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 800 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 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. A recipient of the 1998 George Polk Award for commentary, Gonzalez was 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 three 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. He is currently completing a new book on the history of racism in the U.S. news media.

• 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 Jon Alpert. In addition to shooting video footage in Iraq for Democracy Now! Sharif reported from the streets of Baghdad on the occupation.

• Miriam Barnard

  Development Director

  Miriam joined Democracy Now! in 2009. She has nearly a decade of experience in fundraising and communications within social justice and human rights movements, including media advocacy, strategic planning, and community organizing. 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 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Nicole Martin

  Archivist

  Raised by orderly folk in Nevada City, California, Nicole Martin became interested in archiving and preservation while studying early cinema at the University of California, Santa Cruz. With a degree in Film and Digital Media, Nicole began working for Apple Computer and making digital art mixing live webcasts with anachronistic analog sources, particularly Super 8 film. As a coordinator at the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, Nicole came to appreciate the many ways in which preservation work enriches community while deepening and influencing the telling of history. She has also worked with the the Brooklyn Public Library, Anthology Film Archives, The Standby Program and the Museum of the Moving Image, and holds a Master’s degree in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation from New York University.

• 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

  Multimedia 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 received a B.A. from Harvard University in 2007.

• 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.

• Tasia VanderVegt

  Webstore and Outreach Coordinator

  Tasia was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado. While earning a BA from the University of Colorado, she worked in the development department at Free Speech TV and the sports department at the now defunct Rocky Mountain News. The dramatic difference between these two work environments encouraged her to pursue a full-time career in the non-profit world. She moved to New York City and began working for Democracy Now! in 2008. In 2010, Tasia graduated with a Masters degree in Sociology from the New School for Social Research.