Bios

Board Member Michele Meek pioneered the development of NewEnglandFilm.com, the premiere magazine and resource for indie filmmaking in the northeast, which she founded in 1997. Soon after, she launched BuyIndies.com, an international community for buying and selling 50,000 independent, educational, and hard-to-find films. Respected as a young entrepreneur and champion of independent film, she received the 2005 Baldwin Award for Alumni Recognition in Film & Video by Boston College and the 2000 Image Award for Vision and Excellence by Women in Film & Video New England. Her entrepreneurial successes have been lauded in Inc. Magazine, National Public Radio, and The Boston Globe, and she has spoken on numerous panels including the National Alliance for Media Arts & Culture, Convergence at Tribeca, Global Entertainment Network Summit. She can be reached at michele@independent-magazine.org.

Board Member/Editor-at-Large Mike Hofman is the executive editor of Inc. magazine, which he joined in 1996. At Inc., he edits articles on a variety of topics, from the economics of immigration to religion in the workplace. He has written more than 20 feature stories and frequently represents Inc. in the media, commenting on published articles and business news. In 2006, Hofman was part of a team of writers nominated for the prestigious Webby Award for best business blog. From 2002 through 2004, Mike was named one of the 30 most influential financial journalists under the age of 30 by TJFR, and industry trade publication. In 2004, he was also awarded the first-ever Publisher's Award for outstanding contribution to Inc. magazine. He lives in the East Village in New York City. Please e-mail him at mike@independent-magazine.org.

Board Member John Bodt is a manager of finance at Pattern Energy, one of North America's leading independent wind and transmission companies. Prior to joining Pattern, John held similar positions with the wind development team within Australian investment bank Babcock & Brown and with offshore wind developer Bluewater Wind. Previously, John was an independent business strategy consultant based in New York providing advice to organizations regarding strategic growth initiatives, governance, sustainability, and reputation issues. Additionally, he has over five years of experience in the publishing industry, where he was responsible for publishing a dozen scientific research journals, including one that he helped to found. He lives in San Francisco.

Editor and Publisher Erin Trahan is a Boston-based freelance writer and editor. In addition to being a frequent contributor to The Independent, she has written about film for the Boston Globe, NewEnglandFilm.com (which she also edited), The Wire, and several other publications. She has written and helped produce short films and coordinated public forums and film series for Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She also co-authored the Frommer's Guide to Montreal & Quebec City 2010 & 2011 and Frommer's Montreal Day by Day. Before transitioning to journalism, Erin spent almost 10 years working with local, statewide, and national nonprofit organizations where she helped allocate more than $2 million in grants and developed, implemented, and evaluated numerous nonprofit programs. She served as the board president for Women in Film & Video/New England and on the board of the YWCA of Grand Rapids. She is a member of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists. Reach her at erin@independent-magazine.org.

Special Projects Editor Cristina Sousa has several years of experience working as a writer and editor for publications in Washington, D.C., Boston and New York City. She recently worked as the assistant managing editor for Doubledown Media, a publishing firm in Manhattan. Merrill Lynch's Return on Equities magazine, of which she was the managing editor, won the Custom Publishing Council's Gold Pearl Award for Best New Publication in 2007. Cristina currently lives in the Boston area, where she works as an editor for the award-winning marketing agency 89 Degrees and runs her own media firm, Busy Hedgehog. She can be reached at cristina@independent-magazine.org.

Staff Writer Katherine Brodsky Katherine Brodsky is a freelance writer and has contributed to publications such as Entertainment Weekly, Variety, USA WEEKEND Magazine, MovieMaker Magazine, The Independent, and many others. For her stories, Katherine has had a chance to interview a diverse range of 'intriguing' personalities, including Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, Pulitzer, Tony, and Genie Award winners and nominees. Katherine has also served as a senior editor for a variety of popular online publications such as CountingDown.com, MODA Magazine, First Weekend Club's Canadian Film Forecast Newsletter, and MovieWeb.com, where she also had a widely-read film column entitled, The MovieGuru. Reach her at katherine@independent-magazine.org.

