Our Team

Micah joined California Black Media as Int Chair in 2013, and currently serves as interim Chair He helps direct organizational communication, strategic planning, and implementation of various initiatives. He is also a Trustee on the Natomas Unified School District Board in Sacramento.

Prior to CBM, Micah worked in the California State Senate and Assembly as a communications consultant, focusing on new media and outreach to minority publications. Micah also served as Deputy Communications Director of the California Republican Party for two years and as a Press Secretary at the California State Board of Equalization where he served as a media liaison, communicating relevant information on over 38 tax and fee programs managed by the BOE.

Micah is a graduate of the University of California Davis with a Bachelor of Art’s degree in Communications Studies and holds a master’s in business administration with an emphasis on Marketing from the University of Phoenix. Micah joined California Black Media as Vice Chair in 2013 and helps direct organizational communication, strategic planning, and implementation of various initiatives.

Hardy Brown was born in Jones County North Carolina and graduated from Jones High School in 1960. His leadership ability was noticed early in life and was selected to play quarterback and appointed captain of the varsity Football and Basketball team. Upon graduating Hardy migrated to New York and in the same year of 1960 moved to Los Angeles California. This son of a sharecropper got gainful employment at Kaiser Steel in Fontana before joining the employment of California Electric Company (now Edison) as a garage attendant chauffeur. He became the first Black to become a meter reader and customer serviceman in the company.

After seven years with this utility company, Hardy joined the management team at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Comprehensive Health Care Program providing health care service to low-income families in Fontana, Bloomington, and Colton communities. Hardy held many management positions within the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Organization throughout Southern California before retiring and joining the family newspaper businesses with his wife (Cheryl) of 42 years). The Browns purchased the paper from the American Newspaper in 1980 and made it soon became required reading in the local community.

As Chairman of Brown Publishing Company and co-publisher of The Black Voice News, he is responsible for providing leadership and strategic development for the current and future growth of the company. He provides research on the growth, location, and economic impact of the Black community in the Inland Empire to our business and customers. He has received many awards, resolutions from many organizations and elected officials, California School Board Association, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, NAACP, NCNW, National PTA, Masons, Hispanic Educators Association, Black Educators Association, San Bernardino Ministerial Alliance Association, but some of the most recent are, National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) publisher of the year, West Coast Black Publisher Association (WCBPA) publisher of the year and the current treasurer. He is founding president of the California Black Media Association which encompasses radio, magazines, and newspapers.

He is a member of the California Newspapers Publishers Association and the New California Media organization. His love for politics has led to the recent formation of the Black Political Action Committee (Black PAC) of which he served as Treasurer.

Louis joined California Black Media in 2013 as the organization’s Treasurer.

Louis currently is the Head of Strategic Initiatives for NVIDIA's global Developer Ecosystem. In his role, he is responsible for working with minority serving institutions, government entities, industry partners and a variety of affinity groups to build relationships that enable an increase in tech preparedness, grow the overall developer base and foster a more inclusive AI community.

Louis served as the City of Sacramento's first Chief Innovation Officer before joining NVIDIA. His role within the City was to promote and drive long term economic growth and job creation through innovation. Mr. Stewart was focused on bridging the public-private divide, reducing process, and growing a strong and vibrant business community. He also encouraged an innovation-driven economy by supporting entrepreneurs, revenue-generating businesses, and the creation of high-quality jobs.

Prior to his role with the City of Sacramento, he spent 7 years serving as California's Deputy Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. In that capacity he oversaw the coordination and promotion of innovative programs, activities, and emerging technologies throughout the State. He managed a robust statewide innovation-based economic development support network of regional innovation clusters called the California Innovation Hubs (iHubs). Louis has served in various public sector roles for the past 13 years. His professional experience also includes 18 years in the private sector in program management, sales, marketing, business diversity and information technology.

Louis is a service-based leader who embodies the belief that he cannot be a success without helping others be successful.

Louis grew up in France and Italy and played professional basketball in Peru and Belgium. Louis is a Nehemiah, Sr. Fellow for Innovation & Entrepreneurship and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Santa Clara University.

Louis comes from the private sector where he has 17 years of experience in Sales, Marketing, and Information Technologies. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Santa Clara University.

Tanu Henry is the managing editor of California Black Media. In this role, he has edited and written hundreds of articles on California State policy, politics and governmental affairs that are published across CBM’s network of partner publishers.

A former executive editor of BET.com News, Tanu has more than 20 years of communications experience both in online journalism and digital marketing. He has written a number of articles, profiles and commentaries, and his interviews with high-profile newsmakers have covered the spectrum of news categories – from politics and business to entertainment and sports. He has also served in several other leading editorial roles at Fortune 500 companies, small media startups and non-profit media outlets, including America Online and Africana.com.

