Democracy Now!'s team includes some of this country's leading progressive journalists who've garnered dozens of awards for their ground-breaking work in radio and print journalism.

• Amy Goodman

  Host and Executive Producer

  Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on over 650 TV and radio stations in North America. Time Magazine named Democracy Now! its “Pick of the Podcasts,” along with NBC’s Meet the Press.

  Goodman is the co-author with her brother, journalist David Goodman, of Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times, due out in April, 2008, along with two New York Times bestsellers, Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back (2006) and The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them (2004). She writes a weekly column (also produced as an audio podcast) syndicated by King Features, for which she was recognized in 2007 with the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Reporting.

  Goodman is the winner of the 2007 Gracie Award for Individual Achievement for a Public Broadcasting Host, from the American Women in Radio and Television, and is a 2007 honoree with the Paley Center/Museum of Television and Radio’s She Made It Collection, which “celebrates the achievements and preserves the legacy of great women writers, directors, producers, journalists, sportscasters, and executives.” Her daily reporting and groundbreaking work from Nigeria and East Timor has won numerous awards, including the George Polk Award, Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, and the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award. She has also received awards from the Associated Press, United Press International, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Project Censored.

• Juan Gonzalez

  Co-Host

  Juan Gonzalez has been a columnist at the New York Daily News since 1988. He has won numerous awards for his investigative reporting including the George Polk Award in 1998 and was recently elected President of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Juan’s most recent book Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse documents cover-ups by Environmental Protection Agency and government officials about health hazards at Ground Zero in New York. He is also the author of the book, Harvest of Empire: The History of Latinos in America.

• Sharif Abdel Kouddous

  Producer

  Sharif grew up in Cairo, Egypt. He joined the Democracy Now! staff in 2003 after leaving the lucrative world of corporate investment banking. As the U.S. led occupation of Iraq was in full swing, Sharif traveled to Baghdad with DCTV filmmaker John Alpert. In addition to shooting video footage in Iraq for Democracy Now! Sharif reported from the streets of Baghdad on the occupation.

• Mike Burke

  Producer

  Mike is the longest-standing producer at Democracy Now! In addition to his work on the show he is a co-founder of The Indypendent a monthly social and economic justice newspaper based out of the New York City Independent Media Center. He also founded RNCWatch, a website that covered the 2004 Republican National Convention. In his little spare time he DJs and runs the tiny JMZ Records.

• Emily Calhoun

  Executive Assistant

  Emily was born and raised in the Bay Area, but has mysteriously ended up an East-Coaster. In DC, she spent a few years working as a project manager in the foreign language services industry and was a frequent volunteer at Pacifica Radio’s WPFW. She joined DN! as an Outreach Intern. She has her Bachelors in International Relations from American University, and is near completion of her Master’s in Global Political Economy and Finance at The New School.

• Mike Castleman

  Staff Hacker

  Mike Castleman breaks computers, and then fixes them in interesting ways. He graduated in 2003 from Columbia University with a B.S. in Computer Science. In addition to his work at Democracy Now!, he works with the New York City Independent Media Center and with 2600 Magazine, including appearing most weeks on Off the Hook, on WBAI radio.

• Samantha Chamblee

  Administrative Assistant and Teleprompter Op

  A native New Yorker, Samantha is a former middle school teacher who has taught 7th grade English in New York and London. She continues to tutor special needs students in Harlem and the Bronx. A budding filmmaker, she has worked on several film shorts in various capacities. In 2004, she wrote and directed her first short, entitled Travel Diary.

• Julie Crosby

  General Manager

  Julie joined Democracy Now! in 2006. From 2003 to 2006 she worked at Free Speech TV, a national progressive television network that broadcasts Democracy Now! along with an array of social justice oriented documentaries and series. Julie’s commitment to media movements emerged in 2001 when she volunteered with Access to Media Education Society, a youth oriented media justice organization based on Galiano Island, BC. In 2000 Julie spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar researching popular political culture in Cape Coast, Ghana.

• Jeffrey Hagerman

  TV Producer

  Jeffrey was born and raised in Northern California’s Napa Valley. While at the University of Arizona completing a business degree, Jeffrey discovered his love for storytelling while crafting anti tobacco commercials focused on youth smoking. A strong connection to technology pushed him to become an Apple developer, where his programming skills were implemented in early seeds of Apple’s OS X operating system. In early 2002 he transitioned away from programming to pursue his passion for documentary filmmaking in Vancouver, Canada. While in Canada he completed a film degree at The Vancouver Film School, a Creative Writing degree from Emily Carr, and co-founded the production company Footage Entertainment. He currently works as a video artist at Brooklyn’s nonprofit video cooperative The Outpost. Most recently his skills as editor helped to get the documentary iThemba into festivals around the globe.

• Anjali Kamat

  Producer

  Anjali is an independent radio and print journalist from south India. She has lived in Egypt and Jordan and reported on movements for justice across the Middle East and South Asia. Her work has appeared in Corpwatch, Left Turn, and Samar magazine, and national newspapers in India and Egypt (The Hindu, Frontline, Outlook, and Al-Ahram Weekly). In addition to producing Democracy Now!, she co-hosts and co-produces a weekly radio show on WBAI called Global Movements Urban Struggles. Anjali is also the managing editor of the book review section of Arab Studies Journal, a peer-reviewed independent publication. She has an MA in Near Eastern Studies from NYU and a post-graduate diploma from the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai.

