As the mystery of Gabby Petito’s whereabouts unfolded in 2021, news media clamored to cover the story. Partially chasing the clicks of the social media users who went viral trying to determine her whereabouts when Petito was announced missing, national and local news prioritized the story and especially when tragically, her remains were discovered. The Maynard Institute was contacted by the media outlets listed below to comment on the outsized coverage the case received.
Gwen Ifill is often credited for coining the term “Missing White Woman Syndrome” during her remarks at the Unity: Journalists of Color journalism conference in 2004. Sociologist Sheri Parks, another African American woman, also spoke about the media practice on CNN in 2006.

The term missing white woman syndrome refers to “the observed disproportionate media coverage, especially in television, of missing-person cases involving young, white, upper-middle-class women or girls compared to the relative lack of attention towards missing women who are not white, women of lower social classes, and missing men or boys.”
Pushing the industry to do better

The Maynard Institute was founded more than four decades ago to address these disparities in media coverage. In 2005, shortly after the term “missing white women syndrome” was coined, Dori Maynard, President of the Maynard Institute at that time, was interviewed for NBC News on the subject.

In 2021, the Maynard Institute was again contacted to weigh in how the news media perpetuates an imbalance of coverage related to missing persons cases. Co-executive director Martin Reynolds was tapped to contribute to discussions about the media’s approach to the Gabby Petito news story, as listed below.
In one of the panel interviews, Martin was joined by Dr. Ava Thompson Greenwell, Documentary Filmmaker & Research of the Black Women Television News Managers, who detailed exactly why the mission of the Maynard Institute to diversify newsrooms is so relevant. Dr. Greenwell said “I did a study of forty Black women news managers in television. They intervene on that pattern and really try to make sure that Black women are given the same dignity as other women.”
New York Times articles

How the Case of Gabrielle Petito Galvanized the Internet
News Media Can’t Shake ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome,’ Critics Say

“What I’m most concerned about is the amount of coverage, and if you look at newsrooms, the coverage decisions are made in places that continue to be disproportionately white,” said Mr. Reynolds, whose organization works with journalists of color.
AFP Yahoo News article

Gabby Petito’s disappearance captivated the world. Why?

“The people who are in the roles of making decisions about what could be news lack diversity,” added Martin Reynolds of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, in addressing the disparity.
CBS New York segment

National Media Coverage Of Gabby Petito’s Disappearance Raises Questions About Attention For Missing People Of Color

“This isn’t to say that these journalists are bad folks or that this isn’t a worthy story … What I think is really essential is the understanding of the choices that we make as journalists are an articulation of value.” Reynolds said.
The Special Report with Areva Martin talk show

The Special Report with Areva Martin: Missing White Women Syndrome

Additional Panelists included:
Dr. Michelle N Jeanis, Professor of University of Louisiana & Missing Persons Crime & Media Researcher
Dr. Ava Thompson Greenwell, Documentary Filmmaker & Research of the Black Women Television News Managers
The Mercury News

Where’s Frank Somerville? Silence irks activists, stirs questions about suspension

Excerpt:
Community groups have yet to hear from KTVU about Somerville’s complaint: improving coverage of stories about missing and murdered women of color.
The public silence from Channel 2 and Fox, its parent network, has fueled community frustration over the ostensible reason he was suspended — a reported dispute over his push to add a brief commentary on racial inequity to the end of a straight-news story about the disappearance of social media influencer Gabby Petito, whose case had attracted a firestorm of media coverage.
Martin Reynolds, co-executive director for the Oakland-based Maynard Institute, which promotes diversity in America’s newsrooms, said Somerville’s reported solution, to tack a commentary on at the end of a straight news story, would have been “lazy,” as opposed to assigning a full story on the topic. Reynolds, a former editor at the Oakland Tribune and Bay Area News Group, said it would have resulted in the “very disparity (in coverage) he was seeking to address.”
But Reynolds also faulted KTVU for fueling the controversy by not meeting with activists to discuss their complaints about coverage, saying that journalism organizations must offer “a level of transparency and accountability.”
For additional media inquiries, please reach out to us at info@mije.org.

Chapter 510 & the Dept. of Make Believe is a youth writing center in Oakland, California, with a mission to help every young person in Oakland write with confidence and joy. Rooted in this mission, Chapter 510 believes that when kids and teens can confidently write, they transform themselves and their communities for the better. We can’t think of a better role for Oakland Voices correspondent Marabet Morales Sikahall than Chapter 510’s new Program & Community Manager.

With programs led by teaching artists within a supportive community of diverse volunteers and artists, Chapter 510 strives to increase the number of books written by QTBIPOC youth in the canon of literature and serve the evolution of all Oakland young writers so they can become stronger learners, meaning makers, and agents of change.

