a daily independent global news hour

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 1,000 public television 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 first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize' for “developing an innovative model of truly independent grassroots political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by the mainstream media.” She is also one of the the first recipients, along with Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald, of the Park Center for Independent Media’s Izzy Award, named for the great muckraking journalist I.F. Stone. The Independent of London called Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! "an inspiration"; PULSE named her one of the 20 Top Global Media Figures of 2009.

  Goodman is the author of four New York Times bestsellers. Her latest book, Breaking the Sound Barrier, proves the power of independent journalism in the struggle for a better world. She co-authored the first three bestsellers with her brother, journalist David Goodman: Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times (2008), 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 has received the American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Award; the Paley Center for Media’s She’s Made It Award; and the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. Her reporting on East Timor and Nigeria 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. Goodman received the first ever Communication for Peace Award from the World Association for Christian Communication. She was also honored by the National Council of Teachers of English with the George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language.

• Juan Gonzalez

  Co-Host

  Juan Gonzalez has been a professional journalist for more than 30 years and a staff columnist at the New York Daily News since 1987. He is a two-time recipient of the George Polk Award for commentary (1998 and 2010), and the first reporter in New York City to consistently expose the health effects arising from the September 11, 2001 attacks and the cover-up of these hazards by government officials.

  He is a founder and past president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and a member of NAHJ’s Hall of Fame. During his term as NAHJ president, Gonzalez created the Parity Project, an innovative program that creates partnerships between local communities and media organizations to improve coverage of the Latino community and to recruit and retain more Hispanic journalists. He also spearheaded a successful movement among U.S. journalists to join other citizen groups in opposing the Federal Communications Commission’s deregulation of media ownership restrictions.

  A founding member of the Young Lords Party in the 1970s and of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights in 1980s, Gonzalez has twice been named by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the country’s most influential Hispanics and has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the National Council of La Raza, and the National Puerto Rican Coalition.

  Gonzalez has written four books: Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse, documents cover-ups by Environmental Protection Agency and government officials with regard to health hazards at Ground Zero in New York; Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America; and Roll Down Your Window: Stories of a Forgotten America. His latest book, News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media, co-authored with Joseph Torres, is a landmark narrative history of American media that puts race at the center of the story.

• Sharif Abdel Kouddous

  Correspondent

  Sharif joined the Democracy Now! staff as a producer in 2003. Since then, he has covered news stories around the world, including reporting from Baghdad during the Iraq war, New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Haiti in the days after the January 2010 earthquake as well as the Democratic and Republican conventions in 2004 and 2008. Sharif grew up in Cairo, Egypt.

• Sam Alcoff

  Producer

  Sam has been working in independent New York media for six years. Prior to joining Democracy Now!, Sam worked with Deep Dish TV, New York City’s Independent Media Center’s IndyVideo, and was the director of GRITtv with Laura Flanders. In his free time, Sam enjoys reading social movement histories, creating activist internet resources, and butchering Spanish (the language, not the people). He lives in Brooklyn with his partner Anna and their beautiful baby, Arthur.

• Miriam Barnard

  Development Director

  Miriam joined Democracy Now! in 2009. She has nearly a decade of experience leading fundraising and communications efforts at social justice organizations. Miriam studied Sociology and Creative Writing at the University of Arizona, and lived in Tucson for 11 years before moving to New York. She lives in Brooklyn.

• Mike Burke

  Producer

  Mike is the longest-standing producer at Democracy Now! In addition to his work on the show he helped found The Indypendent a monthly social and economic justice newspaper based in New York.

• 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.

• Renée Feltz

  Producer

  Renée Feltz honed her skills muckraking on deadline as news director for Pacifica radio station KPFT-FM in Houston, TX. From 2002-2006 she bottom-lined every aspect of an award-winning daily newscast, interviewed more than 25 men and women on death row, and covered Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 2008 with a focus on investigative reporting. Since then she co-produced the Webby-nominated BusinessofDetention.com, reported with The New York Times investigative unit, and was a multimedia producer for PBS Wide Angle. As a 2010 Soros Justice media fellow she co-produced DeportationNation.org. She has also reported for the BBC, NPR, CBC, Free Speech Radio news, PBS Need to Know, Indymedia, Columbia Journalism Review, The Texas Observer, NACLA: Report on the Americas, The American Prospect and The Indypendent. Renée joined the Democracy Now! team as a producer in January 2011.

• Nick Gilla

  Systems Administrator

  Nick’s a recent migrant to NYC from Baltimore, and before that, Texas. Good information management is his obsession, and computers make it happen (when instructed well). When computers get frustrating, he helps out infoshops, organizes with the Industrial Workers of the World and gets the word out on the complexities and injustices in Palestine. Working with Democracy Now!, Nick believes he can help build a free media in the U.S., and thus a step toward real democracy here.

• Clara Ibarra

  Demoncracy Now! en Español

  Clara Ibarra earned her degrees in Political Science and Economics in her hometown, Bogotá, Colombia where she worked as a research assistant in projects that use images as sources of investigation for the writing of social history. She came to NYC in 2006 to pursue a MA in Media Studies, since then she has been working in the production of multimedia endeavors that involve education and the telling of stories. Currently she is coordinating the Spanish programing at Democracy Now!, working with the media outlets that broadcast or publish Democracy Now! en Español around the world. Clara is interested in projects that use social marketing strategies to connect and empower people through a more social use of media.

• Anjali Kamat

  Correspondent

  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.

• Jessica Lee

  Social Media and Online Outreach Coordinator

  Jessica joined Democracy Now! in 2010 after nearly a decade working as a journalist and independent media activist. She traded saguaro cacti for skyscrapers in 2007 when she left Tucson behind for New York City and the award-winning newspaper, The Indypendent. Her love for journalism found its roots at the Arizona Daily Wildcat, the student-run daily newspaper at the University of Arizona. After graduating with a degree in environmental science and policy, she worked as a field biologist while volunteering with the Arizona Independent Media Center. Thanks to KXCI Community Radio in Tucson, she found Democracy Now! in 2001. She is happy to be helping Democracy Now! expand its audience through social media, and in most cases, is the actual human being behind the curtain on Facebook and Twitter.

• 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.

• 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

  Special Projects

  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.

• Nicole Salazar

  Correspondent

  Nicole Salazar is a videographer, photographer, and editor from New York City. She worked at Democracy Now! for four years as a Multimedia Producer, developing content for the daily broadcast as well as traveling and documenting news stories and grassroots movements in the US and internationally. Nicole holds a BA from Harvard University in Visual and Environmental Studies. She is currently based in Cairo, Egypt.

• Diana Sands

  Office Manager

  Diana Sands proudly joined the Democracy Now! team in November 2010. Previously she played supporting roles in human rights advocacy for many years. She graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in Peace and Justice Studies and Africana Studies. When she’s not hard at work answering phones, fulfilling webstore orders, and making flyers for DN! events, Diana can be found cheering for the underdog in any number of sports competitions, watching documentaries, running to aquatic aerobics class, or indulging her deep passion for pizza.

• Nermeen Shaikh

  Producer

  Prior to joining Democracy Now!, Nermeen worked in various non-profit organizations including the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad, the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, and the Asia Society in New York. She also worked briefly at Al Jazeera English in Washington, DC. She has an M.Phil. in politics from Cambridge University, and is the author of The Present as History: Critical Perspectives on Global Power published by Columbia University Press. She currently serves on the editorial board of the Rome-based journal Development.

• 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.