NFCB is proud to announce keynotes for Wish You Were Here, the organization’s summer 2021 virtual event. These events are free and open to all.
Wish You Were Here starts July 7 with a conversation on diversity, equity and inclusion, led by an innovator changing many organizations.
Minal Bopaiah is an author, speaker, and strategic consultant with more than 20 years of professional experience. Her areas of expertise include human-centered design, behavior change science, and the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion as they relate to media, marketing and communications, and organization design.
As the Founder and Principal Consultant of Brevity & Wit, Minal is passionate about designing for equity. Her work includes an organization-wide assessment and strategic plan for Evans Consulting, a human-centered management consulting firm, and working with NPR’s news managers to design a system for diversifying news sources. As a marketing strategist, she is responsible for a 1450% increase in website traffic and 50% increase in event revenues for Cook Ross, a diversity and inclusion consulting firm. Brevity & Wit’s clients also include PBS KIDS, Slate, Amnesty International, and the International Center for Research on Women, among others.
Minal’s previous work includes being an educational content specialist for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street and its international co-productions, and a press intern for Doctors Without Borders. She also served as the International and Features Editor of Boston Metro and has worked in communications and marketing for a number of nonprofits.
Our session on vaccine mis- and disinformation is July 13, and offers two of the foremost leaders in media’s effort to help the public.
Jaime Longoria is an investigative researcher at First Draft in New York. He previously worked as a researcher with NBC News Investigations and was the former data editor for Type Investigations, where he contributed research and reporting on a number of long-form investigations. He was also a community reporter in the South Bronx for the Hunts Point Express.
Aimee Rinehart is deputy managing director at First Draft in New York. She led the US 2020 election work including the recruitment of a staff of 12, organized the training plan to reach more than 1,000 journalists and oversaw the editorial output to inform newsrooms across the US about what the research team saw online. She managed Comprova, the Brazilian election project in 2018. She started working online in 1996 and was a digital originator at The New York Times.
The July 15 session on wellness presents one of community media’s most dynamic leaders.
Karen Hawkins is co-publisher and co-editor-in-chief of the Chicago Reader, and founder of Rebellious Magazine for Women and the Feminist Media Foundation. She also co-hosts two podcasts, including Of Course I’m Not OK. She is an award-winning reporter and editor whose journalism background includes positions at The Associated Press, the Windy City Times, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She is also a longtime mentor and national board member for NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists. She is a frequent and enthusiastic speaker about newsroom diversity, LGBTQ+ issues, and feminism.
On July 21, NFCB’s conference closing keynote brings to you a public media icon.
As Founder & President of StoryCorps, Dave Isay is one of the most trusted and respected broadcasters working today. The recipient of six Peabody Awards, a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and the $1 Million TED prize, his work taps into the heart and soul of the human experience. He is an author, documentarian, and founder of StoryCorps. Founded in 2003, StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit organization
based in Brooklyn, NY, that has brought more than 650,000 Americans together—two at a time—to record intimate conversations about their lives, create human connection, pass wisdom from one generation to the next, and leave a legacy for the future. Each conversation is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is the largest single collection of personal narratives ever gathered, and millions listen to StoryCorps’ weekly broadcasts on NPR’s Morning Edition. In 2015, Dave was recognized with the TED Prize, awarded annually to one exceptional individual with a creative, bold vision to spark global change.
These events are free and open to all community and public media organizations. As part of Wish You Were Here, NFCB will also be presenting member-exclusive events, covering such topics as monthly sustainer programs, morning show content, pledge drive alternatives, DEI for community media and more. If your station is not a member, you can inquire here.
