Symposium: How the News Media Can Regain Public Trust

2026 Speakers, Panelists and Moderators

Keynote Speaker: Congressman Adam Kinzinger

Congressman Adam Kinzinger served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (2011-2022), representing Illinois’ 16th Congressional District, serving on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he was ranking member of the Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy and the Environment in the 116th Congress. He was one of only two Republicans on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

Kinzinger founded the Country First movement, which has grown to more than 100,000 members. His memoir, Renegade, was a New York Times bestseller.

From 2011 to 2022, Kinzinger represented Illinois’ 16th Congressional District, serving on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he was ranking member of the Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy and the Environment in the 116th Congress.

Before Congress, Kinzinger served in the U.S. Air Force, including deployments in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. He later served as a pilot in the Air National Guard, retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 2023.

Keynote Speaker: Congressman Joseph Kennedy III 

Congressman Joseph Kennedy III was U.S. Representative for Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district from 2013-2021. Kennedy currently is the president of Citizens Energy, a diversified renewable energy non-profit dedicated to making clean energy more accessible and affordable. Since 1979, Citizens has helped low-income families and disadvantaged communities meet their basic needs, including utility bills. It has provided over $600 million in charitable benefits since its founding.

Kennedy is also the founder of Groundwork Project, a political advocacy organization dedicated to supporting local community organizing efforts in historically under-resourced and disenfranchised regions of the country. Most recently, he was U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs for President Joe Biden, a diplomatic post through which he focused on the long-standing U.S. commitment to peace, prosperity and stability throughout the region. Kennedy is a former Peace Corps member, legal aid volunteer and assistant district attorney.

Moderator: Justin Bargona

Justin Bargona is currently a media columnist for Zeteo and the author of the weekly newsletter ‘Ragebait,’ which focuses on the right-wing industrial outrage complex and the landscape between media and politics. He previously served as a senior reporter for The Independent and the senior media reporter for The Daily Beast. He’s also worked for Mediaite as a correspondent and was the founder and editor of the media and culture site Contemptor. Justin makes his home in St. Louis with his wife, two cats and dog. 

Speaker: Rufus Friday

Rufus Friday is a veteran media executive and nonprofit leader dedicated to restoring public trust in journalism. He serves as the inaugural Executive Director of the Center for Integrity in News Reporting (CFINR), appointed in December 2024, where he leads national efforts to reduce bias and promote impartial, ethical reporting. Friday previously served as President and Publisher of the Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader (2011–2018) and earlier as President and Publisher of the Tri-City Herald (2005-2011) in Washington State.

His career spans more than four decades in news media, including executive leadership roles across multiple U.S. markets. He has also held senior leadership positions at the Kentucky Community and Technical College System and as Executive Director of the Hope Center in Lexington. A graduate of North Carolina State University, where he played football, Friday holds a B.A. in Business Management and Economics and received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of the Cumberlands. He and his wife Melody live near Lexington, Kentucky.

Panelist: Sarah Gamard

Sarah Gamard is a program manager for the Center for Community News, specializing in strengthening local news across the U.S. via university-led news partnerships. Before, she covered government and politics for news outlets in Louisiana, Maryland in Delaware. She lives in New Orleans, where she was raised.

Moderator: Steve L. Herman

Steve L Herman is a veteran news correspondent, whose positions included White House bureau chief and chief national correspondent of the Voice of America. He is the inaugural executive director of the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation and an assistant professor of practice in the School of Journalism & New Media at the University of Mississippi. Steve spent more than a quarter of a century in Asia, including years of reporting from Tokyo and subsequently as a VOA correspondent and bureau chief in India, South Korea and Thailand. Steve also served in 2016 as VOA's senior diplomatic correspondent, based at the State Department, traveling internationally with Secretary of State John Kerry.

