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Alison Bethel

Alison Bethel

Alison Bethel is Vice President of Corps Excellence at Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project that places emerging journalists in newsrooms across America.

Previously, she was Executive Director of the Society of Professional Journalists, where she was only the second woman and the first person of color to serve in that capacity in SPJ’s 110 years. Bethel has more than 35 years of experience as an award-winning reporter, bureau chief, senior editor and media trainer. She has worked in senior-level positions at The Boston Globe, The Detroit News, Legal Times and the Nassau Guardian in The Bahamas.

From July 2016 to May 2017, Bethel served as a visiting professor of print and investigative journalism for the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media in Bangalore. She also spent a year in Accra, Ghana, for the Washington, D.C.-based International Center for Journalists, as a Knight International Journalism Fellow, helping Ghanaian journalists improve their reporting skills in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election. She also worked at The Miami Herald, The Los Angeles Times, Poughkeepsie Journal and the now-defunct State Times in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In 2009, she joined the International Press Institute, based in Vienna, Austria, as Deputy Director before becoming the Institute’s executive director a year later. She was the first woman and the first person of color in IPI’s 60-plus-year history to hold the position. The next year, she was named one of the 60 most influential black women in Europe by the nonprofit Black Women in Europe. In 2018, she was awarded the President’s Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Bethel is a co-founder of the Media Institute of the Caribbean and acts as an advisor/consultant for the antillean.org news website in Barbados. She is also an advisory board member for Journalism & Women’s Symposium, a member of Journalism’s Strategic Committee, a board member of Southern Foodways Alliance and an advisory board member for the International Center for Media Ethics. She holds membership with the National Association of Black Journalists and the organization Christian Women in Media.
Rights

World press freedom, 30 years after the Declaration of Windhoek

The seeds of World Press Freedom Day were sown in Windhoek, Namibia in 1991. Namibia had just won...

May 03, 2021
Columns

Celebrating Black History: Renaissance of the Black press

On Canyon Crest Drive in Riverside, California, sits Jammin’ Bakery and Café, a sandwich shop that recently closed....

Feb 24, 2021
Columns

Civil Rights generation sees echoes of Jim Crow in Capitol attack

WASHINGTON – Shirley Ann Queen remembers being 10 years old when Mr. Horton, the white owner of the...

Jan 18, 2021
Columns

The significance of Kamala Harris’ election for women

WASHINGTON – This day, Nov. 7, 2020, will take a seat at the table as one of the...

Nov 12, 2020
Columns

‘Welcome to history’: MLK’s legacy lives on in a march for Black lives

WASHINGTON – Sometimes your heart knows the answer to a question before your brain does. On the eve...

Aug 31, 2020
Columns

For Black journalists, a historic imperative and a unique burden

WASHINGTON — Clad in riot gear, police officers on horseback sent tear gas wafting through the streets and...

Jun 04, 2020

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Report for America has created more than 600 local reporting positions with more than 300 news organizations across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam and Washington, D.C. since 2017. Each is focused on a critical coverage gap within their local community, with an emphasis on impact and sustainability. LEARN MORE

Report for the World, launched in 2021, now partners with more than 30 independent news organizations supporting 45 reporting positions in 20 countries — these reporters cover critical public interest beats like climate, education, health, gender and criminal justice. LEARN MORE

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