Similar to the literary project in San Francisco, 826 Valencia, also known as the Pirate Supply Store, Chapter 510 is located in Oakland with a retail store in the form of an interactive magical bureaucracy called the Dept. of Make Believe that provides youth with “Licenses to Dream” and more.

Reflections on the Maynard Institute program Oakland Voices

Oakland Voices is a nine-month program led by the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education that trains Oakland residents to tell the stories of their neighborhoods. The program emerged from a partnership with the Oakland Tribune and it connects Oakland Voices correspondents with more than a dozen media professionals. Participants work individually and in teams, creating content for OaklandVoices.us, which can also be published elsewhere. The collaborative, applied learning approach means correspondents quickly become aware of their power and responsibility as storytellers, and as members of the media.

We asked Marabet how Oakland Voices impacted her journey. “As a young writer I was hesitant about writing journalistic pieces because of a previous traumatic experience,” Marabet said, referring to a high school teacher who discouraged her from writing. “It was through the Maynard Institute’s support for Oakland Voices that I was able to become more confident in my community storytelling.”

“Oakland Voices has helped me become a stronger voice and provided the needed representation of the stories that I grew up with in East Oakland and the new ones, too. If anything, thanks to the Maynard Institute I can say that my community has grown even bigger by getting to know others who, like myself, want to uplift our beloved town.” Marabet Morales Sikahall, 2016 Oakland Voices alum and Chapter 510 Program & Community Manager

Writing for the diaspora

Marabet Morales Sikahall is a Guatemalan American writer from Oakland, California. She is an alumna from both Creative Writing programs at San Francisco State University and Berkeley City College, including the Literary Arts program at Oakland School for the Arts. Some of her writing has been featured in The Acentos Review, Acción Latina’s Tribute Chapook for Salvadoran writer, Roque Dalton, Harvard College’s Palabritas, and Oakland Voices. Additionally, her radio story in collaboration with local radio station, KALW and Oakland Voices aired on July 2019 for #MinorityMentalHealthAwarenessMonth. She is also the editor and founder of the literary journal, “Diaspora Baby Blues.”

You can check out Marabet’s Oakland Voices stories on the Oakland Voices website including her love letter to Oakland libraries.

Longtime journalist Kevin Merida, who has served on the board of the Maynard Institute since 2014 and participated in the Maynard Institute Summer Program for Minority Journalists in 1979, was named the executive editor of the Los Angeles Times, one of the largest major metro newspapers in the country.

Merida has served as the editor in chief of ESPN’s The Undefeated since 2015, where he led a division producing content at the intersection of sports, race and culture.

Merida has had the unique opportunity to work in print, broadcast and digital ventures throughout his lengthy career, which was launched by the Maynard Institute’s SPMJ 1979 program, hosted at UC Berkeley. He went on to his first full time reporting job at the Milwaukee Journal and later spent over two decades at the Washington Post, where he rose to managing editor.

Several other alumni of the Maynard Institute’s programs have worked at the LA Times and been instrumental in producing inclusive community reporting, such as Maynard Institute co-founder Frank Sotomayor, who helped lead the LA Times Pulitzer prize-winning series on the Latino community in Los Angeles. That project included the work of Merida’s SPMJ ‘79 classmates, Virginia Escalante and Louis Sahagun.

The current owners of the LA Times, Dr. Patrick and Michele Soon-Shiong, indicated earlier this year that stronger coverage of “Black, Latino, Asian and underrepresented communities” is a priority for the publication.

Merida plans to relocate to Los Angeles with his wife and youngest son. The Maynard Institute sends it’s most heartfelt congratulations to Kevin and family!

44 Media Professionals to Receive Career Advancement Training and Mentorship by Top Experts to Foster Equity and Belonging in Newsrooms and Beyond

EMERYVILLE, CALIFORNIA (April 8, 2021) —The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education [MIJE], a national nonprofit dedicated to making newsrooms look like America and to bring about equity and belonging in media, today welcomes the 44 fellows selected for Maynard 200, the third cohort of its flagship fellowship.

The diverse group of media professionals was selected from a competitive pool of more than 140 applicants. The fellows represent a mix of mainstream, ethnic, local community and niche media, and their entrepreneurial ventures. The Maynard 200 fellowship will provide cutting-edge training and year-long mentorship from top experts.

The goal is to embolden the next generation of storytellers, leaders and media entrepreneurs to transform the nation’s media ecosystem and preserve our democracy by ensuring that the media accurately represents the lives and perspectives of all Americans.

