Directors

   Martha Leslie Allen, began working full time with the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press at the end of 1975. The previous year she had put together the first Directory of Women’s Media and Index of Media Report to Women. Fourteen more annual editions of the Directory would follow in the seventies and eighties, and resumed again annually 2002-2017.

From 1969 to 1975 Martha had been living in the South, working in the civil rights, peace, and women’s movement, first in Louisville, KY, and then in Memphis, TN. She worked for the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF) and later for Operation Freedom. Though active in several other progressive causes, media democracy issues became her primary focus.

In 1973, she founded and led the Women’s Media Project in Memphis, TN. That group negotiated with broadcasters for improved programming and coverage of women and improved employment of women at all levels. They were successful in reaching agreements with all three of the commercial television stations and several radio stations. Martha edited the Women’s Media Project Newsletter. She also spent some time producing a weekly alternative news and information program on WLYX Radio, Southwestern University, in Memphis. She joined a group of women working to develop a women’s cable channel. In the process of learning to use video equipment capable of providing programming for the channel, she began expanding her media efforts.

In 1975 Martha moved to Washington, DC, to work full-time with WIFP. From 1976 to 1983 she worked as the Associate Editor of Media Report to Women. In 1978, she began serving as the Associate Director of WIFP, and became the Director in 1985. Between 1978 and 1984, Martha worked on the coordination of seven annual conferences, held at the National Press Club, on “Planning a National and International communications System for Women.” The 1982 conference was co-sponsored with the International Women’s Tribune Centre and was attended by 124 media and media-concerned women from 32 countries.

Martha has been the Director of WIFP since 1985, coordinating interns and volunteers, editing the annual Directory of Women’s Media (1975-1989 and 2002-2017), publishing the annual Voices for Media Democracy (through our 45th annual issue in 2017) and the booklet series, organizing events and our annual “Women and Media Award,” and maintaining the WIFP website.

Martha has been an activist throughout her life and also focuses her attention on peace & justice issues. She believes that media democracy is central to all these other issues she is so passionate about. As long as corporate mass media is the primary source of information to the public and as long as individuals and small organizations have no way to compete with their narratives, distortions, omissions, and characterizations, we do not have freedom of the press. This is why she joined with her mother in the early 1970’s to work with WIFP.

WIFP believes we need a radical restructuring of the communications system where everyone can speak for themselves. Martha Allen and Dana Densmore, President of WIFP, continue to make available the philosophical and practical ideas of WIFP Founder Dr. Donna Allen.

In 2024, Elana Anderson and Martha Allen became Co-Directors of WIFP, having worked closely together for over a decade.

Martha earned her Ph.D. in 1988 from Howard University in Washington, DC.

Co-Director

Elana Denise Anderson, PhD is an artist, educator, life-long student, and scholar. She
holds a Standard Professional I and an Advanced Professional Educator Certificate from
the State of Maryland, a B.A. in African American Studies with minors in both English
Literature and French from Chicago State University, an M.A. and Ph.D. in African
Studies concentrating in Language, Literature, and the Arts, and a Graduate Certificate
in Women’s Studies from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Anderson is a
member of the African Studies Association, the American Guild for Musical Artists
(AGMA), the International Association for Blacks in Dance, the National Dance
Education Organization, and a lifetime member of the National Council for Negro
Women. In addition to serving as the Associate Director of the Women’s Institute for
Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C. since 2011, she is the Assistant Artistic
Director of the National Dance Institute of New Mexico-The Hiland, and an adjunct
professor of dance at the University of New Mexico. She most recently served on the
faculties of Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, MD, Dance Dimensions of
Forestville, MD, the Taratibu Youth Association of Mount Rainier, MD, the VIVA School
of Washington, D.C., and MODAS Dance of Albuquerque, NM, and San José, Costa
Rica.

Dr. Anderson has collaborated with choreographers the world over, including Otis
Sallid, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Louis Johnson, Arthur Eugene Hill, Lloyd Whitmore,
Eleo Pomare, Gary Abbott, Kevin Iega Jeff, Felipe Oyarzun of Chile and Lliane Loots of
Durban, South Africa. Dr. Anderson’s career in dance has spanned thirty plus years,
and includes work in concert stage, commercial stage, opera, television, and film. She
has traveled extensively, having performed and taught on four continents and in the
Caribbean. Her life’s work is the enlightenment of other lives through art.
Dr. Anderson uses the dynamics of the modern dance technique of Lester Horton to
inspire students of all proficiencies to move beyond self-imposed limitations. An
instructor of classical and contemporary ballet as well, Anderson has taught master
classes, lectured, performed, and choreographed for many organizations. They include
Flatfoot Dance Company of Durban, South Africa, LINES Contemporary Ballet of San
Francisco, CA, Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center, Dance Center at Columbia College,
Lou Conte Dance Studio, and Deeply Rooted Dance Theater of Chicago, IL, MODAS
Dance of Albuquerque, NM, the VIVA School, D.C. Youth Ensemble, Joy of Motion
Dance Center, Georgetown University Dance Company, DC Contemporary Dance
Theater and Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., Purelements of
Brooklyn, NY, Dance Dimensions of Forestville, MD, Taratibu Youth Association of Mt.
Rainier, MD and the Morton Street Dance Center and Full Circle Dance Company of
Baltimore, MD.

Through her work in dance and academia, Dr. Anderson is proficient in
artistic/rehearsal/stage direction, history, cultural criticism, and curriculum
development; narration, residency programming, scriptwriting and project management
are a supplement to her instructional and leadership abilities. Her future goals and
current research interests include the founding and development of the service
organization Artists/Architects of Kheperu, Dance History, Dance Pedagogy, Dance
Education, and Publishing.