He has covered in the field the past three consecutive U.S. presidential elections. Steve has been a Kiplinger Fellowship in Climate Change Reporting and was the 2022-23 JURIST Journalist in Residence. He is now on the board of directors of the National Press Club Journalism Institute. He also serves on the board of directors of the award-winning non-profit JURIST news service, which is run by law school students and is headquartered at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Steve was a First Cohort of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. He is also a East West Center media alumnus.

Introducer: Andrea Hickerson, Ph.D.

Andrea Hickerson, Ph.D., is dean and professor in the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi. Previously, she was an associate dean in the College of Information and Communications and the director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina. Before that, she served as director of the School of Communication at Rochester Institute of Technology. Hickerson conducts research on journalism routines with an emphasis on technology use. She is part of an interdisciplinary team building a deepfake video detection tool for journalists that has received support from the National Science Foundation and the Knight Foundation. She has been awarded over $1 million in external research awards. She has a B.A. from Syracuse University in Journalism and International relations; an M.A. in Journalism and an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin; and a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Washington.

Panelist: Graeme Joffe

Graeme Joffe is an internationally respected sports journalist, broadcaster, and investigative reporter whose career has spanned more than three decades and multiple continents. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and now based in Hilton Head, South Carolina, Joffe first gained global recognition as a sports anchor for CNN International in Atlanta from 1992 to 1999. Following his time at CNN, he founded Butterbean Productions in South Africa, producing documentary series and covering major global sporting events, including the Sydney Olympic Games. He also served as a breakfast radio sports presenter on 94.7 Highveld Stereo and co-founded Township TV, a social responsibility media initiative.

Beginning in 2012, Joffe became widely known as an investigative sports journalist and whistleblower, exposing corruption within South African sport — work that ultimately forced him to leave the country in 2013. He later launched SportsFire Daily, a digital sports publication, and authored Sport: Greed & Betrayal, detailing his experiences confronting misconduct in professional athletics. Today, Joffe continues to speak publicly about integrity in sport and media while working as a pickleball and tennis professional in Hilton Head.

Introducer: Jerry Jordan

Jerry Jordan is a former University of Mississippi professor, entrepreneur and philanthropist whose work has had a lasting impact on education, the arts and journalism. Alongside his wife, Jean, he co-founded the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation in 2024 through a transformative $4 million matching gift, driven by a shared commitment to combating misinformation and strengthening public trust in media.

During their 21 years at Ole Miss, the Jordans led the nationally recognized Ole Miss Concert Singers, earning international acclaim for their choral program. Beyond academia, Jordan also co-founded and grew the telecommunications company NetVoice, later expanding into real estate and other business ventures after retiring from the university.

Panelist: Kathy Kiely

Kathy Kiely is a veteran reporter and editor with a multimedia portfolio and a passion for transparency, free speech and teaching. After a long career covering politics in Washington, Kiely moved into the classroom full-time because, she says, universities are the laboratories that will discover the formula for making fact-based journalism viable again. A 2017-18 journalism lecturer at the University of New Hampshire, Kiely has also taught at American University, George Washington University and Princeton University. As the inaugural Press Freedom Fellow for the National Press Club‘s nonprofit Journalism Institute, Kiely has organized events around free speech issues and advocated for journalists who have been jailed or threatened for their work, most notably Emilio Gutierrez-Soto, a Press Club award winner released in Aug. of 2018 by U.S. immigration officials. Barbara Cochran, the School’s Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Reporting, heads the Journalism Institute.

Kiely’s reporting and editing career includes stints as a Web producer for WAMU-FM, and as an editor for Bill Moyers and for Bloomberg Politics. She is an interdisciplinary team builder: At the Sunlight Foundation, she worked with reporters, designers, developers and policy advocates to press for more access to government data and create web-based tools that made it more user-friendly. At the National Journal, she worked with counterparts at CBS News to train and supervise a multimedia team covering 2012 presidential campaign. Kiely covered Congress and national politics for USA TODAY, headed Washington bureaus for The Houston Post and The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, was a White House correspondent for the New York Daily News and a general assignment reporter and Washington correspondent for The Pittsburgh Press. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, a master’s degree from American University and was a Knight Fellow at Stanford University. 

