ONA Weekly #537: Announcing ONA’s New Interim Leadership

Announcing ONA’s new interim leadership

We’re excited to share that the ONA Board of Directors has appointed Hanaa Rifaey as Interim CEO/Executive Director, and Kelsey Proud has joined the leadership team as the Interim Head of Programs. Hanaa will lead ONA’s day-to-day operations and is responsible for the organization’s strategy, finance, staff and partnerships with funders and sponsors. Meanwhile, Kelsey is in charge of the strategic vision and operations of ONA’s program portfolio and community engagement.

ONA’s interim leadership team also includes Liz Leith, CPA, who continues in her role as Head of Finance and Administration.

The search for ONA’s next CEO/Executive Director will begin by late November. Read more about the transition plan to find our next leader.

Simplify and Contextualize Your Data with Metrics for News

Does this sound familiar? You’re writing about something important and it’s not getting the reader attention you had hoped. You begin asking yourself: Can we do something different? If so, what and how can we know if it works?

Join us on Thursday, Dec. 5 from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. ET to hear from newsrooms around the country that use the American Press Institute’s Metrics for News (MFN) to launch new products, present journalism in new formats, stop producing what isn’t working and improve reader experiences.

Register to attend. Can’t attend live? All sign-ups will receive a notification when the recording is added to the ONA Resource Library!

Career opportunities

ONA’s Career Center is an excellent resource for jobs, fellowships and internships in digital journalism. Recent postings include:

• Breaking News Reporter, The Texas Newsroom, KERA NEW!
• Environment and Energy Reporter, The Connecticut Mirror NEW!
• Audience Development Editor, Adirondack Explorer, Inc. NEW!
• Managing Editor/Planning & Audience Engagement, Lee Enterprises/Greensboro News & Record, Winston-Salem Journal NEW!
• Collaborations Project Manager, Institute for Nonprofit News
• Audience Development Editor, Adirondack Explorer
• Science Reporting Fellow, The Transmitter, Simons Foundation
• Higher Ed Media Fellowship for Early-Mid Career Journalists, The Institute for Citizens & Scholars
• National Investigative Reporter, HuffPost
• Science Writing Fellow, Quanta Magazine
• Fiscal Assistant III, College of Journalism & Communications Business Office, University of Florida
• Grants Specialist, KERA
• Investigative Reporting Fellow, The O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism
• Digital Security Trainer, Freedom of the Press Foundation
• Editor-in-Chief, Phoenix New Times
• Broadcast Engineer, University of Florida
• Community Engagement and Events Manager, The Waco Bridge, The Texas Tribune
• General Manager, The Waco Bridge, The Texas Tribune
• Instructional Assistant Professor of Journalism, Non-Tenure Track, Spring 2025, Chapman University – Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
• Editor-in-Chief, The Waco Bridge, The Texas Tribune
• Veterinary Medical News Reporter, American Veterinary Medical Association
• Digital Fellow, Democracy Now! Productions
• Video News Production Fellow, Democracy Now! Productions
• Los Angeles Issues Reporter, CalMatters
• Data Journalist, WHRO Public Media
• Executive Editor, Policy and Regulation, American Chemical Society

What we’re watching in AI tech

• The Washington Post Launches “Ask The Post AI,” a New Search Experience
• The Present Future: AI’s Impact Long Before Superintelligence
• Trump’s “AI Manhattan Projects“
• Google’s experimental AI agent finds a previously unknown and exploitable software bug in SQLite, an open-source database engine

Elsewhere on our radar

• Nov. 20 webinar: Canva 101 for journalists – a beginner’s guide
• Nov. 27 webinar: Mastering Canva’s Magic Studio – advanced tools for journalists