The first training week of the 2024 in-person Maynard 200 Fellowship Program hosted by TCU Bob Schieffer College of Communication, concluded with a call-to-action. This year’s cohort of 32 editors and managers from diverse backgrounds were encouraged by the Maynard Institute’s Board Chair John X. Miller to take their top three lessons from Maynard 200 workshops and apply them in their newsrooms. Fellows explored benefits of new editing toolkits, management frameworks and thought-provoking discussions with long-time leaders in the industry, while furthering the values of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in journalism. This blog highlights key takeaways from faculty on editing, storytelling and community building, as well as testimonials from fellows who described their Maynard experience as transformational.

In the week’s concluding session, Maynard 200 Director Odette Alcazaren-Keeley lauded the fellows for their courageous conversations, including sharing direct experiences with barriers to a sense of their belonging in newsroom culture.

“We listened to each other with empathy and insight, which has been key to the success of our shared learning,” said Alcazaren-Keeley.

“Your voices on these issues are crucial as fellows…the totality of who you are is powerful. Continue to challenge ideas, challenge us, each other and yourselves. Know that alongside our Maynard 200 alumni, you represent the future of media. You have us now, as your newest community on the frontlines of this mini-movement especially amid ongoing upheaval, to dismantle systemic racism in our field.”

The Maynard Institute’s Director of Cultural Competency, Felecia D. Henderson serves as this year’s Maynard 200 Executive-in-Residence. Henderson and Alcazaren-Keeley worked together in crafting a high-impact, hands-on curriculum for the fellows that they could apply in their roles as editors and managers. Henderson said the 2024 curriculum is specifically aligned with what newsroom leaders are looking for in a professional development program because “frontline editors and managers are often thrust into crucial positions with little to no training.”

Fellows describe the first week of training as transformational

In addition to learning practical skills, another unique benefit of the Maynard 200 Fellowship professional development program is the opportunity fellows have to bond with a community of their peers. Some fellows shared heartfelt testimonials about their experiences in post-training surveys (shared below with permission).

The ability to meet so many curious, intelligent, and gracious journalists was a gift. I absolutely left the training both renewed and transformed.
Teri Henderson, Baltimore Beat, Arts & Culture Editor

The Maynard 200 fellowship offers key support to front-line managers. With editing, coaching and management training, fellows can walk away with new tools and language to better engage with their reporters and the newsroom.

Sabrina Bodon, The Sacramento Bee, Equity Lab Editor

The program was transformational. I feel inspired, energized, and more confident.

Carmen Castro-Pagan, Bloomberg Industry Group, Team Lead (Editor)

The Maynard faculty were incredibly helpful during the first week of training. Many of the techniques they shared throughout the week came with real world examples that made it easier to translate their guidance to our own work. Kristopher Hooks, The Boston Globe, Money, Power, Inequality Editor

This was the first time in my career where someone distilled the basics of editing – what to look for and what techniques to use. I finally have an editor toolbox that I can use everyday.
Fahmida Y Rashid, Dark Reading, Informa Tech, Managing Editor, Features

The first week of the Maynard 200 fellowship was extremely rewarding. It was refreshing and insightful to collaborate with such an esteemed group of journalists who are committed to their work! While all of the sessions were extraordinary, I found the editing sessions to be most beneficial. I walked away feeling empowered to utilize editing tips I learned.

Erica McIntosh, WNPR, CT Public, Sr. Regional Editor, Southern CT

I did not realize how much of this I was missing and needing until I went through this past week, and knowing there’s a community of folks I can reach out to is/will be invaluable.

Kai Teoh, Dallas Morning News, Data & Interactives Editor

Political journalism really struggles with diversity, so, on some basic level, I just feel energized being around talented journalists of color who are making it work in the bigger ecosystem of our profession. It was therapeutic to be around so many news nerds.

Darius Dixon, POLITICO; Deputy Managing Editor, Policy

Maynard 200 faculty and staff pictured (clockwise from top left): Michelle Johnson, Leslie Rangel, Merrill Perlman, Aaron Glantz, Delano Massey (seen on far right coaching fellow Matthew Vann), John X. Miller, Jean Marie Brown, Evelyn Hsu, Martin G. Reynolds, Felecia D. Henderson, Odette Alcazaren-Keeley, Cara Owsley, Steve Padilla, Tom Huang and Maria Carrillo.

Curriculum designed by industry leaders and rooted in real-world examples

“Fine-Tuning Your Story Pitch” and “Mounting and Managing the Big Project” with Aaron Glantz

Aaron Glantz is California Bureau Chief and Senior Editor at The Fuller Project, the global newsroom focused on women. A two-time Peabody Award winner and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, he is a seasoned manager of complex projects, who delivers excellence simultaneously across mediums and newsrooms so that stories land with maximum velocity. His work has sparked new laws, dozens of Congressional hearings, and investigations by the FBI, DEA, Pentagon inspector general, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur for extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary execution. A former foreign correspondent who worked as an unembedded journalist in Iraq, Glantz is the author of four books, among them 2019’s Homewreckers, which tracks hedge fund profiteering off the 2008 financial crisis.

Glantz presented two sessions “Fine-Tuning Your Story Pitch” and “Mounting and Managing the Big Project.” During his session on best practices for managing a big project, Glantz explained, “It’s really important that your big project be aligned with your newsroom’s mission.”

He advised fellows to become advocates for the big project. “Nobody advocates for your story as well as you do. You know your story. You know the stakeholders, you’re building relationships,” Glantz said.

“Some of you are at local outlets, you want to have a local story that’s going to speak to these greater, bigger themes. And when you really have a winner is when you can have a story that can hit in multiple metros at the same time…It’s so hard to cut through the fog, your reporting will cut through more if the stakes are high, if people can say this is an issue on my block, in my neighborhood, in my community.”

“AI: What You Need to Know” with Michelle Johnson

Michelle Johnson is an Emerita Associate Professor of the Practice in Journalism, Boston University. She retired from BU in 2022, where she taught a variety of courses focused on online journalism and multimedia storytelling. Johnson is a former editor for the Boston Globe and boston.com. She is currently an Expert in Residence with BU’s Spark! program, an experiential learning and innovation lab based in the Center for Computing and Data Science.

For more than 20 years, Johnson conducted multimedia training workshops for student and professional journalists for a variety of organizations, including the Online News Association, the Maynard Institute, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the Association of LGBTQ Journalists.

Johnson hopes her presentation emboldens fellows with an understanding of “the potential and pitfalls of AI, and that this will prepare them to take part in conversations that will shape policies in their newsrooms and organizations going forward.”

“Improving Collaboration between Reporters and Photographers” with Cara Owsley

Cara Owsley is a national award-winning visual journalist/director of photography at The Cincinnati Enquirer. In 2018 The Cincinnati Enquirer won a Pulitzer Prize in the local reporting category. The story “Seven Days of Heroin” was recognized by the Pulitzer board “for a riveting and insightful narrative and video documenting seven days of greater Cincinnati’s heroin epidemic, revealing how the deadly addiction has ravaged families and communities.” Cara was a photojournalist and photo editor for the project.

Before working for The Enquirer, Cara was a staff photojournalist at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Mississippi, and The Repository in Canton, Ohio. She has been in the industry for 28 years. Cara found her love of photojournalism while attending Western Kentucky University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in photojournalism.

Owsley stressed in her talk that the key ingredient in improving the collaborative work of reporters and photographers is communication. She explained: “involve the photo staff in the beginning stages, not after interviews…Work as a team and support each other.”