The 2021 class reflects a profound pivot from diversity to belonging. These professionals will provide the energy helping to power the culture shift in America’s newsrooms. Calls by journalists of color for equity and dismantling systemic racism in the news media are profound and will be answered through the work of these fellows.

“We are energized by our fellows’ nuanced coverage, wide spectrum of diverse perspectives, empathetic leadership and innovative entrepreneurial ventures,” said Odette Alcazaren-Keeley, director of Maynard 200. “They will find allyship in and bolster the program’s mission of reinvigorating the media’s diversity pipeline now sharpened by the crises of our time amid our global pandemic recovery and racial justice reckoning.

“Despite our digital pivot for the first training week because of public health protocols for COVID-19, we are committed to deliver the same excellent program this year, aiming to amplify the collective impact of our cohort.”

This year’s Maynard 200 Fellowship will begin with a virtual training week,
April 12-16. The second training round is scheduled in person this November if protocols allow.

Maynard 200’s three-track curriculum delivers a mix of content, expertise and perspectives and includes:

Executive Leadership

• Effective leadership and financial strategies
• Human capital management

Media Entrepreneurship

• Core values of a startup launch
• Developing a sound business model and picking the right team

Storytelling

• The art of the story
• Core tenets and cutting-edge techniques of investigative journalism

“We are fortunate to have accomplished leaders in charge of each of our training tracks — award-winning investigative reporter and author Aaron Glantz in Storytelling, media strategist Dickson Louie in Media Entrepreneurship and former newsroom C-suite executive Virgil Smith in Executive Leadership,” said Evelyn Hsu, co-executive director of the Maynard Institute and the architect of Maynard 200. “They are joined by accomplished and devoted professionals who teach and mentor our participants. Our faculty are key to building the next generation of journalists of color.”

“Given the demographics of the nation and the shift to have people pay for the news they use, the need to have media professionals that represent the wide diaspora of lives and cultures isn’t just the right thing to do,” said Martin G. Reynolds, the institute’s co-executive director. “It is imperative if journalism is to be seen as accurate, authentic, trustworthy and credible. It’s not hyperbole to say that the soul of journalism is at stake in this moment and in this time.”

When this third cohort graduates, 93 media professionals will have participated in the Maynard 200 fellowship since its inception in 2018. The program aims to reinvigorate the diversity pipeline in American media by training 200 diverse professionals in its first five years.

The program is tuition-free thanks to funding by Google News Initiative, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, The Hearthland Foundation and the McClatchy Foundation.

The 2021 Maynard 200 Fellows

Participating in the Maynard 200 Fellowship – Storytelling track [L-R]:
Jasmine Vaughn-Hall, Rommel Conclara, Estephany Haro, Eleanore Catolico, Ruslan Gurzhiy, Thalia Juarez, Herb Pinder, Sameea A. Kamal, Mark Walker, Cortlynn Stark, Sarah Mizes-Tan, Angela Chen, Marina Affo, Stephanie Casanova, Dalia Hatuqa

STORYTELLING TRACK

Marina Affo, reporter, investigations team, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Stephanie Casanova, reporter and digital producer, Arizona Daily Star
Eleanore Catolico, freelance community journalist/contributor, BridgeDetroit
Angela Chen, morning anchor, KESQ TV- ABC/CBS
Rommel Conclara, Bay Area correspondent, ABS-CBN International-The Filipino Channel
Ruslan Gurzhiy, editor, Slavic Sacramento
Estephany Haro, executive producer, KDTV- Univision 14 Bay Area
Dalia Hatuqa, independent journalist/regular contributor, Foreign Policy
Thalía Juárez, photo editor, The Wall Street Journal / freelance multimedia journalist
Sameea A. Kamal, news desk editor, Los Angeles Times
Sarah Mizes-Tan, race and equity reporter, CapRadio
Herb Pinder, accountability coach, Asbury Park Press / USA Today Network
Cortlynn Stark, breaking news reporter, The Kansas City Star
Jasmine Vaughn-Hall, diversity & inclusion reporter, York Daily Record/USA Today Network
Mark Walker, FOIA coordinator and reporter, The New York Times

Participating in the Maynard 200 Fellowship – Media Entrepreneurship track [L-R]:
Kevon Paynter, Annie Guo VanDan, Pete Camarillo, Clarisa Strohmeyer, Delonte Harrod, Anuz Thapa, Hannah Kim, datejie cheko green, Marvin Ramírez, Michelle García, Jenee Darden, Felicia Purcell, Travers Johnson, Meena Thiruvengadam

