News that Serves

Speakers

• Rachel White

  Moderator

  President, Guardian.org Foundation

  Rachel White is president of theguardian.org and executive vice president, philanthropic and strategic partnerships at Guardian News and Media. Working across global editorial teams she develops, funds, and executes editorial project that drive measurable impact. Prior to joining the Guardian, she served as executive vice president and interim president of the Washington D.C.-based, journalism-centered think tank New America Foundation. Working across media, policy, government, the private sector, and philanthropy, she led the organization in advancing new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States, and launched New America NYC and New America Live. From 1995 to 2005, Rachel worked for the World Wildlife Fund where she launched programs in San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Houston, and served as lead on the Living Planet Campaign.

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• Oluseun Onigbinde

  Speaker

  Founder and Director, BudgIT

  Oluseun Onigbinde is the co-founder and Director of BudgIT, Nigeria’s civic organization. Oluseun Onigbinde is a recipient of the Ashoka Fellowship, Future Africa Awards, Quartz Africa 30 Innovators Award, Aspen New Voices Fellowship, Melvin Jones Fellowship and Stanford Draper Hill Summer Fellowship. As a Knight Innovation Fellow, he also worked with the International Center for Journalists/Gates Foundation on rethinking health journalism in Nigeria. Oluseun has worked on several projects funded by MacArthur Foundation, Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, OXFAM and Omidyar Network. Oluseun Onigbinde concluded an Obama Foundation Scholar at Columbia University. He is a pioneer visitor to the United Kingdom for the British Government’s International Leaders Programme (ILP). He is a graduate of Engineering at University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. He had Executive Education at Stanford University Graduate School of Business on Social Entrepreneurship.

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• Cristi Hegranes

  Speaker

  CEO & Publisher, Global Press Institute

  Cristi Hegranes is the CEO of Global Press and the Publisher of Global Press Journal. Cristi founded Global Press in 2006 to create a new form of ethical, accurate global news. Her values-driven approach to journalism prioritizes dignity, diversity and transparency. In her role as CEO and Publisher, Cristi leads the business side of the organization, which is committed to keeping editorial processes 100 percent independent. Cristi is an expert in local journalist security. She created the industry-leading Global Press Duty of Care program to provide for the physical, emotional, digital and legal security of its journalists. The program establishes best practice for care of local journalists in challenging markets. Previously, she had a successful career as a journalist for Village Voice Media in New York and San Francisco. She has a Master’s degree in journalism from New York University and a Bachelor’s degree from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Cristi served as a fellow-in-residence at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida and has taught courses in entrepreneurship and journalism at San Francisco State University and California State University. Cristi was the Social Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University in 2017.

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• Alvin Starks

  Speaker

  Senior Program Officer, Equality Fund, Open Society Foundations

  Alvin Starks is an innovative thinker and strategist and serves as senior program officer at the Open Society Foundations managing grantmaking related activities in racial justice advocacy, narrative change, arts and culture and individual fellowships. His program coordinates strategies and opportunities within the United States and throughout the OSF global network addressing issues of racial justice and ethnic discrimination issues. Alvin brings an extensive experience in social justice philanthropy weaving together complex issues of civil rights, gender justice, and the arts. For more than a decade, his work has supported approaches that address issues of structural racism, civic engagement and narrative change. His work has focused within the United States and abroad, using multiple tools, including social science research, civil and human rights advocacy, next generation leadership, intersectionality, and cross movement-building. Alvin began his philanthropic career at the Echoing Green Foundation supporting to individuals starting new human rights projects across the globe. He joined OSF in 2000, directing the New York City Community Fellowships and Initiatives programs, which focused on organizing, legal reform, arts and culture, and policy. He established USP’s first racial justice initiative that addressed issues of structural inequities, discrimination and fostering civil rights advocacy. Following his first tenure at OSF, Alvin developed the Racial Justice and Gender Identity program at the Arcus Foundation and served as program officer for racial equity at the WK Kellogg Foundation. Most recently he was director of strategic initiatives at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, which received a National Medal from the White House during his tenure. He sits on several non-profit boards and has received numerous awards and fellowships for his leadership in philanthropy and racial justice.

