Local News Accelerator

Director, LNI/LNA

Mackenzie Warren leads Northwestern/Medill’s Local News Initiative, a portfolio of research and applied consulting programs designed to help local journalism thrive. His career has been about local news from the start. He has held reporting, editing, technology, marketing, research and executive roles at news organizations in Illinois, Ohio, California, Florida, Maryland and Virginia. He is a mission-driven person whose life’s work is to lift people, families and communities to fulfill their highest promise.

Assistant Director

Yazmin Dominguez currently serves as the Assistant Director of the Local News Accelerator. Yazmin has been involved with supporting local news outlets in Chicago since 2019. She began her professional career at the Chicago Reader where she co-created the Chicago Independent Media Alliance alongside former Reader leadership. Since then, Yazmin has been involved as the Community Growth Assistant for Borderless Magazine where she supported the Development team with donor and audience recruitment strategies.

Press Forward Chicago’s Peer Learning Community Program Coordinator

Audrey Azzo is the Program Coordinator for Press Forward Chicago’s Peer Learning Community, a cohort that sits within Medill’s Local News Accelerator and provides peer-to-peer learning opportunities to Press Forward Chicago grantees. An alumnus of the American University of Beirut and Medill, she pursues data driven approaches to support building a robust and inclusive local news ecosystem in Chicago.

Program Manager/Photographer

Hannah Carroll is a program manager and photographer for the Medill Local News Accelerator and a researcher and reporter for the Medill Local News Initiative. A graduate of Medill, Hannah previously interned for The Kitsap Sun in Bremerton, Washington, as well as the State of Local Journalism Task Force, where she researched journalism public policies and contributed to the Task Force’s final recommendation report. Hannah also works as a freelance photographer specializing in portraits, newborn and event photography, with previous clients including Cisco Systems and M. Harris & Co. for the Division Street: Revisited podcast.

Contributing researcher, consultant and writer

Eric Rynston-Lobel contributes to the Local News Accelerator in a variety of roles, helping newsrooms conduct and analyze research and strategize how to expand their audiences. He’s also written numerous case studies, highlighting the work of news organizations in the LNA, and contributes to the LNI website. He received his BSJ from Medill in 2022 and previously worked as a reporter covering sports and politics for the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire.

Charles Whitaker is dean and professor at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Whitaker, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Medill, is the first alumnus of the school to serve as dean. He previously served as the Helen Gurley Brown Professor and associate dean of journalism for the school. Since joining the Medill faculty in 1992, he has taught courses in news writing, magazine writing, magazine editing, and blogging. Whitaker has also taught in Northwestern’s School of Professional Studies and the Medill-Northwestern Journalism Institute (aka, the Cherub program).

Professor and John M. Mutz Chair in Local News

Franklin was the founding director of the Medill Local News initiative, a research and development project designed to bolster the sustainability of local news. Before joining Medill, Franklin was President of The Poynter Institute. He's been the top editor of The Indianapolis Star, Orlando Sentinel and Baltimore Sun. He was a Washington Managing Editor of Bloomberg News. He was an associate managing editor and reporter for the Chicago Tribune. He was appointed to the bipartisan Illinois Local Journalism Task Force. He’s been named a distinguished alumnus of the Indiana University Media School.

Senior Lecturer, Medill

Ashir Badami leads the Media Innovation & Content Strategy (MICS) specialization at Medill, a program dedicated to equipping the next generation of journalists, media leaders, and media entrepreneurs with the knowledge and training required to help define, design and deliver audience-centric media products powered by sustainable business models.

Charlie Baum is the executive director of Poynter’s Media Transformation Challenge Program, helping senior media executives realize critical performance results and contribute to industry transformation. His background as a management consultant, coach and senior executive in both the public and private sectors emphasizes early wins against major challenges.

Danielle Robinson Bell is an associate professor and director of the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Professional master's program. Bell's area of expertise is strategic communications and its impact on business outcomes for organizations, brands and executives. She specializes in work that advances efforts related to culture, equity, inclusion, women, and BIPOC in the workplace.

Deborah Douglas is Director of the Medill Midwest Solutions Journalism Hub, the award-winning journalist is a founding co-editor in chief of The Emancipator, a digital platform that reimagines abolitionist newspapers, and author of U.S. Civil Rights Trail: A Traveler’s Guide to the People, Places, and Events That Made the Movement.

Doreen Weisenhaus is a senior lecturer and director of the Media Law and Policy Initiative at Medill with a joint appointment at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law. Prior to joining Northwestern, she taught media law and ethics at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong (2000-2017) and directed the Media Law Project, an educational resource for students, scholars, lawyers, journalists and other media professionals.

