Staff
Andrew Jay Schwartzman
Senior Vice President and Policy Director
andys@mediaaccess.org | 202-454-5681
Andrew Jay Schwartzman has directed Media Access Project’s policy efforts since June, 1978. He is recognized as one of the leading media attorneys and has appeared on behalf of MAP before Congress, the FCC and the courts on issues such as cable TV regulation, minority and female ownership and employment in the mass media,”equal time” laws and cable “open access.”
In recognition of his service as chief counsel in the public interest community’s challenge to the FCC’s June, 2003 media ownership deregulation decision, The Scientific American honored Mr. Schwartzman as one of the nation’s 50 leaders in technology for 2004. Mr. Schwartzman is also the 1994 recipient of the United Church of Christ Office of Communication’s Everett C. Parker Award and the 2004 recipient of the Media Matters Life Achievement Award.
Mr. Schwartzman is a faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences, where he teaches in its Communication in Contemporary Society Program. He serves on the International Advisory Board of Southwestern Law School’s National Entertainment & Media Law Institute and was the Distinguished Lecturer in Residence at the Institute’s Summer 2004 program at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University. His board memberships include the Advisory Board of the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Board of Directors of the Minority Media Telecommunications Council. He was co-founder and President of the Board of the Safe Energy Communications Counsel from 1991 through 2003.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968, and its law school in 1971, Schwartzman was staff counsel to the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ. From 1974 until he took his current position, Schwartzman worked for the U.S. Department of Energy and predecessor agencies. He is married to Linda Lazarus, an attorney/mediator practicing in Washington, DC.
Chrystiane Pereira
Counsel
cpereira@mediaaccess.org | 202-454-5683
Chrystiane joined Media Access Project as Counsel in 2011. Prior to joining MAP, she was counsel at the Century City office of O’Melveny & Myers law firm, where she was a member of the Firm’s Employment and Diversity Committees and Co-Chair of the Century City Women’s Affinity Group and Attorneys of Color Affinity Group. At O’Melveny, her practice focused on litigation involving media and entertainment, including intellectual property, privacy rights, antitrust, unfair business practices and contract disputes. Illustrative experience includes representation of Advanced Micro Devices in a worldwide monopolization suit against Intel and in November 2009, obtaining $1.25 billion settlement and wide-ranging injunctive relief.
Her community outreach has included successfully representing a San Diego woman who was denied certain fertility services by her health care providers because she is a lesbian, and volunteering her time during Los Angeles County’s Adoption Days at the Edelman Children’s Court. Chrystiane is a graduate of Yale Law School, where she co-chaired Yale’s Latino Law Student Association and served on the board of its Collective on Women of Color.
Mera Szendro Bok
Communications and Development Director
mera@mediaaccess.org | 202-454-5685
Mera Szendro Bok is a dedicated advocate of media reform issues, internet freedom and internet rights. Mera graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in 2008 with a B.A. in Communications and minor in International Studies. Prior to joining Media Access Project, Mera worked as a Communications and Information officer at New Media Rights, a San Diego based non-profit that focuses on intellectual property pro-bono legal assistance and media policy advocacy. Mera also has experience working at New York City based public relations companies and the United Nations.
Mera frequently does public speaking engagements at conferences and to groups about how people can be more involved in shaping public interest media policy. Mera also founded Communication Is Your Right! a campaign that educates people on the harms of media consolidation and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The campaign encourages people to create media about their right to communicate and recognize access to communications platforms as a human right.
Erica Daye
Operations Manager
edaye@mediaaccess.org | 202-232-4300
Erica Daye has over ten years experience supporting senior executives in the nonprofit sector, most recently as the Executive Assistant to the CEO of the American Association for Justice. Erica has been involved in student activism as a logistics organizer and supporter in Operation Save UDC, a student group mobilized in opposition to a one hundred percent tuition increase that would have displaced low income and international students. Her service activities extend to community volunteerism and support to organizations that provide shelter and service to women struggling with substance abuse. A graduate of the University of the District of Columbia with a degree in Business Management, Erica is currently enrolled in the MBA program and Masters program for Non-profit and Association Management at the University of Maryland University College.
MAP Interns
MAP’s attorneys also supervise law student interns each semester. In recent years, MAP has had interns from Harvard, UCLA, Stanford, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, and other institutions. The internship is an integral part of MAP’s program, enhancing the delivery of services as well as creating a cadre of attorneys sensitive to the concerns of public interest law.
