Say Hi To Rachel, Our New Online Community Manager!
Here at NAMAC, we are fortunate to soon be welcoming our new Digital Arts Service Corps VISTA and Online Community Manager, Rachel Allen. Get to know Rachel in a short interview below, and don't forget to say hi!
Tell us a little about yourself.
I grew up in the Washington D.C. area and graduated from Oberlin College a couple of years ago with a degree in English. Since I graduated, I’ve been living in Brooklyn and working on a variety of media related projects, including a job as a production assistant for The Real World. Most recently, I was a Technology Coordinator for The Center for Architecture. There, my goal was to use media and technology to help Architecture industry professionals make connections with both each other and the public at large. While I’m passionate about social media and other web-based content as a powerful tool to promote arts education, my first love has always been media arts.
As a teen, I loved watching movies, music videos, television shows but what I loved more was talking about movies. I read a lot of film reviews and I started writing reviews for the school paper. My love of media as a way to connect with others about the arts, first led me to believe that I wanted to be a journalist. I had the opportunity to intern for CBSNews.com and The CBS Early Show. I also worked on the media production side of things as a Research intern for The Late Show with David Letterman. While I enjoyed working for these shows, I felt that I had lost sight of what I loved about media in the first place – it’s ability to connect people. As new media technologies are transforming the relationship between media producers and consumers, I’m less interested in participating in old industry models and more interested in equipping individuals with the skills that will allow their voices to be heard. I think that working for NAMAC will be help me achieve that goal.
What's your interest in the NAMAC community?
Media education is something I feel passionately about. I believe that basic skills and competencies in digital media are important tools for self-expression and civic engagement. As an Online Community Manager for NAMAC, I see an opportunity to promote media education on a national level.
An important aspect to promoting media education is of course creating a space where media policy issues can be debated and discussed. I see NAMAC as a valuable resource for facilitating meaningful dialogue among different media arts organizations across the country. I’m ready to become part of the Idea Exchange.
What are you looking forward to about your work with NAMAC?
I’m looking forward to getting to know people at NAMAC’s membership organizations and learning more about where their passions lie. I’m also excited to bring new voices and content to NAMAC’s Idea Exchange blog, which I think is a powerful way for members to stay connected. And last but not least, I’m looking forward to moving to San Francisco and discovering more about what the Bay area has to offer.
