Doris Truong becomes Director of the Fire Up Entrepreneurship Program

The Maynard Institute is proud to announce that Doris Truong is transitioning from Deputy Director to Director of the Fire Up Entrepreneurship Program.

“Doris’s expert oversight is a key factor in the successful launch and continued execution of this new program,” said Evelyn Hsu, the Maynard Institute’s co-executive director. Hsu will now step down as the Fire Up program director.

Eight California-serving newsrooms are receiving training in product, revenue, audience, strategy and sustainability. Each newsroom receives $20,000 to support their startup projects.

The Propel Initiative is an effort to combat the local news crisis in California by strengthening the state’s multilingual media ecosystem, ensuring long-term sustainability of local public service journalism for underserved localities.

The Propel Initiative distributes grants, provides training, and builds infrastructure to help smaller outlets grow and better serve California’s diverse communities. 

Applications for the second cohort of the Fire Up Entrepreneurship Program will open in January 2027. 

Doris is an inclusion expert and facilitator who led teaching and diversity strategies for the Poynter Institute before joining Maynard.

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. She is a graduate of Maynard Media Academy and the Missouri School of Journalism. In her spare time Doris enjoys cooking, adventures at theme parks, and spending time with friends and their pets. Find her on most social platforms @doristruong.