MEDIA ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRACK

Pete D. Camarillo, founder, PST Media
Jeneé Darden, reporter and podcast host, KALW
Michelle García, journalist/curator, Rewriting the West project
datejie cheko green, founder and director, Solidarity Conscious Works
Delonte Harrod, founder, editor, reporter, The Intersection Magazine
Travers Johnson, founder and editor in chief, Queerency
Hannah Y. Kim, principal, Butterfly Strategies, LLC
Kevon Paynter, CEO and founder, Bloc By Block News
Felicia Purcell, freelance writer, various Bay Area publications / content manager, Sports in the Bay
Marvin Ramírez, editor and publisher, El Reportero
Clarisa Strohmeyer, managing director, ganjly.com
Anuz Thapa, journalist and video producer, thestreet.com
Meena Thiruvengadam, contributor, Travel + Leisure/journalist and audience development consultant
Annie Guo VanDan, president, Asian Avenue Magazine

Participating in the Maynard 200 Fellowship – Executive Leadership track [L-R]:
Rajeswari Ramanathan, Michelle Faust Raghavan, Ross Terrell, Stephen Angeles, Gary Estwick, Samantha Guzman, Benét J. Wilson, Khalilah L. Liptrot, Lottie Joiner, Ashton R. Lattimore, Tripp J Crouse, Charmayne Brown, Tasha Stewart, Marian Liu, Anica Butler

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TRACK

Stephen Angeles, supervising producer and news producer, ABS-CBN Global
Charmayne Brown, morning news anchor, WFXR News
Anica Butler, deputy managing editor, local news, The Boston Globe
Tripp J Crouse, news director, KNBA
Gary Estwick, news director, The Leaf-Chronicle (Gannett Newspapers)
Samantha Guzman, executive editor, Decibel – Austin PBS
Lottie Joiner, senior writer/editor, TheCrisisMagazine.com/NAACP
Ashton R. Lattimore, editor-in-chief, Prism
Khalilah L. Liptrot, senior editor, CBSN
Marian Liu, operations editor, The Washington Post
Michelle Faust Raghavan, equity initiative manager, Solutions Journalism Network
Rajeswari Ramanathan, senior video producer, AJ+/Al Jazeera Int’l
Tasha Stewart, senior manager of engagement, WCPO
Ross Terrell, managing editor, KUER NPR Utah
Benét J. Wilson, senior editor, The Points Guy

For more information about Maynard 200, contact:
Odette Alcazaren-Keeley – Director, Maynard 200-MIJE
okeeley@mije.org
I 650-455-3063

Visit: mije.org

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ABOUT THE MAYNARD INSTITUTE FOR JOURNALISM EDUCATION

The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education is the nation’s oldest organization dedicated to helping the news media accurately portray all segments of society, particularly those often overlooked, such as communities of color. The media play a pivotal role in shaping our perceptions of each other. The distorted coverage of communities of color influences public policy and the decisions we make in our personal lives.

The Online News Association, the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and OpenNews are committed to dismantling systemic racism in the journalism industry and transforming news organizations into institutions of belonging.

The past few months, we have worked behind the scenes scheming (the good kind) and strategizing new efforts through our Vision25 collaboration. We’ve convened newsroom leaders, spoken to funders and even brought together many of the people who were newly minted in their news organizations to address diversity, equity and belonging.

The conversations have been robust, revealing and troubling. In April, we’ll share some of what we’ve learned, including how the concept of belonging emerged as the aspiration we are pushing to see operationalized across the news industry.

Meanwhile, we’d like to share with you five opportunities to participate in Vision25 this month—through a fellowship, an event, a coalition, and resources to ensure information equity. And there is more to come.

5 ways to participate now

Maynard 200 Fellowship Program: Apply by March 5

The Maynard 200 Fellowship is the Maynard Institute’s signature professional development program for media professionals of color. The fellowship provides cutting-edge training and year-long mentorship for leaders, storytellers and media entrepreneurs of diverse backgrounds guided by the expertise of a distinguished faculty across relevant disciplines. The program supports and emboldens the next generation of leaders, creators and founders of new media ventures. Diverse media executives advance belonging in their newsrooms, thereby advancing the goals of Vision25.

Apply to the Maynard 200 Fellowship by March 5
Maynard 200 Application Form

Maynard Institute’s Belonging in News series

The third episode of Belonging in the News is coming up on Wednesday, March 10 at 3 p.m. EST / 12 p.m. PST. Martin G. Reynolds, event moderator and co-executive director of the Maynard Institute, will discuss institutions of belonging with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and correspondent for CBS News, Wesley Lowery. In addition to discussing his experience investigating police shootings for The Washington Post’s “Fatal Force” project, we will discuss his own journey to find belonging as a journalist.

