Jasmine Barnes (she/her) is a community builder, writer and program manager based on Potawatomi land on the South Side of Chicago. For many years, Jasmine served as the Community Engagement Director of an education non-profit, helping adults nationwide develop their relationship-building and collaborative communication skills. She applied similar strategies to the organization’s internal culture, co-leading its inaugural strategic DEI initiatives and developing foundational workplace culture practices. Jasmine has also worked as a consultant providing workplace culture training, facilitation, and program development services to values-driven organizations. 

With a degree in sociology and journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, Jasmine brings a human-centered approach to her work, helping organizations and individuals better understand themselves and others. She specializes in creating and facilitating trainings and programs grounded in a trauma-informed, healing-centered framework. Her greatest joy is creating supportive and inclusive environments that encourage people to take risks and grow.

Jasmine expands upon this relational work by amplifying and archiving everyday stories as a freelance journalist contributing to South Side Weekly, City Bureau, the Chicago Reader and other publications. 

Doris Truong is deputy director of the Maynard Institute’s Fire Up training program for journalism entrepreneurs. She is an inclusion expert and facilitator who led teaching and diversity strategies for the Poynter Institute.

She has two decades of daily news experience from The Washington Post and The Dallas Morning News. She served as national president of the Asian American Journalists Association, vice president of UNITY: Journalists for Diversity and a board member on the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

She was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, researching ways journalists can mitigate their own unconscious bias. And she is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. Find her on most social platforms @doristruong.

Steve is the president and editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
He joined the Star-Telegram in 2018 after serving as the editor of the
Wichita (Kansas) Eagle for about two years.
He previously worked as the executive editor of the Jackson
(Tennessee) Sun; in editing roles at the Fayetteville (North Carolina)
Observer; and as a reporter and editor at the Finger Lakes Times in
Geneva, New York.
He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Lock Haven University
of Pennsylvania.

Rebekah is the managing editor of enterprise and politics at
The Texas Tribune. Before joining The Texas Tribune in 2019, she was
a state government reporter for The Dallas Morning News.
Previously, she was an investigative reporter and Capitol reporter
for The Times Picayune/The Advocate in Louisiana and an education
reporter at the Pensacola News Journal in Florida.
Rebekah proudly hails from the New Orleans suburbs and is a
graduate of Louisiana State University.

Cheryl is the publisher and editor of I Messenger Media, which
includes the Texas Metro News, Garland Journal and I Messenger.
She also hosts the radio talk show, Cheryl’s World, on Blog Talk
Radio. Before founding I Messenger Media in 2011, she was a host of
PAX-TV’s “The Ester Davis Show” and a producer and talk-show host
at KKDA-AM. She had stints at Capital Outlook News and The Dallas
Weekly.
Currently, Cheryl is treasurer of the National Newspaper Publishers
Associationand also a member of the International Women’s Forum.
She served as a former secretary and regional director of the
National Association of Black Journalists, former board member of
the Society of Professional Journalists and Society of Professional
Journalists Foundation, and a past president of the Dallas-Fort
Worth Association of Black Journalists.
She has won numerous awards, including the Barry Bingham Sr.
Award from the National Conference of Editorial Writers and is a
NABJ Hall of Fame inductee. A graduate of Florida A&M University,
she has been honored this year with the Thelma T. Gorham
Distinguished Alumni Award.

Evelyn, publisher of La Prensa de Houston, grew up immersed in the
media world, inspired by her mother’s founding of the publication in

This upbringing fueled her passion for communication and her
ambition to revitalize the company through rebranding, digital
transformation, building a strong editorial team, and championing
local businesses.
Recognized as the 2022 Latina Publisher of the Year, Evelyn views
communication as a vital tool for education, community support,
and empowerment.
She plays an active role in the broader media industry as the Board
Secretary for the National Association of Hispanic Publications
(NAHP), and Board Director for the Alternative Newsweekly
Foundation (ANF) and a contributor to a new national venture,
LatidoBeat.

Jean Marie is an associate professor of professional practice in the Department of Journalism at TCU Bob Schieffer College of Communication in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition to serving as a full-time faculty member, she is also director of student media. A former newspaper executive, Jean Marie spent most of her professional career working for Knight Ridder and later for McClatchy newspapers. She held management positions at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Charlotte Observer.

Her management career included time as a deputy features editor, city editor, assistant managing editor and managing editor. At one time, she directed local news coverage for the Arlington and Northeast edition of the Star-Telegram.

Her strengths as an editor were line editing, story idea generation, and staff development. As a reporter, she excelled at covering local government and public policy. She began her career in the Chicago bureau of the Wall Street Journal, where she covered agriculture, financial futures and U.S. farm policy.

Jean Marie has a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a master’s from Texas Christian University.

Marisa Porto is a distinguished professor and the Knight Chair in Local News and Sustainability at the UNC Chapel Hill Hussman School of Journalism and media, a position she began in 2023.

She leads innovative research on entrepreneurial journalism, AI integration, and evolving news business models. Before joining UNC, Porto built a career in journalism – starting as a reporter, rising to editor, then serving as Vice President of news and publisher.

She held leadership roles in nonprofit and startup media organizations and served as president of the Virginia Press Association. Additionally, she was appointed to the Virginia State FOIA advisory Board and taught digital transformation internationally, including the countries of Ukraine and Georgia.

Dr. Dorothy Bland is a journalism professor at the University of North Texas Mayborn School of Journalism, consultant and former dean. She has more than 15 years of experience in higher education and 25 years as an award-winning journalist, news executive and publisher. She has traveled to more than 30 countries, six continents and her work has been published in a variety of publications ranging from USA Today to the Journal of Social Media in Society. 

She is the co-author of the award-winning book, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategies: Learning from Journalism and Mass Communication Programs with Professional Impact, with Dr. Masudul Biswas. She founded the UNT Multimedia High School Workshop in 2014. Her research reflects her interests in media management/leadership, student success, journalism education and digital/social media. She has taught a variety of classes ranging from reporting classes to Covering Crisis, Trauma and Recovery. 

She was the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication 2024 recipient of the Lionel C. Barrow Jr. Award for Distinguished Achievement in Diversity Research and Education as well as the 2022 recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists Distinguished Teaching in Journalism Award.

She earned her Ph.D. in communication from Florida State University, her MBA from George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Arkansas State University. She has earned additional certificates from the Maynard Institute, Northwestern University’s Media Management Center and Harvard University’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Higher Education. She has served on more than 20 accrediting site teams across the world with programs ranging from New York University to the American University in Dubai. She serves on the Board of the Maynard Institute and the Florida International University’s Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication. She is active in a variety of professional organizations including the National Association of Black Journalists, Society of Professional Journalists and the Online News Association.     

Mark S. Luckie is a digital strategist, creative technologist, and the Director of Innovation and Audience Engagement at Capital B. He has led media partnerships for some of the most influential social platforms in the world, including Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Mark has also led digital initiatives for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Washington Post, the Center for Investigative Reporting, The Los Angeles Times, and Entertainment Weekly. Mark is a GLAAD Media Award nominee, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and a part of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist team for Local Reporting. He was named twice by The Root as one of the most influential African Americans. Mark is a graduate of Bethune-Cookman University and the University of California, Berkeley where he received his master’s degree in journalism.