WORKSHOP LEADERS & FACULTY
Editing/Coaching
Jacqui Banaszynski is the Knight Chair in Editing at the Missouri School of Journalism and the Editing Fellow at The Poynter Institute. She worked as a reporter and editor for more than 30 years, most recently as Associate Managing Editor of The Seattle Times. While at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, her series "AIDS in the Heartland" won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. She was a finalist for the 1986 Pulitzer in international reporting for coverage of the Ethiopian famine and won the APSE's top deadline reporting award for coverage of the 1988 Olympics. She has edited several award-winning projects, including winners of ASNE Best Writing, Ernie Pyle Human Interest Writing and national business and investigative prizes. She teaches journalism in newsrooms and at workshops around the world.
Aly Colón is the Poynter Institute's Reporting, Writing & Editing Group Leader and Director of Diversity Programs. He shows journalists how to find the untold stories, teaches ethical decision-making, how to connect with under-covered communities. He presents regularly at the National Writers Workshop. Aly edits the Poynter Report. He consults with news organizations on diversity, ethics, writing and leadership. Prior to Poynter, he worked at The Seattle Times as Diversity reporter and coach. He also was a Seattle Times assistant metro editor for urban affairs, health care, ethics & values, religion, and social issues. He worked at The Herald in Everett, Wash. as an executive editor over both business and features and at The Oakland Press in Pontiac, Mich.
Jack Hart is managing editor and writing coach for The Oregonian. He edited Tom Hallman Jr.'s series, "The Boy Behind the Mask," which won the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing in 2001. Hart has edited several other series that were finalists for the prize. He has served as an associate professor and acting dean of the journalism school at the University of Oregon. Hart is author of "The Information Empire," a history of the Los Angeles Times. He has written extensively on training for journalism publications.
Barbara King Lord is the former training director for the Associated Press, where she is responsible for developing and implementing training programs for editors and writers across the AP. Prior to joining the AP in 1991, she was associate director of training for Ottaway Newspapers, the community newspapers division of Dow Jones and Company. She began her career in journalism at the Cape Cod Times in Hyannis, Mass.
Michael Roberts is Deputy Managing Editor Staff Development at The Arizona Republic. He is responsible for all newsroom training, serves as writing coach, edits major projects, and provides training at Gannett newspapers around the country. Since 2006, Roberts has been part of the leadership team transforming the Republic into one of Gannett's new Information Centers. In spring 2007, the conversion included over 100 training sessions on 12 required programs across the entire organization. In addition to working with newsrooms, Roberts helped create and launch NewsTrain, designed and taught API's first online seminar for copy editors, and is a regular speaker at National Writers Workshops, the Freedom Forum and regional AP and SPJ workshops. Before coming to the Republic in 2003, Roberts was Features Editor, AME/Features-Business, and then for 10 years the Training Editor/Writing Coach a t The Cincinnati Enquirer. He also worked as a writer and edit or at the Midland (Michigan) Daily News, the Detroit Free Press, and as a senior editor at two magazines. He taught feature writing at the University of Cincinnati and speaks regularly at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, Arizona State University. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and holds a master's in training and human resource development from Xavier University.
Chip Scanlan is Senior Faculty in the Reporting, Writing and Editing group at the Poynter Institute and directs the National Writing Workshops. He produces a writing advice column called Chip on Your Shoulder for Poynter Online. Chip joined the Poynter faculty in 1994 from Knight Ridder's Washington bureau, where he was a national correspondent. He formerly reported for the Providence Journal and the St. Petersburg Times. He edited the annual "Best Newspaper Writing" series from 1994-2000 and is author of "Reporting and Writing: Basics for the 21st Century."
Dick Weiss is an award-winning writer and editor with 30 years of journalism experience. He is the proprietor of WeissWrite, a coaching business, available at www.weisswrite.com. He is a former metro editor and writing coach at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and frequent speaker at API. He currently is touring as a speaker for the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism.
