OFFICERS
Lee Rowland
Executive Director
Lee Rowland served for over a decade as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the New York Civil Liberties Union. She has extensive experience as a litigator, lobbyist, and public speaker. She has served as lead counsel in federal First Amendment cases involving public employee speech rights, the First Amendment rights of community advocates, government regulation of digital speech, and state secrecy surrounding the lethal injection process. She is also a prolific author of amicus briefs and blogs, where she provides insightful analyses of issues such as speech and privacy intersection, student and public employee speech, obscenity, and the Communications Decency Act. She also has represented several NCAC Partner Organizations.
Rowland has taught at New York University School of Law and the Hunter College Human Rights Program. She is a Communications and Media Law Committee member at the New York Bar Association. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and Harvard Law School.
YOUTH FREE EXPRESSION PROGRAM
Christine Emeran
Youth Free Expression Program Director
Christine Emeran joins NCAC with non-profit, international research and academic teaching experience. In previous roles, she served as a research consultant at UNESCO and UNESCO-International Institute for Education Planning in Paris, France, including initiatives on knowledge societies, primary education decentralization policies, youth program on climate change, and lifelong learning. Dr. Emeran is the author of New Generation Political Activism in Ukraine 2000–2014 (Routledge, 2018) and a book chapter titled “The March for Our Lives Movement in the USA: Generational Change and the Personalization of Protest” featured in a global social movement book series, When Students Protest: Secondary and High Schools (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2021). Her journal service includes manuscript refereeing at Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization and Observator
In her academic career, Dr. Emeran has taught sociology at St. John’s University, Manhattan College and political science courses on social movements at SciencesPO in Paris. She holds a PhD in sociology from the New School for Social Research, New York, MA in International Education from New York University and BA/BS in International Business from the American University. Dr. Emeran presents and writes on contemporary youth social movements in Europe and the U.S, she is glad to be contributing her knowledge to support students’ rights to free expression.
Gianmarco Antosca
Youth Free Expression Program Coordinator
Gianmarco Antosca has always been dedicated to supporting and amplifying the voices of young people. In middle school, Gianmarco wrote a report on SNCC and ever since he’s been fascinated by young people who have spoken truth to power. As he’s gotten older, Gianmarco has been particularly interested in how the younger generations can work through their differences to build a better and more democratic future.
Before coming to NCAC, Gianmarco worked as an administrator at the University of Chicago, where he supported non-credit continuing education students and masters students. He’s worked with nonprofits in Washington, DC and Chicago focusing on human rights, art, and political engagement. Outside of his professional career, Gianmarco has been a bartender, a substitute teacher, and a photographer, among other things.
Gianmarco received an MA in Humanities from the University of Chicago where he studied and wrote about mass media, ideology, and history. Before moving to Chicago, Gianmarco attended the University of Maryland and received BAs in Government and Politics and Film Studies.
He currently lives in Brooklyn with his dog, Harvey.
Max Cumming
Youth Free Expression Program Associate
Max Cumming is NCAC’s Youth Free Expression Program Associate, a role in which he works to fight back against book bans by supporting, maintaining, and expanding the Right to Read Network. Max joined the student activist movement while in high school, when he helped found the National School Walkout to demand greater student safety in response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shootings in 2018. Driven by his desire to create change on issues affecting Gen Z, he has been an organizer for a number of political causes and candidates, from his native Connecticut to Illinois and Montana. Max has also worked as a documentary producer, telling the story of unmarked pauper’s cemeteries in Montana. He graduated from the University of Chicago with dual undergraduate degrees in English and History in 2022.
Max takes pride in continuing a legacy of fighting for students’ right to read going back to his grandfather, who was a high school English teacher forced to resign after assigning students Alex Haley’s biography of Malcolm X in the late 1960s. He enjoys working on difficult, timely, and important problems, especially when they call for creative solutions to break through old stalemates. Max is an avid fan of film, history podcasts, and the Yankees. He lives in Ridgewood with his cat, Mo (named, of course, for Yankee great Mariano Riviera).
ARTS AND CULTURE ADVOCACY PROGRAM
Elizabeth Larison
Arts and Culture Advocacy Program Director
Svetlana Mintcheva
Program Consultant
Svetlana Mintcheva joined NCAC after years of academic teaching and research on post World War II art and literature. Having spent a large part of her academic career analyzing provocative art and its socio-political contexts, she is happy to be on the front lines protecting the coexistence of a diversity of voices in the cultural sphere. Dr. Mintcheva has written on emerging trends in censorship, organized public discussions and mobilized support for individual artists. She is the co-editor of Censoring Culture: Contemporary Threats to Free Expression (The New Press, 2006) and of Curating Under Pressure: International Perspectives on Negotiating Conflict and Upholding Integrity (Routledge, 2020).
An academic as well as an activist, Dr. Mintcheva has taught literature and critical theory at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria and at Duke University, NC from which she received her Ph.D. in critical theory in 1999, as well as at New York University. Her current research focuses on the challenges to the concept of free speech posed by social media, social justice movements and political polarization.
COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING
Alexander Finan
Communications Lead
Alex Finan is the Communications Lead at the National Coalition Against Censorship, where he oversees all media relations and communications efforts. From crafting official statements to managing press outreach and content production, Alex ensures NCAC’s mission and advocacy reach the widest possible audience. He also provides strategic communications counsel to the Executive Director, helping to shape the organization’s public voice.
Before joining NCAC, Alex spent 11 years in higher education, working in the Communications and Marketing Department at CUNY Brooklyn College. During his tenure, he held multiple roles, including Public Relations Manager, where he led media initiatives and institutional messaging.
Alex holds a degree from Fordham University and is passionate about the power of free expression. In his free time, he writes short fiction, paints Warhammer 40k models, and pursues his goal of reading 104 books a year—an achievement he hopes to reach one day. The current record stands at 91.
Julia Sebastia- Lopez
Communications Coordinator
Julia serves as the Communications Coordinator at the National Coalition Against Censorship. Born and raised in New York City, she developed a strong passion for free expression and equity early on. As a freshman in high school, she discovered the Free the Nipple movement, which challenged the double standard in how society censors female bodies compared to male bodies. That experience was her introduction to the importance of fighting censorship. Joining NCAC felt particularly meaningful, as the organization has supported the very movement that sparked her interest in free expression.
Julia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations from Boston University and has a background in communications and social impact work. At Ben & Jerry’s, she contributed to advocacy and equity-focused campaigns, reinforcing her commitment to amplifying marginalized voices and fostering inclusive communities.
A first-generation Spanish American, Julia is bilingual in Spanish and conversational in French. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their dog, Charlie.