“Holistic Resilience and Finding Work-Life Harmony in Turbulent Times” with Leslie Rangel

Leslie Rangel is an Emmy-nominated and United Nations-recognized journalist, morning news anchor and author. Her journalism is community-focused at the intersection of equity and social injustice. She’s a 2023 recipient of the The Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship. She’s spent 12+ years working in newsrooms and is a certified yoga, mindset, meditation and life coach. Rangle is also the founder and CEO of The News Yogi Coaching, on a mission to cultivate soul centered spaces and conversations that allow high-achieving marginalized folks to feel seen and see themselves. She provides mental wellness and holistic leadership coaching to high-achieving humans, particularly those who are often the firsts in their family from a non-dominant culture.

Rangel’s keynote fittingly capped an insightful week, and she started by leading fellows and faculty in a grounding meditation. This pause was impactful, amid relentless demands of the news cycle, ongoing turbulence across media spaces, and also the globe.

She exhorted this next generation of news leaders to: “Remember to be a human first, journalist second. Normalize living sustainably in our industry and actually take action to rest. Remember, it’s okay to ask for help. It’s okay to admit you’re not okay. It’s okay to prioritize yourself.”

“Finding the Heart of the Story” with Tom Huang

Tom Huang is Assistant Managing Editor for Journalism Initiatives at The Dallas Morning News, where he edits enterprise stories, oversees the newsroom’s internship program and leads the newsroom’s community-funded journalism initiative, which seeks philanthropic support of public service journalism.

Huang walked fellows through the 5 focusing questions that editors can ask to help guide reporters to find the heart of the story and become better storytellers. He says he “starts with questions that spark a writer’s imagination… I push the writer to think harder about the story’s theme…and try fresh approaches to storytelling,

According to Huang, these questions that he uses as an editor were developed by David Von Drehle and Chip Scanlan:

• Why does the story matter?
• What is the point of the story?
• Why are we telling the story now?
• What does the story say about life, the world and the times we live in?
• What is the story truly about – in one word?

“Coaching for Story” with Maria Carrillo

Maria Carrillo is a consultant and coach after spending 36 years in seven newsrooms. She was enterprise editor at the Tampa Bay Times and Houston Chronicle and, before that, managing editor at The Virginian-Pilot. She has edited dozens of award-winning projects, frequently lectures on narrative journalism and co-hosts a podcast (WriteLane) about craft.

Carrillo stressed that building trust and relationships based on mutual respect to each other’s expertise, is foundational in the effective partnership between editors and writers. Her session aimed to “grow editors’ confidence as coaches, and give them tools to help guide writers to tell better stories.”

“Editing for Tone” with Merrill Perlman

Merrill Perlman spent 25 years at The New York Times in jobs ranging from copy editor to director of copy desks, in charge of all 150-plus copy editors at The Times. Now, she coaches writers and editors in self-editing, grammar, language and clarity, where her clients have included the Poynter Institute, Honolulu Civil Beat, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Weather Channel, FoxNews, The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and the U.N., as well as communications companies, corporations, law firms and foundations. She’s a freelance editor who has worked for such places as Center for Public Integrity, Investigative Reporting Workshop, ProPublica, Rosetta Books and Amazon Kindle Singles.

According to Perlman, it is imperative for “editors to make sure that each sentence and word is in service of the story. They also need to watch out for unintended bias in adjectives and labels.”

“Editing Techniques” with Steve Padilla

Steve Padilla is editor of Column One, the front-page showcase for storytelling at the Los Angeles Times. He joined the Times in 1987 as a night police reporter but soon moved on to editing. He helped guide the Times’ Pulitzer-winning coverage of a botched bank robbery in North Hollywood in 1997.

In his 36 years with the Times, he has edited a wide variety of subjects—national politics, higher education, California state news and religion among them. Before his current assignment, Padilla was enterprise editor on the foreign-national desk. He also served as director of Metpro, the Times’ training program designed to bring diversity to newsrooms.

Padilla summed up his talk with the hope that the fellows will remember that “when editing or coaching writers, positive direction, rather than negative, often produces good results—they’re longer lasting and the process is more fun, too.”

“Name it, Claim it and Aim it: Leveraging Your Strengths” with Jean Marie Brown

Jean Marie Brown is an associate professor of professional practice in the Department of Journalism at TCU’s Bob Schieffer College of Communication. 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. 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.

The Gallup Strengths Assessment and 1:1 coaching sessions with fellows by Prof. Jean Marie Brown has been a pillar in the Maynard 200 curriculum since its pilot. In this pivotal process, she explains how we as leaders can name, claim and aim our strengths in order to leverage them – in work and relationships.

Brown encouraged fellows “to lean in and own who you are, make other people accept who you are…and to celebrate yourself for the things that you do really well.” She stressed that it is critical “to bring our authentic selves to our newsrooms.” She added “that in understanding our strengths and of our team members, you are able to recognize what you do best, and you let other people do what they do best.”

Fault Lines® with Professor Jean Marie Brown and Martin G. Reynolds

One of the Maynard Institute’s mainstay professional development offerings is a series of trainings for newsrooms based on the Fault Lines® methodology. Designed by founder and namesake Robert C. Maynard, the Fault Lines® framework helps newsrooms address bias along lines of race, gender, sexual orientation, generation, geography, class and more, as they apply to journalists, news coverage, newsroom collaborations and community engagement. This keynote session was co-led by Professor Jean Marie Brown and the Maynard Institute’s Co-Executive Director, Martin G. Reynolds.

Prior to joining the Maynard Institute leadership, Reynolds was senior editor for community engagement and training for Bay Area News Group and served as editor-in-chief of The Oakland Tribune between 2008-2011. His career with Bay Area News Group spanned 18 years. Reynolds was also a lead editor on the Chauncey Bailey Project, formed in 2007 to investigate the slaying of the former Oakland Post editor and Tribune reporter.

Reynolds is also co-founder of Oakland Voices, a hyperlocal storytelling project that trains residents to serve as community correspondents that first launched in 2010 as partnership between the Oakland Tribune and the Maynard Institute. He was named as Digital First Media’s Innovator of the Year for his work on Oakland Voices.

In his opening remarks at the 2024 Maynard 200 Fellowship session, Reynolds spoke about the challenging and vital role the 2024 Maynard 200 fellows play in their newsrooms.

“Here you are. Frontline editors, navigating it all. You have among the most challenging jobs in all of journalism. Sitting at the nexus of the community, the organization and the storytellers.”

He added, “This program is about equipping you with the skills, but perhaps even more importantly…this is about community so that you have what you need to be supported, to be seen, to be cared for as you move through this journey.”

Hands-on coaching and mentorship that makes a difference

Fellows benefited from hands-on breakout sessions that were customized to tactical coaching workshops relevant to editors across three primary platforms:

• print/digital led by Maria Carrillo and Steve Padilla
• photography led by Cara Owsley
• broadcast led by Delano Massey

Delano Massey, a Maynard Institute alum, has been serving as a Maynard 200 mentor for the last 2 years. In 2024, Massey served as the coach for the broadcasting breakout coaching sessions. He shared his multi-layered experience in this space, including the importance of creating and leveraging influence. He is currently managing editor for Local at Axios, overseeing operations across 30 markets. He was also the former supervising producer of the Race & Equality Team at CNN. His impact extends from major outlets like CNN and the Associated Press to local platforms like News 5 Cleveland, WKYT, and the Lexington-Herald Leader.

Coaches also held one-on-one office hours with fellows.

Reconvening in July thanks to generous supporters

Fellows and faculty alike expressed an eagerness to reconvene in a few months for the July weeklong training sessions. In addition to the generous university partner host TCU Bob Schieffer College of Communication, the 2024 Maynard 200 Fellowship would not be possible without the support of Craig Newmark Philanthropies, the Hearthland Foundation, McClatchy and individual donors.

This program is about strengthening newsroom leaders for a sustainable future in media. The cohort of 2024 marks a special milestone. When the fellowship program launched in 2018, the Maynard Institute set the goal to provide professional development to two hundred journalism professionals and the 2024 fellows have exceeded that goal.

