ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Nov. 3, 2025) — The Poynter Institute welcomes the 17 journalists selected for the ninth cohort of Power of Diverse Voices, an esteemed writing workshop for journalists of color.
The cohort convenes in early November at Poynter’s St. Petersburg campus for four days of dynamic instruction, dedicated writing sessions, small-group and one-on-one coaching.
Tom Huang, longtime Poynter adjunct and Dallas Morning News assistant managing editor for journalism initiatives, leads the program to help diverse storytellers harness their own voices.
“I often call the workshop participants the ‘Powerful Ones,’ and at first, they might think that’s a little naive on my part. But I really believe they have untapped superpowers within themselves,” Huang said. “And over the course of the workshop, I hope and expect that they will learn that they do have superpowers, and that their voices are powerful and worth amplifying.”
The competitive program has cultivated an active alumni network and sparked an abundance of award-winning projects.
Rebecca Nagle, a Native American activist, journalist and graduate of Poynter’s 2018 workshop, recently won the Reading the West Book Award for her bestselling debut, By the Fire We Carry. Esmy Jimenez, senior reporter for The Boston Globe and a 2017 program graduate, is a Knight-Bagehot fellow and Livingston Award winner. Her podcast Lost Patients won a Scripps Howard Award and received a Peabody nomination.
Several veteran journalists join Huang as instructors, including Eric Deggans, the Knight Chair in Journalism and Media Ethics at Washington and Lee University; Fernanda Santos, managing editor of The 19th News; and Aisha Sultan, home and family editor and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“Poynter’s Power of Diverse Voices felt like a coming home of sorts to the journalistic writing community and support I’d always wanted to have,” said Iris Kuo, director of workplace equity at Tara Health Foundation and 2017 workshop alumni. “The teaching and coaching is top notch, and getting to bond with and work alongside other writers of color was incredible, affirming, deeply meaningful and — not to mention — fun!”
The coming cohort of the upcoming Power of Diverse Voices workshop are:
- Sheetal Banchariya, reporter, New York Daily News
- Brittany Brown, public safety and justice reporter, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism
- Emmanuel Camarillo, reporter, Chicago Sun-Times
- Cesar Hernandez, associate restaurant critic, San Francisco Chronicle
- Esther Yoon-Ji Kang, reporter, WBEZ
- Harmeet Kaur, writer, CNN
- Ryan Nickerson, local government reporter, Houston Chronicle
- Haruka Noishiki, correspondent, Nikkei
- Gabriella Nuñez, special projects producer, WXIA 11Alive News, NBC Atlanta
- Cecilia Reyes, freelance reporter
- Ivy Scott, engagement reporter, The Marshall Project
- Ingrid Sturgis, associate professor, Howard University, Cathy Hughes School of Communications
- YuKwon Toney, digital producer and audience editor, USA TODAY Network; content creator, AYEITSKWON
- Blanca Torres, producer, reporter, newsletter editor, KQED
- Dominick Williams, visual journalist, The Kansas City Star
- Christopher Young, reporter and anchor, WMNF 88.5 FM
- Youyou Zhou, opinion graphics reporter, The Washington Post
For Huang, this seminar is the space where writers find and refine their authentic voices.
“This will be the ninth cohort of the Power of Diverse Voices workshop, and over the years, I’ve learned that, whether it’s at Poynter or in our newsrooms, we have the power to create a safe space where we can discover our writing voices, and we have the power to build a community of diverse storytellers,” he said.
Funding for Power of Diverse Voices comes from an endowment that was established by the Association of Opinion Journalists, an organization that eventually merged with the News Leaders Association. Since neither organization is in operation any longer, Poynter manages the endowment to ensure the continuation of the program.
Applications for the next Power of Diverse Voices workshop will open in late summer of 2026.
