The Somerville Media Center has a new executive director, while Cambridge Community Television has an interim leader and will look for someone permanent for the role.
Beginning Sept. 3, the public access media organization for Somerville will be led by Sean Effel, described in a Thursday press release as having 20 years of experience in the field as well as in “nonprofit leadership and management know-how and two decades of insight as a resident of the City of Somerville.”
Each of the organizations provides various media for their communities and trains people in the equipment and skills needed to do it, partially funded by the cable companies that provide channels where residents can watch members’ work – from documentary filmmaking to in-studio shows and political debates, as well as radio production and podcasting.
Before coming to the Somerville nonprofit, Effel was co-executive director of Cambridge Camping from December 2021 to December 2023, according to an online resume, and before that deputy director at CCTV for 20 years, from November 2000 to December 2020.
“SMC’s board of directors believes Sean is a great fit for the needs of our organization,” said Jesse Buckley, president of the board, in the press release.
Hundreds of applications were considered in the search, Buckley said. Effel was the unanimous recommendation by a personnel committee.
The previous executive director, Kat Powers, left Feb. 29 as the media center relocated permanently to Somernova, a business campus between Union and Porter squares, after its 38-year space in Union Square was closed by the city over safety concerns.
“I jumped at the opportunity to build something new for Somerville,” Effel said.
Cambridge leadership
CCTV’s executive director, Jessica Smyser, left in May to take over the executive director role at the Brookline Interactive Group, which provides community media for that town as the other nonprofits do for Cambridge and Somerville. “It was a good time for me to leave. Everything is in good shape. The staff is amazing,” Smyser said Friday.
Interim leader Linda Chin started June 24 but was welcomed only in a July newsletter by board president Matt Landry, who noted that she was a graduate of an “interim executive academy” and would help develop a recruitment process for a permanent leader.
Chin, last an interim leader at the Reagle Music Theater of Greater Boston from June 2021 to June 22, is also an arts journalist and was an arts and culture consultant for the Cambridge Community Foundation in 2019 and 2020, according to an online resume.
“Linda has deep experience in transitional leadership,” Landry said. “She has successfully orchestrated financial turnarounds, revitalized lagging constituency involvement and helped organizations retool their programs and services to meet a changing ecosystem.”
Maritza Grooms, associate director of community relations at CCTV, said in an online post that she had learned how complicated the role was “interim of the interim.”
“I learned what it really takes to be a leader of an organization and have an even deeper respect and appreciation for all my former ED Jessica did and dealt with, knowing that it wasn’t even the half because of how well she positioned us,” Grooms said. “From finance to grant management to HR to community partners and so many split-second decisions you have to make on a daily basis, not to mention finding time between the countless meetings and phone calls to tend to the minutia of the everyday.”
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