During the March training, the Maynard Institute’s Co-Executive Director Evelyn Hsu shared the pivotal history that is part of the fellowship surpassing its mission, through the lens of the vision and legacy of the institute’s nine founders.

The next round of sessions in July will conclude with a special celebration to honor this achievement while acknowledging the marathon continues.

About the Maynard Institute

For more than 45 years, the Maynard Institute has fought to push back against the systemic lack of diversity in the news industry through training, collaborations and convenings. Founded by Robert C. Maynard, the Institute promotes diversity and antiracism in the news media through improved coverage, hiring and business practices. We are creating better representation in America’s newsrooms through our Maynard 200 fellowship program, which gives media professionals of color the tools to become skilled storytellers, empowered executives and inspired media entrepreneurs.

About the Maynard 200 Fellowship

Maynard 200 is the cornerstone fellowship program advancing the Maynard Institute’s efforts to expand the diversity pipeline in news media and dismantle structural racism in its newsrooms. It is designed for and serves the next generation of media leaders, storytellers, editors and entrepreneurs, in order to advance their career growth and leadership power in newsrooms and organizations. The professional development program provides customized training courses, resources and 1:1 mentorship by industry professionals, to fellows who have represented a wide spectrum of racial, gender and geographic backgrounds.

Questions?

For more information about the Maynard 200 Fellowship, please reach out to:
Maynard 200 Director, Odette Alcazaren-Keeley at okeeley@mije.org.

The 2024 Maynard 200 Fellows (clockwise from top left): Aaron Foley, Allison Jing Yang, Blanca Méndez, Carmen Castro-Pagán, Carolyn Copeland, Daarel Burnette II, Darius Dixon, Erica McIntosh, Estefania Mitre, Fahmida Rashid, Fernanda Santos, Heather J. Chin, Iftikhar Hussain, Jacob Sanchez, Jamilah King, Joshua Barajas, Juan Michael Porter II, Kai Teoh, Kim Johnson Flodin, Kris Hooks, Luella Brien, Martin Garcia, Mason Bryan, Matthew Vann, Maya Valentine, Pamela De La Fuente, Sabrina Bodon, Teri Henderson, Tierra Hayes, Torrance Latham, William Sanchez II and Zeke Minaya.

OAKLAND, CA (February 29, 2024): The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding diversity in the news media and dismantling structural racism in newsrooms, announced today the recipients of its 2024 Maynard 200 Fellowship. Since the program’s inception in 2018, the Maynard Institute has trained and mentored journalists, editors, managers, executives and media entrepreneurs of diverse backgrounds. With its latest class of 32 fellows, the Maynard Institute will surpass its mission of cultivating 200 media leaders dedicated to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in journalism.

The tuition-free program includes two weeks of in-person training rounds as well as supplementary sessions, office hours and ongoing support throughout the year. Maynard 200 returns to the Bob Schieffer College of Communication at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas for two weeks of customized workshops, hands-on coaching and peer networking sessions in March and July. The in-person training weeks are followed by a year-long, one-on-one mentorship phase, wherein each Fellow is paired with an industry expert for dedicated coaching.

In 2024, the institute’s cornerstone training program Maynard 200 Fellowship will focus on the professional advancement and year-long mentorship for frontline editors and mid-level managers. The customized curriculum addresses the challenges editors and managers struggle with daily in their newsrooms, especially those who have recently transitioned to higher leadership roles. This year’s program is made possible thanks to the generous support of Craig Newmark Philanthropies, The Hearthland Foundation, McClatchy and individual donors.

“Maynard 200 has served as a lifeline to many BIPOC journalists, especially those navigating upheavals in the industry. Our graduates leave the program with a renewed fire in their roles and growth. They are emboldened to shift cultures in their newsrooms to create spaces of equity and belonging, knowing they have the support of the Maynard Family as their enduring community,” said Odette Alcazaren-Keeley, Maynard 200 Director.

“This year’s Maynard 200 Fellows are another outstanding class of 32 media leaders, representing diverse racial, gender, age, and geographic backgrounds. Alongside legacy media peers, the powerful voice of journalists affiliated with ethnic, community-powered and niche media make this cohort unique. Their collective impact will help us craft future Maynard programs that are adaptive to the challenges of the field,” Alcazaren-Keeley added.

“We are excited about the curriculum we have designed, which will be led by subject matter experts in the industry,” said Felecia D. Henderson, the Maynard Institute’s cultural competency director and Maynard 200’s new executive-in-residence. “The fellows will graduate the program as more confident and proficient newsroom leaders.”

“This year we will surpass our goal of training 200 storytellers, managers, entrepreneurs and executives. It is exciting and inspiring to see the good work that has emerged from our training and to see the contributions our graduates are making to the profession,” said Maynard Institute co-executive director Evelyn Hsu, the architect of the program.

Meet the Maynard 200 Fellows of 2024:

• Aaron Foley, News Editor, New York Amsterdam News and Managing Editor, Model D
• Allison Jing Yang, Senior Editor (Partnerships & Initiatives), Initium Media
• Blanca Méndez, Community Engagement Editor, San Antonio Report
• Carmen Castro-Pagán, Team Lead (Editor), Bloomberg Industry Group
• Carolyn Copeland, News Editor, Prism
• Daarel Burnette II, Senior Editor, The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Darius Dixon, Deputy Managing Editor-Policy, POLITICO
• Erica McIntosh, Senior Regional Editor-Southern CT, WNPR-Connecticut Public
• Estefania Mitre, Social Visuals Producer/Editor, NPR
• Fahmida Rashid, Managing Editor-Features, Dark Reading, Informa Tech
• Fernanda Santos, Contributing Editor, NAHJ palabra. / Prof. of Practice, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, ASU
• Heather J. Chin, Deputy Editor, Billy Penn at WHYY
• Iftikhar Hussain, Managing Editor, Voice of America
• Jacob Sanchez, Fellowship Editor and Enterprise Journalist, Fort Worth Report
• Jamilah King, Editorial Director, Mother Jones
• Joshua Barajas, Senior Editor-Digital, PBS NewsHour
• Juan Michael Porter II, Senior Editor, TheBody.com and TheBodyPro
• Kai Teoh, Data Editor, Dallas Morning News
• Kim Johnson Flodin, Deputy Director-U.S. News, Associated Press
• Kris Hooks, Money, Power, Inequality Editor, Boston Globe
• Luella Brien, Executive Director, Four Points Media
• Martin Garcia, News Inside Manager, The Marshall Project
• Mason Bryan, Senior Editor, Prison Journalism Project
• Matthew Vann, Senior Producer, “Good Morning America”, ABC News Washington
• Maya Valentine, Photo Editor, The Washington Post
• Pamela de la Fuente, Assigning Editor, NerdWallet
• Sabrina Bodon, Equity Lab Editor, The Sacramento Bee
• Teri Henderson, Arts & Culture Editor, Baltimore Beat
• Tierra Hayes, Digital and Engagement Editor, Chattanooga Times Free Press
• Torrance Latham, Breaking News Editor, Miami Herald
• William Sanchez II, Executive Director-Business Development and Digital Operations, Fox News Audio
• Zeke Minaya, Assistant Editor-Metro Desk, The New York Times

Read the bios for the 2024 Maynard 200 Fellows (PDF).

Get to know the Maynard 200 Fellows

Interested in learning more about the 32 media leaders joining the fellowship in 2024?

Read their bios

About the Maynard Institute

For more than 45 years, the Maynard Institute has fought to push back against the systemic lack of diversity in the news industry through training, collaborations and convenings. Founded by Robert C. Maynard, the Institute promotes diversity and antiracism in the news media through improved coverage, hiring and business practices. We are creating better representation in America’s newsrooms through our Maynard 200 fellowship program, which gives media professionals of color the tools to become skilled storytellers, empowered executives and inspired media entrepreneurs.

