Knight-Batten Advisory Board

Jim Brady

General Manager, TBD.com

After four years at washingtonpost.com and a stint advising Guardian News & Media, Jim Brady was hired to launch a new metro news site for Washington, D.C., run by the parent company of Politico.com.

He was previously the executive editor of washingtonpost.com, where he had also served served as sports editor and assistant managing editor for news from 1995 to 1999, and was on staff for the site’s official launch in June 1996. During his time in news, Brady helped coordinate the site’s coverage of the Clinton impeachment. After leaving washingtonpost.com in 1999, Brady spent more than four years at America Online, serving as Group Programming Director, News and Sports; Executive Director, Editorial Operations; and Vice President, Production & Operations. During his time at AOL, Brady was in charge of the service’s coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the 2000 presidential election. He later returned to washingtonpost.com as a consultant, focusing primarily on product development and strategy before being named the site’s executive editor in 2004.

Brady earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Print Journalism from The American University in 1989.

Jody Brannon

National Director, Carnegie-Knight News21, Arizona State University

Jody Brannon took the Senior Editor position at MSN.com in 2006 after six years at USATODAY.com. She is MSN.com’s first blogger with a home-page presence, writing on topics of her choice, from sports to news to pop culture. She is also the chief liaison with users.

As the executive producer of news for USATODAY.com, Brannon handled breaking news and coordinated prime-time programming. She was previously the executive producer at Washington Post.Newsweek Interactive where she oversaw projects and partnerships. For two years, Brannon served as managing editor for washingtonpost.com during which time the site was judged winner of the EPpy (Editor & Publisher’s awards honoring the best new media services from the newspaper industry) for best news section in a newspaper online service.

Brannon was editor of Sports Etc., a Seattle-based magazine, and has been a reporter, columnist and editor for The Seattle Times and The Tacoma News Tribune.

Brannon received her Doctor of Philosophy in Mass Communication, from the University of Maryland, Philip Merrill College of Journalism in 1999; her dissertation was entitled, “Maximizing the Medium: Assessing Impediments to Performing Multimedia Journalism at Three News Web Sites.” An adjunct at various Seattle-area universities before pursuing her doctorate, Brannon taught news writing classes to undergraduates while at the University and will teach the spring capstone course in American University’s weekend master’s program in digital journalism. Brannon’s other journalism degrees are from Seattle University (BA) and AU (MA).

Bill Buzenberg

Executive Director, Center for Public Integrity

Bill Buzenberg became Executive Director of the Center for Public Integrity in December 2006. He has been a journalist and news executive at newspapers and in public radio for more than 35 years. As Senior Vice President of News at American Public Media / Minnesota Public Radio, Buzenberg began Public Insight Journalism, an innovative use of technology to draw knowledge from the audience. The project won an Award of Distinction in the 2005 Batten Awards.

Buzenberg was at National Public Radio from 1978 to 1997, beginning as a reporter and working his way up to Vice President of News and Information.

He began his journalism career in newspapers, serving as city editor of the Colorado Springs Sun in the early ‘70s. Buzenberg was a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1968 to 1970. He has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award, public radio’s highest honor.

A graduate of Kansas State University, Buzenberg has also studied at the University of Michigan as part of its mid-career professional journalism fellowship program, in the M.A. program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy, and as a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Amy Eisman

Director of Writing Programs, School of Communication, American University

Amy Eisman oversees SOC’s basic writing classes and the weekend graduate journalism programs. She teaches reporting and writing for convergent media. Eisman was an editor with Gannett for 17 years, first as a cover story editor at USA TODAY and later as Executive Editor of USA WEEKEND. Eisman was also a managing editor at AOL and a Fulbright lecturer in Moscow.

Today she trains newsrooms on Web content and writing. She co-authored, with Larry Gillick, online training modules for Gannett about breaking news online, interactivity and database journalism. With Professor Wendell Cochran, she co-wrote a module about tools for citizen journalists for Knight Citizen News Network. She’s held workshops at the washingtonpost.com, Freedom Forum, the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague and Moscow.

She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s from American.