Speaker: Ellen E. McCarthy

The Honorable Ellen E. McCarthy is Chairwoman and CEO of the Truth in Media Cooperative and Noodle Labs and serves on multiple advisory boards, including SAP NS2, Fortem Technologies, Exiger, and Babel Street, providing expertise in cybersecurity, innovation, and leadership.

A national security executive with more than 30 years of experience, she most recently served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2019. In that role, she led intelligence integration across the State Department and supported foreign policy and national security decision-making worldwide. Previously, she was Chief Operating Officer of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, where she helped drive organizational transformation, advance agile governance, and strengthen public-private partnerships. She also held senior leadership positions at the Department of Defense and the U.S. Coast Guard, shaping intelligence policy, workforce development, and maritime intelligence operations.

Ms. McCarthy has also led and advised private-sector and nonprofit organizations supporting the Intelligence Community. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Maryland.

Moderator: Ellen Meacham

Ellen Meacham is a journalist, author, and part-time journalism instructor at her alma mater, the University of Mississippi. An award-winning reporter for more than two decades across Mississippi, South Carolina, and Louisiana, she is the author of Delta Epiphany: Robert F. Kennedy in Mississippi. A fellow of the American Association of Newspaper Editors, her work has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, USA Today, and The Clarion-Ledger.

A Tennessee native and longtime Mississippi resident, she holds a master’s degree in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi. Her reporting and teaching have given her deep insight into the culture, politics, and people of the South.

Panelist: Wes Muller

Wes Muller is a staff writer and founding member of the nonprofit Louisiana Illuminator, a States Newsroom outlet. He covers politics, energy, economics and environment. Wes has worked as a professional journalist for 15 years across Louisiana and Mississippi, but he traces his journalism roots back to age 13 when he built a news website for his New Orleans neighborhood using a dial-up modem.

The site had one advertiser and monthly revenue of $20. Since then, he has freelanced for the Times-Picayune and worked on staff at Baton Rouge's CBS affiliate, the (Biloxi) Sun Herald and the (McComb) Enterprise-Journal. He also taught English as an adjunct instructor at Baton Rouge Community College. Wes is a New Orleans native, Jesuit High School alumnus, University of New Orleans alumnus and a U.S. Army veteran and former paratrooper. He lives in Louisiana with his wife and kids.

Panelist: André Natta

André Natta is the Executive Director of the Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism and serves as executive editor of its online news organization, BirminghamWatch. A journalist and columnist, Natta explores how regional journalism can empower communities to improve their environments while examining the role culture plays in defining and sustaining regional identity.

Previously, Natta held leadership roles at the MuckRock Foundation and served as project editor for Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting initiative on economic mobility for Resolve Philly. His work has focused on urban revitalization, the digital transformation of news, and diversity in journalism, including contributions to a regular column for The Poynter Institute.

He has reported and led digital strategy efforts for NPR member station WBHM and for the Southern Education Desk, a multistate local journalism collaborative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Natta was also one of the organizers of #wjchat, a weekly online conversation about digital journalism that ran for more than seven years. In 2007, he founded The Terminal, an online publication chronicling Birmingham’s growth and progress.

Moderator: Marshall Ramsey

Marshall Ramsey is the Director of Civic Engagement for the Mississippi Media Lab and an Assistant Professor of Practice. He is also an award-winning syndicated editorial cartoonist, author, former radio host and sought-after public speaker. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, his work has appeared in more than 450 newspapers nationwide and on multiple cable networks. Known for blending humor with insight, Ramsey has built a large following across social media platforms.

 A cancer survivor, he has been recognized by the Melanoma Research Foundation and the American Cancer Society for his advocacy, education and fundraising efforts. He is the author of Fried Chicken & Wine and has illustrated numerous books, including several children’s titles for financial expert Dave Ramsey. His former radio program, The Marshall Ramsey Show, earned strong ratings during its run, and he continues to emcee and speak at major corporate and cultural events, including the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra’s Pepsi Pops.

