Board of Directors
Jeffrey Chester, Executive Director, Center for Digital Democracy
Lauren-Glenn Davitian, [Chair], Founder and Executive Director, CCTV Center for Media and Democracy
Ms. Davitian is founder and executive director of CCTV’s Center for Media and Democracy in Burlington, Vermont and oversees Channel 17/Town Meeting Television (a regional government access TV channel), CCTV Productions (a nonprofit media production and distribution unit) and Common Good Vermont (the state’s nonprofit capacity building project). Lauren-Glenn is a founding member of Vermont Access Network (a trade group of 27 public access tv centers in Vermont). She has served the Alliance for Community Media in various capacities. Ms. Davitian was named one of Vermont’s “25 most influential people” in the mid 1990’s. Lauren-Glenn is an Emeritus NTEN Board member. She is a graduate of the University of Vermont (B.A. in Anthropology, Phi Beta Kappa, 1982).
Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania
Oscar Gandy is Professor Emeritus at the Annenberg School, where he taught until his retirement in 2006. Gandy's teaching and research has been in the areas of political economy, communication and race, privacy and surveillance, strategic communication, and media effects more generally. An active scholar before and after his retirement, Gandy has published in excess of 75 articles and chapters. His most important books are Beyond Agenda Setting, Communication and Race, The Panoptic Sort, Coming to Terms with Chance, and a co-edited collection, Framing Public Life. Selected Publications and more.
Nicholas Carter, Managing Director, 2020 Vision Ventures
Nick is the Managing Director of 2020 Vision Ventures, a civic engagement financing effort dedicated to a more equitable and resilient democracy through innovative and inclusive voter engagement. Nick is keenly interested in furthering initiatives that close the equity gap in civic technology and hold the promise of transformative civic engagement to increase voter turnout, scale equitable best practices and ultimately achieving a civil society that is positively impacted by the realities of the digital age. Core questions driving his work include how do we close the equity gap in civic tech and promote more inclusive civic engagement that increases turnout at the polls while simultaneously improving the lives of low propensity voters too often excluded from our democracy.
Previously, Nick has worked at VICE Media, Planned Parenthood, and has held senior positions in presidential, federal and statewide electoral campaigns. He has held leadership roles in successful issue-advocacy efforts related to pay equity, health care, consumer protections, and climate justice. Nick currently serves on the investment committee for New Media Ventures, the Future Now Fund Kitchen Cabinet, the Center for Civic Design Advisory Committee, the Movement Cooperative's Impact Lab and chairs the Census Digital Organizing Advisory Group. Nick is a 2014 US State Department Int’l Exchange Alumni (Young Turkey/Young America) and has studied political systems and elections in the US, the Middle East, and the UK. He started his career as an Americorps volunteer at a community media center serving nonprofits and local government in rural New England.