Instructor

Quentin Hope

Quentin Hope is an independent consultant with over 25 years of experience serving clients across a broad range of industries and organizations in the areas of strategic alignment, organization design, organization effectiveness and change management. He also has extensive experience in public media and digital media management and consulting.

His consulting experience includes 13 years with McKinsey & Company as a senior engagement manager, organization specialist and senior fellow with the firm’s organization design practice. This work included co-authoring the field research for the book Real Change Leaders and leading the field research for Peak Performance by Jon Katzenbach. He also served as a senior advisor for eight years with Katzenbach Partners LLC working with client teams and developing firm methodologies.

Quentin’s work in media began with his founding of High Plains Public Radio in the 1980s, which he continues to advise on a pro bono basis. In recent years he has consulted for media clients ranging from leading public media organizations to legacy metro newsrooms to digital start-ups. He has served as a coach and faculty member for the MTC program (formerly Sulzberger Media Leadership Program) since 2010.

Kate Myers

Kate Myers joined First Look Media as its first executive director focused on revenue and operations in January 2017. First Look Media Works is a nonprofit devoted to fierce, adversarial journalism and defense of the First Amendment. She is developing the revenue strategy and business operations for The Intercept, Field of Vision, and the Press Freedom Defense and Grants Fund.

Myers’ role is to build the business that makes FLMW sustainable and independent. She has been successful at launching and scaling their membership program, encouraging the audience to engage with The Intercept more deeply, and contribute financially. Myers is also focused on changing how The Intercept measures its success with its audiences — instead of measuring overall growth, focusing on targeted audience segments and products that serve those segments. Previously, she led growth strategy at Inside Higher Ed as the vice president for business development, launching their own targeted products to serve key segments of their audience. She also spent many years in various roles in digital product, business development, and audience and corporate strategy at National Public Radio. Myers is a proud alumna of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and has an M.B.A. from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

Jillian Banner

Jillian Banner is assistant editor for video strategy at Poynter, based in Washington, D.C. In this role, she works with local newsrooms to create video content tailored to younger audiences. Her previous experience includes working on documentaries for The Atlantic, editing a weekly YouTube series, and producing videos for a national nonprofit. She has also directed her own short nonfiction films, which have screened at various film festivals. Jillian is originally from California and graduated from Carleton College with a B.A. in Cinema & Media Studies.

Kristyn Wellesley

Kristyn Wellesley is the Editorial Director of the MediaWise project, which aims to teach teenagers media literacy skills and how to be critical media consumers in this age of misinformation.

Prior to joining Poynter in January 2020, Kristyn was an editor with the USA TODAY Network in various roles, including Regional Breaking News Editor for the USA TODAY Network-Southwest Florida, and Politics NOW Editor and Content Strategy Analyst for USA TODAY. She has led teams covering major breaking news events, including Hurricane Irma and the shootings at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and worked with the USA TODAY Washington, D.C. bureau on coverage of the recent impeachment hearings. She has previously been a digital editor with the Palm Beach Post and the Cincinnati Enquirer, and digital director for FOX19-WXIX in Cincinnati.

Kristyn holds a master’s degree in International Journalism from City, University of London and a bachelor’s degree from Ball State University, and is a proud 2018 graduate of Poynter’s Leadership Academy for Women in Media.

Ahsante Bean

Ahsante is Editor & Program Manager, Video Strategy at Poynter, where she’s focusing on developing innovative digital content with local newsrooms to reach younger audiences.

Prior to joining Poynter, Ahsante was an Associate Director of Programming at PBS Digital Studios. There, she worked on editorial and content development for a slate of 20 educational online video series including It’s Okay to be Smart, Physics Girl, and The Art Assignment. She also created and executive produced Say It Loud, a PBS digital series celebrating Black history, culture, and achievement. Prior to PBS, she worked in Children’s Programming at WGBH, and as a Multimedia Storyteller at the global design firm IDEO.

Ahsante has a background in video production and currently creates videos on her personal YouTube channel as “Ahsante the Artist”. There, she makes videos on personal development and social awareness that inspire her audience to move consciously and creatively through life. Ahsante has been a featured creator at VidCon, the largest international conference for online video, and is a 2018 YouTube NextUp winner. She has produced content for Microsoft, WNET, and VSPINK, among others. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, MSNBC, The Root, and in the Museum of the Moving Image.

Ahsante holds a B.A. in Visual and Environmental Studies: Film/Video from Harvard University. She is currently based in Washington, D.C.

Alexa Volland

Alexa Volland is a multimedia reporter with the MediaWise project. Before joining Poynter, she was the web editor for the Tampa Bay Times’ high school newspaper, tb-two*. She then went on to join the Times’ features department as a copy editor and designer. Prior to that, she was a journalism teacher in Pinellas County. She graduated from the University of Florida, where she studied journalism and education.

Alex Mahadevan

Alex Mahadevan is senior multimedia reporter with the MediaWise project.

He most recently worked as a data journalist at the personal finance startup The Penny Hoarder. Prior to that, Mahadevan served as the news innovation editor at Observer Media Group. He has covered politics, real estate and development and breaking news.