Keith Woods is dean of the faculty at the Poynter Institute, St. Petersburg, Fla., where he teaches writing, reporting, editing, column-writing, coverage of race relations, ethics and diversity. He is a former reporter, city editor, editorial writer and columnist at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, La.
Management/Leadership:
Jill Geisler heads Poynter's Leadership Group. She joined the Institute in 1998 after a 25-year career at WITI-TV in Milwaukee. She reported, produced and anchored and in 1978 was named the station's News Director. Jill was the first woman in this country to head a major market network affiliate. Jill's newsroom consistently enjoyed recognition for solid journalism, including national Murrow and SPJ honors.
Kristin Gilger is assistant dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University. She previously directed ASU's student newspaper, television station and web site. Before coming to ASU in 2002, Gilger was deputy managing editor for news at the Arizona Republic. Earlier, she was managing editor of The Statesman-Journal in Salem, Ore., and served in a number of editing positions at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. She also worked at newspapers in South Carolina and Minnesota. Gilger holds bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism and mass communications from the University of Nebraska.
Edward Miller is managing director of The Newsroom Leadership Group, a coaching and consulting consortium based in Marietta, Ga., and an affiliate of The Poynter Institute. He writes "Reflections on Leadership," a weekly e-mail essay on newsroom management that is sent to more than 9,500 newspaper editors around the world. He produces leadership-development workshops in cooperation with regional newspapers around the country. He is the former editor and publisher of The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., and former officer of APME and former director of ASNE.
Butch Ward is a Distinguished Fellow at The Poynter. Born in Baltimore, Ward received a B.A. in English from the University of Notre Dame before returning home to the rewrite desk of The News American. During eight years there, he also worked as News Editor, Metropolitan Editor and Managing Editor. In 1982, Ward joined The Philadelphia Inquirer and rose through the editing ranks to become Managing Editor. In 2001, he left the newspaper and became spokesperson for Independence Blue Cross in Philadelphia. He joined the Poynter faculty in January 2005, and teaches leadership, editing and other subjects. Ward has conducted training sessions and chaired panel discussions for a variety of journalism organizations, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Freedom Forum and the National Association of Black Journalists.
Online
Rusty Coats is general manager of TBO.com/Tampa Bay Online, the focal point of convergence efforts for The Tampa Tribune and WFLA-News Channel 8. Previously, he was director of new media for MORI Research, where he won the NAA's Online Innovator Award, which recognizes an individual whose visionary thinking and commitment to developing interactive strategies inspire others. Prior to joining MORI, he was online editor of startribune.com in Minneapolis, where he was responsible for news operations and integration with the Star Tribune's print newsroom. He also was online content manager for The Sacramento Bee's sacbee.com and previously oversaw the creation of modbee.com for The Modesto Bee, in 1996. Before that, he was a reporter for a number of newspapers, from Maine to Miami.
Randy Covington is director of the IFRA Newsplex at the University of South Carolina, a newsroom of the future jointly operated by the University and IFRA, the international press consortium. Covington is an assistant professor in the USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications, where he teaches classes in new media as well as ethics. For IFRA, he serves as a professional trainer and consultant, working with media houses around the world. Covington worked in local television news in the U.S. for 27 years, serving in management positions with television stations in Houston, Louisville, Boston, Philadelphia and Columbia, S.C. His honors include a du-Pont Columbia Citation, an Ohio State Award and four Emmys. In 1997, RTNDA/Carolinas recognized him as its news director of the year. Covington started his career in print and with newspapers in his home state of Indiana. He also has worked as a news writer for the Associated Press and in radio.
Ken Sands, online publisher at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., has been a reporter, assistant city editor, bureau chief, interactive editor and managing editor since he began at the paper in 1981. His innovative work in civic journalism and interactivity has been recognized with the Batten Award for Excellence in Civic Journalism (1998) and the APME's Convergence Award honorable mention (2002). He is a consultant with the APME's National Credibility Roundtables project, and in that capacity has tutored 75 newsrooms across the country on how to use e-mail to better interact with readers. He has led the newspaper industry in experimentation with blogging and frequently consults with newspapers and media organizations on issues related to blogging.