Gary Kebbel

Dean and Professor, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, College of Journalism and Mass Communications

Gary Kebbel, the former journalism program director for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, was recently appointed dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

As journalism program director for the Knight Foundation, Kebbel directed the $25 million Knight News Challenge, which funds digital news innovations. He has been director of AOL News, was founding editor of USAToday.com and Newsweek.com. He also directed AOL’s online election and government guides. He was a graphics editor at USA Today and managing editor for The Record in Troy, N.Y.; managing editor and assistant managing editor of the Post-Star in Glens Falls, N.Y.; and city editor of the Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal.

He has been adjunct instructor at Philip Merrill College of Journalism, College Park, Md.; Northern Illinois University; and Adirondack Community College. He has a bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University, master’s degrees in journalism and political science from University of Illinois, and an MSW from the Catholic University of America. He assisted the State and Defense departments by teaching public affairs officers the latest digital media and social networking techniques.

Matt Thompson

Editorial Product Manager, NPR

Matt Thompson is currently working with NPR to develop 12 topic-focused local news sites in conjunction with NPR member stations. He worked as the interim Online Community Manager for the Knight Foundation and did research context-centric news websites, which are quickly becoming the future of journalistic ventures. Before working at the Knight Foundation, he worked as the deputy Web editor for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and managed technology and interactive-related projects.

He also created EPIC 2014, a flash movie about journalism, set 10 years in the future. He graduated with honors in English from Harvard College in 2002.

Jose Antonio Vargas

Senior Contributing Editor, The Huffington Post

Jose Antonio Vargas is an award-winning multimedia journalist. He’s an editor at The Huffington Post and was previously a national political reporter for The Washington Post, where he covered technology culture, HIV/AIDS in Washington, D.C. and the 2008 presidential campaign, among other topics. He won a Pulitzer Prize as a part of a team that covered the 2007 massacre at Virgina Tech.

The media’s evolution—and the breaking down of barriers between print and broadcast journalism—has guided his nearly 12-year reporting career. He’s written for daily newspapers (Philadelphia Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle) and national magazines (New York and Rolling Stone). He’s also appeared on several television broadcasts, including CNN, MSNBC, and PBS NewsHour. He serves on the advisory board of the Knight Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism housed at American University in D.C. He’s a very proud graduate of Mountain View High School and San Francisco State University. He currently lives in New York City.

Amy Webb

CEO and Principal Consultant, Webbmedia Group

Amy is an author, speaker and future thinker, adapting current and emerging technologies for use in communications. She has spent more than 15 years working with digital media, founding several web-based companies and now advising various startups, journalism associations and media groups as well as Webbmedia’s clients all over the world.

Amy began her career as a reporter/ writer with Newsweek (Tokyo) and the Wall Street Journal (Hong Kong) where she covered emerging technology, media and cultural trends. She later contributed to the New York Times, NPR, Economist and many publications and broadcast shows. Her work has been recognized with awards/nominations from Webby, Editor & Publisher, Investigative Reporters & Editors, Society of Professional Journalists, W3 and IAVA. She has a M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and holds a B.A. in political economics from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. She also earned Nikyu Certification in the Japanese government-administered Language Proficiency Test and speaks fluently.

Amy serves on the Board of Directors for the Online News Association, is a Knight News Challenge judge, and serves on advisory boards for Knight-Batten, Temple University’s Journalism Program, and the International Center for Journalists. Amy is also a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and is a judge for the Emmy(r) awards. She has been on the adjunct journalism faculty at University of Maryland, Temple University, Tokyo University and University of the Arts. Amy is a featured speaker at conferences around the world and regularly appears on various broadcast shows.

Kinsey Wilson

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Digital Media, NPR

Kinsey Wilson has played a leadership role in digital media for more than a decade. As a senior news executive he has provided strategic and operational oversight of print and online news operations and been a leader in industry organizations during a period of rapid technological and cultural change.

He joined NPR as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital Media in October 2008, with responsibility for NPR’s web, podcasting and mobile operations.

Wilson began his journalism career at Chicago’s legendary City News Bureau where he covered cops and worked the overnight desk. He was a print reporter for 15 years, seven of them at Newsday, before he made the leap to online media in 1995.

