Advisory Board
Nicco Mele, founder, is a resident of Lexington for more than ten years, a published expert on local news and former director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to that, he was the deputy publisher of the Los Angeles Times. Nicco co-founded the Massachusetts Poetry Festival where he still serves as board chair.
Lauren Feeney, Interim Executive Director, and resident of Lexington for five years, is a multimedia journalist whose work has been featured on PBS, The New York Times, The Intercept, and The Atlantic, among other publications. Most recently, she served as the Director of Video Production for The Intercept, a non-profit investigative news organization. Her work has been recognized with an Emmy nomination, four Edward Murrow Awards, the Newhouse Mirror Award, and an SPJ Award, among other honors. Lauren is a graduate of Columbia’s journalism school, where she has also taught multimedia journalism.
Harry Forsdick, Lexington resident and Town Meeting Member, retired from a successful software development career in 2004. His groundbreaking work with companies like Bolt, Beranek, and Newman (BBN), CMGI and Level 3 Communications included prototypes of and precurors to many of the applications currently in use on the Internet, such as Microsoft Word, Outlook, Google Docs, and GMail. He and his teams also worked on some of the first video teleconferencing applications, forerunners of the now-indispensable Zoom. He founded and moderates the Lexington List and has advised LexMedia and the Lexington Community Center. Currently he owns and operates Lexington Photo Scanning.
Elizabeth Hansen, resident of Lexington for three years, is the CEO and co-founder of the National Trust for Local News, a nonprofit working with funders and communities to keep local news sustainable and in local hands. In its first transaction, the Trust worked with the Colorado Media Project, the Gates Family Foundation, the Colorado Trust, the American Journalism Project and the Colorado Sun, to acquire 24 community newspapers and place them under an innovative new structure, preserving local ownership.
Cameron Hickey, resident of Lexington for almost four years, is the founder and Director of the Algorithmic Transparency Institute. He leads an effort to develop methodologies and tools for collecting and analyzing data to increase transparency about how large digital platforms impact society. Previously, Hickey covered science and technology for the PBS NewsHour and NOVA with correspondent Miles O’Brien. Hickey has won a News and Documentary Emmy Award and a Newhouse Mirror Award for his journalism and was also a Knight Foundation Prototype Grantee for his junk news monitoring tool NewsTracker, and won a 2019 Brown Institute Magic Grant to investigate inauthentic activity on social media. His work has appeared on the PBS NewsHour, NOVA, Bill Moyers, American Experience, WNET, and The New York Times.
Robert Rotberg is an internationally-recognized scholar and author in the field of governance and foreign affairs. He has written extensively on African nations and leaders, serving on the Secretary of State’s Africa advisory panel in 2003-2004 and directing the establishment of the Index for African Governance. His work in peace studies led to his appointment as director of the World Peace Organization, and he continues to teach at several institutions around the world.
Craig Sandler is the owner and founder of State House News Service, a media company that tracks legislation and legislators on Beacon Hill. He also serves as the Managing Editor for News Service Florida. He is a member of the board of the Lexington Historical Society, and he also publishes the Massachusetts Almanac.
Nagarjuna Venna, resident of Lexington for 4 years, is a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management where he teaches classes in Entrepreneurship. He is the co-founder of BitSight, a security ratings company based in Boston and Saperix, a risk management company, which was acquired by Firemon in 2011. He also serves on the board of Prochant, a healthcare services company.
Gerry Yurkevicz, a resident of Lexington for over 30 years, has spent his entire career in the energy industry as a management consultant and company executive. He will provide commentary on energy, climate, and environmental issues that are important to Lexington residents. His perspectives on energy-related topics have appeared in leading multimedia outlets including Public Utilities Fortnightly and the Edison Electric Institute’s Electric Perspectives. Previously, he was a partner in the energy practice of Oliver Wyman, where he wrote extensively on the energy transition. Gerry is a graduate of the University of Chicago’s business school.
If you have an interest in serving on the board, apply here!