Cristina Tardáguila

Cristina Tardáguila is the International Fact-Checking Network’s Associate Director. She was born in May 1980, in Brazil, and has lived in Rio de Janeiro for most of her life. Since 2014, Tardáguila has dedicated her professional life to verification. She is the founder of Agência Lupa, the first fact-checking initiative in her country, and also responsible for LupaEducação, its educational branch.

Tardáguila studied Journalism at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and got her master’s degree, also in Journalism, from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, in Madrid (Spain). In 2017, she added to her resumé an MBA on Digital Marketing, from Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV-Rio de Janeiro), and is now considered one of the strongest media entrepreneurs in her country.

As a reporter and/or an editor, Tardáguila has worked in some of the most important media outlets in Brazil: O Globo, Folha de S.Paulo, Globo.com and revista piauí. She has also published two books: “A Arte do Descaso” (in 2016), about the biggest art heist in Brazil – still an unsolved crime. And “Você foi Enganado” (2018), about presidential false claims heard in Brazilian politics since 1920.

Her interest in dis/misinformation combat has taken her to TEDx’s red carpet twice and has turned her into elPeriodico’s best journalist of 2018. This award is annually given by Grupo Zeta, in Spain, to the most impressive journalist of the year. Tardaguila has also been nominated for Premio Gabriel García Marquez, in Colombia, and Prêmio Comunique-se, in Brazil. Both in their innovation categories.

Tardáguila is married, has a daughter and is fluent in Portuguese, English and Spanish.

Roy Peter Clark

Roy Peter Clark is a writer, editor and teacher of writing who has become a writing coach to an international community of students, journalists and writers of many sorts. He is former vice president of The Poynter Institute and founded the National Writers Workshop. Clark has appeared frequently on media on the topics of ethics in journalism and other writing issues. He is author or editor of 19 books on writing, language, journalism and grammar, including “Writing Tools,” “The Glamour of Grammar” and “How to Write Short.”

Heaven Taylor-Wynn

Heaven Taylor-Wynn is a digital journalist who joined MediaWise in 2019 shortly after graduating from the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. The MediaWise project teaches teenagers media literacy skills that help them tell the difference between reliable and unreliable information on social media as well as throughout the internet.

Since joining the team, Heaven has traveled the country to teach hundreds of middle school, high school, and college students how to tell fact from fiction online at MediaWise training events. Heaven is passionate about finding creative ways to tell stories about misinformation across platforms and discovering new ways to connect with younger audiences online. As the team’s social media lead, she oversees the execution of social content and recommends methods to improve our reach across platforms. Heaven also leads the MediaWise Ambassadors program. She identifies, recruits, and onboards content creators, prominent journalists, and celebrities to support and share MediaWise’s message with their audiences.

She has contributed to podcasts, video series and educational materials about misinformation and media literacy. Heaven is based in St. Petersburg, FL which she called home all her life.

Baybars Örsek

Baybars Örsek is the director of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at The Poynter Institute, the premier global coalition of fact-checking organizations. Prior to joining IFCN, Örsek had served as the founding executive director of the Turkish fact-checking organization Doğruluk Payı between 2014 and 2019.

He is a frequent expert source for major media outlets around the world. Örsek is a member of the board of trustees at TESEV, Turkey’s oldest think tank. Before launching Doğruluk Payı in 2014, he worked at his alma mater Istanbul Bilgi University. Örsek holds a B.A. degree in international relations and an M.A. degree in conflict resolution.

Tom Jones

Tom Jones is Poynter’s senior media writer for Poynter.org. He was previously part of the Tampa Bay Times family during three stints over some 30 years, and has also worked for the Tampa Tribune and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Through his sports columns, including his popular weekly critique of sports on TV and radio called “Two Cents,” Tom has established himself as one of the most respected and accessible columnists in America today. He has a superb knack for blending the expertise gained from his reporting and rich network of sources, with the sensibilities of his audience. The result is work that is smart, easy to read and wonderfully resonant.

Aaron Sharockman

Aaron Sharockman is the executive director of PolitiFact, the largest fact-checking organization in the United States. Aaron leads the growth and development of PolitiFact, manages its outreach and news partnerships, and oversees new initiatives and product development. Aaron has been with PolitiFact since 2010 and served most recently as the editor of PunditFact, a website dedicated to checking claims by pundits, columnists, bloggers and the hosts and guests of talk shows. Aaron was a 2016-17 Reynolds Fellow at the University of Missouri and taught a class on political fact-checking at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

View all articles by Aaron Sharockman

Katie Sanders

Katie Sanders is the managing editor of PolitiFact. Previously, she fact-checked talking heads and opinion-shapers for PunditFact as well as the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott for PolitiFact Florida, reporting from the Tallahassee bureau of the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald. She is a graduate of the University of Florida, where she majored in English and journalism.

View all articles by Katie Sanders

Ren LaForme

Ren LaForme is the managing editor of Poynter.org. He was previously Poynter’s digital tools reporter, chronicling tools and technology for journalists, and a producer for News University, Poynter’s e-learning team.

Ren has a master’s degree in journalism and media studies from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University at Buffalo.

He grew up in and around the hamlet of Gasport, New York, about 45 minutes northwest of Buffalo. He lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, with his wife Keeley and dog Finn.