About the Maynard 200 Fellowship

Maynard 200 is the cornerstone fellowship program advancing the Maynard Institute’s efforts to expand the diversity pipeline in news media and dismantle structural racism in its newsrooms. It is designed for and serves the next generation of media leaders, storytellers, editors and entrepreneurs, in order to advance their career growth and leadership power in newsrooms and organizations. The professional development program provides customized training courses, resources and 1:1 mentorship by industry professionals, to fellows who have represented a wide spectrum of racial, gender and geographic backgrounds.

Questions?

For more information about the Maynard 200 Fellowship, please reach out to:
Maynard 200 Director, Odette Alcazaren-Keeley at okeeley@mije.org.

The 2024 Maynard 200 Fellowship is designed to sharpen skills, provide hands-on training as well as a one-to-one year-long mentorship, and build a community of peer support. This year’s curriculum has been updated with a hyperfocus on the critical role editors and managers play in today’s newsrooms. Hosted by the Bob Schieffer College of Communication at TCU, fellows benefit from two weeks of in-person training sessions and workshops led by industry leaders. This blog highlights just a few of the 2024 Maynard 200 Faculty.

Editing for Tone & Language for Coaching Editors

Faculty: Merrill Perlman

Merrill Perlman is a consultant who works with news organizations, private companies and foundations, journalism organizations and writers and editors, helping them to communicate with clarity. She spent 25 years at The New York Times in jobs ranging from copy editor to director of copy desks, in charge of all 150-plus copy editors at The Times. She is also a freelance editor of books, long-form journalism and other informational content.

Before going to The Times, she was a copy editor and assistant business editor at The Des Moines Register. Before that, she was a reporter and copy editor at The Southern Illinoisan newspaper. She has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a master of arts in mass communication from Drake University.

Finding the Heart of the Story through 5 Focusing Questions

Faculty: Tom Huang

Tom Huang is Assistant Managing Editor for Journalism Initiatives at The Dallas Morning News, where he edits enterprise stories, helps with newsroom training and internships and leads the newsroom’s community-funded journalism initiative, which seeks philanthropic support of public service journalism. Since 2020, he has helped launch The News’ Education Lab, which has expanded education reporting with the support of local foundations; Arts Access, a partnership with KERA that covers arts and culture through a DEI lens; and the Dallas Media Collaborative, an alliance of news outlets and universities focused on solutions-based reporting on affordable housing.

As an adjunct faculty member of The Poynter Institute, he organizes seminars for professional journalists on writing, reporting and editing. For the past six years, he has served as a coach in the Poynter Table Stakes program, which helps newsrooms make the transition to sustainable digital publishing.

Editing Across Platforms

Faculty: Joanne Griffin

Joanne Griffin is a strategist, innovator and transformation professional with a lengthy career in finance and technology. Her career has spanned more than twenty years in various industries, including senior leadership positions at LinkedIn, Nielsen and EY.

She is currently the CEO of AdaptIQ where she leads innovation initiatives focused on transformation and adaptability for global enterprises. A solutions-builder at heart with a deep appreciation of the power of community to solve complex challenges, she is co-founder and COO of IrelandTogether.ie, a non-profit organisation creating opportunity for entrepreneurs by creating serendipitous collisions.

An enduring love affair with technology dates back to the arrival of the Commodore VIC-20 in the early 1980s. She has judged the European Automation Awards category for SSON since 2017, and is ranked as one of the Top 50 Thought Leaders in RPA. As a tech zealot with an innovative mindset, she believes that technologists have a responsibility to be ethical, collaborative and transparent in the design of products and business models. She advises a small number of high-potential start-ups who are aligned with those values.

Building Trust & Effective Relationships between Editors and Reporters/writers

Faculty: Maria Carrillo

Maria is a consultant and coach after spending 36 years in seven newsrooms. She was enterprise editor at the Tampa Bay Times and Houston Chronicle and, before that, managing editor at The Virginian-Pilot. She has edited dozens of award-winning projects, frequently lectures on narrative journalism and co-hosts a podcast (WriteLane) about craft.

She is a board member of the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism and the National Press Photographers Association and a juror for the Hillman Prizes. Maria was born in Washington, D.C., two years after her parents left Cuba in exile. She now lives in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Mounting and Managing a Big Project

Faculty: Aaron Glantz

Aaron served as Executive-in-Residence for the Maynard 200 Fellowship’s Investigative Storytelling Track. He is California bureau chief and a senior editor at The Fuller Project, the global newsroom dedicated to groundbreaking reporting that catalyzes positive change for women.

Aaron is a two-time Peabody Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist, who produces journalism with impact. His work has sparked dozens of Congressional hearings and investigations by the FBI, DEA, Pentagon inspector general, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur for extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary execution. One project prompted the second largest redlining settlement in Justice Department history, against Warren Buffett’s mortgage companies.

As senior investigations editor for NPR’s California Newsroom, he built an investigative collaboration for 17 public radio stations in partnership with NPR national. Their work led to the enactment of two state laws and propelled more than $2 billion in additional funds for affordable homeownership, climate mitigation, and compensation for fire victims.

Aaron is author of three books: How America Lost Iraq (Penguin); The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans (UC Press); and Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Sucked Millions Out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream (HarperCollins).

An alumnus of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, Aaron has been a DART Ochberg Fellow at Columbia University and a visiting professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Convening in-person on March 11

The Maynard 200 Fellowship program is made possible thanks to all members of the 2024 faculty and mentors and the first training week kicks off on March 11. Our university host partners at TCU’s Bob Schieffer College of Communication including long-standing TCU faculty member, Associate Professor of Professional Practice and Director of Student Media Journalism, Jean Marie Brown has also been instrumental in welcoming the Maynard 200 Fellowship. Brown is an expert in the Maynard Institute’s Fault Lines training methodology that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in newsrooms. Under Brown’s tutelage, the Fault Lines® methodology has also been applied to in-depth community reporting by students at TCU 360, the official, student-produced journalism of the Journalism Department in the Bob Schieffer College of Communication.

In addition to the sessions mentioned above, the Fellowship’s training sessions will also explore:

• Evaluating and coaching successful story pitches
• DEI in Artificial Intelligence
• The Fault Lines® Framework: Fault Lines® in News Coverage
• Gallup Strengths Assessment & 1:1 Coaching
• Coaching Workshops: Success in Management & Effective Leadership
• Leading Difficult Conversations and Managing Conflict
• Managing through Authenticity
• Managing Up, Down and Across Generations
• Building Resilience & Mental Well-Being in Teams
• Negotiation Strategies
• Fault Lines® in Management

About the Maynard 200 Fellowship

Maynard 200 is the cornerstone program advancing the Maynard Institute’s efforts to expand the diversity pipeline in news media and dismantle structural racism in its newsrooms. Since 2018, the Maynard Institute has trained media leaders, storytellers, editors, managers and entrepreneurs through the fellowship program. Maynard 200 is designed to sharpen skills, provide hands-on training as well as a one-to-one year-long mentorship, and build a community of peer support for diverse journalists. In 2024, the program returns with two weeks of in-person training rounds — specifically designed to support the success of newsroom editors and managers. Hosted by the Bob Schieffer College of Communication at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, the program will convene in March and July of 2024.

Maynard 200 is made possible thanks to the support of our generous funders Craig Newmark Philanthropies, The Hearthland Foundation and McClatchy.

Questions?

For more information about the Maynard 200 Fellowship, please reach out to:
Maynard 200 Director, Odette Alcazaren-Keeley at okeeley@mije.org.

Fellows will benefit from interactive, hands-on sessions such as relationship building with reporters, improving editing technique, and of course, editing and managing via our signature Fault Lines framework.

Are you a newsroom editor or manager interested in growing your skills while building a diverse network of peers? The Maynard 200 Fellowship professional development program is for you. Led by the Maynard Institute’s Cultural Competency Director, Felecia D. Henderson, this year’s curriculum has been updated with a hyperfocus on the critical role editors and managers play in today’s newsrooms.