Register to join the conversation

OpenNews is launching the DEI Coalition For Anti-Racist, Equitable, And Just Newsrooms

Over 100 community volunteers have worked to create a digital community space dedicated to learning and taking concrete actions to create newsrooms and workplaces that are anti-racist, equitable and just. The space will serve as a place to work in solidarity across all levels of experience, on challenges members face in moving DEI forward in their newsrooms, and collectively creating strategies and resources to tackle those challenges. The development of this space has embodied the values of belonging that Vision25 is all about: OpenNews has intentionally designed the space with community leaders and members as a collaborative process. You can sign up to receive a notification when the community space, hosted on Slack, opens later this March.

Get notified when the DEI coalition community space opens soon

The Online News Association’s resource database for information access equity

The #ONAinfoequity database provides resources for journalists to engage communities that are historically under- or misrepresented in the media and ensure equitable access to information. Free Press’ Vanessa Maria Graber and ONA Board member Anita Li led over a dozen journalists to collaborate on this project through an ONA Community Circle. It’s a one-stop shop with guidance for identifying gaps in information access, making the case for community engagement to newsroom leadership and discovering ways to improve existing efforts.

Explore and share the #ONAinfoequity database

Support Vision25

Vision25 is a commitment by our three organizations to advance racial equity in journalism. But, to make this a reality, we need to do this together as an industry. If you’re interested in exploring funding or supporting this work, please email Irving Washington at irving@journalists.org to set up a conversation about our plans and how you can help.

NEW APPLICATION DEADLINE: MARCH 5, 2021
Maynard 200 Application Form

Media Contact
Odette Alcazaren-Keeley
Director, Maynard 200-MIJE
okeeley@mije.org / 650-455-3063

EMERYVILLE, CA — The Maynard Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to making newsrooms look like America, has announced it will hold its signature Maynard 200 fellowship program in 2021. The fellowship provides cutting-edge training and year-long mentorship for leaders, storytellers and media entrepreneurs of diverse backgrounds, to prime them as candidates for higher roles in the workplace.

Mentorship is provided by distinguished media professionals and experts of varying backgrounds. By emboldening the next generation of leaders in media, the Maynard 200 is facilitating equity and belonging in the newsroom and beyond.

The program is tuition-free thanks to funding by Google News Initiative, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, The Wunderkinder Foundation and the McClatchy Foundation.

Candidates can apply for one of three tracks — Storytelling, Advanced Leadership and Media Entrepreneurship. Applications are now open, and will be accepted through March 5th.

“Our program’s mission, built on the reinvigoration of the diversity pipeline in media, is now sharpened by the triple crises of our time: the public health and economic devastation of the global pandemic, America’s racial reckoning and deep societal fractures laid bare again by the 2020 vote,” said Odette Alcazaren-Keeley, Maynard 200 director. “Responding to these seismic shifts, Maynard 200 continues to bolster the authentic voice, leadership power and change agency of professionals of color.”

“We are fortunate to have top executives, well-known journalists and news leaders, outstanding business strategists and leading academics as members of our program faculty and as mentors,” said Evelyn Hsu, co-executive director of the institute and chief architect of Maynard 200. “They are a generous and dedicated group that has made Maynard 200 a top training program.”

MIJE co-executive director Martin G. Reynolds said, “The fellows represent the future of our industry. Given where we are now as a nation, their perspectives, influence, passion, skill and creativity are essential as they seek to ascend to top leadership roles, create nuanced journalism and start new media enterprises that will help shape the journalistic landscape in the years to come. This program is as much about building up the person as it is about supporting the work they do. It is an honor to see them flourish.”

Reynolds will once again lead the fellows in Fault Lines ®, a core training session of the institute’s foundational framework of diversity, equity and belonging. It’s one of several marquee sessions in the program including Finding Your Authentic Voice and Being Heard, a discussion between public media powerhouses Tonya Mosley and Aarti Shahani.

And this year’s Maynard 200 faculty will be another high-caliber roster as in past years, comprised of esteemed experts across various disciplines. This includes the AP’s Global Investigations Editor Ron Nixon, who also co-founded the Ida B. Wells Society; renowned executive coach and career expert Caroline Ceniza-Levine, also a senior contributor to Forbes.com; and speaker coach Tom Nixon, who has mentored business top brass including from Coca Cola and VISA.

The Maynard 200 Fellowship will begin with a virtual training week, April 12-16. The second training week is scheduled November 8-12 and may be in-person, depending on public health protocols related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some travel support will be available for the second training week if it is in person.

Fellows are required to attend both training weeks and to participate in the year-long mentorship and supplementary courses.

