Cara Lisa Berg Powers

Executive Director Transformative Culture Project

  • Roxbury MA

Innovative Solutions for a Changing World

Contact

Social

Biography

Cara is an innovative strategic thinker working across a variety of disciplines to build the capacity of communities to create meaningful and lasting change. Before her current role as Executive Director of Transformative Culture Project, Cara founded the Youth Media Institute at Project: Think Different and also ran Digital Media programming for the United Teen Equality Center (UTEC). She holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Change in addition to a MA in Transformative Media Arts and a BA in Screen Studies and Urban Development/Social Change.

In addition to time spent on the Adjunct Faculty at Wheelock College, Worcester State University and UMASS Boston, Cara has guest lectured at Northeastern University, MIT, Simmons College, and Amherst College. She has produced programming for MTV & NBC, and has provided training in media and social change to non-profit leaders like Oxfam and Facing History & Ourselves. Cara has also presented at several conferences, including the Women, Action and Media Conference, the Be the Media Conference, the National Conference for Media Reform, and the Action Coalition for Media Education Conference. She is the recipient of the Empowerment Award from the 2008 Media That Matters Festival, is featured in No Excuses: Nine Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power by Gloria Feldt.

You can read her work in the Kinder Braver World Series, published by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society in partnership with Lady Gaga’s Born this Way Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. Her writing has also been featured on Kveller, The Establishment, and on Facing History and Ourselves. She sits on several Boards and Commissions and plays Roller Derby as Surely Chis'l in Worcester, Massachusetts where she resides with her husband and daughter.

Industry Expertise

Political Organization
Education/Learning
Media - Broadcast

Areas of Expertise

Arts and Culture
Youth Development
Media
Policy
Arts and Education Activism

Education

Fielding Graduate University

EdD

Educational Leadership and Change

2013

Goddard College

MA

Transformative Media Arts

2008

Clark University

BA

Screen Studies, Urban Development and Social Change

2005

Testimonials

Senior Alliance Advisor

Oxfam America

“Cara knows the power and weight of words; through her arts activism she sparks interest and moves people to action.”

Health Communication Specialist

UNC Chapel Hill

“Cara is one of the most dedicated and fearless activists I know. I was reminded watching Cara's actions how passion and motivation can truly make a difference in people's lives and in the community.”

PhD Candidate

University of Illinois

“Cara is a passionate and dedicated educator and community organizer. She has a proven
commitment to empowering youth and adults with the communications tools needed to tell
their own stories, in their own words.”

Show All +

Event Appearances

Exploring Respect in Reporting

The Uptake Symposium  Twin Cities

Sample Talks

The Uptake Symposium

http://theuptake.org/2015/10/22/exploring-respect-in-reporting/

Style

Availability

  • Keynote
  • Moderator
  • Panelist
  • Workshop Leader
  • Author Appearance
  • Corporate Training

Fees

$500 to $7500

Articles

How Participatory Action Research Can Promote Social Change and Help Youth Development

Harvard University

2016-09-02

The Kinder & Braver World Project: Research Series (danah boyd, John Palfrey, and Dena Sacco, editors)
Brought to you by the Born This Way Foundation & the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and supported by the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

View more