 22 years. He has been teaching Media Literacy and Digital Citizenship for decades, but most recently in a semester course for 9th graders. He is also the EdTech director helping to train teachers and students in the best use of technology. Michael has been a writer for the Center for Media Literacy and is the current chair of Action for Media Education.
Shawn Sheller is our Vice Chair. She loves working with all people, but especially with our youth. As a national board-certified library media specialist with 35 years of teaching experience, Shawn has worked with educators to achieve their national board certification and professional certification in addition to her current, elementary teacher-librarian position in the Kent School District. With a passion for media literacy, Shawn has testified before the legislature in support of media literacy legislation, presented media literacy sessions at the Washington Library Association’s conferences and was the team lead for an OSPI media literacy grant. AME’s dedication to media literacy for all, and to codify the goals that all children become media literate, inspire me as a lifelong learner and educator.
Molly Berger is an English language arts teacher, regional and state level ELA specialist, and a professional development facilitator. At the East Valley School District in Yakima, she integrated media literacy in her middle and high school English classes. Moving to program coordination at ESD 105 in Yakima and then as an ELA specialist at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, she worked with teachers on a variety of grants and initiatives but always connected media literacy. From her master’s project on Teaching Literary Concepts through Film to her more recent work teaching research, reading images, and reading digitally, she has knowledge of and experience with the many aspects of media literacy. She has presented at the state, regional and national level on media literacy and English Language Arts topics. She has shared an open educational resource (OER) on Connected Reading in a Media Saturated World on the Washington OER Commons and taught an online class titled Reading Digitally: Exploring What We Know and What We Can Do. Now retired, Molly is continuing her work on reading images and digital texts.
Laura Axon has been a School Library Media Specialist in Portland Public Schools since 2017 and the Oregon Region 4 for the Oregon Association of School Libraries. Collaboration with the Oregon Library Association has led her to the Co-Chair of the International Relations Round Table and Co-Chair of the Middle School Oregon Reader’s Choice Committee. Laura has also provided testimony for the OLA Legistaive Committee in Salem, Oregon. She is a member of the Statewide Database Licensing Advisory Committee, and the Oregon Historical Society Teacher’s Advisory Board for the Portland History Reader Third/Fourth Grade Update. She is also endorsed as a French teacher. She has completed her own personal quadfecta of climbing Mt Hood, Mt St Helens, Running the Hood to Coast and the Portland Marathon.
Ethan Delavan is the Director of Technology at The Bush School, a K-12 independent school. Trained as a drama teacher, Ethan began integrating media and technology into his classes and made the switch to teaching technology full time to middle school students. His latest passion is helping colleagues to bring technology into student experience to further creativity and collaboration. He has served on the boards of 911 Media Arts Center and the National Association for Media Literacy Education.
Ms. Linda Kennedy is the principal in the media education and consulting firm of LK Media. LK Media specializes in teaching media literacy to parents, teachers, students, caregivers, childcare providers, and community organizations. Ms. Kennedy has more than 25 years of experience in the media. She started her career as a radio and television reporter in Omaha, Nebraska and after a short stint in Portland, Oregon moved to Seattle to become an a reporter, anchor, and producer at KING 5 Television in Seattle.
She was elected to the National Board of Board of Directors: Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television & Radio (AFTRA) in 1991 and served as an AFTRA board member until 2008. For several years afterward, she continued to serve as a Board alternate. After leaving KING, Ms. Kennedy directed internal and external communications for Public Health – Seattle & King County.
Art Land is a journalist and educator. In television news since 1982, he worked at CNN headquarters as an assignment editor and show producer. He has extensive and current experience as a freelance field producer for ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, Vice News, and Al Jazeera America, among many others. He began his career in local news in Georgia and South Carolina where he also made documentaries, sports programs, and commercials. Since 1994, Art has been teaching journalism and communication at colleges including Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, West Georgia State University, and currently at Lake Washington Technical Institute. His wife, Kristin Fraser, is a producer for Vice News Tonight on HBO.
Cora Mackoff graduated with a degree in Anthropology from the University of Washington and a Masters in Education and Curriculum. She has been a dedicated and inspirational educator for Seattle Public schools for almost four decades, teaching everything from World History, Public Speaking, AP Human Geography, APLA to Modern World Literature. Cora started the Women’s Literature/Studies program at Roosevelt high school in Seattle 18 years ago and it is still going strong. A fierce fan of Media Literacy and Digital Citizenship, she incorporates its lessons to all her students as often as possible. She has worked, along with Marilyn Cohen, Barbara Johnson, and Jennifer Slack, on some of AME’s most iconic curriculums including Creating Critical Viewers,Tobacco and Media, and her favorite, Violence and the Media. She has been a member of AME for over 20 years and continues to apply its mission in her work at Roosevelt high school.
