Whistleblower Summit
12th Annual Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival: “Media Matters”
WASHINGTON – From July 26 to August 4, 2024, the 12th annual Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival will be held on Capitol Hill and Embassy Row in Washington, D.C.; ACORN 8 is proud to partner with American University to host the award-winning festival this year. The theme for the event is “Media Matters—Whistleblowers, Investigative Journalists & Enterprise Reporting.” The speakers and panel presentations will generally reflect this idea.
“ACORN 8 was the first NGO to promote National Whistleblower Appreciation Day by hosting the Whistleblower Summit for Civil & Human Rights on Capitol Hill, that focused on whistleblower policy and legislation over a decade ago” says summit Co-Founder and AU SOC Alumni, Michael McCray. “This year, we are pleased to introduce National Whistleblower Appreciation to an entire new audience—the American University SOC community; through the Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival, which highlights whistleblowers in journalism, investigative reporting and documentary or narrative filmmaking.”
Professor Emeritus Randall Blair, Director (retired) of the Producing Film, Television & Video Program said, “the Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival is a great example for our students because whistleblowers are essential to journalism and documentaries. After all the motto for the A.U. School of Communications is Media That Matters.”
Marcel Reid has had a major impact over the last decade in grassroots community organizing, the whistleblowing community, and a national media foundation. Her efforts have resulted in major policy changes.As a National Director, Chair of DC ACORN and one of a three-member Interim Management Committee (IMC) to reorganize ACORN after the discovery of a major embezzlement, Marcel came face to face with the difficulties in reporting corruption. This was her first exposure to fighting entrenched corruption and her introduction to the whistleblower community.
Later, Marcel was elected to serve as a director on the National Board of Pacifica Radio. In that position, she introduced a motion to have Pacifica support whistleblowers; making it the first national media organization to incorporate it into their platform. After the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) passed in 2012, Pacifica’s steadfast support of whistleblowers was credited by many in the whistleblowing community as helping to reinvigorate the WPEA campaign after over a decade of unsuccessful attempts.
After serving on the board for three terms, Marcel became the first national media whistleblower liaison for the Pacifica Foundation, the only position of its’ kind, in media to date. She continues her efforts to shed light on corruption worldwide by actively supporting the efforts of whistleblowers globally. As an outgrowth, Marcel is the co-host of the annual Whistleblower Summit for Civil and Human Rights that takes place on Capitol Hill, where the prestigious Pillar Award is awarded to First Amendment rights advocates.
Michael McCray is a 2007 recipient of the “No FEAR Award” in Washington, DC. In 2008, Michael McCray received statewide recognition for outstanding work in peace and social justice when he was recognized by the OMNI Center For Peace, Justice & Ecology as an ARKANSAS PEACE & JUSTICE HERO in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Invite Michael to make a memorable contribution to conferences, events and conventions that welcome his “tell-it-like-it-is” style of story telling and audience engagement. Learn more about his training programs, invite him to speak or contribute to your conference, or place orders for his breakthrough book RACE, POWER & POLITICS—Memoirs of an ACORN Whistleblower—today.
