Meg is the Communications Director at the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution. Meg is a writer and civic advocate. She previously worked as a communicator in the White House and U.S. Treasury, and she began her career as a producer at Vermont Public Radio. Meg is the author of three novels and her work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, podcasts, and public radio stations around the country.

Andrea Hickerson, Ph.D., is dean and professor in the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi. Previously she was an associate dean in the College of Information and Communications and the director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina, as well as director of the School of Communication at Rochester Institute of Technology. Hickerson conducts research on journalism routines with an emphasis on technology use.

Charles Davis is the Dean of the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. Davis previously taught at the Missouri School of Journalism and spent five years at Mizzou as Executive Director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition.

Christopher Drew leads the Lousiana State University Manship School's experiential journalism curriculum, including its Statehouse Bureau and its racial and criminal-justice reporting programs. Drew was an investigative reporter and editor for The New York Times for 22 years in Washington and New York. Before that, he was a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal and The Times-Picayune.

Duc is the Director of Sustainability Initiatives/ Journalism at the Knight Foundation. Duc is a business development and operational leader with more than a decade of experience across media and research organizations. Prior to joining Knight, he was publisher and chief revenue officer for Washington City Paper, a local news leader for the Washington, D.C. area. He has also served in business development and new product innovation roles at The Economist and Foreign Policy magazine.

Heidi is the Future of Media fellow at the Harvard Institute of Quantitative Social Science (IQSS). An American-Canadian journalist, Heidi spent the Covid pandemic indexing a detailed and sweeping overview of all news media ownership across the US and Canada at IQSS. She has written extensively about the media landscape while at the Harvard Kennedy School including The Fight Against Disinformation in America, A Landscape Study of Emerging US Models in Local News and about Preserving America's Thought Leader Magazines and How Trust Intersects With Subscription.

Kathleen is the director of the School of Journalism and a professor at The University of Texas at Austin. She received her Ph.D. from the School of Journalism in December 2014, after nearly 30 years as a professional journalist. At The New York Times, she held various management positions, including associate managing editor, dining editor, deputy sports editor and deputy editor of the website. Her research interests include racial discourse, collective memory, sports media and obituaries.

Dean Mira Lowe is the chief academic and administrative officer of the School of Journalism & Graphic Communication (SJGC) at Florida A&M University. She previously served as assistant dean for student experiences at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. As director of the Innovation News Center, she led a team of industry professionals and student journalists who provide local news coverage for 19 North Central Florida counties. Lowe has previously served as a senior editor at CNN Digital and editor-in-chief of JET magazine.

Patricia Prelock, Ph.D., is Provost and Senior Vice-President, University of Vermont. Formerly, she was the Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Vermont for 10 years. She is also a Professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders, and Professor of Pediatrics in the College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. Dr. Prelock received her Ph.D. in speech-language pathology from the University of Pittsburgh.

Rafael Lorente is dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Previously, he was the associate dean for academic affairs, director of the master’s program, and director of the Capital News Service Washington, D.C., and Annapolis bureaus. Lorente, a 1998 Merrill master's alum, is a former reporter with the South Florida Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. He serves on the boards of the National Press Foundation and the National Press Club Journalism Institute.

Sarah Gamard is the communications manager at the Signals Network, a U.S.-based, internationally operating whistleblower support nonprofit. A former student reporter at LSU, Gamard has worked for seven national and local news organizations, covered two statehouses and reported in three states. While working with the Center for Community News, Gamard led research on university-led student statehouse reporting bureaus.

Scott is president and CEO of Vermont Public (which recently merged VPR and Vermont PBS) -- Vermont’s largest media organization, with more than 100 employees, a statewide radio and TV network, and on-demand programs reaching more than 1 million people each month. He is formerly the CEO and Executive Director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, and news director at WVPB and WUSF Public Media in Tampa.