Amber is co-editor in chief of The Emancipator and was a 2021 Nieman fellow at Harvard University. She formerly served as managing editor of BET.com, leading editorial and digital video strategy; executive producer of Teen Vogue and Them; and, in 2015, launched NBCBLK, a section of NBCNews.com that elevates Black identity, social issues, and culture. Amber started her career at NBC Nightly News producing breaking news and feature stories.

Ashton is editor-in-chief of Prism and was a Maynard 200 fellow in 2021, and was editor of the Harvard Law Review during law school. Her work on the intersection of race, culture, and law has been published by The Washington Post, Slate magazine, CNN, and others. She is the author of forthcoming debut novel THE FREE CITY (Ballantine Books), a work of historical fiction centered on Black women and abolition in nineteenth century Philadelphia.

Vanessa is an award-winning photographer, filmmaker, lecturer, curator and media safety trainer whose photos have been commissioned by NY Times, Gucci, Vogue, Rolling Stone, New Yorker, Oprah, Atlantic, Apple Guardian, NY Magazine, Artnet News, The Washington Post. She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Multimedia at University of Mississippi and the recipient of the IWMF’s Courage in Journalism Award for 2021. She is an Emerson Collective Fellow.

Camille is a features editor at Wired. She was previously an editor at The Believer, The Columbia Journalism Review, and Harper's Magazine.

Chris is a senior editor for culture at The Atlantic. Previously he was a feature writer and editor at Engadget; he has also worked at the Columbia Journalism Review, Reuters, and the South China Morning Post.

Kevin is a features editor at The Verge, where he has published Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award finalists. He is also the author of New Waves, one of the best books of 2020 according to NPR. He lives in Brooklyn.

Stephanie Griffith is an opinion editor with CNN Digital, editing a wide range of commentary pieces, with a particular focus on community voices and personal narrative pieces. Over a decades-long career, she has worked in radio and print journalism in Europe, Mexico and the United States and has covered electoral politics and politics on Capitol Hill as well as a range of other issues over the course of her career including eduction, police, immigrant issues, cultural and social affairs.

Lynell George is an award-winning Los Angeles-based journalist, essayist and author. Her work explores social issues and human behavior, as well as urban histories, visual art, music and literature. Her liner notes for "Otis Redding Live At The Whisky A Go Go: The Complete Recordings" won a GRAMMY in 2017. She is the author of No Crystal Stair: African Americans in the City of Angels, After/Image: Los Angeles Outside the Frame. Her most recent book, A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler was a 2021 Hugo Award Finalist.

Stephanie Foo is the author of What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma. She has written for Vox, The New York Times and The Atlantic. She worked as a radio producer for This American Life and Snap Judgment, and her stories aired on Reply All, 99% Invisible, Radiolab. A noted speaker and instructor, she has taught at Columbia University and has spoken at venues from Sundance Film Festival to the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

Adrienne Johnson Martin is the first executive editor for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. She is the former managing editor of Duke Magazine, Duke University’s alumni publication. Martin spent five years as a copy editor and writer at the Los Angeles Times, where she was part of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning team for spot news for coverage of the Northridge earthquake.

Erika’s work appears in the NY Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic, Marie Claire, MIT Technology Review, Slate, The New Republic, Guardian, Time, Glamour, Foreign Policy, and others. Fellowships include Knight-Wallace and Alicia Patterson. A former national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, she is a professor at the University of California, Irvine’s Literary Journalism Program. Erika is the author of THE DEATH CLASS and SOMEWHERE SISTERS.

John Palfrey is President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of the nation’s largest philanthropies with assets of approximately $7 billion. Palfrey is a well-respected educator, author, legal scholar, and innovator with expertise in how new media is changing learning, education, and other institutions. Palfrey has extensive experience in social change spanning the education, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors.

Justin Madden has been the deputy west coast news editor for The Guardian since 2022. He's born and raised in South-Central Los Angeles and graduated from Grambling State University. Justin has spent a decade in journalism as a multi-media cops and courts reporter and editor in Kentucky, Ohio, Chicago, New York and South Carolina. He enjoys hot yoga, reading and using long walks for mental clarity.

Zaydee is a Mexican-American visual storyteller, documentary photographer, and writer. Her work is rooted in addressing the complexities of migration. Zaydee is an International Women's Media Foundation grantee and fellowships include USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism and EHRP.

