Our Team


Jelani Sparrow
Project Manager
Jelani Sparrow is the Project Manager for the NEW VOICES Project. He is currently pursuing a joint degree M.S. from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. Jelani is from Norfolk, Virginia and received his B.A. in Strategic, Legal, and Management Communications from Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications. In his free time he enjoys long runs on the beach and short walks to the fridge. Jelani hopes to work in Creative Project Management or Content Management after graduating!

Julian Neely
Identify Team
Julian Neely is a graduate student in Media Studies at Syracuse University. He is originally from Des Moines, Iowa and received his undergraduate degree from Iowa State University in Journalism and Mass Communications. He is the lead researcher for the Identify team.

Carmella Boykin
Identify Team
Carmella Boykin is a junior Broadcast and Digital Journalism Major from Macomb, Michigan. She loves research and is part of the “Identify” team on NEW VOICES. At Syracuse University, she works as a news anchor, reporter and entertainment news host for CitrusTV. Her dream job is to be a talk show host, so after college she plans to work towards becoming one.

Jessica Stewart
Amplify Team
Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Jessica Steward relocated to New York to work toward her master’s in the Multimedia, Photography and Design program at Syracuse University. She is discovering how to accurately communicate her vision through her work while staying true to her authentic voice, by telling stories that illustrate the effects of education on community and media literacy. She is utilizing her talents on the NEW VOICES team to provide visual elements, creative designs, and facilitate media amplification. When she’s not holding a camera, she enjoys jazz technique dancing, going out for brunch, or reading thought-provoking books by Malcolm Gladwell.

Brandon Jackson
Identify Team
Brandon Jackson is a 2019 Public Relations Masters student at Syracuse University. He is using his talents to help conduct research on the identify team. After graduation, Brandon plans to work in a publicist agency focused around the music industry.

Erin Gavle
Identify Team
Erin Gavle is a Newspaper & Online Journalism student on the “Identify” team of the NEW VOICES project. She considers Wiesbaden, Germany home, but has lived in communities around the world. As a result, she’s passionate about supporting powerful voices from a range of experiences who are capable of positively affecting and innovating media spaces.

Camryn Simon
Amplify Team
Camryn Simon is a junior Advertising major with a minor in Public Health. She hails from Richmond, VA and considers herself a good ol’ Southern gal. She enjoys sprinkling the finishing touches on projects whether that’s design, copy, or graphics. On the “Amplify” team, Camryn’s job was to curate and design the website! After graduation, Camryn hopes to serve in the Peace Corps for a couple years before heading to Law school. She’s really proud of the work this team created and is so excited to uplift and showcase diverse voices in media.

Margot Lee
Amplify Team
Margot is an Advertising Major at the S.I Newhouse School and an Information Management and Technology Minor in the iSchool. She has found individual success on YouTube and is now marrying her advertising studies with her love of social media to assist content strategy and management at startups. She is thrilled to be on the “Amplify” team to share the list of 44 NEW VOICES with the rest of the world.
Our Faculty Guides

Aileen Gallagher
Associate Professor, Magazine, News and Digital Journalism
Aileen Gallagher is a former senior editor for New York Magazine online. During her tenure there, she shared several National Magazine Awards with her colleagues, including General Excellence Online. She led the Grub Street food blog network from 2007-2010; the flagship site, Grub Street New York, was a James Beard Award finalist in 2010.
Prior to joining New York, Gallagher was a founding editor of the independent online magazine, The Black Table. Her writing has appeared in various print and online outlets, including Vulture, Bust, the New York Post, the New York Law Journal, Mediabistro, TheStreet.com and many others. She is also the author of several children’s nonfiction books about topics ranging from hepatitis to the Japanese Red Army.
She is a graduate of the Newhouse School.

Anne Osborne
Professor, Communications
Anne Osborne teaches a range of classes on media and culture. Osborne’s teaching is informed by her research on gender, sports and fandom. She has published peer-reviewed articles in journals such as International Journal of Sport Communication, Journal of Public Relations Research, and Sport in Society, as well as several book chapters. She is lead author of “Female Fans of the NFL: Taking their Place in the Stands” (Routledge, 2016), and is working on a new book titled “Transgender and Intersex Athletes Against Gender Binaries in Sports: Discourses of Difference” (Peter Lang, 2019).
In addition to teaching and research, she has served as acting communications department chair (2016) and the director of program review and assessment (2017-18). Before joining Newhouse, she spent 14 years teaching in Louisiana State University’s communication school where she also held administrative posts including advertising department head and associate dean.

Charisse L'Pree
Associate Professor, Communications
Charisse L’Pree Corsbie-Massay’s work focuses on how media affects the way we think about ourselves and our perceptions of others. Trained in social psychology and critical media studies, L’Pree’s work examines the intersection of communication and psychology to assess how media images and narratives affect viewer identity, attitudes and behaviors, and how individuals use traditional, new and interactive media to express themselves and connect with others. Her current research investigates the psychological effects of intersectional identities and the media’s role in personal and social identity conflict.
As an actively interdisciplinary scholar, L’Pree has collaborated with researchers across a wide variety of disciplines including psychology, communications, anthropology, sociology, political science, medicine and engineering.
Prior to joining the faculty at Newhouse, she held teaching and research positions at the University of Southern California and Loyola Marymount University. Her research has been funded through the National Institutes of Health, the California HIV/AIDS Research Program and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Special Thanks for Support to…
Sean Branagan, Director, Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, Newhouse School, Syracuse University
Sarah Beth Lardie, Principal, Stratfund Services
Ken Harper, Director, Newhouse Center for Global Engagement at Syracuse University
Hub Brown, Associate Dean, Newhouse School, Syracuse University
Kate Hanson, Director, The SOURCE (Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research & Creative Engagement), Syracuse University
Laura Beachy, Co-Founder, BeachyMedia
Mike Pauldine, inspiration, guidance, patience, and good humor.