Mission
For a media-savvy youth.
For a more involved parent.
For a modern and innovative educator.
For a critical mass.
The LAMP’s vision is that one day media literacy will be seen as the critical requirement to understanding the world and our place in it. Educated consumers demanding more accountable media will create a ground swell to which media companies will have to respond. As part of this movement, The LAMP works in communities to build healthy relationships with all forms of media.
Core values:
- • Process over product
- • Media literacy as a basic need
- • Freedom from censorship
- • Critical curiosity
- • Accessibility regardless of socioeconomics
Senior Staff
DC Vito
Co-founder, Executive Director
DC is the Chair of the Youth Services and Education committee of Brooklyn’s 6th Community Board. He has served as chair of the committee since 2004, and was appointed to the Board in 2003. He also served on the 6th Neighborhood Advisory Board of New York City’s Department of Youth and Community Development. After earning a B.A. in International Affairs from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Mr. Vito served in the Peace Corps in Mali. When he returned, he continued organizing and serving local communities in New York City and his home state of Colorado. He has managed and worked on over 20 political and issue-oriented campaigns ranging from the local city council to national presidential races.
Katherine Fry, Ph.D.
Co-founder, Education Director
Katherine is a professor of media studies in the Department of Television and Radio at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. She earned her Ph.D. in Mass Media and Communication from Temple University in 1994, and brings to The LAMP many years of experience teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in media history, criticism, theory and research methods. She has an extensive background in curriculum development. In addition to her teaching, Dr. Fry’s publications include the following books: Constructing the Heartland: Television News and Natural Disaster (2003, Hampton Press); and Identities in Context: Media, Myth, Religion in Space and Time (2008, Hampton Press). She has also published articles and contributed to books about communication technology and psychological well-being, television news, advertising and popular culture and radio. Her current research is in the history of news and in the future of news from the audience perspective. Fry is a member of the Board of Directors of the New York State Communication Association, and holds memberships with, and regularly presents on panels for, the International Communication Association and the Media Ecology Association.
Emily Long
Director of Communications & Development
Emily earned her Masters of Fine Arts in Dramaturgy and Script Development from Columbia University in 2006. While at Columbia, she edited and catalogued hundreds of interviews and transcripts for the Oral History Research Office, focusing primarily on their 9/11 Project. From 2006 to early 2009, she was also the Resident Dramaturg at Electric Pear Productions where she designed and facilitated their playwriting workshop, as well as production dramaturgy. The LAMP is pleased to have Ms. Long on board as Communications Director, offering her extensive experience with numerous media through her work with Columbia’s Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Atlantic Theater Company, Sesame Workshop and Cine Mosaic to name a few. She is also wrote for the Independent Film Channel’s Make Media Matter blog.
Board of Directors
Felipe J. Alvarez, Founder; FJ Alvarez Advisors LLC.
Gillian Cassell-Stiga (Board Vice Chair), Postgraduate Fellow; Center for Constitutional Rights.
Anderson Duff (Board Secretary), Associate; Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C.
Christopher Hickman (Board Chair), Assistant Corporation Counsel; New York City Law Department.
Mark Nyon, Founder; Grand Kru Technologies.
Joshua Teeple (Treasurer), Director; Crowe Horwath LLP.
Jared Yeater, Senior Producer for Visual Effects, Design and Animation; The Mill.
Advisory Board
Jennifer Proulx, Education Associate; StoryCorps.
Jorge L. Ramos, Senior Anchor; Telemundo New York.
Larry Smith, Founder; SMITH Magazine.