“There are not enough words to express how excited I am for this new iteration of Maynard 200,” says Felecia D. Henderson, who spent many years as a newsroom editor and manager. “We are responding to what we’ve heard from many news leaders who say training for middle managers is much needed. The 15 fellows selected will benefit from interactive, hands-on sessions such as relationship building with reporters, improving editing technique, and of course, editing and managing via our signature Fault Lines® framework. The goal is to produce more confident and effective editors and newsroom leaders.”

Skill-building curriculum rooted in current events

In 2024, the Maynard 200 Fellowship will focus on the professional development training and year-long mentorship for frontline editors and managers. The customized curriculum addresses the challenges editors and managers struggle with daily in a newsroom, especially those who have recently transitioned to higher leadership roles.

Training Week 1: Editing Leadership

Dates: March 11- 15, 2024

• Building trust and effective editing relationships
• Finding the heart of the story
• Hands-on editing & writing workshops
• Evaluating and coaching successful story pitches
• Mounting and managing major coverage projects
• DEI in Artificial Intelligence
• The Fault Lines® Framework: Fault Lines® in News Coverage
• Gallup Strengths Assessment & 1:1 Coaching

Training Week 2: Management Leadership

Dates: July 15 – 19, 2024

• Coaching Workshops: Success in Management & Effective Leadership
• Leading Difficult Conversations and Managing Conflict
• Managing through Authenticity
• Managing Up, Down and Across Generations
• Building Resilience & Mental Well-Being in Teams
• Negotiation Strategies
• Fault Lines® in Management

The program will also provide nuanced frameworks and cultural competency for fellows seeking guidance in covering the ongoing war and humanitarian crises in the Middle East; as well as political coverage for the consequential 2024 U.S. presidential elections.

About Felecia D. Henderson, Maynard 200 Executive-in-Residence

Since 2020, Henderson has trained nearly 250 print and broadcast news organizations on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging issues using Maynard’s signature Fault Lines® program. She also oversees the cultural competency curriculum for colleges and universities, and is a newsroom organizational change coach and consultant.

Prior to joining the institute, Henderson was Assistant Managing Editor at The Detroit News where she was a member of the senior management team responsible for newsroom operations. In 2009, she successfully co-facilitated the largest newsroom change initiative to transition the organization to a digital news, four-day single copy, two-day home delivery model.

She began her journalism career at her hometown newspaper, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, KY, graduated from the Maynard Institute’s Editing Program for Minority Journalists at the University of Arizona, and held editing roles at the Detroit Free Press and Cincinnati Post.

Henderson is a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists’ Visual Task Force. Locally, she was elected president and vice president-print of the Detroit NABJ. She currently serves an ex-officio member on the board of directors.

Henderson earned a bachelor’s degree in Radio-TV/Journalism from Murray State University, which named her a Distinguished Alumna in 2019, and a Master of Organization Development from Bowling Green State University. She holds certification in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University and is a certified Emotional Intelligence practitioner from RocheMartin, an international leadership development organization.

About the Maynard 200 Fellowship

Maynard 200 is the cornerstone program advancing the Maynard Institute’s efforts to expand the diversity pipeline in news media and dismantle structural racism in its newsrooms. Since 2018, the Maynard Institute has trained media leaders, storytellers, editors, managers and entrepreneurs through the fellowship program. Maynard 200 is designed to sharpen skills, provide hands-on training as well as a one-to-one year-long mentorship, and build a community of peer support for diverse journalists. In 2024, the program returns with two weeks of in-person training rounds — specifically designed to support the success of newsroom editors and managers. Hosted by the Bob Schieffer College of Communication at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, the program will convene in March and July of 2024.

Maynard 200 is made possible thanks to the support of our generous funders Craig Newmark Philanthropies, The Hearthland Foundation and McClatchy.

Questions?

For more information about the Maynard 200 Fellowship, please reach out to:
Maynard 200 Director, Odette Alcazaren-Keeley at okeeley@mije.org.

In 2023, the Kettering Foundation published a volume of essays on growing distrust of news media and opportunties for new practices to engage a diverse audience. Journalists from newspapers, public radio, civic media groups, and new media collectives contributed essays with their perspectives on how reinventing journalism as we know it can strengthen democracy. On February 5, 2024, KALW Public Media will host a free Town Hall, co-sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists and the Kettering Foundation, featuring some of the authors, including Maynard Institute Co-Executive Director, Martin G. Reynolds. This blog includes an excerpt from his essay, titled “Dismantling Systemic Racism in News.”

From the publisher: During summer 2020, the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sent shockwaves across America. Newsrooms and the journalists in them also felt the shock. Martin Reynolds, former managing editor and editor in chief of the Oakland Tribune and co-executive director of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, was one of them. Even though Reynolds saw himself “in Floyd, in Taylor, and in the faces of countless other people of color who had been slain by police,” his initial instinct was to maintain his objectivity and to frame these events through the lens of a media professional and not a Black man with a Black son. Reynolds examines this experience and suggests some ways the dismantling of systemic racism in newsrooms might begin.

The following is an excerpt from Reinventing Journalism to Strengthen Democracy: Insights from Innovators, published by the Kettering Foundation in 2023 and edited by Paloma Dallas and Paula Ellis. With persmission, we are sharing an edited excerpt from the essay, “Dismantling Systemic Racism in News,” written by Maynard Institute for Journalism Education’s co-executive director Martin Reynolds.

Dismantling Systemic Racism in News

It feels difficult at this moment to return to the summer of George Floyd’s killing. I remember sitting in my car, rewatching the video on my phone, listening to accounts of protests. Hearing about Breonna Taylor and the list of other Black men and women and people of color killed by police was overwhelming.

I was enraged.

I was distraught.

I was scared.

I was ready to fight back.

How best to do that?

I decided I would never allow a police officer to press the life out of me. Trust in following police commands had been broken in a way I hadn’t before experienced. There was something about that time that felt profoundly different from other instances of police violence that I had helped cover or witnessed during my journalism career.

This time, tears of rage streamed down my face as I sat in my car.

Something snapped me out of a state of the journalistic objectivity that had guided my view of these stories and tragedies throughout my years as a journalist. This felt different and I could no longer separate my own Blackness and humanity from Floyd and from Taylor, slain in her own apartment by police following a no-knock warrant that was not issued for her.

For those reading this who aren’t journalists and who must be bewildered at how such separation from tragedy can be navigated, I must explain that I, among so many of my colleagues, was schooled in the objective approach to journalism.

I was taught that you kept your views on these issues from entering the coverage of a story, agreeing to a certain kind of internal invisibility. You are the witness, not the participant. You are the storyteller, not a character in the story.

I was instructed that who you are and what you have experienced have no place in the framing of a piece. You articulate what happened, with context of course. But often straight news stories about an incident weren’t the place for nuance and deep historical context. In the world of daily newspaper journalism where I was forging a career, you had to keep it moving.

“You can always do a folo (the journalistic term for a next-day story),” one of my former editors would say as she pounded out succinct edits on deadline.

News always happened the next day, so you moved on to the next homicide, fire, robbery, or carjacking. Or, perhaps the bit of context you did insert was removed or challenged by an editor or cut by the copy desk for space or because an editor thought it wasn’t appropriate.

I realize now that the invisibility extended beyond the role of journalist to a deeper place. I had to embrace the invisibility to survive, to find my place, to belong. But it wasn’t a true belonging.

Early in my career, I felt I had to compress elements of my identity and learn to turn away from the experiences that shaped my perception of the world. It wasn’t something that anyone necessarily said. It was more subtle and yet profound.

As that summer of violence and protest was unfolding, my initial instinct was to maintain my objectivity and to frame my view of these horrible events through the lens of a media professional and not a Black man with his own Black son.