Wilson received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Chicago in 1979, specializing in African studies. He and his wife have lived in the Washington, D.C. area since 1995.

Jose Zamora

Journalism Associate, Knight Foundation

Jose Zamora is a Journalism Program Associate at Knight Foundation. Jose helps manage Knight Foundation’s digital journalism portfolio, including the Knight News Challenge, a five-year, $25 million initiative to spur media innovation. He is a journalist, columnist, blogger and a former news executive with elPeriódico in Guatemala.

He has a Law degree from Universidad Francisco Marroquín, a specialization in Media Law from Oxford’s Media Law Advocates Program and a Master’s in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. He is an Organization of American States Scholar who focused his work on Media and Democracy.

Larry Kirkman

Dean, School of Communication, American University

Larry Kirkman is the dean of the American University School of Communication, where he directs and develops academic and professional programs in Journalism, Film and Media Arts and Public Communication with a cross-cutting focus on public affairs and public service.

Dean Kirkman came to AU in 2001 from the Benton Foundation. As director of Benton, from 1989 to 2001, he created programs in strategic communications for nonprofit organizations, public media, and communications policy. Under his direction, Benton became a leading nonprofit Internet publisher, producing online knowledge networks that served as test-beds for journalism, education and social action. He launched the U.S. Center for www.oneworld.net, and he served as Chair of the One World International Foundation from ‘02-‘06. He serves on the Public Issues Advisory Committee of The Advertising Council. He served in various roles for the Council on Foundations and its affinity groups, including: chair of the Communication Committee; chair of the Film and Video Festival; and chair of the Communications Committee for the Funders for Citizen Participation.

Prior to his work at the Benton Foundation, Dean Kirkman was the founding director of the Labor Institute of Public Affairs, where he worked from 1982 to 1989, and he worked at the American Film Institute from 1979 to 1982. As an AU professor in the 1970s, he helped bring the School of Communication into the video age while serving as editor of TeleVisions magazine.

Jan Schaffer

Executive Director, J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism

Jan Schaffer is the executive director for J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, a center at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism that helps news organizations and citizens use new information ideas and innovative computer technologies to develop new ways for people to engage in critical public policy issues.

She is the former Executive Director of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, an incubator for more than 120 journalism projects that created new ways of reporting that helped engage people better in public life. Schaffer, a former Business Editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer, directed the reporting and editing of two investigative series that were named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, one on pharmaceutical pricing and one on abuses in the nation’s non-profit sector. As a federal court reporter, she helped write a series of stories that won freedom for a man wrongly convicted of five murders. The stories led to the civil rights convictions of the Philadelphia homicide detectives involved in the investigation. The articles won several national journalism awards, including the 1978 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service, the Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Public Service Award, the Roy W. Howard Medal for Public Service and the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel.

Also while covering federal courts, she broke the Philadelphia Abscam story about the FBI sting operation that used agents posing as Arab sheiks. She was sentenced to jail for six months for refusing to reveal her sources; the sentence was stayed on appeal. Schaffer has been a journalism fellow at Stanford University and has taught journalism courses at Temple University and workshops at the American Press Institute. The Pew Center for Civic Journalism, a $14 million project created in 1993, was the first journalism-related initiative funded by the Pew Trusts. Since then the Trusts have supported several other journalism-based projects.

Past judges:

Rosental C. Alves (Board Member, 2003-2009)

Director, Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas

Knight Chair in Journalism, University of Texas at Austin

Rosental C. Alves is the director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, as well as a professor and Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He created the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, a four-year project to work in training programs with journalists from Latin America and the Caribbean, in 2002. The Knight Center is based at the School of Journalism in Austin, but reaches thousands of journalists throughout the hemisphere.

At the University of Texas at Austin, Alves has three basic areas for teaching and research: international reporting, journalism in Latin America, and Internet journalism. He created the first class on online journalism at UT in the 1997-98 academic year, and has been a frequent speaker in conferences and has conducted numerous workshops in several countries to train journalists and journalism professors on the use of the new medium.