Faculty
Journalists who have taught major segments at NewsTrain
Bill Blundell is a former editor and national correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and author of "The Art and Craft of Feature Writing." Blundell was the key editor of the Journal's Page One enterprise stories.
Bobbi Bowman is the Diversity Director for the American Society of Newspaper Editors. She began her career at The Washington Post as a suburban reporter and moved up to assistant city editor. She then moved to the Detroit Free Press as deputy city editor and later joined USA TODAY covering state and local politics. In 1990, Bowman became a recruiter for Gannett. She helped the group's more than 80 newspapers find candidates to fill positions from interns to top editors. She also ran the largest newspaper college recruiting program in the country. In November 1994 Bowman became the managing editor of the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, NY where she worked with the editor and the staff to improve the content, depth and look of the paper. March 1, 1999 Bowman became Diversity Director of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. At ASNE, she works with editors across the USA to try and help increase the number of women and minorities in our newsrooms.
Gina Boysun is an online producer for the award-winning SpokesmanReview.com. She has been in that position since 1997, helping bring the site from its repurposed infancy to its current position as an innovative and respected online news source fed by all departments of the newsroom. Her role includes content and multimedia production, tool building and programming. Before joining the web team, she was a copy editor and page designer at the Spokesman-Review for five years. A Great Falls native, Boysun got her bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Montana.
Jeff Cowart is president of MediaNational Consulting. As a working journalist for 16 years, Jeff's experience includes positions of executive editor, managing editor, city editor, and investigative and political reporter for newspapers in Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina. He is the former director of the Extended Learning Center for the American Press Institute. He has created and conducted special leadership, organizational and journalism skills programs and projects for a wide variety of clients, including The Washington Post, the Tribune Company, Gannett, New York Times Regional Newspaper Group, Scripps Howard, the Belo Corporation, Home and Garden Television, and many individual news media companies. For the last four years he has created and managed learning programs for journalists for FACS and is director of that organization's Journalism, Religion & Public Life Project, a partnership with the Religion Newswriters Association. He regularly conducts workshops for journalism organizations such as APME and ASNE, and serves on the Craft and Leadership committees of ASNE.
Walter Dean is a senior associate at the Project for Excellence in Journalism, director of broadcast training for the Committee of Concerned Journalists, and a consultant to NewsLab. He was a staff producer and news assignment manager at the Washington Bureau of CBS News for 14 years. After leaving CBS News in 1998, he served two years as associate director of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism where he produced "A Journalist's Toolbox," a series of training videos now being used in more than 2,000 newsrooms and classrooms across the country. More recently, he created the broadcast version of CCJ's Traveling Curriculum and, as part of a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Knight Foundation, is coordinating its teaching in broadcast newsrooms. He has taught broadcast news writing at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Creighton University.
David Donald, the training director for Investigative Reporters and Editors and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, coordinates and conducts workshops on investigative reporting and computer-assisted reporting for print and broadcast journalists. An award-winning journalist, Donald oversaw the CAR and research programs at the Savannah Morning News after stints on the education beat and the projects team. He was a lead organizer of IRE's regional conference in Savannah in 2002 and has spoken on panels at IRE and NICAR's annual conferences. Donald has taught at the high school and college.
Dr. Lillian R Dunlap, partner and media consultant with Strategic Insights, Inc. is well known for her innovative approaches to teaching management and diversity to journalists around the world. She is a former resident faculty and frequent visiting faculty at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in Florida and a former professor of broadcast news at the Missouri School of Journalism. During her nearly 25 years in the industry, Dunlap served as the national seminar leader for RTNDF's News Management Seminars for Journalists of Color and Women. Her consulting clients include newspapers, broadcast stations, university journalism programs, and several professional media organizations. She has conducted seminars at the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in South Africa, and is currently consulting the University of Central Lancashire's Journalism Leaders Programme in Preston, U.K.
