2026 PhillyCAM Board of Directors Candidate, Dr. Carelton Gholz
Dr. Carleton Gholz, born in Port Huron, Michigan, is a professional fundraiser, public historian, writer, and lifelong mediamaker now living in South Philadelphia. He began broadcasting as a HAM radio operator in 1989 and later contributed to college radio at WMCN in St. Paul, WPTS in Pittsburgh, and WRBB in Boston. Over the years, he has recorded mixtapes, published zines, written blogs, DJed coffee shops, museums, block parties, and clubs, and contributed to the alternative press while photographing grassroots conferences. He earned his PhD in Communication from the University of Pittsburgh in 2011 and founded the Detroit Sound Conservancy, a nonprofit community-based archive, in 2012. Since moving to Philadelphia in 2021, he has worked as an online teaching assistant at the University of Pennsylvania, a grant writer for The Library Company, and as an institutional giving officer at Curtis Institute of Music. A PhillyCAM member since 2023, he has taken an Adobe Premiere class, produced a short film for broadcast, and is currently developing his first freeform music special, tentatively titled The Sway Lounge.
Carleton’s candidate statement
I believe I will bring a strong insider-outsider perspective to the PhillyCAM Board. I have lived in South Philly for five years and have worked for three different educational and cultural institutions in the city. But I also have lived in other cities, including Detroit, St. Paul, London, Boston, and Pittsburgh. In each of these cities, and for more than 30 years, I have participated in community, grassroots, and educational mediamaking projects and institutions. In short, I bring both a regional and international perspective to my passion for PhillyCAM’s mission grounded in the global social justice struggle by youth, residents, neighbors, and communities to claim non-commercial tools that will represent not exploit them. I think of myself as a veteran of the global media movement to dream better. I am excited to continue and share that journey as part of the PhillyCAM Board.
Category - Board Candidate