Countless cases of Black and Brown people slain by police over the years hadn’t shaken that training, even though I felt pain each time it happened. The blatant racism on the part of police was something I had experienced many times, particularly as a young man, and I always felt as though it eroded my belief in democratic institutions.

The conflict of being a taxpayer and feeling under threat is a paradox I was never surprised by. I was taught that you kept your views on these issues from entering the coverage of a story, agreeing to a certain kind of internal invisibility.

And as news outlets scrambled to cover Floyd’s killing, something clearly snapped within them. The people who had so often been invisible were demanding to be seen. The reckoning in the streets, where we heard calls for racial justice, were echoed in newsrooms.

And there is a damn good reason for that. Fairly recently, newspapers, including the Orlando Sentinel, Los Angeles Times, Kansas City Star, Baltimore Sun, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, have, in various ways, admitted and apologized for their histories of racist coverage and the inflaming of racial tensions.

In a compelling Poynter Institute series, Mark I. Pinsky, author and former staff writer for the Orlando Sentinel wrote:

In recent years, a handful of the region’s newspapers have stepped forward to accept responsibility for biased reporting and editorials, shouldering their share of the burden of racist Southern history. They are acknowledging—belatedly—what their forebearers did and did not do in covering racism, White supremacy, terror and segregation over the past 150 years. Some newspapers, including the Sentinel, had especially grievous sins to confess.

The Inquirer’s look into its history, which was done by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wesley Lowery, also apologized for the harm it had caused to Black journalists who worked for the paper, in addition to the Black community.

“The journalistic examination of the Inquirer by Wesley Lowery published this week [February 2022] puts our failings in brutal relief,” wrote Elizabeth H. Hughes, the paper’s publisher. “The reporting shows not only that we have not done right—it reveals, starkly, that we have done wrong. Black voices in the story—inside and outside the newsroom—articulate forcefully the harm we have inflicted over decades.”

As I reflect on this, now that some time has passed since the summer of Floyd and Taylor (which was followed by an insurrection fomented by a sitting president), I will say that my faith in democratic institutions does not have the luxury of being eroded by individuals not worthy of serving in them.

Looking at how representatives in the Trump administration, Congress, and even the spouse of a Supreme Court justice have behaved and perpetuated lies they know to be untrue has in some strange way evolved my view of the importance of these flawed but vital institutions.

Either the institutions themselves must be dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up or individuals with honor and integrity must stand up and lean against the pillars of these institutions and offer support to their cracking foundations.

I must admit that I am not sure which of these makes the most sense, or if either makes any sense.

The questions for me remain, What will be the true impact of these apologies? You can’t change an institution if the majority of the people inside it are unable, unwilling, or don’t know how, to unwind decades of socialized racism and bias. It is that racism and bias that have left so many feeling invisible, like they don’t belong in the very profession they have worked so hard to join.

I have to admit I never expected to “belong” in my newsroom. I was taught to endure, by journalists of color who were older and wiser. There wasn’t anything close to the refreshing expectation of “cultural competence” on the part of the institution that some younger millennials and Gen Zs have now come to call for.

I am glad they are, but that was not the reality I stepped into. The preparation I received was in the form of encouragement to sustain; to expect the arrows, the lack of cultural humility, blatant ignorance, and tone deafness; and to push through it in service of my career and

the need for more journalists of color in the newsroom.

We were prepared by journalists of color who were boomers and who were shaped by the experiences of their times and who were steeped in the civil rights movement. I was taught to understand that, in many ways, my presence was a form of protest.

We at the Maynard Institute were saddened to learn of the passing of William G. “Bill” Connolly on December, 12, 2023. In addition to working at The New York Times for 30 years as an editor, Bill served as a Maynard Institute faculty member. His staunch allyship serves as enduring inspiration for us all. The obituary in the New York Times describes how “He sought diversity in the newsroom and oversaw the paper’s ethical guidelines.” A statement shared online by his family adds, “Bill was proudest of the work he did to advance the careers of young journalists, including 20 years as a senior faculty member at the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education’s program for BIPOC journalists and decades of workshops for the Dow Jones News Fund’s residency programs.”

We reached out to some members of our extended Maynard Family to share their memories of Bill for this blog.

Stephen Montiel, president of the Maynard Institute from 1988 to 2000, shared the following:

Bill Connolly, a fierce defender and supporter of the Maynard Institute’s Editing Program, selflessly shared his passion for editing excellence with a generation of journalists, mostly people of color, who made the transition from reporting to editing.

The Maynard Institute had conducted an Editing Program pilot in 1979 in conjunction with the Summer Program for Minority Journalists at the University of California, Berkeley. With Frank Sotomayor as its first director, the Editing Program for Minority Journalists was launched at the University of Arizona Journalism Department in 1980.

Bill, then an editor at the New York Times, was among the first journalists to step forward as a faculty member. In that era, the program ran for an entire summer. Some participants left jobs in order to be in the program and accepted the job placement offered by the institute. Many of the faculty would teach for weeks at a time and some used their vacations to be part of the program.

Always the consummate editor, Bill was also a heroic leader of efforts to diversify the content of news during the 1980s and 1990s.

Bill’s students in the Maynard editing program integrated the editing ranks of daily newspapers and became newsroom leaders.

Bill remained steadfast in his commitment to the program as it changed and opened its doors to white participants, becoming simply the Editing Program, and operated in different locations. He always was true to the rigor and principles of editing.

Photo of Walter Middlebrook and Bill Connolly, courtesy of Walter Middlebrook.

Former Detroit News assistant managing editor and Maynard Institute instructor Walter T. Middlebrook Jr. also his memories:

As a young 1983 fellow in the Editing Program for Minority Journalists at the University of Arizona, I left the program with two major lessons from the curmudgeonly Bill Connolly: eliminate “the echo” and that a good copy editor would have saved the Washington Post from publishing the journalistically disgraced “Jimmy’s World” story that forced the paper to relinquish a Pulitzer Prize.

To see and hear his dissection of “Jimmy’s World” laced with the questions a good copy editor would have asked was masterful. It instilled a respect for copyediting and the copy desk that helped guide me through my progression as a newsroom manager. And the echo lecture – about avoiding repeating information in a story that was given earlier – is a recurring note in my edits of the work of students and seasoned writers.

While the man, who had scared me to death in those early meetings, taught my fellow classmates how to become better editors, he would become a father-figure to me in my journalistic pursuits and a “brother” as I got older. He loved EPMJ and the mission of the editing program. Our bond and EPMJ were among the many topics we discussed during our periodic meetings over the years for conversation, food and drink. Those gatherings often would include my other father figure/brother Rich Holden, a top Dow Jones executive who taught for decades in the Editing Program when he was director of what was then called the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, or just the two of us after Rich died.

It was during those sessions that I would learn of the many layers of the teacher – his love of the often-derided semicolon, the lifelong prankster, the family man, but most of all, the hidden artist who had been painting since forever, even up to his death. Who knew? He never shared his art, but it adorned every wall in his home.

I always had fun teasing Bill about how the masterful copyeditor’s name was often misspelled in research papers and other works related to his participation with the American Copy Editors Society and in his contributions to The New York Times, particularly the paper’s published style manual.

The teacher, the father-figure, the brother left an indelible mark, and he will be missed.

Here is a link to an impactful page of collected memorials and obituaries that his family created at bit.ly/WGCJrobit

The stories, the man … personify to me what the Maynard family is all about.

We extend our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Bill Connolly. We join our Maynard Family in celebrating his life and legacy.

The Maynard Institute has trained journalists for over 45 years, so there are always alumni achievements to celebrate! The Maynard Family of Alumni, Faculty, and Directors has had a busy and fulfilling year. As we approach 2024, here’s a look back on the journeys and accomplishments of some members of the Maynard Family.

