front row (sitting) left to right: N. Carroll, C. Lozada, K. Lytle Hernández, E. Alexander, E. Ramshaw, M. Miller, N. Barnes; back row left to right: J. Archibald, A. Applebaum, N. Trethewey, S. Chan, G. Thompson, G. Escobar, K. Merida, D. Remnick, V. T. Nguyen, G. Chua (absent: C. Shipman, J. Cobb). (Photo by Jose R. Lopez)
Kevin Merida is the former executive editor of the Los Angeles Times. He took the helm of the largest newsgathering organization in the West in June 2021 and oversaw the newsroom as well as Times Community News and Los Angeles Times en Español. He left The Times in January 2024.
Nicole Carroll joined the ASU Media Enterprise on May 1, 2023 as executive director of a new initiative focused on reimagining local journalism. Carroll is also a professor of practice in the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She is an alumna of the Cronkite School and an inductee to its Hall of Fame.
Nancy Barnes is the editor of The Boston Globe. A veteran journalist who has held the top job at news organizations across the country, Barnes has produced journalism of the highest caliber. Prior to joining the Globe, she was the SVP/News & Editorial Director of NPR from 2018 through 2022, where she led a team of more than 500 journalists and newsroom executives and oversaw NPR's journalism across platforms and around the world. Barnes has a proven track record of elevating metro news outlets to their highest potential.
Jelani Cobb joined the Columbia Journalism School faculty in 2016 and became Dean in 2022. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2015. He received a Peabody Award for his 2020 PBS Frontline film Whose Vote Counts? and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary in 2018. He has also been a political analyst for MSNOW since 2019.
Carlos Lozada is an Opinion columnist and cohost of the weekly “Matter of Opinion” podcast for The New York Times, based in Washington, D.C.
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