Alves spent 27 years as a professional journalist, including 23 years in Rio de Janeiro where he was the managing editor and member of the board of directors of Jornal do Brasil, one of the most important Brazilian newspapers. In 1991, he created the first online, real-time finance news service, the first of its kind in Brazil. And in 1994, Alves managed the launching of Jornal do Brasil’s online edition, making it the first Brazilian newspaper available on the Internet. A working journalist since he was 16, Alves received a B.A. in journalism from the Rio de Janeiro Federal University. He was the first Brazilian awarded a Nieman Fellowship to spend an academic year (1987-88) at Harvard University.

Lee Rainie (Board Member, 2003-2009)

Founding Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project

Harrison “Lee” Rainie is the Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a research center that examines the social impact of the Internet - or, how people’s Internet use is affecting families, communities, health care, education, civic/political life, and work places.

Since its creation in December 1999, the project has issued more than 100 reports about Americans’ use of the Internet. The research findings often center on the Project’s regular monitoring of online life, including the ways in which their behavior changes as they gain more experience on the Internet. In addition, Project reports have dealt with such topics as: the impact of people’s use of email on their key relationships, the way that Internet users act on the health information they get online, the impact of the Internet on campaigns, elections, and Americans’ civic life, how broadband connections change people’s online lives, the way teenagers and college students use the Internet, the durability and usefulness of online communities, the reasons why people do not have Internet access, how email use has changed U.S. workplaces, and the way people used the Internet after the September 11 terror attacks and their views about online information on government Web sites. The project’s work can be found at http://www.pewinternet.org/.

Natalie Hopkinson (Board Member, 2009)

Associate Editor, TheRoot.com

Before joining The Root, Natalie Hopkinson was an assignment editor in the Washington Post’s Sunday commentary and debate section and a youth culture writer in the newspaper’s Style section. She is co-author of “Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation.” A graduate of Howard University, she holds a doctorate in journalism and public communication from the University of Maryland-College Park.

Chris Harvey (Board Member, 2003-2008)

Online Bureau Director & Lecturer, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland

Chris Harvey has worked as an online editor, a magazine editor, a newspaper reporter and a journalism teacher. She left her job as managing editor at American Journalism Review in August 2000 to help build the online curriculum at the College of Journalism. She created and now edits the College’s online newsmagazine, Maryland Newsline, which is staffed by students. She also teaches an introductory online journalism course.

Before coming to AJR, Harvey worked as an associate Metro editor at washingtonpost.com. There, she led a content redesign of the Metro section and edited news and feature stories. She earlier taught reporting and editing at the College and ran the College’s student-staffed Capital News Service bureaus in Washington and Annapolis.

She has held reporting and editing jobs at several papers, including The Washington Times, and has free-lanced for The Washington Post and Congressional Quarterly’s “Politics in America.”

Mark Hinojosa (Board Member, 2003-2008)

Former Associate Managing Editor, Electronic News, The Chicago Tribune

Mark Hinojosa joined The Chicago Tribune in 1991 as an assistant photo editor. In 1994 he was promoted to Director of Photography. He was again promoted 1999 to Associate Managing Editor for Photography. In 2000 Hinojosa filled the newly created position of A.M.E. for Electronic News. In his new role, Hinojosa works as a liaison between the print, broadcast and the Internet, facilitating the development of stories across these different media. In his capacity as A.M.E. for photography, Hinojosa was responsible for a staff of 68, which included photographers, photo editors and lab support staff. Hinojosa is the first person at the Tribune to hold both A.M.E. positions.

Prior to joining The Tribune, Hinojosa worked as a staff photographer at New York Newsday and as a photographer/photo editor for the Kansas City Star. He has won awards for both his photography and photo editing and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize three times.

Born in Los Angeles in August 1956, Hinojosa has lived in Kansas City, Mo. and in three of the five boroughs of New York City. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from Pepperdine University in Malibu, Ca. Hinojosa serves on the board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the board of Street Level Youth Media, an organization committed to teaching media awareness to urban youth. He is married to a freelance journalist, with whom he has three children, and, when time permits, is an avid flyfisher.