Maynard 200 Fellow and founder of Queerency, Travers Johnson, launched LGBTQ+ Business Week, a week-long digital awareness initiative that aimed to increase the visibility of queer-owned businesses, empower LGBTQ+ small business owners, and raise awareness of economic issues facing LGBTQ+ people.

Maynard 200 Fellowship Faculty member Aaron Glantz wrote a moving tribute to First Lady Rosalynn Carter and his experiences at the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship in Mental Health Journalism for NPR.

Faculty member Ron Nixon held an investigative reporting bootcamp at Morehouse College with the Ida B. Wells Society, their first in-person bootcamp event since the pandemic, and was honored by The Root as one of 2023’s most influential Black Americans.

Maynard 200 alum and Managing Editor at The Oaklandside, Jacob Simas was promoted to Community Journalism Director at Cityside. Also, the folks at Cityside announced that the city of Richmond will be getting its own sister publication, Richmondside, in 2024.

Priya David Clemens, the host of KQED Newsroom, became the press ambassador for the San Francisco Host Committee for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). The forum saw world leaders including President Biden and China’s prime minister Xi Jinping, and also witnessed massive protests.

Maynard Media Academy alum Karen Rundlet became the new CEO of Institute for Nonprofit News. INN strengthens and supports 425 independent news organizations that are nonpartisan, non-profit, and dedicated to public service.

Rachel Hinton became an investigative reporter with Block Club Chicago , a publication dedicated to delivering reliable, nonpartisan and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods.

Michael Butler celebrated two years of reporting with the Miami Herald, where he recently published several pieces on Black entrepreneurs in STEM who are changing their industries and their communities.

Michael Tennant published his book “The Power of Empathy,” which counts vulnerability as a “superpower” and aims to help people chart paths from personal to societal change through empathy and connection.

Ashton R. Lattimore announced the publication of her debut novel, “All We Were Promised,” and held a virtual open house event for Prism media called “Prism: Justice, Journalism, and Power,” as the outlet continues to grow.

Natasha Alford, host of The Grio Weekly and Vice President of Digital Content for The Grio, announced the publication of her memoir “American Negra,” available in February of 2024. The book is “part memoir, part cultural analysis” and Alford dives deep into identity, family, and diversity of Black experience in America.

Maynard 200 Fellow, Class of 2019 Investigative Storytellers, Aysha Khan became the managing editor at NextCity.

The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education is proud of all members of our Maynard Family. We’re excited to move forward into 2024 with optimism and passion for diversity and belonging in journalism, and can’t wait to see what our Fellowship graduates and Fault Lines training recipients will do next to build inclusive and equitable news ecosystems in the new year.

Our work is made possible by individual donors, The California Endowment, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Democracy Fund, Ford Foundation, The Hearthland Foundation, Inasmuch Foundation, Knight Foundation, Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation, The Reva and David Logan Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation.

About the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education

For 45 years, the Maynard Institute has fought to push back against the systemic lack of diversity in the news industry through training, collaborations and convenings. Founded by Robert C. Maynard, the Institute promotes diversity and antiracism in the news media through improved coverage, hiring and business practices. We are creating better representation in U.S. newsrooms through our programs , which gives media professionals of color the tools to become skilled storytellers, empowered executives and inspired entrepreneurs.

Are you an alumni with exciting professional news?

Contact Community Engagement Coordinator, Amani Hamed, at ahamed@mije.org to be featured in our next Maynard Family Update.

One of the Maynard Institute’s core programs, the Maynard 200 Fellowship is designed to advance the careers of investigative storytellers, executive leaders, frontline editors and media entrepreneurs of diverse backgrounds. In 2023, Executive-in-Residence Dickson Louie continued the media entrepreneurship award program originally launched in 2021. Based on the scores from a panel of media business experts, faculty, and Maynard 200 alumni, two fellows, Ryan Sorrell and Ahmed Hamid, have been recognized for their outstanding media venture pitches.

This award program would not be possible without the esteemed panel of judges. Our special thanks go to this year’s judges: Nancy Flores, Jon Funabiki, Michelle Garcia, Waylae Gregorie, Ned Hawley, Bruce Koon, Peter Lamb, Cathy Eckstein, Marla Jones-Newman, Professor Michael Sherrod, and Linda Lloyd da Silva.

The Dori J. Maynard Media Entrepreneurship Award

Ryan Sorrell is the recipient of this year’s Dori J. Maynard Media Entrepreneurship Award for his start-up, The Kansas City Defender. This award is given to the Fellow with the top overall score from the judges. The award honors the late Dori J. Maynard, the long-time president of the Maynard Institute and the daughter of Robert C. Maynard, our Institute co-founder. The amount of this award, which is funded by Louie each year, is $1,000 and for the operating expenses of the winning start-up.

“From our in-person conversations, to your feedback and guidance, this has been a truly transformative experience that has helped me grow in my confidence and vision,” Sorrell said in thanks.

The Quentin Hope Metrics Award

Ahmed Hamid is the recipient of this year’s Quentin Hope Metrics Award for his start-up, Refound, which verifies news images in this era of AI. The award honors Quentin Hope, who was instrumental in defining metrics in the News Table Stakes program that Institute co-executive directors, Evelyn Hsu and Martin Reynolds, had participated in. The amount of this award, which is funded by the Institute, is also $1,000.

“The camaraderie in the Maynard 200 cohort was a special part of the learning experience,” Hamid said in response to receiving the award. “It has been a special joy to meet the kind hearted and hardworking colleagues and teachers at Maynard. Thank you for guiding us all on this awesome entrepreneurial journey and adventure and for the phenomenal roster of mentors and coaches you curated throughout our learnings.”

Get to know the 2023 awardees

About Ryan Sorrell

Ryan is an artist, organizer, digital strategy consultant and media entrepreneur with a diverse background. His career includes consulting for globally-leading brands such as Meta, Samsung, Amazon, Harvard University and Google.

Ryan’s commitment to social justice began in Chicago amid the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement. He learned from, and is inspired by, radical Black queer women in organizations such as The Black Youth Project and Assata’s Daughters. He has dedicated his career to creating change – specifically abolition of carceral institutions – through intentional community and world building.

As COVID-19 swept worldwide in 2020, Ryan worked at his corporate job in Chicago. When protests of George Floyd’s deaths began in May that year, he moved to Kansas City, Mo., to become a full-time community organizer. With his parents’ support, he lived at home and built the city’s largest direct action and mutual aid organization as protests swelled.

Frustration with how local news reported the protests and the Floyd racial reckoning led Ryan, with no background or experience in journalism, to found the most influential Black digital news outlet in Missouri and Kansas.

Under his leadership, The Kansas City Defender has broken over 10 national news stories, reached over 50 million people, grown a social media following of over 50,000 across platforms and shifted conversations regarding objectivity and traditional journalistic values in news.

Ryan’s commitment to social justice also led him to give public talks at institutions such as University of the Arts London, NPR, PBS and Kansas City Art Institute. He is strongly inspired by the tradition of the Black press and believes it a necessity to philosophically reconceptualize the role and function of news in society.

About Ahmed Hamid

A big fan of the outdoors, Ahmed climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with his brother, a triumph that helped him realize that anything you put your mind to is possible. He is involved in using blockchain and Web 3 to enhance journalism with Refound Journalism, a startup he co­founded.

In December 2022, Refound won first place at the NEAR MetaBuild Ill hackathon. He has cultivated his passion to develop technological means to help creativity flourish and shed light on the urgent need for veracity in reporting. Hailing from Michigan, Ahmed has lived around the world including in the Maldives, Pakistan and China.

His travels from Lake Michigan to the Indian Ocean have exposed him to the tremendous diversity of thought in our world and the fragility of our free speech rights. He is very familiar with challenges and opportunities for progress in helping to keep lines of communication open for true reporting. He hopes to bring toolkits to make that easier for journalists working with Refound.

Read more about all the 2023 Maynard 200 Fellows and check out past blogs featuring award winners from 2022 and 2021.