Fran Scarlett is a strategy coach at Media Transformation Challenge, as well as a business coach at the Blue Engine Collaborative, which specializes in journalism sustainability and transformational change. She was previously the Chief Knowledge Officer at the Institute for Nonprofit News and a faculty member in the Cameron School of Business at UNC-Wilmington.

Professor, Knight Chair in Digital Media Strategy

Gilbert oversees the Knight Lab and focuses on experimental technologies/strategies for media companies, including AI for media. He founded the Data-Driven Reporting Project and the NextGenNews project. Previously, he was The Washington Post’s Director of Strategic Initiatives and National Geographic’s Deputy Editor, Digital.

Chief Nerd

Germuska runs Knight Lab’s technology, professional staff and extracurricular activity. Immediately before joining the lab, he was a founding member of the Chicago Tribune’s News Apps team. He is the founder and project lead of the Census Reporter project, a website designed to make Census data easy for journalists. He also serves on the board of City Bureau, a Chicago-based civic journalism lab. His technology background is balanced by his BA in African History and MS in Product Design and Development Management, both earned from Northwestern.

Research Associate

Volk manages, updates and analyzes the Medill Local News Initiative’s database of news organizations. A two-time Northwestern graduate (MS and BS in journalism, double major in statistics), he has previously worked at the Star Tribune, the Local News Accelerator and Northwestern Athletics.

Project C Founder

Nelson is a leader in journalism innovation, dedicated to helping independent journalists and media creators build sustainable careers in a rapidly evolving media landscape. With a background in newsroom leadership, digital media strategy and creator economy expertise, Liz has worked across the journalism ecosystem — supporting reporters and journalism creators across mediums, advising media startups and collaborating with major institutions on the future of independent journalism. As the founder of Project C, a concept she developed during her 2024 Sulzberger Fellowship at Columbia University’s Graduate School of journalism, she is focused on empowering journalists to embrace new models, find sustainable revenue and create impactful work outside of traditional media structures. Prior to Project C, Liz led teams at Vox, USA Today, Gannett and AOL.

Mike has been a lecturer in data and digital journalism at the University of Illinois Chicago for the past decade and is the lead trainer for the ONA/ Microsoft AI in Journalism program and the RTDNA Google News Initiative training program. He also owns Penny Press Digital, LLC, a digital consulting company. Mike has trained more than 14,000 journalists, students and teachers in digital tools since 2016, speaking at conferences, journalism schools and in newsrooms in 42 states. He has done more than 495 trainings in the Google program and dozens more for other clients such as Gannett, the Dow Jones News Fund, RTDNA, Report for America, the Carter Center for Mental Health Journalism and many more.

Reid Williams is a co-founder and board member of The Local Journalism Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)3 public charity reimagining local news as a service that improves community outcomes, civic engagement and equity. As a core program, the LJF operates NowKalamazoo, a nonprofit and independent newsroom, where Reid serves as a reporter, photographer, editor, and co-leader of the organization’s development. Reid’s career in journalism and media spans 25 years, including 12 years with Gannett and USA TODAY.

Research Associate

Bose is responsible for the data analysis and design portion of the State of Local News Report, coordinating the management, updating, and analysis of the newspaper, bright spots, and ethnic media databases. She is a Medill School of Journalism graduate with a degree in Media Innovation and Content Strategy. Before her current role, Bose worked as a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lawyer in India, specializing in the Fin-Tech and Retail sectors.

Professor and Associate Dean of Research

Edgerly specializes in audience insight, conducting research into how features of new media alter the way people consume news and how new media affects political engagement. She is a Faculty Associate at Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research.

Stephen Hersh is Adjunct Lecturer (retired Senior Lecturer) in the Medill IMC Professional program, where he teaches Consumer Insight. His areas of expertise include brand strategy, brand advertising, and psychoanalytic psychology.

Dr. William Towns is an adjunct professor and Co-Director of the ASCEND National Cohort at the Kellogg School of Management. He specializes in social impact, urban development, public-private partnerships and equitable community development. He’s raised over 00 million to reverse economic disparities and racial discrimination in the Chicago region.

Director – State of Local News Project

Metzger leads the State of Local News Project at Medill, overseeing the data collection, analysis and reporting on the landscape of local news. He previously researched local news at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, where he completed his PhD in 2024. Before joining the State of Local News Project, Metzger worked as a data analyst in the environmental industry.