Meet Our Staff
Beth McConnell, Executive Director
Ms. McConnell joined the Coalition staff in May 2007, and works to link together local, state and national organizations around media policy initiatives and provides strategic back-up support to those efforts. Ms. McConnell was the Director of the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group (PennPIRG) from 2002 through 2007, where she led the organization to victories including winning the release of patient safety data from hospitals that can save lives, giving consumers tools to protect their personal information from would-be identity thieves, defeating a plan by the IRS that would have allowed the sale of consumers' tax returns, and expanding health care access to tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians. Ms. McConnell began her public interest career in 1993 as a Citizen Outreach Director with the Fund for Public Interest Research, and has extensive experience working with the media, developing strategic campaign plans, training emerging leaders, policy development and analysis, fundraising, crafting effective messages and coalition building.
Hannah Miller, National Field Director
Hannah Miller, the National Field Director for the Media Democracy Coalition, brings 15 years of experience as a newspaper journalist, political operative, and grassroots organizer in many different regions of the country. Having entered campaigns in 2006 in the rough and tumble world of South Philly ward politics, Miller’s campaigns for municipal, state, and Congressional candidates in Pennsylvania, and issue efforts such as SEIU’s effort to pass progressive healthcare reform, have garnered praise from her peers for her strategic skill, innovation, dedication, and idealism. As an organizer, Miller has worked in labor, Internet organizing, community-based grassroots organizations, and women’s organizations, among others. Her entrance into media policy brings Miller full circle back to her original field, journalism, at what she considers “a time of revitalization for our vision of democracy.” As National Field Director, Miller oversees campaigns in the Coalition’s projects across the country, building relationships between coalition members towards a larger, long-term movement to unlock the machinery of the media for all to use.
Nathaniel James, Program and Outreach Manager
Nathan James has run field campaigns, trained and managed field staff, and managed detailed budgets and reporting databases with FieldWorks, MoveOn.org, Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. and the Fund for Public Interest Research. Nathan has been an active volunteer with the Seattle Independent Media Center, Studio X Community Internet Radio, Reclaim the Media, and has provided strategic consultation at Microsoft and for Greenpeace International. Nathan earned a masters degree in Media and Communication Regulation and Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science in December 2006. As the Program and Outreach Manager, Nathan is responsible for managing the Coalition's internal communications platforms, developing and managing special projects, building the Coalition's visibility and organizational relationships, and providing technical and logistical support to Coalition partners and staff.