• Angie Karran

  Station Relations

  Angie is a former DN! producer and award-winning radio and documentary video producer. Her radio programs have been aired on the Pacifica Network and on community radio stations around the country. She studied sociology and has worked in media education, research and activism. Angie is from Guyana, South America and has three children.

• Robby Karran

  Editing Intern

  Robby is part of Democracy Now!’s TV Production unit, editing long form pieces and clips for broadcast. Robby also works with the archive, where he helps to watch,listen, record and catalog the contents of our video and audio collection. Robby is certified in the IT field as a PC Technician and a Network Administrator.

• Michael Kimber

  Web Store and Operations Assistant

  Michael’s passion is helping homeless people and drug addicts make a difference in their lives. Michael also works with Downtown Community Television and the New York City Rescue Mission.

• Steve Martinez

  TV Producer

  Born in New York City, Steve’s career began back in the boys’ chorus of the NY Metropolitan Opera. While recording a commercial voiceover, he became fascinated with life “behind-the-scenes.” Steve was twice awarded scholarships to Stagedoor Manor, noted training center for aspiring young artists. He studied Communications at Northeastern University and Creative Writing at Harvard. He has been a lifelong activist in political and social causes. Steve has worked professionally as an Avid editor, producer and director on a number of independent productions. He lives in NJ with his wife Sofia and their three sons.

• Aaron Maté

  Producer

  Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Aaron comes to Democracy Now! after a two-year stint as an independent journalist and as a researcher for the author and journalist Naomi Klein. Through his work as a journalist and activist, he has had the opportunity to visit the Occupied Territories, Haiti, and South Africa. His writings have appeared in publications including the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and the Guardian of London. Aaron received his B.A. in Communication Studies from Concordia University in Montreal. He is a regular contributor to the Montreal/San Francisco-based magazine Warrior.

• Emma Missouri

  Web Store Manager

  Emma came to DN! after 14 years running her own organic coffee roasting company, Catskill Mountain Coffee, in upstate New York. She has been involved with social change work since the mid 1970s. She has worked on Gay Rights, Peace, Free Speech, Racism and Environmental Issues. With an MFA in Theater under her belt she was a founder of for Chrysalis Theater Eclectic in Massachusetts. The first play they developed and performed was /A Piece of the Media/, a satire on television and the news.

• Denis Moynihan

  Outreach Director

  Denis comes to Democracy Now! with a long history of community activism and organizing. He has been involved in struggles on issues ranging from globalization, indigenous rights, political prisoners, community organizing and corporate reform and has years of experience networking with grassroots groups.

• Isis Phillips

  Financial Manager

  A BFA graduate of Marymount College, Isis has a passion for art and has photographed extensively in New York City and around the world. Isis was awarded a full scholarship to study at the Marangoni Studio in Florence, Italy. Her combined interest in economics, art and activism has led to her current position as the Financial Director at Democracy Now! In addition to her recent work as the photographer of “One Day in the Life of Democracy Now!” in Clamor Magazine (May/June 2004, Issue 26) and as curator of the Independent Media Photojournalism Exhibition at Gigantic Artspace (August 2004), Isis’s work has been featured in both solo and group exhibitions.

• Karen Ranucci

  Development Director

  Karen is an Emmy award-winning independent journalist who freelanced for NBC’s Nightly News and Today Show before she founded the Latin American Video Archives, a distributor of Latin American video and film to both the educational and broadcast markets in the US.

• Dave Rice

  Archivist

  David returned to New York City after graduating from the L Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation at George Eastman House in 2004 where he focused on collection management and the technology of cataloguing. Prior to this education he worked in photography archives, darkrooms, film archives and public libraries around Boston, Massachusetts. His studies in 20th century American History changed David’s focus in moving image archiving from early film technology to documentary and newsreel collection management. David has also been a member of the Association of Moving Image Archives since 2001.

• Nicole Salazar

  Multimedia Assistant Producer

  Nicole was born and raised in New York City. Her interests in activism, art, and video brought her to Democracy Now! Before coming to DN! she worked on various non-fiction film and video projects, most recently she served as the editor for a video-based distance learning project for grassroots organizers called “People, Power, and Change.” Nicole graduated from Harvard University in 2007 with a concentration in painting and animation. She is also a proud member of DN! soccer team Desocceracy.

• Silky Shah

  Outreach Organizer

  Silky grew up in Houston and became active as a journalism student at the University of Texas at Austin. After college she worked as a student/youth organizer educating students nationally about university connections to the private prison industry. She also developed campaigns regionally to fight the expansion of immigrant detention facilities on the US-Mexico border. Prior to joining DN! Silky spent six months in Gujarat, India volunteering with organizations focused on women’s rights, communalism and displacement. She currently co-produces Asia Pacific Forum a progressive pan-Asian radio show on Pacifica’s WBAI in New York.

• Neil Shibata

  Volunteer Coordinator

  Neil read some words in French and wrote about them and received a degree in French Literature from UC Berkeley, with a detour at Université Lumière Lyon II, Institut d’Études Politiques. He recently relocated to New York from Oakland, California, where he spent the preceding eight years as a litigation paralegal, working for victims of corporations that place(d) profit before the safety and health of its workers and the public. Neil is an associate editor of Tokyo-based music magazine Beikoku-Ongaku.