Janine Magidman (BA Russian, MA Curriculum/ Instruction) recently retired from teaching at Roosevelt High School in Seattle after 32 years teaching World History, AP Human Geography, English and Yearbook Journalism. Her travels with students and educators to Northern Ireland, Japan, Turkey, Serbia and Azerbaijan broadened her horizons and inspired her commitment to open and honest communication among all members of the global citizenry. She supports teachers and learners through the Hands for a Bridge program, building understanding across chasms of historical and current divisions, and continues to work with educators to instill responsible Digital Citizenship in the next generation of leaders.
Maliha Masood is a Pakistani born writer and educator. She is the author of two books, Zaatar Days, Henna Nights and Dizzy in Karachi, based on her travels in the Middle East and South Asia. Maliha has ten years of experience as a research analyst in the IT sector at Microsoft and tech startups. She studied Public Policy as a grad student at Harvard University and earned a Master’s degree in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University in Boston. Maliha has taught World History at Ingraham High School and Political Science at Bellevue College and is currently a summer enrichment instructor at Open Window School where she teaches Debate and Literature. Her work has been featured on PBS, NPR and the Wing Luke Museum.
Danni Minteer gained experience working with the news media as a government major at Connecticut College, while immersed in local, state and national politics. Before pursuing a teaching career in secondary education, she was awarded a fellowship to complete a Master’s Degree in Special Education and earned another bachelor’s degree in English. During her years as a secondary teacher at Bainbridge High School and Klahowya Secondary School she introduced media literacy into her English, Social Studies and Special Ed classes as a result of attending a NAMLE conference. Now retired, Danni continues to be absorbed in trying to understand and evaluate the ethics of the digital world, social media and the neuroscience that draws us in. She hopes to further AME’s goals among her former colleagues and the professional and community organizations to which she is committed.
Janith Pewitt is an Evergreen State College grad who has been at Roosevelt High School since 2003. Her teaching has spanned from remedial reading development courses to Advanced Placement Language and Composition. She has served as department chair for English Language Development program since 2011. Believing that informed and critical consumers of information are a fundamental component of participatory democracy, and believing that public schools have the responsibility to foster such consumers, media literacy is a daily practice in her classroom. One premise of media literacy is that how we say things is inseparable from what we say. What’s more—from a social justice perspective—how we say things is often more compelling and almost always more revealing. And it’s that perspective that centers Janith and her work.
Travis Rush is currently the EdTech Lead for the AESD. He has represented small districts in the state of Washington as a teacher, librarian, technology education lead and a director of education technology. He is a graduate of Western Washington University and has received his library information endorsement from University of Washington Information School and his administrative certification from PLU. Travis has been part of curriculum development, Information inclusionary practices and EdTech training both at district levels and at the state level. He was an integral part of bringing a rural district to the level of becoming a Google Reference DIstrict and providing opportunities to students in a technology deficient environment. In his current position, Travis’s role is to bring EdTech, and opportunities to every student in Washington State through the development of programs within the ESDs. He has long had a passion for media literacy and believes that it is one of the cornerstones of 21st century education. Travis and his family currently live in rural Pierce County.
Anne Stewart has had a diverse and extensive career in the field of education spanning three regions of WA state. A nationally board certified educator, she started her career in Edmonds where she taught secondary English and Social Studies, worked at the district level, and was a teacher librarian. While there she helped the district adopt a film studies unit for all high school seniors and was the inaugural instructor for International Baccalaureate Language and Literature which explores language through its cultural development, media forms and functions. After relocating to Central WA, she joined the North Central Educational Services District where she supported 29 mostly rural school districts, conducted bi-annual workshops for regional librarians, and led OSPI media literacy grants that focused on integrating media literacy with social studies, civics, and digital citizenship education. During this time she also testified before the legislature in support of media literacy legislation on behalf of the region. Currently Anne works as an educational consultant in Southwest WA.
Di Zhang is a librarian at Renton Technical College. Passionate about promoting digital citizenship and information literacy in all forms, Di has taught these skills to media organizations, educators and students, librarians, and the general public. He developed The Fake News Survival Guide, a curriculum on news literacy taught at The Seattle Public Library, which has been used and adapted by educators and librarians throughout Washington State. Di’s current interests include media use among today’s members of iGen/Gen Z and how social media platforms increase division and partisanship. Di lives in Federal Way with his wife, daughter, and son.