Since 2018, Maynard 200 has trained 49 media professionals representing African American, Latino, Asian American, Native American and Middle Eastern communities; mainstream and ethnic media organizations, and entrepreneurial ventures from various regions of the United States. Included are fellows who are now being promoted at The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, CNN, theGrio, Associated Press, The Washington Informer, Mundo Hispano Digital Network, LinkedIn, Nieman Journalism Lab, ABS-CBN international — The Filipino Channel, Sing Tao Daily, the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance and many others.

NEW APPLICATION DEADLINE: MARCH 5, 2021
Maynard 200 Application Form

The Maynard 200 journalism fellowship program cohorts gather with some of their mentors, faculty, track executives-in-residence and the MIJE executive team. Top: The 2019 class at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in Los Angeles. Bottom: The 2018 class at the Google campus in Boulder, CO.

MAYNARD 200 ON PR WEB.

For more information, contact Odette Alcazaren-Keeley – Director, Maynard 200: okeeley@mije.org / 650.455.3063.

ABOUT THE MAYNARD INSTITUTE FOR JOURNALISM EDUCATION

The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education is the nation’s oldest organization dedicated to helping the news media accurately portray all segments of society, particularly those often overlooked, such as communities of color. The media play a pivotal role in shaping our perceptions of each other. The distorted coverage of communities of color influences public policy and the decisions we make in our personal lives.

Mary Crystal “Chris” Cage

Mary Crystal “Chris” Cage, 65, passed away Saturday November 21, 2020 from complications due to congestive heart failure.

Chris moved back to Sacramento in 2005 after she developed congestive heart failure and was forced to disability retire. She still led a full life keeping in contact with many friends she made during the years. Most recently she served as a volunteer patient advocate with her health care provider, Sutter Health.

She enjoyed movies, especially Marvel action films, keeping up with politics and reading mystery novels, specifically police procedurals, a legacy of her police beat days. She also loved birds and kept a pair of budgies who passed last spring. She was active in two local bird clubs, volunteering for several activities.

Chris had an interesting career, starting as a police beat and education reporter for the Sacramento Bee. She moved to Washington DC and worked as a writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education, a national education journal, before securing a position in Public Affairs for Teachers College, which is part of the New York State University system in New York City. Chris retired after serving a brief stint in administration for the union representing the university professors of Teachers College.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the California State University, Fresno. She is a 1979 alumnae of the Summer Program for Minority Journalists held at UC Berkeley.

She is survived by her niece, Sarah Cage and Sarah’s son Noah, who live in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

Rest in peace, Chris.

The Maynard Institute seeks practitioners, consultants and firms that specialize in diversity, racial equity training, organizational transformation to help execute its Equity and Inclusion Transformation Program. An understanding of journalism and the media ecosystem is preferred but not required. Optimal areas of expertise include, DEI, racial equity, restorative and anti-racist practices, microaggressions, trauma, systemic racism and organizational psychology. Practitioners who work over a series of sessions are welcomed and preferred.

The Project:

The Maynard Institute received funding from the John S. and James L. Knight foundation to pilot a series of newsroom embeds to take news organizations from a conversation about diversity, to institutions of belonging for BIPOC journalists and those of diverse backgrounds. Two pilot embeds (six months each) will be delivered in 2021.

Time Commitment: Flexible

Consultant sessions would be scheduled at various times throughout the embed. Depending on the particular area of expertise, a consultant might come to conduct one two-hour session with follow-up work, or a series of sessions over the six months combined with outside coaching and guidance to various teams within the news outlet.

The Background:

Fifty years ago, the Kerner Commission excoriated the journalism industry for its lack of diversity. Decades later, the industry has failed to diversify its organizations and leadership to adequately represent the breadth of the communities it needs to serve. At the same time, more evidence has emerged on how critical diversity is to the survival of the media industry. As journalists of color speak freely about their experiences with racism in the newsroom, and audiences of color express deep distrust in journalism institutions, the industry has no choice but to make dramatic change.

The goal of these embeds is to dive deep into three key areas: the institution, the culture and the coverage. By the conclusion of the embed, a news organization will have goals, strategies and steps to move closer to becoming institutions of belonging.

Please send along information about you, your team and/or organization, area of expertise, process and rate sheet to Maynard Institute Executive Administrator, Alida Birnam, at abirnam@mije.org. If you have any questions, please contact Maynard Institute Co-Executive Director Martin G. Reynolds at mreynolds@mije.org.

The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2021.

The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism is the oldest journalism training non-profit in the U.S. dedicated to helping America’s newsrooms reflect the diversity of the nation. 1400 65th St. Suite 200, Emeryville CA 94608 – 510-891-9202

Richard S. Holden

Richard S. Holden wore many hats in his illustrious life – all of them well.