Daniel Varghese has served as the Gear and Gadgets editor off Off Duty, the weekend lifestyle section of The Wall Street Journal, since last February. He previously worked at New York Magazine, GQ and Wirecutter. If you play Chess or Magic: The Gathering, please let him know.

Doug is the Founder and Director of Next Generation Radio, a 23-year-old audio-focused digital media program from NPR. It is a five-day "sprint" where 5-6 students, recent graduates, and early career professionals report a non-narrated audio and full multimedia package. Next Gen has over 400 alumni, of which 80% are women and 64% are women of color.

Tracie Powell is a leader in philanthropic efforts to increase racial equity and diversity in news media. She is the founder of The Pivot Fund, which seeks to support independent BIPOC community news. Powell is a Fall 2021 Shorenstein Center Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. She is also the board chair of LION Publishers, a professional journalism association for independent news publishers where she has served on the board since 2017.

Ly Tran graduated from Columbia University with a degree in creative writing and linguistics. She has received fellowships from MacDowell, Art Omi, Yaddo, and Millay Arts. House of Sticks is her first book.

Gabrielle (they/them) is a freelance writer and editor from Southern California. They care about queer and trans stories and are currently the managing editor for TransLash News and Narrative. Gabrielle is an aspiring music connoisseur, audio storyteller, and nature lover.

Sushma is the author of How to Feel: The Science and Meaning of Touch. She is a science and health journalist whose writing has appeared in Slate, The Atlantic, Elle, Scientific American, Discover and many others. She is also an associate professor of journalism at the University of Mary Washington.

John, a staff writer at Arizona Luminaria, is an investigative journalist and translator based in Tucson. His first book, “The Dispossessed,” was published in 2020 by Verso Books. Twitter: @jbwashing.

Kay is a lawyer who represents writers, documentarians, and nonprofit organizations. She was General Counsel at the Author Guild and In-house counsel at two media companies before going into private practice.

Lila Hassan is an award-winning investigative journalist who covers extremism, immigration, and human rights for print, documentary, and television. Currently, Hassan is a grant recipient of The Fund for Investigative Journalism and an Ida B. Wells Fellowship at Type Investigations, working on an investigation with Reveal that is coming out in the spring. Her work has been published in The New York Times, ProPublica, The Guardian, FRONTLINE PBS, HuffPost National, Reuters, Kaiser Health News, and more.

Lygia is an award-winning narrative journalist who has reported in audio and print for Business Insider, Marketplace, The World, Latino USA, the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Utne Reader, the Christian Science Monitor, AP and Afar. Lygia covers Latine/o/a/x stories, health, environment, immigration, trauma, politics and the arts, 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Fellowships include JAWS, Middlebury, Columbia’s Hechinger Institute, the RIAS Berlin Commission and the American Council on Germany. Lygia is queer, neurodivergent and disabled.

Rhana Natour is an award-winning journalist, documentary filmmaker, producer, and host. Her work has been featured in PBS NewsHour, ABC News, and VICE. Formerly a reporter/producer for PBS NewsHour, Rhana's documentary work includes the feature film "Speed Sisters" and the forthcoming "Man on the Run." She has received fellowships from the Association for Independents in Radio (AIR), Hollings Center for International Dialogue, and a Fulbright from the U.S State Department.

Jessica is an international storyteller who writes, edits, and creates content for Afar, Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, Business Insider, and more. She blogs at She Dreams of Travel and co-teaches pitching and travel writing classes for Write Like A Honey Badger, a woman-owned academy.

Dave is a Pulitzer-Prize winning local journalist who directs a unique fellowship at Marquette University that picks independent or staff journalists’ dream projects for nine-months of support including a $75,000 stipend, student researchers and additional resources. The O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism picks 3-4 projects a year from proposals submitted in January. Recent stories have examined maternal health care, anti-racism training for teachers, inequities in reading education, voting rights and disparities in lending. Dave was an O’Brien fellow himself as a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter. He also teaches investigative reporting at Marquette.

Aria Velasquez is a freelance multi-hyphenate currently based in Atlanta, GA. Her current focus is newsletters, but she has also done work in audio production and local reporting. When she's not at her desk, you can probably find her knitting on her sofa and watching a Real Housewives rerun.

Sa’iyda is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles with her son, partner and too many pets (3). She writes about the intersections of parenting, race, sexuality, gender and socioeconomic status as well as lifestyle and pop culture. A former writer and editor at Scary Mommy, bylines include The New York Times and Washington Post.

