STAFF
Martha Foye, Managing Director. Martha has years of experience managing construction and manufacturing projects. Her wide-ranging career has included positions as a mathematics educator, digital-content developer/editor, learning-lab coordinator, and now graduate student. Her outreach activities have been dedicated to boosting community interest in STEM-related fields by lending her management and education skills to nonprofits. She has a master’s degree from the School of Engineering at North Carolina A & T State University.
Rend Smith, Communications Director. Rend is a writer by trade and began his relationship with the printed word exploring highbrow and lowbrow storytelling through internships at both Marvel Comics and the Antioch Review. From there, he moved on to the decidedly middlebrow pursuit of journalism. His work has appeared in the Village Voice, Washington City Paper, and New York Times, as well as other publications. His stories have explored the tragedy and comedy of community dynamics, delving into everything from mass shootings to noise ordinances. Since entering the nonprofit world, he’s worked on projects that focus on using narrative as a means to process and communicate disparate human experiences.
Nick Szuberla, Executive Director and co-founder. Nick has helped design and lead national public information campaigns on issues ranging from sentencing reform to U.S. energy policy. He began his work at the Highlander Research and Education Center in 1996, and then joined Appalshop, an arts and cultural center in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Not long after, Nick founded Holler to the Hood (a multimedia project exploring urban/rural relationships), Thousand Kites (a national dialogue project addressing the U.S. criminal justice system) and Calls from Home (an interactive radio and organizing project). He has produced award winning documentary films, radio series, and multimedia productions. He has also trained hundreds of youth and adults in how to use low-cost media as an organizing tool, and has done artist residencies in 38 states. He is a graduate of Antioch College.
ADVISORY BOARD
Lillie Branch Kennedy, Executive Director, Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged.
Margo Miller, Executive Director, Appalachian Community Fund.
Tanya Mote, Associate Director, Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center.
Laurie Jo Reynolds, Assistant Professor of Social Justice, School of Art and Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Carlton Turner, Executive Director, Alternate ROOTS.
Paul VanDeCarr, Co-Founder of Working Narratives, author of “Storytelling and Social Change.”
Paul Wright, Executive Director, Human Rights Defense Center, Publisher, Prison Legal News.
Advisers’ affiliations are for identification purposes only; no institutional endorsement is implied.