He was an editor extraordinaire. The first memory for most participants in the Maynard Institute’s Editing Program for Minority Journalists is that he had been the YOUNGEST-ever copy desk chief for the Wall Street Journal.

Then we’d learn about his work to help create and produce the Asian Wall Street Journal from Hong Kong.

He was a teacher. I met Rich in the summer of 1982 while attending the editing program. He was one of a small group of editors from across the country who would spend one to two weeks teaching in the program at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Their mission was to mold and create copy editors and future newsroom leaders out of the small group of journalists who had competed to get this training.

Finding the right words to describe Richard Holden is difficult. We met at the Editing Program for Minority Journalists at the University in Tucson, sponsored by the Maynard Institute, and became lifelong friends. He taught and mentored scores of editors from across the nation, some of whom later became top newspaper editors or publishers. I will miss Rich’s humor and his dedication to producing first-class journalism. – Frank O. Sotomayor, co-founder of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

Rich was a mentor. The list of those he nurtured stretches from his days at the Journal to his years at the editing program. It exploded when he became director of what was then the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund and his active involvement in the American Copy Editor Society.

Rich was an advocate. He understood the need to diversify America’s newsrooms, and he pushed to the end that news coverage only gets better when organizations make a commitment to bring and keep minority journalists in the fold, and for those organizations to cover the issues in all communities.

At the Newspaper Fund, he became a voice for the young people trying to break into newsrooms. And hopefully, those young people would join in that advocacy.

But everyone who knew of him knows those facts. What most people don’t know or didn’t appreciate about Richard S. Holden were his loves.

The man loved a good joke, especially puns. There’s the joke about the frog at the bar that he enjoyed telling. And he had that laugh — a barrel-deep baritone – that was the envy of any wanna-be broadcaster. He always bragged about having a face for radio. And when he laughed, you laughed, even if the joke made no sense.

He loved him some University of Missouri and Army football. I never could understand such dedication. But you could always expect an update on those teams during any conversation in the season. And if there was a chance to get to one of their games (Rich and his wife, Mary-Anna, were Army season-ticket holders), he was there.

Rich was one of the faculty standouts at the Maynard Institute’s Editing Program for Minority Journalists in Tucson. I’m among the many beneficiaries of his wisdom, humor and good company in that summer program — and for numerous years after. I long to share one more drink and one more convo with him. – Abe Kwok, 1997 graduate of the Editing Program.

Math was another love. He would bring that passion to journalists who traditionally fear the subject and try to keep the issue at arm’s length. His “Afraid of Math, Take a Number” workshop was straightforward. Don’t be afraid to challenge the numbers, he urged. Make the math simple, and convert those terms through imaginable and relatable issues for the audience, he preached.

Rich had a love of the dapper. Maybe it was those stints in Southeast Asia. (He had served in Vietnam, and he learned fashion secrets during his years at the Asian Wall Street Journal.) The gentleman loved a finely tailored wool suit, with an even finer tie and pocket square. Oh, and the French cuffs, as I was reminded by another Maynard alum.

But Rich took dapper to another level. Always show up dressed to the nines, he advised. You can always take things off, but the first impression is what counts – a lesson that was shared every year in Tucson.

Rich loved WrestleMania. You read that right. The man would travel across the country to see the bouts. I still remember the times he flew into Detroit for those exhibitions, and then write a commentary column for the Journal.

Rich was one of the great champions of diversity who was passionate about changing things for the better. He was always supportive of our efforts and offered his wisdom, time and talent to mentor, advise and help many people, including me. And he had fun doing it! – Ron Recinto, former member of the national board of the Asian American Journalists Association

And there was those vices – booze and smoking. He loved a good whiskey. And he never turned down a good stogie (apologies to the purists) to complement those cigarettes. The locations are everywhere, the stories are many. If you knew Rich, you’ve got one.

It is because of all of those things that Rich Holden was so special to this Maynard grad.

He was always bigger than life – from that first meeting. The Vietnam War background and his having been a top editor at the Wall Street Journal. He had worked in China and learned the language. He had been director of the news fund and those “Dow Jones interns” are everywhere.

I had been a student and later would have the opportunity to sit beside him as an instructor for many years. I would bring him to my newsrooms to share his knowledge.

Over those years — the bond began that summer of 1982 — Richard S. Holden became one of a very small group that I call “the brothers I never had.”

He was family and I’m going to miss him. But I’ll have the memories.

