Gary Green, executive director, Center for Sustainable Journalism, publisher of Fresh Take Georgia
Green is executive director for the Center for Sustainable Journalism, publisher of Fresh Take Georgia, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, and Youth Today news sites, the Bokeh Focus photography platform and multiple digital magazine projects. He is a senior lecturer of communication at the Kennesaw State University School of Communication and Media.
In August 2020, Green started the Fresh Take Georgia project as part of his vision to grow the Center for Sustainable Journalism and develop dynamic collaborations with funding partners, KSU’s journalism faculty and KSU students. He sees FTG filling critical gaps in the existing journalism landscape while offering students opportunities to expand their skills and abilities for the evolving journalism industry.
Green joined the Center in 2020 from the University of Florida where he served as digital director of the Innovation News Center and deputy news editor for WUFT News, the NPR and PBS affiliates for north-central Florida. Prior to UF, he worked as a photojournalist and multimedia producer for newspapers and wire services in Ohio and Florida including the Akron Beacon Journal, Orlando Sentinel and Knight Ridder/McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
Green received a master’s degree in Mass Communication from the University of Florida in Gainsville and his bachelor’s degree from the School of Visual Communications at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Read more about Green here.
Dr. Carolyn S. Carlson, consulting editor, Georgia Legislature coverage
Carlson is a retired Associate Professor of Communication and director of the KSU Journalism and Emerging Media. She was a reporter for 23 years with two newspapers and the Associated Press. She is a past national president of the Society of Professional Journalists. She has been a member of the Society of Professional Journalists National Freedom of Information Committee for 30 years and helped found the Georgia First Amendment Foundation 25 years ago. She is formerly chair of the SPJ Ethics Committee and its Diversity Committee.
Currently, Carlson teaches online journalism and media law courses for Kennesaw State University and is a consultant on public relations and journalism issues for several clients.
Carlson holds a doctorate in Political Science, with a focus on American Government and Political Communication, from Georgia State University in Atlanta. Her master’s degree in Nonprofit Administration is also from Georgia State University and her bachelor’s degree in Journalism is from the University of Georgia in Athens.
Jeremy Redmon, consulting editor
Redmon is a part-time faculty member of Kennesaw State University’s School of Communication and Media and editor for Fresh Take Georgia. He is an award-winning journalist with nearly three decades of experience reporting for newspapers. He now writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
He has written extensively about politics, immigration, war, the coronavirus pandemic and addiction. Many of his articles are about trauma and resilience.
Assignments have taken Redmon to the White House, the U.S.-Mexico border, Central America and the Middle East. Between 2004 and 2006, he was embedded with U.S. troops during three trips to Iraq. He previously reported for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. His work has also appeared in Oxford American, The Bitter Southerner, Task & Purpose, The War Horse, USA Lacrosse Magazine and Inside Lacrosse.
Redmon holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in narrative nonfiction writing from the University of Georgia.
Kelly Audette, editor
Audette is a part-time faculty member of Kennesaw State University’s School of Communication and Media, editor and audience engagement manager for Fresh Take Georgia. She is also the social media manager and coach for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Previously she was a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Florida and worked in the Innovation News Center and for WUFT, the NPR and PBS affiliate for north-central Florida.
Audette holds a master’s degree in Mass Communication from the University of Florida in Gainesville and a bachelor’s degree in Multimedia Journalism from Florida Atlantic University.
Meris Lutz, editor
Lutz is an editor for the Center’s Fresh Take Georgia, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange and Youth Today news sites.
Previously, she covered local government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Middle East for The Daily Star, the Los Angeles Times and others.
Lutz holds a bachelor’s degree in history and Arabic from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2011, she was a Fulbright scholar to the Sultanate of Oman, where she studied gothic themes in contemporary Arabic literature.
Molly Bloom, editor
Bloom is an editor for the Center’s Fresh Take Georgia, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange and Youth Today news sites.
An award-winning journalist with experience in communications and community engagement, Bloom worked as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she covered Atlanta Public Schools in the aftermath of one of the nation’s biggest cheating scandals. She previously helped launch a groundbreaking collaboration among NPR and local member stations, serving as the first digital reporter for NPR’s StateImpact Ohio.
Bloom lives in Atlanta and holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton University.
Dr. Josh Azriel, faculty advisor
Azriel is the Associate Director, Graduate Studies, and a Professor of Communication at the KSU School of Communication and Media.
Azriel holds a doctorate in Journalism and Communications from the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he also earned his master’s degree in Political Science. His bachelor’s degree in Political Science is from Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
He pursued his doctorate in Journalism and Communications because he was interested in studying media law, specifically how the First Amendment’s freedom of speech clause applies to the Internet.
Dr. Burton Speakman, faculty advisor
Speakman is an Associate Professor of Communication at the KSU School of Communication and Media.
Speakman holds a doctorate in Journalism with a focus on Online and Community Journalism from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, a master’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a bachlor’s degree in Journalism from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Gwenette Writer Sinclair, web producer and developer
Sinclair maintains editorial and advertising content for all the Center’s websites including Youth Today, Fresh Take Georgia, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, Youth Today, the Bokeh Focus photography platform and multiple digital magazine projects. She designs websites, maintains the websites’ hosting servers, writes content for the websites, trains WordPress editor interns and contributes to social media strategy. Sinclair also develops 3D immersive virtual experiences/events for Ph.D. candidates, universities and corporations (see the Center’s virtual world project: VirtualWorld.jjie.org and Bokeh Focus: Our 3D Virtual Galleries). Her background includes teaching, corporate training, XReality mixed-media event production, video production, nonprofit administration, magazine/newspaper publishing, advertising sales and graphic design.
Avery Fields, Bokeh Focus, photography curator and editor
Christian Gehrke, social media coordinator assistant
Jaden Allen, audience engagement assistant
Jennifer Bolanos-Aleman, business operations and marketing assistant
Our publisher, Center for Sustainable Journalism
The Center for Sustainable Journalism aims to discover innovative ways to produce financially sustainable, high quality and ethically sound journalism via applied research, collaborations and advancing innovative projects.
The Center publishes multiple projects including Fresh Take Georgia, Youth Today, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, Bokeh Focus and several digital magazines.
