Media Evaluation Project: Core Group

Kathy Bonk is a CCMC co-founder, president and executive director. For over two decades, she has worked on a wide range of public policy issues, primarily focusing on children and families, women's rights, global population, and media reform. Ms. Bonk has worked on multi-year, issue-oriented efforts for a number of prominent foundations. She has also directed technical assistance activities under grants from more than 40 foundations. She is co-author of The Jossey-Bass Guide to Strategic Communications for Nonprofits (1999). (BACK)

The Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) was founded in 1983 at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. HFRP strives to increase the effectiveness of public and private organizations and communities by fostering a sustainable learning process that relies on collection, analysis, synthesis, and application of information to guide problem solving and decisionmaking. HFRP publishes a regular newsletter, The Evaluation Exchange. The Winter 2001 issue was devoted to strategic communication. It explored the theory and practice of strategic communication, how media are being used as agents of change, and the challenges that lie ahead for evaluators of communication initiatives. HFRP Director Heather Weiss and Julia Coffman, an HFRP consultant, will be directly involved in this project. (BACK)

The Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) was started in 1993, as a project of the Public Health Institute. BMSG works with community groups, journalists, and public health professionals to use the power of the media to advance healthy public policies. Dr. Lori Dorfman, who will be directly involved in this project, directs BMSG's work. Current research is examining media coverage of early childhood and how local television news and newspapers portray youth and violence. Based on this work, Dr. Dorfman is part of an interdisciplinary team conducting workshops on violence reporting for journalists. (BACK)

Joanne Edgar is a consultant who assists foundations and nonprofit organizations in using communication as a tool to achieve social change. She has worked with Casey Family Programs, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Open Society Institute, and others. She is a communication strategist, manager, writer, and editor. Ms. Edgar was a founding editor of Ms. magazine and also served as director of communications at the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation for 10 years, where she focused on integrating communications goals and activities into major program initiatives. (BACK)

Phil Sparks is a co-founder and vice president of CCMC. For more than a decade, he has worked on issues including early childhood education, family leave, learning disabilities, adoption reform, and family health. Previously, he was associate director of the U.S. Census Bureau; a congressional chief of staff; director of public affairs for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); and associate director of the President's Commission on Pension Policy. (BACK)

Dr. Ying-Ying Yuan is vice president and director of national programs for the evaluation firm of Walter R. McDonald & Associates. She conducts research on human services program management and service delivery for federal, state, and local governments; private nonprofit agencies; and foundations. Currently, she is the technical team director of the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (which collects U.S. statistics on child maltreatment) and director of the National Study of Child Protective Services Systems and Reform Efforts. (BACK)