Christopher Ali

Dr. Christopher Ali is an Associate Professor in the University of Virginia Department of Media Studies. He joined the Department in the fall of 2013 after completing his PhD at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include communication policy and regulation, critical political economy, critical geography, comparative media systems, localism, and local news.

Christopher’s first book, Media Localism: The Policies of Place (University of Illinois Press, 2017) addresses the difficulties of defining and regulating local media in the 21st century in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada and the implications these difficulties have for the long-term viability of local news.”

Currently, Christopher is the Faculty Fellow at the Benton Foundation. In 2016-2017, Christopher was a Fellow with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, where he completed an intensive research project on the state of small market newspapers in the United States titled, “Local News in a Digital World: Small Market Newspapers in an era of Digital Disruption.

Aleen Cary

Aleen Cary is a former high school Spanish teacher and currently works at food justice nonprofit Cultivate Charlottesville as outreach and resource program director. After earning her undergraduate degree from James Madison University, Aleen taught for a decade in Prince William and Albemarle Counties.

When she left the classroom, Aleen remained involved in the field of education professionally—working for Teachstone—and on a volunteer basis—joining the board of City Schoolyard Garden (CSG).

Aleen honed her nonprofit skills at the Center for Nonprofit Excellence (CNE) and uses them to focus on issues of equity in the Charlottesville area. She also serves on the board of the Building Goodness Foundation.

Meredith Strohm Gunter

Meredith Strohm Gunter’s career experience includes senior administrative posts at three institutions of higher education in Virginia; policy and special initiative development for the Governor’s Office; international services and support for a major Virginia law firm; and a number of freelance writing, editing, and planning projects. Before retiring in 2021, Meredith was Director of Strategy and Public Engagement for the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia where she had worked as the center’s Interim Director and Outreach Director for the Center’s Demographics Research Group.

Dr. Gunter earned her B.A. from Miami University (Ohio), her M.S. from Indiana University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. She served as Rector of the Board of Visitors for James Madison University; Co-chair and founder of the Patients and Friends Research Fund for the University of Virginia Cancer Center; a member of the Board of the Cancer Center for the University of Virginia Health System; and President of the Contemporary Club of Albemarle. She currently chairs the Board for the Emily Couric Leadership Forum and supports local food and food equity initiatives.

Bill Lewis

Bill Lewis is a retired partner in the DC office of the Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP law firm. Previously, he was Director of the congressionally-established National Commission on Air Quality, and prior to that, Executive Officer of the California Air Resources Board. In the 1990s, he taught a seminar on the federal Clean Air Act at the University of Virginia Law School. Bill is a co-founder and chair emeritus of The Montpelier Foundation and was a chair or a member of its governance committee for 19 years. He served as board president of the D.C. nonprofit FLOC (For Love of Children) and was a founding director of the organization that restored the nation’s first full-service African-American YMCA, now known as the Thurgood Marshall Center for Service and Heritage.

Bill served on EPA’s Clean Air Act Advisory Committee and was listed in Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers of Washington, D.C. He received a B.A. degree from the University of North Carolina and a J.D. with honors from its School of Law. He resides in Albemarle County with his wife Peyton.

Joshua René

Joshua René is a Founder, Design Strategist, Adjunct Instructor, Speaker, and Thought-Leader. After 18+ years in leadership roles ranging from supervisory to a tenured directorship, Human Services taught him that serving people begins with serving how we think. Eager to do something about the gaps that industries found so easy to ignore, he dove in headfirst, packaged up decades of service, product, and behavior strategy, and introduced a model provoked by the question, “Whenever we sit down to solve a problem, we should always ask ourselves, what’s the human need behind it?” Say hello to Human-Centered Design!

Around 2016, he created the proprietary design consultancy, The Spill Teem® – a creative team of facilitators, workshoppers, speakers, and Human-Centered Strategists that partner with organizations to reignite their natural ability to see things in new ways. Founded in the United States and with teams in the United Kingdom, The Spill Teem® covers a lot of innovative ground, helping organizations thrive in the spaces of their services, products, and behaviors.

In addition to The Spill Teem®, he serves as an Adjunct at Piedmont, Virginia Community College, and is a relentless vinyl record collector.

Richard Schragger

Richard Schragger is the Perre Bowen Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he has taught since 2001. His scholarship focuses on the intersection of constitutional law and local government law, federalism, urban policy, and the constitutional and economic status of cities. He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and an M.A. in legal theory from University College London. He is a faculty fellow at the Miller Center, a faculty adviser to the Local Solutions Support Center, and a member of the American Law Institute. He is the author of City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Rich served for many years on the board of ReadyKids. He and his wife, Risa Goluboff, reside in Charlottesville, with their two children, Solomon and Eliana, both of whom attend Charlottesville city schools.