Moderator: Marquita Smith

Marquita Smith is this Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Media and Communication in the School of Journalism and New Media at Ole Miss. She has a background in journalism and worked in various newsrooms in Alabama, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi and Virginia for 16 years. Her last newsroom position was Virginia Beach bureau chief at The Virginian-Pilot. In 2008, Smith went on leave from The Pilot to complete a Knight International Journalism Fellowship in Liberia. During her time in West Africa, she created a judicial and justice reporting network. Both networks continue to operate in the post-war country today. Smith, selected as a Fulbright Scholar in Ghana for the 2016-2017 academic year, is passionate about teaching and researching in West Africa.

In 2012, Smith, an associate professor, was named to the JournalismDegree.org list of Top 50 Journalism Professors. Prior to moving to Oxford, Smith served as the Communication and Fine Arts Division Chair and Coordinator of Diversity Relations at John Brown University. She is a past chair for AEJMC’s Commission on the Status of Minorities and a past member of the national organization’s board of directors. Her research interests focus on media development, public health communications and topics on teaching and learning and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Panelist: Chris R. Vaccaro

Chris R. Vaccaro is a media executive, author, educator, and the 109th national president of the Society of Professional Journalists. He serves as Vice President of Digital Technology and Communications at Ark Technology Consultants in New York and has taught sports journalism, digital media, ethics, and sports culture at Hofstra University for more than 16 years, where he also led the graduate journalism program.

A two-time Emmy and nine-time Edward R. Murrow Award winner, Vaccaro has worked in senior roles at News 12 Networks, Topps, the New York Daily News, and AOL, and has written for outlets including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, ESPN, and The Associated Press. He is the author of 10 books and a Fulbright Specialist recognized for his leadership, scholarship, and service to journalism.

Panelist: Vivian S. Walker

The former Executive Director of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, Vivian S. Walker is Practitioner in Residence at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Chair of the Foreign Service Journal Editorial Board, the co-editor of the Palgrave Macmillan Series in Global Public Diplomacy, Adjunct Professor in Georgetown University’s MSFS degree program, and a Faculty Fellow at the Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California.

Previously, she taught at the Central European University's School of Public Policy, the National War College in Washington, D.C., and the National Defense College of the UAE. As a career Foreign Service Officer with the Department of State, she rose to the senior rank of Minister Counselor. She twice served as a Deputy Chief of Mission (Croatia and Armenia), twice as an Office Director (Southeastern European Affairs and the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy for Europe), a Public Affairs Officer (Kazakhstan, with coverage of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan), a Cultural Affairs officer (Tunisia) and an Information Officer (Haiti). Other assignments include a two-year professorship in strategic studies at the National War College, a yearlong assignment as the State Department’s Regional Border Coordinator in Afghanistan, and a fellowship on the US Atlantic Council, where she led the first interagency discussion on public diplomacy in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Panelist: Clayton Weimers

Clayton Weimers is the Executive Director of RSF USA, the North American branch of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). He oversees an office that depends press freedom across the English-speaking Americas and advances RSF's global priorities to advocate for journalists and everyone's right to information. His writing on press freedom has appeared in publications such as the Guardian, Newsweek, The Hill, and the Independent. He originally joined RSF USA as its Deputy Director for Advocacy after a career in political campaigns. He holds an AM in International Relations from the University of Chicago and a BA from Pitzer College.

Moderator: Patsy Widakuswara

Patsy Widakuswara is Voice of America's White House Bureau Chief. She brings with her over 27 years of broadcast experience as reporter, producer and anchor at leading radio and TV stations in Indonesia, the U.K. and the U.S. Patsy holds a bachelor's degree in International Relations from the University of Indonesia and a master's in Journalism from Goldsmiths College, University of London. She lives in Washington with her son.