Jamila is a journalist and radio talk show host based in Washington, D.C., whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and NPR. She is currently a Special Projects Editor at Paramount and the Digital Manager with the Washington Informer.

Meena is an editorial Swiss army knife embracing media entrepreneurship. She’s a freelance writer covering travel and business for publications including Travel+Leisure and Fortune and an audience development consultant specializing in helping publishers build high value audiences.

Sandhya Dirks is a national correspondent at NPR, covering race and identity. She was the host of the podcast American Suburb, and a producer and reporter on the podcast On Our Watch. She believes all stories are stories about power.

Katherine is a science journalist and author based in the Washington, D.C. area who writes about education, equity, mental health, parenting, and social justice for publications including The Atlantic, The New York Times, Parents and The Washington Post. Her 2018 book The Good News About Bad Behavior grew out of Mother Jones’ most-read article.

As the Director of Programs for the International Women’s Media Foundation, Juanita oversees global fellowships, grant-making, safety training, and emergency funds. facilitates the work of the Coalition Against Online Violence, a collaboration seeking better solutions for journalists facing digital attacks. She has led the implementation of programs totaling over $9 million.

Mónica Ortiz Uribe is an independent reporter based in her hometown of El Paso, Texas. She specializes in writing about the U.S./Mexico border and the American southwest. She last worked for the El Paso Times, writing about racial disparities and economic inequality. Mónica co-hosted the podcast, Forgotten: The Women of Juárez.

Ellen is an independent journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Wirecutter, The Atlantic, Real Simple and the San Francisco Chronicle. She serves as the co-director of the Asian American Journalists Association Freelance Affinity Group and co-director of the AAJA Media Institute.

Sylvia A. Harvey, also known as SAH, is an award-winning journalist, speaker, and author of The Shadow System: Mass Incarceration and the American Family. SAH's work on race, class, policy, and incarceration has appeared in The Nation, Elle, Politico, Vox, The Marshall Project, Colorlines, and more. SAH’s work is being used in university coursework and has been cited by federal lawmakers calling for criminal justice reform.

Stephanie Kuo is the Director of Training at PRX, overseeing all training, accelerator programs and consultancies for podcasters and organizations around the U.S. and the world. Stephanie manages a team of project managers and podcast design strategists to support audio creators in refining podcast ideas, identifying and growing their target audience, and developing unique plans for sustainability and success.

Adam Perez is an award-winning freelance filmmaker, photographer, based in Los Angeles, CA. His work centers on intimate stories that expose the nuances of race, gender, identity, and culture. He's currently an Emerson Fellow working on a photo and video project about how the pandemic has devastated marginalized communities in Calfornia's Central Valley, which produces one-fourth of the country's food.

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Sonali Kohli (she/her) is a Senior Recruiter at URL Media, where she works with newsrooms and media-adjacent companies to find fantastic candidates and treat them well. She spent her career as a reporter and editor in newspapers and digital startups, including Quartz, the Los Angeles Times and CalMatters. She was named the country's top education reporter by the Education Writers Association in 2020. Her book on teen activism will be published by Beacon Press in 2024.

Rekha Murthy is a podcast strategist who believes that podcasting is at its best when it includes a wide range of voices and lived experiences. She works with clients of all sizes - from Spotify, Crooked Media, KEXP, and BirdNote to independent creators, influencers, and journalists. Rekha is a founding team member and lead curriculum designer of Spotify's Sound Up program for new creators, and served as Founding Governor of The Podcast Academy, home of The Ambies.

Valeria is a Phoenix-based investigative journalist and managing editor of palabra., created by NAHJ to support freelancers. She has produced documentaries for Discovery Spanish, CNN Español, and PBS. In 2018, she won the American Mosaic Journalism Prize for her freelance coverage of underrepresented communities. As a 2021 Nieman Visiting Fellow, Valeria created Comadres al Aire, a Spanish podcast on health.

Jaeah is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and a 2021-2022 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow. She has written for California Sunday, 1843 Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, Topic Stories, Vice News, and Mother Jones. She is a recipient of the American Mosaic Journalism Prize for excellence in longform, narrative reporting on underrepresented groups in America.

Felecia D. Henderson is Director of Cultural Competency at the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. She trains news organizations on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging via Maynard’s signature Fault Lines® framework.