Sponsored by CNN

The inaugural ONA15 CNN Diversity Fellowship recognizes digital journalists from diverse backgrounds with experience reporting for mobile and social platforms. Fellows were chosen for their passion for creative storytelling, their experience in producing and curating mobile and social news and an understanding of how to build community content and engagement.

Supported by CNN, five winners will receive all-expenses-paid trips to the ONA conference in Los Angeles Sept. 24-26 to participate in one-on-one networking and mentoring events.

2015 CNN Diversity Fellows

John Ketchum
Engagement Editor,
The Center for Public Integrity
@Ketchcast

John is a digital journalist who is committed to telling stories on social and mobile platforms. As engagement editor at CPI, John’s job is to determine which platforms are best suited for certain stories. Prior to coming to CPI, John helped launch the Wealth and Poverty Desk at Marketplace – the national radio program covering business and the economy. In this role, it was John’s job to help determine new ways to reach diverse audiences and get them to engage with content. After a two-year stint at Marketplace, John worked as a staff producer for NPR’s “Morning Edition.” where he produced content for broadcast, the web, and social platforms. Early in his career, John realized that content needed to be packaged in different ways so that a variety of people could benefit from it. He’s made making the news accessible and digestible for everyone his life’s mission. He hopes to use a CNN Diversity Fellowship to aid in that effort.

Hear more about John and his vision for the future of storytelling on mobile and social platforms.

Shefali Kulkarni
Social Media and Engagement Editor
Newsweek Magazine
@shefalikulkarni

Prior to her role at Newsweek Magazine, Shefali was the Digital Producer for Public Radio International’s The World radio program based out of WGBH. Her digital storytelling focused on immigrant communities as part of the show’s Global Nation section. Shefali also worked as a digital reporter for Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit news service in Washington D.C., where she covered a variety of health care policy stories, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 decision on Obamacare. She’s worked at The Daily Beast, Village Voice, Willamette Week and Washingtonian Magazine, as well, always keeping a focus on diverse news coverage. Shefali is a graduate of Beloit College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and is a board member of the South Asian Journalists Association. She is also a self-professed chocoholic.

Hear more about Shefali and her vision for the future of storytelling on mobile and social platforms.

Marian Liu
Online Entertainment Editor
Sun Sentinel
@marianliu

Marian runs the entertainment site SouthFlorida.com. She was an early adopter of new technology and was one of the first to blog, tweet and produce video in her newsrooms. She’s covered everything from music to medicine for The Seattle Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times, Oakland Tribune, Detroit Free Press and Source Magazine. She is dedicated to communicating the needs of the communities she represents: young, immigrant and female.

Helga Salinas
Social Media Producer
Los Angeles Times
@helga_salinas

Helga is on the Los Angeles Times audience engagement team. She has previously worked at GOOD Magazine as an Infographics and Data Visualization Editor, NPR on the Visuals Team and Univision for multimedia team La Huella Digital. She studied history and comparative literature at UCLA, after which she obtained her Master’s from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is a native Angeleno and grew up in Long Beach and Northridge.

Hear more about Helga and her vision for the future of storytelling on mobile and social platforms.

Taylor Shaw
Digital Content Producer
WATE-TV
@taylorcshaw

Taylor is a digital content producer at WATE-TV in Knoxville, Tenn. Her primary roles at the television station include managing social media content, directing digital initiatives and ensuring WATE.com and mobile platforms are constantly updated, focusing on breaking news. Before moving to Tennessee, Taylor was a video editor at the Investigative Reporting Workshop in Washington, D.C. while attending American University. She graduated in 2014 with a Master’s in journalism, specializing in broadcast. She covered her hometown, Durham, N.C., while reporting for the Triangle Tribune — the state’s only Sunday newspaper that specially targets African-Americans in Durham, Orange and Wake counties. Taylor graduated from Peace College (William Peace University) in Raleigh, N.C. with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication in 2012. Her professional interests include creative storytelling on mobile and social platforms, curating content for mobile web and building community through interaction.

Hear more about Taylor and her vision for the future of storytelling on mobile and social platforms.