iFOCOS is a non-profit media think tank and futures lab and home of the We Media Community, a global network of individuals and organizations from across industries who believe the power of media, communication and human ingenuity should be applied to innovate in business and to make the world a better place for more people.

Andrew Nachison, Co-Founder
President and CEO
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Andrew is co-founder and CEO of iFOCOS and a partner of The 726 Group, a business consulting firm. Andrew is an internationally recognized expert on communications, technology and cultural trends and a leading advocate for applying media tools and techniques to make the world a better place for everyone. He is a writer and online publishing veteran who learned from remarkable teachers: the art of fiction from novelist Frank McCourt, computer programming from BASIC creator John Kemeney, and social activism from Pacific island nuclear testing witness and author David Bradley. He has reported and edited for The Associated Press; written for The New York Times, Infoworld, Audubon and other magazines; managed one of the world’s most ambitious small-market newspaper Web sites, lawrence.com; played clarinet at Tanglewood and Carnegie Hall; studied wildlife, development and environmental policy in Kenya; spoken on media convergence and business strategies in Asia and Europe; and currently serves on the advisory boards of the World Editors’ Forum, The Enthusiasts Group LLC, and NewsTrust. He has published one piece of short fiction, written many others (at nach.com) and swears there’s more to come. He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at Dartmouth College and lives with his wife and two sons in Reston, Virginia.

Dale Peskin, Co-Founder
Managing Director

Dale is co-founder and managing director of iFOCOS and a partner of The 726 Group, a business consulting firm. Dale is a widely engaged expert advisor on media and communications business and creative strategies, information design and innovation. He was the executive director of New Directions for News, a media futures think tank that merged with The Media Center in September 2003. Prior to joining NDN, he was a vice president of Belo, the Dallas-based media company, where he launched the company’s initiatives in new media and media convergence. At Belo, Dale served as editor of Dallasnews.com and as an assistant managing editor of The Dallas Morning News. He was a founding officer of Belo Interactive, Belo’s network of news Web sites.

Dale has served as deputy managing editor of The Detroit News and The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, and managing editor of the Tribune Chronicle. Dale’s awards include NAA’s Digital Edge Award for Pioneering Online Journalism, the Sigma Delta Chi Award, and four Gold Medals from the Society for News Design. He was part of the team at The Detroit News that won the Pulitzer Prize.

Carin Dessauer, Senior Fellow

Carin Dessauer is a senior fellow with iFOCOS, where she works on strategic initiatives and runs media discussions and programs. Dessauer has been teaching, “The Changing Media Landscape” at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. In addition, Dessauer is a principal at mc2, where she works on a mix of strategic projects such as serving as the lead for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation website redesign, and she is a contributing editor for Washington, D.C. area Bethesda magazine, where she recently profiled Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, The Wire creator David Simon, and Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank.

A Washington, D.C.-based journalist and media executive with over 20 years experience across multiple platforms (the Internet, broadcast and print), Dessauer is regarded as a leader in Internet and convergence efforts. Prior to her present work, Dessauer spent over 10 years at CNN covering and spearheading coverage of a wide range of stories—as CNN’s first deputy political director and then as its founding Washington executive editor for CNN.com, running the Washington bureau and political coverage. At CNN, she initiated early convergence efforts and was personally responsible for CNN.com being the first site on the Web to post the Starr Report—the news event considered significant in establishing the Internet as a mass medium. Dessauer also secured and produced the first-ever online and multi-platform interview with a sitting president, President Bill Clinton, and the first such interview with President George Bush. During her tenure, CNN won numerous coverage awards on TV and online, including several Webby People’s Voice Awards. Dessauer first moved into the interactive arena in 1996 when she was asked to serve on the original four-person CNN/Time allpolitics.com board (prior to the CNN and Time Warner merger), overseeing one of the first dedicated political sites on the Internet.

Dessauer recently produced and moderated a George Washington university-wide program entitled, The YouTube Election and White House. She first became affiliated with the university when she served as a Shapiro Fellow. Dessauer was a contributing editor for the book Society Online: The Internet in Context, writing the chapter on news. Dessauer started her journalism career right out of college as a reporter for the Rothenberg Political Report. She also worked for ABC News and Congressional Quarterly. Dessauer is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bucknell University, where she currently serves on the Board of Trustee’s Advisory Committee on Communications and Marketing.

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