These are the presenters for the 2025 conference.
Katy Culver
Director, School of Journalism and Mass Communication; Professor; James E. Burgess Chair in Journalism Ethics; Director, Center for Journalism Ethics, University of Wisconsin
Long interested in the implications of digital media on journalism and public communication, Culver focuses on the ethical dimensions of social tools, technological advances and networked information. She combines these interests with a background in law and free expression. She also serves as visiting faculty for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and was the founding editor of PBS MediaShift’s education section. Culver’s current work explores emerging technologies, such as virtual reality, drones and sensors, and how their use in news affects both ethics and journalism’s relationship with the public. She has examined journalism ethics during the Trump presidency and ideologically driven free expression controversies on college campuses.
Mark E. Johnson
Principal Lecturer of Photojournalism and Chief Technology Officer, College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia
Mark E. Johnson is the principal lecturer of photojournalism and chief technology officer at the University of Georgia’s College of Journalism and Mass Communication, where he has taught since 2005. Johnson directs multiple experiential workshops, including the Woodall Weekend Workshop which brings students into rural Georgia counties to work on in depth photo stories and has lead student reporting trips at the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia, the 2018 Department of Defense Warrior Games and the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. He has been on the visiting faculty at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, directs the National Press Photographers Association Best of Photojournalism competition and oversees renovation projects for the college.
Al Tompkins
Former Senior Faculty for Broadcast and Online, The Poynter Institute
Al Tompkins brings 53 years of journalism experience to his teaching and coaching. He is an author, journalist, teacher and his client list includes NBC News, CNN, The Weather Channel, CBC, CTV, Global News, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, CBS News, and dozens of local news stations and station groups including TEGNA, Gray, Scripps, Sinclair, Univision and Telemundo. Al has taught journalists in every state and in Egypt, Ecuador, Japan, Canada, Caymans, Iceland, Denmark and South Africa.
Jason Begay
Associate Professor, University of Montana School of Journalism
Jason Begay has been teaching at the University of Montana School of Journalism for almost 16 years, where he directs the Native News Honors Project. The project has sent journalism students to Montana’s reservations for almost 35 years to produce in-depth news packages on how news trends affect the state’s tribes. Begay has worked as a reporter for several news outlets including the New York Times, the Oregonian and the Navajo Times. He is a former president of the Native American Journalists Association and National Editor for ICT (formerly known as Indian Country Today).
Emma Cabrera
Project Manager, University of Wisconsin-Madison Deliberation Dinners
Emma Cabrera is the project manager of the UW-Deliberation Dinner, an initiative that brings together UW-Madison undergraduates with diverse ideological perspectives to deliberate on important political issues. She was a social studies teacher in Chicago Public Schools and the Madison Metropolitan School District. In addition, Cabrera taught English in South Korea and Japan, and was a staffer in the U.S. Senate. Cabrera is an alumna of UW-Madison who earned a BA in political science and philosophy in 2014 and a master’s in 2018 from the highly ranked Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
Flora Charner
Professor of Practice in Journalism, Texas A&M University
Flora Charner is an Emmy award-winning journalist with 20 years of experience covering national and international news for broadcast, digital and print publications. She joined the journalism faculty at Texas A&M University in August 2024 as a Professor of Practice after working at CNN for nearly a decade, where she was most recently Director of Coverage for the International Newsgathering unit based in the network’s Atlanta headquarters. Before joining CNN, Charner held writer and producer roles at Al Jazeera English, America’s Quarterly and Associated Press Television in Brazil and Washington DC.
Mariano Castillo
Professor of Practice in Journalism, Texas A&M University
Mariano Castillo is a professor of practice in journalism at Texas A&M University. In addition to news writing and editing, Mariano’s areas of interest include media literacy, misinformation, ethics, and reporting on immigration and Latin America. Before joining the Department of Communication and Journalism, Mariano was a senior director of standards and practices at CNN. Previously, Mariano was a writer and editor for CNN Digital, where his area of focus was coverage of Latin America for U.S. audiences.
