Washington, D.C. — The Online News Association is pleased to announce the 2017 class of women leaders selected for the tuition-free Women’s Leadership Accelerator.
The participants, chosen from a pool of more than 300 applicants, have each presented a unique problem in their careers which they will focus on throughout the course of the Accelerator, to be held Feb. 5-10, 2017 at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in Los Angeles. Each class member has demonstrated an aptitude for leadership through their past projects, resumes and references. The outstanding journalists that were selected for the 2017 group have a range of skill sets and areas of expertise, and represent diversity across race, geography, technology platforms and organization size.
This year’s class includes:
Nadine Ajaka, Curator and Associate Producer, The Atlantic
Lexi Belculfine, Editor, The Incline, Spirited Media
Lauren Bracey Scheidt, Senior Product Manager, Listener Journey, NPR
Heather Bryant, JSK Fellow, JSK Fellowship at Stanford
Julia B. Chan, Editor, Reveal, The Center for Investigative Reporting
Lainna Fader, Associate Director, Audience Development, The New Yorker
Kim Fox, Managing Editor, Audience, Philadelphia Media Network
Serri Graslie, Senior Digital Strategist, Training Team, NPR
Kellen Henry, Assistant Editor, Digital Platforms, The New York Times
Denise Law, Community Editor, The Economist
Amy King, Design Director, Emerging News Products, The Washington Post
Kristen Lepore, Project Manager, Elections, Southern California Public Radio, KPCC
Irene McKisson, Team Leader, #ThisIsTucson, Arizona Daily Star
Rubina Madan Fillion,Director of Audience Engagement, The Intercept
Alba Mora Roca, Executive Producer, AJ+ Español
Anika Palm, Senior Programming Producer, Off-Platform, CNN
María Sánchez Díez, Journalist, Innovation, Univision News
Ankita Rao, Associate Editor, VICE
Shauna Siggelkow, Executive Video Producer, #EmergingUS
Usha Sahay, Interactive News Writer, The Wall Street Journal
Versha Sharma, Managing Editor, News & Politics, NowThis
Blythe Terrell, Senior Editor, Science and Health, FiveThirtyEight
Meena Thiruvengadam, Head of Audience Development, Business Insider
Heesun Wee, Freelancer
Madeline Welsh, Associate Editor, Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab, Guardian US
During their week in Los Angeles, participants will focus on developing critical leadership skills and tools for navigating change, as well as finding solutions to the unique challenges faced by women in media and technology.
Women leaders in the media industry, including Kara Swisher, Executive Editor of Recode; Jennifer Brandel, founder and CEO of Hearken; Charo Henriquez-Scaia, former executive digital editor for People en Español; and Liz Heron, former Executive Editor at Huffington Post will teach at the Accelerator.
ONA is thrilled to announce that S. Mitra Kalita, Vice President for Programming at CNN; Jessica Yu, Global Head of Visuals for The Wall Street Journal; and Will Neville-Rehbehn
Thanks to the generous support of the Dow Jones Foundation, and supporting funder Google, the Women’s Leadership Accelerator training is tuition-free. ONA also is grateful to USC Annenberg for generously hosting the Accelerator program. There are still opportunities to support ONA’s Accelerator program. If you’re interested in getting involved or sponsoring, please contact Jennifer Mizgata.