Diversity and Media

J.A. Adande has more than three decades of experience in sports media, including stops at ESPN, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and the Chicago Sun-Times. He has produced content for online, TV, radio, podcasts and (once upon a time) newspapers. He was the editor for the Year's Best Sports Writing 2022 collection.

Danielle Robinson Bell's expertise is strategic communications with a lens on culture, community, equity, and inclusion.

Chris Benson's work is situated at the intersection of critical race theory, narrative theory, and media studies. His work focuses on social issues we are confronting in areas of stereotypes, hate speech, symbolic representation (e.g. nooses, swastikas, burning crosses, memorials) and media responsibility in clarifying meaning.

Elise De Los Santos is an editor with experience in both traditional and new media. She was executive editor of RedEye, the Chicago Tribune’s publication for millennials, and was an editor on the Tribune's copy desk and audience team, editing stories for print and online publication.

Stephanie Edgerly's research explores how features of new media alter the way people consume news and impact engagement, particularly among youth and young adults. She is interested in the mixing of news and entertainment content, how individuals and groups create and share news over social media, and how audiences selectively consume media.

Ava Greenwell's research centers on the history and experiences of Black women television news leaders and the intersectional nature of Blackness, femaleness and journalism.

Mei-Ling Hopgood, author of Lucky Girl and How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm (Algonquin), has won awards for investigative journalism, travel reporting and writing. She is an expert in reporting and multilingual and international storytelling and narrative. She also works on improving diversity and equity in higher education, newsrooms, and coverage.

Reynaldo Morales’ research centers on the strategic intersection of media and education for the recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ territorial, political, environmental, cultural and human rights. He also studies the contributions of World Indigenous Peoples’ Traditional Knowledge on the implementation of the global Sustainable Development Goals.

Larry Stuelpnagel is a former political journalist. He is experienced with the economic and social pressures that impact the news that the public receives. He focuses on the lack of diversity in news staffing and how that impacts reporting on racial and economic issues.

Steven W. Thrasher's research uses journalistic and social science methods to study the intersection of LGBTQ history, racism, policing, incarceration, health disparities and HIV/AIDS. His most recent research focuses on the criminalization of HIV/AIDS and the Black Lives Matter movement in Missouri.

Michelle F. Weinberger's research uses a socio-cultural lens to understand the relationship between consumption activities, marketplace institutions, social relations, and inequality, examining substantive contexts such as collective rituals, gift giving, experiential consumption, and crowdfunding.

Charles Whitaker is an expert in diversity in media, media business models, and magazine reporting and publishing. His research has also focused on media coverage of education policy and pedagogy.