Michelle Shutzer

Personal Biography:

Michelle is the Associate Director of The Stride Center (formerly Street Tech) where she contributes to the expansion of a highly successful technology workforce development program. Since 2001 Michelle has worked in community technology as the associate director for the Youth Media Initiative at the National Alliance of Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC), One Economy and the Bay Area Video Coalition. She has been an entrepreneur and business consultant to the commercial sector, as well as social benefit corporations. Selected as a fellow of the Congress-Bundestag exchange, she addressed the German parliament on issues of cultural exploration and understanding. Michelle is a Full Circle Fund Fellow, a member of the Community Technology Network, a former steering committee member of the Information Technology Consortium in San Francisco, former steering committee member of Webgrrls.com/SF, an avid supporter of public broadcasting and lifelong UNICEF advocate. She has worked for the U.S. Congress and supported the local political process in San Francisco. She has a BA from the University of Georgia and a Masters of Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco.

Goals:

Today's digital technology has transformed the way we make and consume media. Now is a moment when critical decisions are being made by our government and in the marketplace, about how digital technology will be used to create, copy, distribute and present media in the years to come. My goal of the fellowship is to facilitate the integration of media technology into the mix of social change and bring leadership to the following three areas:

1. Encourage media arts and technology to be rooted in local communities – creating new models based on individual community, interdependence, expanded public and industry support.
2. Advocate for media literacy as an educational goal - integrating media arts and technology into all levels of education in all learning settings.
3. Facilitate the access for independent media artists from all cultural communities and geographic regions through encouragement and support from civic, private, public and social institutions.