Staff Writer and Senior Film Critic Kurt Brokaw joined The Independent in 2010 following a five-year stint as culture editor of The Madison Avenue Journal. He reviews the annual New York Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Manhattan's New Directors/New Films, plus individual feature films of merit. He is associate teaching professor at The New School and over the past 25 years has created various business and literature courses. He curates and hosts "Killer Movies: Lost Films Noir" at the 92nd Street Y, plus the Y's first course in early lesbian fiction, "Queer Pioneers." He covers film and arts for Together, the national recovery newspaper and is the author of A Night in Transylvania: The Dracula Scrapbook, a cross-cultural survey of vampirism and Dracula. He started as a "mad man" on Madison Avenue in 1961 and has been a creative head at three major advertising agencies, plus creative director at RCA Records. He holds M.S. and B.S. degrees in journalism from the University of Wisconsin and is married with four children. Reach him at kurt@independent-magazine.org.

Staff Writer Beth Brosnan is a New Hampshire-based writer and editor whose love for film knows no bounds. She has served as the alumni magazine editor of two leading independent schools, Phillips Exeter Academy and St. Albans School, and as a staffer at two regional magazines, Down East and Sunset. From 2003-2005 she reviewed films for The Wire and has contributed features to NewEnglandFilm.com and The Independent. Reach her at beth@independent-magazine.org.

Staff Writer Randi Cecchine is an independent documentary filmmaker, video freelancer, and media educator living in New York City. She has a B.A. from Hampshire College and an M.F.A. in media arts production from The City College of New York. She is currently self distributing her DVD entitled Scrambled: A Journey Through Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, which explores a complicated, but common, women's health condition through personal narrative and interviews with experts from diverse fields. She can be reached at randi@independent-magazine.org.

Staff Writer Maddy Kadish joins The Independent with an eye towards digital strategy for film and filmmakers. She is a Boston-based freelance writer, multimedia producer, and instructional designer. She is also a writer for NewEnglandFilm.com, where she has profiled festivals and filmmakers, and is a consultant for the Boston Jewish Film Festival. Maddy spent 10 years as a film, video, and multimedia producer, specializing in educational media. She won a Telly Award in 2004 for her work on "Inside the Orchestra," a video about music appreciation. In 2009, she received an Interactive Award for Kids, Tweens, and Teens from MITX (Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange) for her work on "LifeSkills," an animated CD-ROM series for kids. In addition to writing for The Independent, she currently works as an instructional Designer at Pearson Education developing digital products for middle and high school students in the areas of Spanish and Social Studies. She holds a B.S. from Cornell University and an Ed.M. from Harvard University. She can be reached at maddy@independent-magazine.org.

Web Architect Geoffry Meek has led critical web application development for start-up companies since the birth of the commercial Internet. He custom-built his first ecommerce product with real-time credit card processing for Internet pioneer Baudway Communications in 1995. Currently, Geoff works as a consultant for enterprise-level content systems. His clients have included Bayer, 3M, Chase, Fidelity, Harvard University, and Deloitte & Touche. In addition, Geoff designed the technology behind several start-ups that successfully serve niche markets, such as CentralDispatch.com, NewEnglandFilm.com, and VDay.org. He has trained groups through the U.S., Europe and Asia on web content management and has provided technical reviewing for Apache, the Definitive Guide, 2nd edition, published by O’Reilly and Associates, the leading publisher of technology books.

Identity & Site Designer Christian Harrison has designed web sites and identities for dozens of successful companies – including V-Servers, Windows95.com, Extreme Games and Digital Harbor. As a founding member of ICentral, he created the graphical interface for the ecommerce software ShopSite which was purchased in May 1998 by Open Market, Inc. Since then, he has been an integral part of Open Market’s new brand creation and corporate web site re-launch. Since 1999, he has also consulted as the site designer for many of NewEnglandFilm.com’s client sites including Harvard Film Archive, Filmmakers Collaborative, among others.