As VP of Digital Media at Sundial Brands, now a subsidiary of Unilever, he led that New York-based personal care product company’s digital communications team responsible for online content development, social media, email marketing, and public relations.

A number of publications have published his work, including the Root.com, Black Issues Book Review and Footsteps Magazine, a children’s periodical focused on African American History. He was also a contributor to African American Lives, a compilation of biographies edited by Harvard University professors Henry Louis Gates and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham.

Tanu earned his bachelor’s degree at Wilberforce University in Ohio and his graduate degree from Harvard.

Manny Otiko has worked in the media for 20 years as a journalist and a public relations professional. His experience includes stints as a reporter at a daily newspaper, serving as a media relations specialist for a state agency and working for several Southern California PR agencies.

Manny has been published in The Riverside Press-Enterprise, The LA Sentinel, The LA Wave, The Washington Afro-Am and IE Weekly. He is an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the Black Journalists Association of Southern California.

Manny currently writes for FourFourTwo, the world’s biggest soccer magazine, the Atlanta Blackstar, Our Weekly, The Inland Valley News and California Black Media. He has interviewed Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to Gen. Colin Powell, when he was secretary of state; former drug dealer Freeway Rick Ross and Anthony Ray Hinton, who was recently freed after serving 30 years on death row. His Wilkerson interview went viral and was shared 22,000 times on Facebook and covered by the Washington Post.

Manny has written about race, sports, entertainment, politics, and media. He also writes a blog called “Manny on the Media.”

Alize is a writer and creative producer specializing in digital video content. She has worked in the film and television industry for over a decade and holds a BFA from New York University in Film & Television Production. She is a 2021 Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Fellowship Recipient. She has produced and directed videos for BuzzFeed, Vanity Fair, Wired, GQ, Architectural Digest, Teen Vogue, Glamour, Allure, and more. For California Black Media, she combines her love of storytelling and strategic analysis to create compelling video campaigns focused on the Black community in California. A lifelong resident of California, she is passionate about reporting about policy through visual mediums and enjoying the mountains and beaches of California.

Aldon Thomas Stiles is a California based photojournalist that covers criminal justice, social justice and local politics for California Black Media. Hailing from Fontana, California, Aldon has his finger on the pulse of the Inland Empire. He has also contributed work to Screen Rant, Westside Story News and Fontana Herald News, covering everything from pop culture to mass incarceration.

Charlene Muhammad is a multi-award-winning multi-media journalist, author and speaker with more than 20 years’ experience in print media. She also has more than 15 years combined experience in radio broadcast, magazine editing, and internet media and marketing.

Ms. Muhammad began her print career as a freelancer, then a contributing writer for The Final Call Newspaper—the national, Black weekly published by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. She advanced to Staff Writer, Western Region Correspondent, and has reported for The Final Call’s independent United Kingdom edition. Her current post is National Correspondent for the historical, award-winning publication.

Ms. Muhammad is a regular contributor to California Black Media Network and Ethnic Media Services, and she has contributed to the Los Angeles Sentinel and L.A. Watts Times.

Antonio (Tony) Ray Harvey was born and raised in Champaign, Illinois, but has resided in Sacramento, California for 32 years. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and a minor in photography from California State University, Sacramento.

Aside from reporting on local entertainment, community issues, city government, and political events at the California State Capitol, Harvey is also a freelance sports journalist in Northern California. He covers the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, and NCAA sports.

Harvey is a freelance reporter for California Black Media, is also the author of the Homicidal Handyman of Oak Park: Morris Solomon Jr. at Johnston College on the University of Redlands Campus 1974-76 and recently was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters from CSUSB in 2014.

Joe W. Bowers, Jr. writes stories focusing on the education Black students receive in public schools for California Black Media. He also serves as an editorial consultant.

Before joining CBM, Bowers was active in public school advocacy, civic engagement and political organizing.

He is a former Engineer specializing in product development and Business executive specializing in marketing and sales strategy. He holds a U.S. Patent.

Bowers has a BS in Mechanical Engineering and MS in Product Design from the Stanford University School of Engineering and a MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

McKenzie Jackson is a journalist based in the San Fernando Valley. He mainly writes about sports in Malibu and news that impacts – or is important to – Black Americans. Throughout his years in the Golden State, McKenzie has reported news on a breadth of subjects, including arts, criminal justice, health, and politics.

McKenzie was a general assignment reporter at a weekly newspaper in the metro Atlanta area before moving to California. McKenzie is a native of Greer, S.C. and a graduate of Coastal Carolina University.

He enjoys working out, playing basketball, and reading a variety of fiction and non-fiction books in his free time. He dreams of retiring to a warm tropical climate one day where he can speak his own version of Spanglish.