Staff Biographies

DC Vito

(Executive Director) is the Chair of the Youth Services and Education committee of Brooklyn’s 6th Community Board. He has served as chair of the committee for two years, and a total of four years on the Board. He has been an active community organizer for well over a decade, managing and working on over 20 political and issue-oriented campaigns ranging from the local city council to national presidential races. He also served on the 6th Neighborhood Advisory Board of New York City’s Department of Youth and Community Development. For the past eight years, he has worked professionally as a cartographer, running the mapping department of Con Edison Communications.

Katherine Fry, Ph.D.

(Education Director) is an associate professor of media studies and Deputy Chair for Graduate 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 15 years of experience teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in media history, criticism, theory, research methods, law and regulation, and media ethics. 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, radio, and German television. 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, the Media Ecology Association and the Eastern Communication Association.

Ellen Uzonwanne

(Program & Operations Manager) works closely with the LAMP’s leadership team, as well as supports the process for executing the strategic agenda. Prior to joining the LAMP, Ellen was a volunteer for Councilmember Bill de Blasio (Democrat: Brooklyn). Ellen is a 2007 Business Management graduate of Brooklyn College, and has professional work experience as both a senior paralegal and in government relations.

Emily Long

(Communications Director) 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.

Advisory Board

Jorge L. Ramos

is the six-time Emmy Award winning senior anchor of the 6pm and 11pm news on
Telemundo New York. A pioneer in the field of Spanish-language broadcasting, Ramos began his career in 1979 as the first reporter of the newly-founded broadcast station that first went on the air in 1980.
Ramos was born in Puerto Rico and graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a degree in Humanities. In the early 70s he worked at radio stations WKVM and WQBS in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Ramos moved to New York City in 1976. In his 29 years at Telemundo, Ramos has covered numerous elections and inaugurations in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.

Larry Smith

is the founder of SMITH Magazine, an online storytelling community. He’s the co-editor of the New York Times bestseller, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure from SMITH Magazine. He’s also currently a contributing editor of ESPN Magazine, and has whirled through the media world at publications such as Men’s Journal, Yahoo Internet Life, P.O.V., EGG, and Might magazine. Besides The LAMP, he also serves on the board of the alternative news organization, AlterNet.

Joshua Teeple

CPA, CFE, CISA, CITP, is a member of the board of directors for the LAMP and its finance chair. Mr. Teeple resides in Irvine, California, where he is a partner at a full-service, regional public accounting firm. He leads the firm’s Orange County practice and specializes in forensic accounting, litigation support and fraud investigations. Mr. Teeple serves on the financial advisory board of a regional water filtration company and is an audit committee member for HOLA (Heart of Los Angeles), a not-for-profit community organization providing after-school activities for indigent youth. Mr. Teeple is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Information Systems Auditor, and Certified Information Technology Professional. He graduated from the University of Colorado with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in 1997. Mr. Teeple has authored numerous articles and case studies in his fields of expertise and regularly speaks at industry events. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the California Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the California Receivers’ Forum, the California Bankruptcy Forum, the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, and the SANS (SysAdmin, Audit Network, Security) Institute.