Category: Speakers

Fareeha Rehman served as Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Fourth Estate from fall 2017 to spring 2018. Prior to that, she was the Online Editor and started as a staff writer in 2016. While working with the newspaper, she also served as President of the Society of Professional Journalists, which won Region 2 Chapter of the Year during her term. She graduated from George Mason University in May 2018 with a B.A. in Communication (Journalism concentration) and is currently an intern with On Tap Magazine.

Director, Global Media Partnerships, Ashoka

Laxmi Parthasarathy is the Director of Global Media Partnerships for Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, She is also a Media Development Professional and Vice Chair of the board of Crossroads International, a Canadian international development organization.

Laxmi is also the author of “The Bottom-Up Media Revolution: How Social Entrepreneurs Are Building Trust Between Communities and the Media,” a report published by the University of Michigan.

Prior to Ashoka, Laxmi worked in Swaziland as the communications leader for the country’s only gender-based violence prevention NGO, where she developed and executed a national media campaign and co-produced a national radio program.

In 2007, Laxmi founded MY ROOTS, a Toronto based newspaper distributed in North East Scarborough. She has worked on media and development projects in Canada, Swaziland, India, Rwanda, Mexico, Spain, and the UK. Laxmi has delivered lectures on Social Entrepreneurship, Media Development and the Future of Journalism at Harvard University, Skoll World Forum, and Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum.

Laxmi received a BA from Carleton University and an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science where she assessed the effectiveness of rural community radio for development in Southern India.  In 2008 she was awarded Top 20 Under 20 in Canada and currently lives in Washington, D.C.

Editor, Investigative Reporting, Indy Star

Steve Berta, 64, has been investigations editor of the Indianapolis Star since 2012. Berta led IndyStar’s award-winning coverage of sexual abuse in USA Gymnastics, which led to the conviction of Larry Nassar, the biggest sexual abuse scandal in U.S. sports history. The coverage resulted in federal legislation and the resignations of the USA Gymnastics president and board, as well as the president of Michigan State University, its gymnastics coach and the dean of its medical school. The university recently agreed to pay $500 million to settle lawsuits brought by more than 300 women who say Nassar assaulted them. Berta has led investigations into government corruption, day care regulation, pet medicines, abandoned housing, violent crime and the spread of disease through the captive deer industry. The graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism was previously news director at the Star, and business editor of the Akron Beacon Journal, where he led award-winning investigations into Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the coal industry’s influence on Ohio’s utility and air quality regulators.

Founder/Publisher, EAST COBBER Magazine

Cynthia Rozzo created the free magazine, EAST COBBER, in 1993 to serve East Cobb County, Georgia residents by providing a forum for them to share their ideas and a source for them to learn more about their community.

As a local businesswoman, Cynthia has served as past president of the East Cobb Business Association and is a member of the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce. Prior to establishing EAST COBBER, Cynthia Rozzo was the marketing/public relations manager for an educational publishing company. In addition to growing EAST COBBER online and in print, she produces the annual EAST COBBER Community Parade and Festival.

Cynthia received a Masters in International Relations from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England. Her undergraduate degree in Public Administration was earned at Indiana University, Bloomington. An East Cobb County (a neighborhood in Marietta, GA) resident since 1991, Ms. Rozzo lives in the Park Ridge subdivision with her husband, George, and three children, Lee, Nikos, and Eleni.

Dayna Smith, President, ImageSmith Media

Dayna worked as a newspaper photographer for 30 years, traveling around the globe covering civil wars in Central America, the anniversary of the fall of Saigon, the cholera epidemic in South America, conflict and famine in Somalia and the Los Angeles riots. Her photographs of the struggle for independence by Kosovar Albanians won the coveted World Press Photo of the Year in 1999. She now owns her own company, ImageSmith Media, where she enjoys shooting “real people – real situations,” in the categories of news, food, architecture, travel and special events.

Former Anchor, WAVY News and Fox 43 TV

Nicole Livas is a veteran broadcast journalist who relocated to the DC area for her husband’s career promotion in March 2016. She’s now an independent journalist, media consultant, and trainer.

Previously, she anchored four weekday evening newscasts on the WAVY and Fox 43 TV in Norfolk. In addition to her on air work, Nicole kept busy behind the scenes by producing web stories, blogs, and social media posts.

Nicole is a community leader who speaks to aspiring journalists and various community groups.

Nicole is a proud graduate of George Mason University, and serves on the Board of Advisors for G.M.U.’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She also serves on the board of the Society of Professional Journalists, Virginia Chapter.

Nicole spends her free time with her husband, infant daughter and family, in the gym or yoga studio and loves traveling, reading, cooking and supporting local businesses.

SportsCenter Anchor, sub-Saharan Africa

Phil Murphy is the host of SportsCenter across sub-Saharan Africa. Murphy joined ESPN in January 2010 after five years covering high school sports in and around Washington, D.C. Since joining ESPN, he has worked as a producer, reporter and on-air anchor, contributing to ESPN’s coverage of college football, college basketball, recruiting and mixed martial arts.

Murphy hosts the daily SportsCenter produced by ESPN as part of its long-term collaboration with Econet Media’s Kwesé in sub-Saharan Africa. The daily program will air nightly at 8pm locally (CAT) and with a predominately American sports focus will provide a fast-paced snapshot of the top stories in global sport for fans in 19 African countries.

As a self-described “military brat,” Murphy grew up in the Eastern United States and Western Europe, developing an affinity for travel and global sport, particularly global soccer, American football and basketball.

Murphy has lived in Gonbach, Germany, Alabama, Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Virginia and has a degree in marketing from George Mason University. He is an avid recreational athlete and outdoorsman, including interests in weightlifting, soccer, hiking and mountaineering – the latter of which includes summiting two of the world’s “Seven Summits” — Mount Aconcagua in Argentina (22,841 ft. / 6,961 m) and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (19,341 ft. / 5,895 m).