Media and Social Justice Panel Discussion

Journalists from Vermont Works for Women, VPR, VTDigger, and WCAX

March 24, 2015

Lyndon State College will host a “Media and Social Justice” panel discussion on Tuesday, March 31 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Moore Community Room/ASAC 100. It is presented in partnership with Lyndon FAIR (Promoting Fairness, Awareness, Inclusion, and Relationships in our community) as part of Lyndon State’s on-going Year of Social Justice events and is free and open to the public. The guest panelists are Charlotte Albright, a reporter with Vermont Public Radio (VPR); Adam Sullivan, the Burlington-based weekend anchor for WCAX; the founder of VTDigger.org, Anne Galloway; and Marybeth Christie Redmond, the Marketing and Communications Director at Vermont Works for Women. Electronic Journalism Arts professors Tim Lewis and Meghan Meachem will moderate.

Charlotte Albright moved to Vermont from Maine in 2006, after more than a decade of reporting and producing for Maine Public Broadcasting Network. In January 2012, she joined the VPR staff and now reports, writes, and produces radio stories about eastern Vermont, including the Northeast Kingdom and the Upper Valley. Albright won a 2013 Gracie Award® in the outstanding hard news feature category for her story, “Female Veterans Share Experiences at New Women’s Center at VA Hospital.” The Gracies are presented by the Alliance For Women In Media and honor outstanding national and local work.

Anne Galloway is the founder of VTDigger.org. She began her career in newspapering as a pre-med-student-turned-literature major at the University of Kentucky, when her first feature story was published in the Kentucky Kernel. She moved to her husband’s home state, Vermont, in 1988 and got a job as a staff writer for the Hardwick Gazette. A year later Galloway began reporting for the Barton Chronicle. For many years, she was a contributing writer for Seven Days and a visual arts reviewer for the Times Argus. Galloway also served as the editor of the Sunday Rutland Herald and Times Argus. Her reporting has appeared in The New York Times, the New York Daily News, and Vermont Life. She is a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors.
Adam Sullivan is the weekend anchor for WCAX, the CBS affiliate in Burlington, VT. It is a position he has held since June of 2010. When Sullivan is not sitting behind the anchor desk in Burlington, he’s running the WCAX Upper Valley Bureau in West Lebanon, N.H. As a reporter, Sullivan covers one of the region’s fastest growing areas focusing on crime, health care, education, and politics. He actively covered the 2008 presidential primary in New Hampshire and interviewed all of the major candidates in the race for the White House. Sullivan is a graduate of St. Michael’s College with a degree in Journalism.

Marybeth Christie Redmond, a writer-journalist for more than 25 years, utilizes storytelling to advance the dignity of people and create social change. She co-founded “writing inside VT” in 2009, a program that helps incarcerated women write toward self-change and build a healthy community. In 2013, a compilation of the women’s poetry/prose, entitled “Hear Me, See Me,” was published. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.

Discussion topics may include covering crime as an ongoing social justice story; the challenges (and media representation of those challenges) that women on the margins face; media consolidation; audience fragmentation; citizen journalism; and advocacy journalism. The panel discussion is sponsored by Lyndon FAIR and Lyndon’s Electronic Arts Department. Lyndon’s Lecture and Arts Series is sponsored by Hayes Ford; Vermont Broadcast Associates is the media sponsor. Lyndon State College’s Lecture and Arts Series is made possible in part by the Harriet M. Sherman Lecture Fund.
Lyndon’s President Bertolino has designated 2014-2015 as the Year of Social Justice at the College. Additional events this spring include a showing of the film Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible followed by a discussion on Wednesday, April 15 at 6 p.m.; a panel discussion about male victims of sexual trauma called “Male Survivor: Dare to Dream” on Friday, April 17 at 6 p.m.; and on Tuesday, April 21 at 6 p.m. Leah Carey reads from her book “You are Not Alone: Stories from the Front Lines of Womanhood” followed by a discussion. These events are free and open to the public. Complete information can be found at LyndonState.edu/SocialJustice.