Board of Directors

Jim Blaha, Board Chair
Niel Ritchie, Treasurer
Amalia Deloney
Edyael Casaperalta
Parul P. Desai

Jim Blaha has more than 40 years of experience working in the human services nonprofit area. He is currently the executive director of the Community Action Center of Northfield, MN - a community human services organization serving low-income families and individuals. Prior to that, Jim was with Merrick Community Services and Ramsey action program in St. Paul, MN. He has served on the boards of many area non-profit organizations.

Niel Ritchie is a long-time rural advocate, and currently the executive director of the League of Rural Voters. Previously, he served as a policy analyst and national organizer at the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and prior to that as executive director of Minnesota PIRG and development director of the Rural Education Resource Center. He also helped found the Minneapolis-based Alliance for Metropolitan Stability. Niel is also on the board of directors of the Rural Community Assistance Partnership and the Alliance for Aviation Across America. In addition, he serves on the steering committee of the National Rural Assembly

Amalia Deloney is a Guatemala-born activist, cultural worker and former Senior Fellow with the Main Street Project. She is Grassroots Policy Director for the Center for Media Justice. Amalia serves on the boards of The Headwaters Foundation for Justice, the Indigenous Women's Network, the Progressive Majority's Racial Justice Advisory, and the Media Justice Coalition. She has over 15 years of experience in community and cultural organizing, and in community education, with a focus on human rights and anti-racism education, cultural rights, the production of knowledge, and movement building.

Edyael Casaperalta is a program and research associate with the Center for Rural Strategies. She has worked with Llano Grande Center for Research and Development, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educational pursuits and community youth leadership, beginning when she was a sophomore at Edcouch-Elsa High School in Elsa, Texas. She is one of four founders of the Llano Grande Center's Spanish Language Immersion Institute, and led several community- based initiatives in her rural South Texas hometown. Born in Mexico, she immigrated to the U.S. when 12 years old.

Parul P. Desai is communications policy counsel for Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. Prior to joining Consumers Union, Parul served as Vice President for Media Access Project, as in-house counsel to Microstrategy, Inc., McLean, Virginia, and was an associate in the Telecommunication, Media, and Technology and Litigation Groups of the law firm Crowell & Moring LLP. She currently serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Federal Communications Bar Association, and also serves as Chair of the Executive Board of the Media and Democracy Coalition.