Cheryl Carpenter is an adjunct faculty member at The Poynter Institute. From 2017 to 2021, she coached 12 news organizations through their performance management challenges in Poynter's Table Stakes program. In 2017, Carpenter was the T. Anthony Pollner Distinguished Professor at the University of Montana in Missoula. Before that, she was the bureau chief of McClatchy's Washington, D.C., newsroom working with about 30 reporters and editors to produce a national report for the company's 30 news organizations. She was part of the global team that produced the Panama Papers, which won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Before joining the D.C. bureau, Carpenter was the managing editor of The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina, where she helped lead three investigative projects that were Pulitzer finalists. She studied leadership at the Kennedy School of Government while a Nieman fellow at Harvard University. Carpenter earned a master's degree in organizational development and an executive coaching certificate. She has taught journalists in South Africa for more than 20 years.