Nick Charles (Board Member, 2007-2008)

Former Vice President for Digital Content, BET Interactive

Nick Charles is the former editor in chief for AOL Black Voices, where he was responsible for spearheading the day-to-day editorial activities across seven channels including Main, News, Sports, Lifestyle, Entertainment, Work & Money, Blogs (Community), and several sub-channels.

Charles was also the founding editor in chief of the Toyota & Jungle Media Group culture/lifestyle magazine Forward, responsible for the conceptualization and design of the 60-page title. Before that, he was a staff writer at People magazine, where he penned human interest and celebrity features. He was also a staff reporter at The New York Daily News, writing feature articles and cultural criticism, plus a weekly column on pop culture.

He spent time as a foreign correspondent for the Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer reporting from Somalia, Djibouti and Kenya, and he has contributed to various publications including The Los Angeles Times,The Nation, The Village Voice, Black Enterprise, The New York Times Book Review, Essence, Emerge, Interview, and The New York Sun, to name a few.

Charles holds a B.A. in Journalism from New York University and an M.S. in International Affairs from New School University. He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Bryan Monroe (Board Chair, 2003-2007)

Vice President and Editorial Director, Ebony and Jet magazines

Bryan Monroe joined Johnson Publishing Company as the vice president and editorial director of Ebony and Jet magazines in 2006. He is also currently president of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Monroe was formerly the assistant vice president/ news at now defunct Knight Ridder, where he was responsible for the journalistic operations of all 31 Knight Ridder properties nationwide. He also completed his Nieman Fellowship at Harvard in June 2003. Prior to that, he was deputy managing editor at the San Jose Mercury News in California, where he was in charge of nearly 200 journalists and a $12 million budget. Monroe joined Knight Ridder in 1987 as director of graphics and photography at The (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) Sun News.

From 1989 to 1991 he was assistant project director for Knight Ridder’s 25/43 Project, an effort to design a newspaper specifically for readers in that key demographic, based at the Boca Raton News. He joined the San Jose Mercury News in 1991 as design director, also serving as a reporter and assigning editor. Among many duties there, Monroe led redesigns of the Mercury News in 1992 and again in 2000. The paper has repeatedly been named one of the five world’s best-designed by the Society for News Design.

He worked earlier in his career as a photographer at The Seattle Times, The Roanoke Times & World News and United Press International. Monroe is vice president/print of the National Association of Black Journalists and immediate past president of the Bay Area Black Journalists Association. He has taught frequently for The Poynter Institute, the American Press Institute and many other organizations.

Mike McCurry (Board Member, 2003-2005)

Partner, Public Strategies Washington Inc. Chairman and CEO, Grassroots Enterprise Inc.

Mike McCurry is a principal of Public Strategies Group, LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based public affairs and strategic communications consulting firm, where he has practiced since leaving the White House. He also serves on boards or advisory councils for Share Our Strength, the Center for International Private Enterprise, the Council for Excellence in Government, the Junior Statesmen Foundation, the Wesley Theological Seminary, and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

McCurry is a veteran political strategist and spokesperson with 25-years experience in Washington, D.C. He began his affiliation with Grassroots Enterprise as a member of the board of advisors in January 2000. Since then, McCurry has become chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors, leading the strategic development of the company and its software and services.

McCurry served in the White House as press secretary to President Bill Clinton (1995-1998). He also served as spokesman for the Department of State (1993-1995) and director of communications for the Democratic National Committee (1988-1990). McCurry has also held leadership roles in several national campaigns, including national press secretary for the vice presidential campaign of Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen (1988), and spokesman and political strategist in the presidential campaigns of Senator John Glenn (1984), Governor Bruce Babbitt (1988) and Senator Bob Kerrey (1992). McCurry began his political career on the staff of the United States Senate, working as press secretary to the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources and to the committee’s chairman, Senator Harrison A. Williams, Jr. (1976-1981). He also served as press secretary to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1981-1983).

McCurry received his bachelor of arts from Princeton University in 1976 and a master of arts from Georgetown University in 1985.

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