People

Eric Gordon, PhD, Director, studies civic media, location-based media, and urban design. He is an associate professor in the department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College where he focuses on the design and research of digital games and social software that foster local civic engagement. He is the co-author of a new book about location-based media called Net Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World (Blackwell Publishing, 2011) and the author of The Urban Spectator: American Concept Cities From Kodak to Google (Dartmouth, 2010). Download latest CV here. Visit him at placeofsocialmedia.com. Contact: eric_gordon [at] emerson.edu | Twitter

Stephen Walter, Coordinator of Technology and Community Development, recently graduated summa cum laude from the Department of Visual and Media Arts and Honors Program at Emerson College.  He has worked for a variety of government and non-government organizations in making and making sense of media — most recently at the PBS science series NOVA. Additionally, on the nights and weekends and on most federal holidays, he is a struggling independent filmmaker. An instinctive skeptic struggling with fits of idealism, Stephen is interested in exploring the ways in which technologies and media can be used to engage humans with complex ideas and to nurture immersive, global thinking. Contact: stephen_walter [at] emerson.edu | chrono-synclastic-infundibulum.com

Steven Schirra, MA, Researcher, studies games and civic engagement. He recently worked as a researcher and content developer for the Participatory Chinatown project, which had its community debut in May 2010. He is currently a graduate student in MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program. He is interested in new media literacies, game studies, and the role that new media and games play in community/civic engagement processes. Contact: steven_schirra [at] emerson.edu | Twitter

Jamie Spetner, Research Assistant, is a senior screenwriting major at Emerson College, currently participating in the Writer’s Guild of America East mentorship program. In the last year, he’s intensively studied how digital media is shaping culture, and written analyses of authority on Wikipedia, and the social science behind internet memes. He’s interested in the concept of virility, and how an idea can accidentally propagate itself to the masses. You can also check out some of his film and video production work at http://vimeo.com/jamiespetner.

Community Partners

Nigel Jacob serves as the Co-Chair of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, a new group within City Hall focussed on delivering transformative services to Boston’s residents. Nigel also serves as Mayor Menino’s advisor on emerging technologies. In both of these roles Nigel works to develop new models of innovation for cities in the 21st century.

Holly St. Clair is the Director of Data Services at the Boston-region Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), overseeing the agency’s activities in the fields of data management, data analysis, research, and public access to data. Ms St. Clair has pioneered the use of advanced decision support tools in Metropolitan Boston, managing a variety of projects that use scenarios modeling, 3-D environments, community indicators, and innovative meeting formats to engage stakeholders in dialogue about policy choices. She spearheaded the creation of the MetroBoston DataCommon, an on-line data portal and interactive web mapper that puts hundreds of data layers at the fingertips of residents, public officials, and advocates who would not otherwise have access to such information. She has experience working with municipalities to incorporate data analysis into planning decisions. Ms. St. Clair holds a Masters degree in Urban and Environmental Policy from Tufts University, a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Policy from Boston University, and has training in facilitation and facilitative leadership from the Interaction Institute for Social Change.

Janelle Chan is the Executive Director at Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC). She is a community advocate with experience in participatory urban planning, community organizing, resource development, and real estate development and finance. Over the past decade, Janelle has worked with and for the Asian/Asian American community and broader coalitions of color on a wide range of initiatives. At ACDC, Janelle directly managed the Participatory Chinatown project and all other community planning work including the youth leadership development program A-VOYCE; oversees the real estate development pipeline, including the large-scale development of the Parcel 24 mixed-use, mixed-income project in downtown Boston; and manages a real estate portfolio of over $120MM in housing and commercial real estate. Janelle is a LEED Accredited Professional in sustainable development and received a Master in City Planning with a specialization in Housing, Community, and Economic Development from M.I.T. and a Bachelor’s degree in Ethnic Studies and a minor in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley with highest departmental honors.

EGL Alums

Nathaniel Hansen is an award-winning story-teller and producer. His directed film works include nationally broadcast commercials, short and feature length documentaries, short narrative films, episodic television, web based media, and ethnographic film. His strong visual style has attracted commercial clients like Johnson & Johnson, Covidien and Estee Lauder as well as small, no-budget non-profit organizations. His ethnographic footage has been retained by the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. His latest transmedia documentary The Elders has received praise both online and off for its matched aesthetic quality and provocative content. As an independent maker, Nathaniel’s recent work has been financially supported entirely through social media and crowdfunding. In 2010, his innovative efforts have raised over $200,000 for films he is directing or producing. Twitter: @nathanielhansen | www.nathanielhansen.com

Evan Leek is a Boston-based digital artist specializing in Gaming, Virtual Worlds and UI/UX Design. His work ranges from constructing three-dimensional interactive spaces, to creating augmented reality experiences. Exploring how we attribute significance to the places around us is a common theme throughout his work. Evan works in pen-and-ink, digital and web-based art, three-dimensional environments and Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). Most recently, Evan has been part of a team building iPhone and iPad applications aimed at aggregating social networking feeds to tell one’s life story. Through his work with the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology (OEIT) at MIT, he examined the benefits of augmented reality experiences and distance collaboration in a variety of interactive environments. Working with Hub2, a Boston-based organization centered around utilizing interactive environments to foster more meaningful discussions on public spaces, he was able to see first hand the benefits of interactive gaming centered on socially conscious topics.