Why the Maynard 200 Fellowship matters

The Maynard 200 fellowship program advances the Maynard Institute’s efforts to expand the diversity pipeline in news media and dismantle structural racism in its newsrooms. It is designed for and serves the next generation of media leaders, storytellers, editors and entrepreneurs, in order to advance their career growth and leadership power in newsrooms and organizations. The professional development program provides customized training courses, resources and 1:1 mentorship by industry professionals, to fellows who have represented a wide spectrum of racial, gender and geographic backgrounds. Maynard 200 has been supported by Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Google News Initiative and The Hearthland Foundation.

Questions?

For more information about the Maynard 200 Fellowship, please reach out to:
Maynard 200 Director, Odette Alcazaren-Keeley at okeeley@mije.org.

Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication is calling for submissions for the Shaufler Prize in Journalism. Now in its third year, the prize is awarded to the best journalism in the country that advances the understanding of stories and issues related to underserved people in society. This can include communities of color, the LGBTQIA+ community, immigrants, the disabled community, and more. The deadline to enter is December 6, 2023. There is no entrance fee, and winners will be announced in early 2024.

With great storytelling in a print, digital, audio or television platform, the best entry by a student could receive a $5,000 prize. In the professional category, the awards are $10,000 for first prize, $3,000 for second place, and $2,000 for third place.

The Shaufler Prize was established by Paul B. Anderson, the principal & CEO of Workhouse Media in Seattle, Washington to honor his late friend, Ed Shaufler, who died in late 2020. Shaufler cared deeply about promoting understanding of underrepresented people. The prize recognizes America’s best journalism advancing the understanding of stories and issues related to underserved people in society, such as communities of color, immigrants and LGBTQ+.

Past Winners

In previous years, the winning entries have focused on environmental racism, the life and murder of George Floyd and more. Momo Chang, the Maynard Institute’s Oakland Voices Co-Director, participated on the panel of judges for the 2nd annual prize. Winners in the professional and student categories were honored in an awards ceremony at the Cronkite School. Read more about past winners.

On October 23 the Maynard 200 Fellowship cohort of 2023 will reconvene for the final week of virtual programming presented by industry-leading faculty. The Maynard Institute’s cornerstone program, the Maynard 200 Fellowship promotes career growth and supports the future of inclusive and equitable journalism by providing training courses, resources, and mentorship by distinguished media professionals. The program kicked off in person at TCU Bob Schieffer College of Communication in June and will culminate this October after a final week of virtual sessions on professional development topics ranging from effective leadership and negotiation strategies to investigating large corporations and raising entrepreneurial capital.

Customized Curriculum to Span Evolving Media Industry Roles

The Maynard 200 Fellowship operates in four disciplines: Investigative Storytellers, Executive Leaders, Frontline Managers and Editors and Media Entrepreneurs and Product Developers, Executive Leaders, Frontline Managers and Editors and Investigative Storytellers. Each track is led by accomplished industry veterans such as Peabody award-winning journalist Aaron Glantz for investigative storytelling, former newsroom C-suite executive Virgil Smith for the leadership track, and retired senior editor John X. Miller for frontline editors and managers, and media strategist Dickson Louie for media entrepreneurs and product developers. This month’s virtual programming is tailored to each discipline with some overlap in areas that benefit multiple tracks.

Session Highlights

Investigative Storytellers will benefit from a career advice session from Ron Nixon, Vice President of News and Head of Investigations, Enterprise, Partnerships and Grants at the Associated Press. In addition, two-time Pulitzer Gold Medalist and International Investigations Editor for the Associated Press Mary Rajkumar will lead a deep dive session on mounting and mannaging a major investigative project. Later, Investigative Storytellers will explore “Investigations that Make an Impact” with two-time Peabody Award-winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Aaron Glantz, this discipline track’s executive-in-residence. Investigative Storytellers will also learn what’s involved in Taking on Large Corporations from Ziva Branstetter, senior editor at ProPublica, and Tekendra Parmar, Insider’s Tech Features Editor and an alum of the Maynard 200 Fellowship Program.

The Executive Leaders track is led by Virgil Smith, Principal of Smith Edwards Group, LLC and author of The Keys to Effective Leadership. In addition to professional networking and financial management sessions, fellows in the Executive Leaders curriculum track will also learn about “Managing Your LinkedIn Profile” from Senior Contributor to Forbes and Founder of Dream Career Club, Caroline Ceniza-Levine.

Led by executive-in-residence John X. Miller, veteran journalist and former Senior Editor for Sports, Business and Features at The Dallas Morning News, Frontline Managers and Editors will learn about “Getting to the Heart of the Story” from Tom Huang, Assistant Managing Editor for Journalism Initiatives at The Dallas Morning News. Frontline Managers and Editors will also explore the Keys to Effective Leadership in a session led by Virgil Smith before receiving tips for a successful presentation from Tom Nixon. Finally, from John X. Miller, the fellows will receive Hands on Editing and Management Coaching.

The Media Entrepreneurs and Product Developers track is led by track executive-in-residence Dickson Louie, principal of a Bay Area consultancy providing strategic planning, competitive analysis and executive development services. Session highlights include “Polishing a Pitch” from presentation designer and coach Tom Nixon, “Writing a Grant” from Jill M. Kunishima and “Raising Entrepreneurial Capital with Term Sheets” from Professor Michael Sherrod, the William M. Dickey Entrepreneur in Residence at TCU’s Neeley School of Business. Each entreprenuer and product developer will also participate in a Shark Tank-like session, pitching their proposals to a panel of judges.

Some plenary sessions benefiting all tracks include discussions on “Listening to Your Authentic Voice” with Tonya Mosley of NPR’s Fresh Air and founder and host of podcast Truth Be Told, and Ayesha Rascoe, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, as well as “Leveraging Your Strenghts and Seizing Opportunities in a Time of Transition, Innovation and Upheaval” with Jean Marie Brown, associate professor of professional practice in the Department of Journalism at TCU Bob Schieffer College of Communication.

Cross-functional Teams Tackle the Business Case Challenge

The business case study provides Maynard 200 Fellows with a unique opportunity to learn real-world application of evolving best practices in the industry. Participating fellows are briefed on challenges facing a present-day media organization. Team work will focus on market research and the development of proposed solutions to create a presentation to share with the news organization’s leadership at the October Maynard 200 gathering.

When first announced last year, the project was a case study of the Los Angeles Times business strategy and culminated in fellows presenting their findings and recommendations to LA Times executives. This year, the Business Case Study Challenge has expanded to include partners Mother Jones and the Dallas Morning News.

Mentorship that Makes a Difference

We often refer to the extended network of our program alumni as the Maynard Family. One of the main benefits of the Maynard 200 Fellowship program is access to Maynard Family mentors in the industry. The Maynard 200 Fellowship program’s unique one-on-one mentorship component continues well into 2024. After the formal training curriculum concludes in October 2023, Maynard 200 fellows are paired with a veteran media professional or issue expert who has committed to mentoring the fellow for a full year. Successful fellows meet with their assigned mentors at least once per month for conversational consults as schedules permit.

More about the Maynard 200 Fellowship

The Maynard 200 fellowship program advances the Maynard Institute’s efforts to expand the diversity pipeline in news media and dismantle structural racism in its newsrooms. It is designed for and serves the next generation of media leaders, storytellers, editors and entrepreneurs, in order to advance their career growth and leadership power in newsrooms and organizations. The professional development program provides customized training courses, resources and 1:1 mentorship by industry professionals, to fellows who have represented a wide spectrum of racial, gender and geographic backgrounds. Maynard 200 has been supported by Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Google News Initiative and The Hearthland Foundation.

Questions?

For more information about the Maynard 200 Fellowship, please reach out to:
Maynard 200 Director, Odette Alcazaren-Keeley at okeeley@mije.org.