Kenn Finkel, has led sessions for the American Press Institute, Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Knight Ridder Newspapers, Gannett Newspapers, Cox Newspapers, Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, New England Newspaper Association, New York Times Regional Newspaper Group, National Writers Workshop and the Associated Press. He has served as a writing/editing consultant to a number of national and state newspaper groups and more than 40 newspapers. Before going into newspaper consulting full time, Finkel worked for 33 years as a reporter, editor, supervisor and trainer for the Miami Herald, New York Times, Newsday, Dallas Times Herald and Miami News.
Brant Houston, is executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc., and a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He also is author of Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical Guide and co-author of the fourth edition of The Investigative Reporter's Handbook. Before becoming executive director, he was managing director of The National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting (NICAR) and before that, a daily journalist for 17 years. He worked at The Hartford Courant, The Kansas City Star, and several news organizations in the Boston area. His experience included stints on the investigative and projects desks at the Courant and the Star and different beats, including city hall, courts, health, politics, and general assignment.
Jennifer LaFleur, is the computer-assisted reporting editor for The Dallas Morning News. She went to Dallas in 2003 following a one-year media law fellowship with The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. She has directed computer-assisted reporting efforts at the San Jose Mercury News and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and was the first national training director for Investigative Reporters and Editors. She has won awards for reporting on public records and disability issues.
Wanda Lloyd is executive editor of the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser. Lloyd joined the Advertiser in 2004 after four years as the founding executive director of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University. The Diversity Institute offers journalism training to people of color who are interested in a mid-career shift into journalism. Previously, Lloyd was managing editor of the Greenville (SC) News, and senior editor, deputy managing editor and managing editor at USA TODAY. She also worked as an editor at the Washington Post, the Providence Evening Bulletin, the Miami Herald, and the Atlanta Journal. She is a founder and former president of the National Association of Minority Media Executives. Lloyd earned a bachelor's degree from Spelman College and she holds an honorary doctorate of laws from Briarwood College in Southington, Conn.
Kate Long has worked as a newsroom writing coach in the United States and Canada for 20 years. A practical, on-the-ground coach, she delivers solid, newsroom-tested material editors can take back and use immediately. Based at The Charleston Gazette in her home state, she has presented workshops and seminars for dozens of papers and organizations including the Poynter Institute, API, APME, the Freedom Forum, the Canadian Newspaper Association, AASFE, and the Canadian Association of Journalists. She is also a national award-winning radio producer, songwriter, and freelance writer.
Johnnie Miles is president and owner of JH Miles and Associates, a management consulting and training company in Fairfax, VA. Miles is a Licensed Professional Counselor, a certified mediator and Myers Briggs trainer. With a strong interest in global issues, Miles has taught courses in Chile, and conducted workshops in the Philippines and the Bahamas. She recently collaborated in the delivery of Caring Competencies and Education Equity training to leaders in the Department of Defense Schools in Europe and Asia. In addition, Miles has conducted leadership training for U.S. AID Missions in Kenya and Tanzania and with Foreign Service members in Malta, Lisbon and Washington, DC. Miles is a researcher and author, including The Educator's Sourcebook of African American Heritage and Almanac of African American Heritage. She holds a bachelor's degree from Rust College, a M.Ed. degree from Tuskegee University, and a doctorate in education from Auburn University.
Marcia Z. Nelson's articles about religion and spirituality have appeared in various newspapers and magazines. She also reviews books, teaches journalism and is training coordinator for the Religion Newswriters Association. She is the author of three books, most recently "The Gospel According to Oprah." She has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a master's degree in English from the University of Chicago.