Alex Garcia
Director and Founder, Three Story Media
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer/director Alex Garcia is a former staff photojournalist at the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times who has transitioned to the larger world of visual storytelling. He founded a company called Three Story Media, which specializes in stories of the human condition, while mantaining his roots in the documentary world. He has taught in the graduate program of Northwestern University Medill journalism school and the School of Visual Arts-NY. He also served on the board of the National Press Photographers Association.
Kyndell Harkness
Head of Culture and Community, Minnesota Star Tribune
Kyndell Harkness is Head of Culture and Community at the Minnesota Star Tribune. Her cultural transformation work started in the newsroom after the murder of George Floyd. Before this new role, Harkness coordinated on-the-ground coverage of the George Floyd protests as well as ensuring that picture selection kept community impact in mind. Because of that work, she was awarded the Jim Gordon Editor of the Year award and Newspaper Editor of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association as well as being a part of the Star Tribune team that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news.
Lisa Krantz
Assistant Professor, University of Montana School of Journalism
Lisa Krantz, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the University of Montana School of Journalism. She was a newspaper photographer for 24 years before pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Missouri. Her research explores how journalists cover stories involving trauma, particularly mass shootings, from the perspectives of victims’ families, survivors, community members, and journalists themselves. She continues to work as a visual journalist and was part of The Washington Post team that won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for “American Icon,” a series about the AR-15. She is also a two-time Pulitzer finalist in Feature Photography.
Nicole Kraft
Associate Professor of Journalism Practice, The Ohio State University
Nicole Kraft is an associate professor of journalism practice at Ohio State University and director of the Sports & Society Initiative. She teaches news, sports and feature writing; and media law and ethics. Nicole is author of “Always Get the Name of the Dog: A Guide to Media Interviewing” and “Writing Fabulous Features.” She and Kathleen Culver edited “Teaching Media Ethics,” released in 2024. An award-winning sports writer, she covers the Columbus Blue Jackets and Ohio State sports for the Associated Press, sports media for Forbes.com, and horseracing for the Columbus Dispatch. Nicole was the 2024 Scripps-Howard Teacher of the Year. In 2022 she earned Ohio State’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Journalism Educators of America’s Linda S. Puntney Teacher Inspiration Award.
Frank LoMonte
Newsroom Legal Counsel, CNN
Frank LoMonte is newsroom legal counsel at CNN, where he has advised the network’s 3,000 worldwide journalists since February 2022. He joined CNN after four years as director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida, where he launched the quarterly Journal of Civic Information. LoMonte previously spent nine years as executive director of the nonprofit Student Press Law Center, practiced with Atlanta-based Sutherland Asbill LLP, clerked for two federal judges, and taught at his alma mater, the University of Georgia School of Law, where he remains an adjunct instructor.
Todd Lundberg
Associate Director, Center for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring, University of Wisconsin-Madison Political reporter
Todd Lundberg coordinates the Campus Partner Engagement Group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring. In this role, he leads a team of educational consultants and developers who collaborate with instructors and departments to enhance student learning by transforming courses and curricula. With 30 years of experience in public higher education, Lundberg has served as a teacher, curriculum designer, faculty developer, administrator, and researcher. While his primary focus is supporting instructors, he also teaches written communication at Milwaukee Area Technical College whenever possible.
Sue Robinson
Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Sue Robinson, Ph.D. (Temple University) is the Helen Firstbrook Franklin Professor of Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism & Mass Communication. A former reporter—still in recovery—she now researches, teaches, and consults on topics including news production, power dynamics in information flows, race and media, media ecologies, qualitative methods, journalism education, digital technologies, identities, and care. Robinson is the author of three books: How Journalists Engage: A Theory of Trust Building, Identities, and Care (2023, Oxford), News After Trump: Journalism’s Crisis of Relevance in a Changed Media Culture (2021, Oxford), and Networked News, Racial Divides: How Power and Privilege Shape Public Discourse in Progressive Communities (2018, Cambridge).