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About TrueDialog.org TrueDialog.org
is a non-partisan, not-for-profit grassroots education and empowerment
organization. It is dedicated to confronting the “Culture of Spin” and the
corrosive effects it has on democratic decision-making on the local, state, and
national level. Founded
in Portland, Maine, in 2007, TrueDialog.org is dedicated to raising citizen
awareness and action. Operating through local chapters, True Dialog will
develop, encourage, and implement best practices in communication to foster
authentic political discussion and dialog. We help citizens work with public policy
organizations and advocacy groups, media outlets and editorial boards, state
election commissions, and legislators to stop the spin and start earnest
engagement. Founder Carl
Lindemann
is TrueDialog.org's founder. His professional
experience ranges from industry to ministry to media. He has worked in radio as a
reporter, talk show host, and independent producer. For the past ten years, he has written extensively about new media,
communication, and technology for trade publications and corporate clientele. He
is a member of The Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative
Reporters and Editors. Carl has a degree in philosophy from Wesleyan University
and studied for the ministry at Harvard Divinity School. Advisory
Board Mitch
Bogen is a
researcher and writer in the nonprofit educational research and development
community. His work at organizations including Facing History and Ourselves and
Educators for Social Responsibility, have helped students integrate social and
citizenship education with strong academic performance. Mr. Bogen writes about
American education for the Harvard Education Letter and other publications. He
has taught Ethics and Comparative Religions at Fisher College in Boston and
conducted graduate seminars in religious literacy at Harvard University and
Tufts University. Mitch holds two masters degrees from Harvard University, one
from the Divinity School and another from the Graduate School of Education. Victoria
Mares-Hershey
is Director of Development at Portland West, a social service agency committed
to eliminating the conditions of poverty and strengthening the bonds of
community. She co-founded the Institute for Practical Democracy, an organization
that helped mentor young people from new immigrant families and from Maine. Ms.
Hershey has extensive media experience. She began her career in print journalism
writing for New York Newsday and then worked as a broadcast journalist for WNBC-News
in New York City. Recently, she was a weekly columnist for the Portland Press
Herald in Maine. Victoria has a certificate in electronic journalism from
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Joshua
Meyrowitz
is Professor of Media Studies in the Department of Communication at the
University of New Hampshire, where he has won the Lindberg Award for Outstanding
Scholar-Teacher in the College of Liberal Arts. Professor Meyrowitz teaches
courses in mass media, analysis of news, media criticism, and communication
theory. He is the author of No Sense of
Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior (Oxford Univ.
Press), which has won a number of awards, including the “Book of the Year”
Award from the National Association of Broadcasters and the Broadcast Education
Association. Dr. Meyrowitz's articles on media and society have appeared in
numerous scholarly journals and anthologies, as well as in general-interest
magazines and newspapers. Dr. Meyrowitz earned his B.A. and M.A. in
Communication from Queens College of the City University of New York and holds a
Ph.D. in media theory from New York University. Kyle
Parrish is
a management and IT consultant who works with Fortune 1000 companies to solve
complex management, strategy, and delivery issues. His wide-ranging industry
experience includes start-ups, utilities, financial services, health care, and
insurance as well as academia. Currently, he is incubating a new organization
that combines this expertise in resolving corporate communication and execution
problems with his life-long interest in politics. The Center for Reasoned
Discourse is to establish frameworks for fact-based discourse. Kyle has an
undergraduate degree from Old Dominion University. Heidi Swarts is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University-Newark and is an ordained Unitarian-Universalist minister. Both Dr. Swarts's research and ministry focus on the empowerment of traditionally underrepresented groups in American politics and the role of social movements in building civic engagement and winning policy outcomes. Her book Organizing Urban America: Secular and Faith-Based Progressive Movements will be published by the University of Minnesota Press in January 2008. Her own experience includes community and feminist organizing. Dr. Swarts's new research project investigates gender differences in how grassroots leaders and trained organizers gain strategic political skills. Rev. Dr. Swarts holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard University and Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University. *** |
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