Ron Nixon, is a computer-assisted reporting editor for The Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune, assigned to The Star Tribune's projects team where he works mainly on investigative projects. At The Star Tribune, he has co-written a series of articles on predatory payday lending in Minnesota as well as a series on how millions of dollars in federal antiterrorism grants spent in Minnesota were spent on items that had little to do with preventing a terrorist attack. Before joining The Star Tribune in 2003, he worked as training director for Investigative Reporters and Editors, where he trained hundreds of reporters around the world in computer-assisted reporting and investigative reporting techniques. Nixon was also an investigative reporter at the Roanoke Times, where his work documented the state of Virginia's attempt to withhold crucial environmental data from the public and problems with the federal black lung program, which led to changes in the law.
Carol Nunnelley, is the APME projects director. She also directs the National Credibility Roundtables, which work with local newsrooms to communicate with the public on important journalistic issues and apply other media credibility findings. Nunnelley was the managing editor of The Birmingham (Ala.) News and co-chaired the Alabama Center for Open Government.
Ryan Pitts is online director for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., responsible for the development and production of news and entertainment content on the award-winning sites spokesmanreview.com and spokane7.com. He came to the Spokesman as a copy editor in 1997, after working as a designer, editor and writer for The Idaho Press-Tribune in Nampa, Idaho. Ryan graduated with an English literature degree in 1995 from a small liberal arts college in Idaho.
Stephen Rice is president of PerforMAX, a training and development company. He has more than 26 years of experience in professional training and consulting. Steve formerly was vice president/human resources at New Jersey Press Inc., a company with newspaper, television and radio properties. He has taught seminars for journalists at the American Press Institute and for the Newspaper Association of America and several state press associations.
Rosalie Stemer coaches reporters and editors across the country and leads writing and editing workshops for local and national journalism organizations. She has taught editing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and at the Graduate Department of Communication at Stanford University. Stemer spent a year at Stanford University as a journalism fellow. Her newspaper experience includes editing and reporting at the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, Chicago Daily News and Kansas City Times.
Jim Stasiowski has been an independent writing coach since 1989. He started his newspaper career in 1976 as the night photographer for The Breeze, a 5,000-circulation daily in Cape Coral, Fla. In seven years at The Breeze, he was county reporter, city reporter, columnist, editorial writer, city editor, sports editor and writing coach. At The Columbian, a 50,000-circulation daily in Vancouver, Wash., he was a general-assignment reporter with a specialty in politics and also wrote a twice-weekly humor column. He has coached reporters at newspapers and magazines in dozens of states. He has been a discussion leader at the American Press Institute, Reston, Va., and has done seminars for the Inland Press Association and at the Wilmington Writers Workshop. Each year, he speaks to groups of writers and editors at journalism conferences around the country. He writes a monthly coaching column that appears in more than two dozen newspaper-association publications.
Carl Sessions Stepp is a professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland. He also provides training for writers and editors at newspapers around the country, at Poynter and API, and is senior editor at American Journalism Review. He was national editor at USA Today when the paper was created, and previously worked at the Charlotte Observer for many years. He is the author of "Writing as Craft and Magic."
John Sweeney, is co-editor of "The Journalist's Craft: A Guide to Writing Better Stories." He is the editor of the editorial page for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. He is a co-founder and current director of the Wilmington Writers' Workshop, forerunner of the National Writers' Workshops. Sweeney is a past president of the Organization of NewsOmbudsmen. He is chairman of the judges for the National Headliners Awards. He has been a reporter, columnist, copy editor, news editor, editorial writer, and city editor.
Linda Wallace is a veteran journalist who has worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, the Dallas Times-Herald and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Ms. Wallace launched Linda S. Wallace Communications, a Philadelphia, Pa.-based cross-cultural training and communications company in 1996. The company assists non-profits and businesses with training and the development of culturally appropriate messages and strategies. Ms. Wallace also has written diversity and cultural competency columns for the Christian Science Monitor, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Portland Oregonian, DiversityInc.com, and the Columbia Journalism Review. In her articles, she often takes aim at "so-called diversity advocates" who seek conformity rather than inclusiveness. Her weekly advice column, The Cultural Coach, offers communication techniques and tools for managing differences.