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Fellows will benefit from interactive, hands-on sessions such as relationship building with reporters, improving editing technique, and of course, editing and managing via our signature Fault Lines framework.

Are you a newsroom editor or manager interested in growing your skills while building a diverse network of peers? The Maynard 200 Fellowship professional development program is for you. Led by the Maynard Institute’s Cultural Competency Director, Felecia D. Henderson, this year’s curriculum has been updated with a hyperfocus on the critical role editors and managers play in today’s newsrooms.

“There are not enough words to express how excited I am for this new iteration of Maynard 200,” says Felecia D. Henderson, who spent many years as a newsroom editor and manager. “We are responding to what we’ve heard from many news leaders who say training for middle managers is much needed. The 15 fellows selected will benefit from interactive, hands-on sessions such as relationship building with reporters, improving editing technique, and of course, editing and managing via our signature Fault Lines® framework. The goal is to produce more confident and effective editors and newsroom leaders.”

Skill-building curriculum rooted in current events

In 2024, the Maynard 200 Fellowship will focus on the professional development training and year-long mentorship for frontline editors and managers. The customized curriculum addresses the challenges editors and managers struggle with daily in a newsroom, especially those who have recently transitioned to higher leadership roles.

Training Week 1: Editing Leadership

Dates: March 11- 15, 2024

• Building trust and effective editing relationships
• Finding the heart of the story
• Hands-on editing & writing workshops
• Evaluating and coaching successful story pitches
• Mounting and managing major coverage projects
• DEI in Artificial Intelligence
• The Fault Lines® Framework: Fault Lines® in News Coverage
• Gallup Strengths Assessment & 1:1 Coaching

Training Week 2: Management Leadership

Dates: July 15 - 19, 2024

• Coaching Workshops: Success in Management & Effective Leadership
• Leading Difficult Conversations and Managing Conflict
• Managing through Authenticity
• Managing Up, Down and Across Generations
• Building Resilience & Mental Well-Being in Teams
• Negotiation Strategies
• Fault Lines® in Management

The program will also provide nuanced frameworks and cultural competency for fellows seeking guidance in covering the ongoing war and humanitarian crises in the Middle East; as well as political coverage for the consequential 2024 U.S. presidential elections.

About Felecia D. Henderson, Maynard 200 Executive-in-Residence

Since 2020, Henderson has trained nearly 250 print and broadcast news organizations on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging issues using Maynard’s signature Fault Lines® program. She also oversees the cultural competency curriculum for colleges and universities, and is a newsroom organizational change coach and consultant.

Prior to joining the institute, Henderson was Assistant Managing Editor at The Detroit News where she was a member of the senior management team responsible for newsroom operations. In 2009, she successfully co-facilitated the largest newsroom change initiative to transition the organization to a digital news, four-day single copy, two-day home delivery model.

She began her journalism career at her hometown newspaper, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, KY, graduated from the Maynard Institute’s Editing Program for Minority Journalists at the University of Arizona, and held editing roles at the Detroit Free Press and Cincinnati Post.

Henderson is a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists’ Visual Task Force. Locally, she was elected president and vice president-print of the Detroit NABJ. She currently serves an ex-officio member on the board of directors.

Henderson earned a bachelor’s degree in Radio-TV/Journalism from Murray State University, which named her a Distinguished Alumna in 2019, and a Master of Organization Development from Bowling Green State University. She holds certification in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University and is a certified Emotional Intelligence practitioner from RocheMartin, an international leadership development organization.

About the Maynard 200 Fellowship

Maynard 200 is the cornerstone program advancing the Maynard Institute’s efforts to expand the diversity pipeline in news media and dismantle structural racism in its newsrooms. Since 2018, the Maynard Institute has trained media leaders, storytellers, editors, managers and entrepreneurs through the fellowship program. Maynard 200 is designed to sharpen skills, provide hands-on training as well as a one-to-one year-long mentorship, and build a community of peer support for diverse journalists. In 2024, the program returns with two weeks of in-person training rounds — specifically designed to support the success of newsroom editors and managers. Hosted by the Bob Schieffer College of Communication at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, the program will convene in March and July of 2024.

Maynard 200 is made possible thanks to the support of our generous funders Craig Newmark Philanthropies, The Hearthland Foundation and McClatchy.

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