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Founder, Oakland Local
Susan Mernit is an innovator and media entrepreneur working to help local communities build civic engagement, improve economic development and give voice to people of color and those in underserved communities through amplifying the power of local media and discussion on the web. Mernit is the founder of Oakland Local, a news & community hub for Oakland, recognized as one of the most interesting and unique local sites in the country because of its civic engagement model and its training academy and programs.
Mernit sometimes works as a consultant, trainer, and coach, and is interested in projects focused on community media, bridging the digital divide, new revenue models for media, media entrepreneurship and product strategy. She was the consulting web strategist for The Center for Investigative Reporting’s California Watch project and is currently a circuit rider for the Knight Foundation Community Information Challenge.
A former VP at AOL and Netscape, and a former Yahoo Senior Director, Mernit was the consulting program manager for The Knight News Challenge in 2008-09, as well as a consultant to organizations including Salon.com & TechSoup Global. Mernit spent summer 2008 at TechStars, incubating a company that died; that experience has super-fueled her energy. She has been a contributing editor at BlogHer, a blogger, and was is a co-founder of Hack the Hood, a project that provides Oakland youth with tech training and exposure to tech careers while also helping local businesses become more visible online.
A popular trainer and speaker, Mernit works often with The Knight Digital Media Center at USC’s Annenberg School and does trainings and webinars with The Poynter Institute. She was the Keynote program chair for the October 2009 Online News Association conference in San Francisco and is an experienced facilitator and presenter.
Follow Susan on Twitter: @SusanMernit