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• Laura Flanders

  Speaker

  Author, Writer, Founder & Host GRITtv, The Laura Flanders Show

  Journalist, author and media entrepreneur, Laura Flanders is the host of the Laura Flanders Show, "Where the people who say it can’t be done take a back seat to the people who are doing it.” Online, on TV and on radio, The Laura Flanders Show features real stories of shifting power from the few to the many. The Laura Flanders Show is a nationally syndicated co-production of New York's CUNY TV. Flanders is also a best-selling author of six books including BUSHWOMEN: Tales of a Cynical Species, and Blue GRIT: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians. She is a contributing writer for the Nation Magazine as well as the Media Fellow at the Next System Project, where her most recent paper is "Next System Media, An Urgent Necessity." You can find the LF Show week on KCET/LINKtv and public cable and satellite stations across the US. It’s also available as a free podcast. Follow @GRITlaura or visit LauraFlanders.com.

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• Pat Mitchell

  Moderator

  Co-Founder/Editorial Director TEDWomen; Managing Partner, Connected Women Leaders, Pat Mitchell Media

  Pat Mitchell is a trailblazer in media and an advocate for women’s equality, breaking barriers as a journalist, Emmy-winning producer, pioneering executive, and activist leader. Her lifelong commitment to amplifying women’s stories and advancing representation has shaped the media industry and continues through a global coalition of leaders solving critical issues. As co-founder of Project Dandelion, she champions women-led climate justice, leveraging leadership for a more equitable and sustainable future. As editorial director, co-founder, and host of TEDWomen, Mitchell amplifies powerful, underrepresented voices. Her commitment to social justice includes board service with the Sundance Institute, Skoll Foundation, and Carter Center. She’s also the founding chair of the Women’s Media Center and a Congressional appointee to the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. In her memoir, Mitchell shares her journey as a fearless advocate, proving activism fuels purpose at any age.

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• Jeanne Bourgault

  Speaker

  President and CEO, Internews

  As President and CEO of Internews, Jeanne Bourgault leads the strategic management of the organization and its programs in more than 80 countries around the world. Bourgault has overseen Internews’ growth in areas underserved by local media, such as Afghanistan and South Sudan, and under her leadership Internews has led the growing sector of humanitarian information, expanded into US programs to meet unique domestic information gaps, developed strategies to address the growing challenges of digital information technology, and centered the information needs of women and girls throughout its programs. During her tenure, Internews has piloted and developed innovative programs including the Earth Journalism Network, United for News, and the Listening Post Collective. Prior to Internews, Bourgault worked internationally in countries undergoing dramatic shifts in media and political landscapes. She joined Internews in 2001 as Vice President for Programs after six years with the U.S. Agency for International Development, including three years at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and as a strategic advisor for media and community development programs in post-war Kosovo, Serbia, and Montenegro. Bourgault has consulted on international program design and evaluation for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Research Triangle Institute, and the United Nations Centre for Human Rights, among others. Bourgault speaks on issues of global news, women’s media leadership, information technology, and participatory community development worldwide, including venues such as the Skoll World Forum, the Global Philanthropy Forum, and the World Economic Forum in Davos. She serves on the Media, Entertainment, and Information Industries Steering Committee for the World Economic Forum, and the Steering Committee of the Global Forum for Media Development.

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• Edith Chapin

  Speaker

  Vice President and Executive Editor, National Public Radio

  Edith Chapin is the Vice President and Executive Editor of NPR News. In that role she resumes responsibility for the NPR newsroom, setting daily news priorities, and directing all of NPR's news-gathering teams. She has full authority to work across the newsroom to ensure that desks, shows and digital teams are rowing in the same direction on major stories and coverage, so that NPR can be consistent and collaborative in our approach to news on all of our platforms. From 2017-2019 she led NPR's efforts to build a collaborative journalism network with NPR Member stations. When Chapin was named Executive Editor in 2015 she was charged with overseeing all desks and reporters, and helping to set the agenda for the entire News division. Previously, Chapin was the senior supervising editor of NPR's International Desk. She managed a team of correspondents based outside the United States committed to bringing listeners dynamic stories of the world's people, politics, economy, and culture. Prior to joining NPR in 2012, Chapin spent 25 years at CNN and worked her way up from intern, to bureau chief to vice president. Most recently, Chapin was the Vice President and Deputy Bureau Chief of CNN's Washington, D.C. bureau, where her strategic editorial and management responsibility included oversight of the 2009 presidential transition coverage and daily coverage of the White House and Capitol Hill. Chapin contributed to Covering Catastrophe (Bonus Books, 2002), a book recounting the events of 9/11 in an oral history format. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations sits on the board of The Masters School. She holds a Bachelor of Science in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

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