There was the annual exchange of junk Christmas gifts. The Holdens were early recipients of the “Big Mouth Billy Bass” wall plaque, and gave me a “Buckmasters Deer Huntin’ ” game. (The overgrown collection of singing, dancing, chiming Christmas dolls/toys has become a staple in my home each year.)

When I moved to New York, I would take any opportunity to head out to the Holden home in New Jersey and use the opportunity to reestablish my Southern roots as we would tackle his house maintenance issues. Oh wait, it’s true. Rich, this bigger-than-life figure, was a complete klutz in the house.

It was my pleasure to work with Rich for 22 years. He was thoughtful, generous, fun-loving, a deft editor and determined to make news industry diversity more than a numbers game. Despite recent setbacks, he was upbeat and encouraging to the end. He can rest now. – Linda Shockley, managing director, Dow Jones News Fund.

Those visits became opportunities for me to practice the simple things – cutting the grass (Rich adored the diagonal cut of the Yankee Stadium outfield), cooking, barbecuing and throwing parties. (There was that huge hole in the stairway wall that was always there and a reminder of what can happen when you take a bad step. We never really tackled that one.)

But we did tackle carrying a six-foot sub sandwich on our shoulders one weekend through downtown Madison, much to the dismay of the local police. They apparently were tracking us to our car several blocks away. (Breaker! Breaker! We have a black and white team strolling through town with a giant sub. Stay alert!)

The consummate editor, teacher, mentor and advocate, Rich Holden never had a cross word for or about anyone. He affected the lives of many as reflected by the memories posted on Facebook. I hope everyone gets a chance to read them. As many wrote, he made us all better.

The industry lost a giant on April 15, 2020. And I lost a close, cherished friend.

Rest in peace, Richard S. Holden.

Walter T. Middlebrook, a 1982 graduate of the Maynard Institute’s Editing Program for Minority Journalists, was named the Foster Professor of Practice in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at The Pennsylvania State University in March 2020. He left The Detroit News in January 2018 as an assistant managing editor after an extensive career that included stints at The New York Times, Newsday/New York Newsday, USA Today and the St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press. He had been a business writer at the Pioneer Press when he came to Maynard to learn the skills of a copy editor, which led to positions as a newsroom manager.

The Maynard Institute’s Editing Program for Minority Journalists – later the Editing Program, then the Multimedia Editing Program – started with a pilot in 1979 and over three decades launched a generation of journalists, most of them journalists of color, into the management ranks of news organizations around the country. Like many Maynard programs, it was the first of its kind. Richard S. Holden taught in the editing program for more than 25 years, volunteering weeks of his time every summer. He was a lifelong mentor to many Maynard grads. – Evelyn Hsu

Eugene Kane

Eugene Kane, a longtime columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and a graduate of the Maynard Institute’s Summer Program for Minority Journalists, died April 16 at the age of 63.

Kane was known for his award-winning column, Raising Kane, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He spent most of his career at the Sentinel after graduating from Temple University and the 1981 Maynard Institute reporter training program.

“I knew Gene for nearly 40 years and we became and remained really good friends for life,” said Kevin Merida, a senior vice president at ESPN, and member of the Maynard Institute’s board of directors.

“We entered this craft pretty much at the same time, filled with idealism and fire. That idealism, and determination, was fueled by the connection we shared as grads of the Summer Program for Minority Journalists. I left Milwaukee, but Gene stayed. Gene built a career for himself at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the newspaper he started at and finished at after graduating from the Summer Program.”

“He became a decorated, award-winning columnist in a tough, racially segregated city,” said Merida. “Literally, a journalism Hall of Famer in Wisconsin, and among the best local columnists in the country. He was fierce and funny. and fearless. He took himself just seriously enough, but never too seriously. Lived life fully, playfully, with commitment to our craft–and with no apologies for being black.”

Kane discussed race unflinchingly in much of his work. James Causey, a Sentinel writer and colleague, emphasized that Kane didn’t back down from discussing the “the negative impact that racism has not just on people of color, but on a city he considered one of the most segregated in the country.”

As a journalist, he shared the voices of trusted sources with respect, while simultaneously calling on readers to change the way they thought or acted.

In an interview with “This Is Milwaukee,” Kane said, “For a lot of white people who read the Journal Sentinel, I was the only black person they really knew in a way…who was expressing opinions they didn’t hear anywhere else.”

Kane received many accolades for his writing including Best General Column from the Society of Professional Journalists and Best Commentary from the National Association of Black Journalists. He was inducted into both the Milwaukee Press Club Hall of Fame and the Wisconsin Media Hall of Fame.

Many fans, friends and colleagues celebrated his life and philosophy on social media, such as the current editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, George Standley who wrote simply, “Eugene encouraged us to always stand up for justice.”