Announcing our CJS2025 keynotes: Impactful journalism that changes lives
From Joe Amditis and Stefanie Murray
We’re thrilled to announce two powerful keynote sessions for the 2025 Collaborative Journalism Summit that embody our theme “Partnerships with a purpose: Collaborations that produce positive community impact.”
First, we’re happy to welcome Ayanna Watkins and Wendi Thomas from MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, one of the country’s leading nonprofit news organizations that reports at the intersection of poverty, power, and policy in Memphis. MLK50’s courageous reporting has erased nearly $12 million in medical debt for impoverished patients, increased wages for the lowest-paid minimum wage hospital workers, and stopped a private-equity-owned doctor’s group from unscrupulous medical collections lawsuits.
If that isn’t an example of direct, positive community impact, we don’t know what is!
Wendi and Ayanna will share how they think about serving the people of Memphis, community impact, and collaboration.
Wendi is the founding editor and publisher of MLK50. Before launching the nonprofit, she worked at daily papers in Memphis, Charlotte, Nashville, and Indianapolis. Her 2019 investigation into a hospital’s aggressive debt collection practices led the hospital to erase nearly $12 million in debt for more than 5,300 defendants. Thomas is the winner of the 2020 Selden Ring Award, the 2022 recipient of the Freedom of the Press Local Champion Award from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the 2023 winner of the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence.
Ayanna has worked in and led in the nonprofit sector for more than 20 years, as a social worker, clergyperson, and community organizer. She is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and was a contributing columnist for The Christian Century magazine for six years. In 2019, Ayanna became the first Lead Organizer and Executive Director of MICAH — Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope — heading up the community organization for its first five years.
Our second keynote will focus on mutual aid (not journalism!) as we welcome the folks behind Appalachia Relief, which originally launched as Asheville Relief following Hurricane Helene’s devastating impact on Western North Carolina.
Appalachia Relief empowers “ordinary people with open-source tech for crowdsourced mutual aid and disaster relief.” After Hurricane Helene hit, people in the area couldn’t access basic resources, and information flow ground to a halt. A small group of volunteers got together to figure out this question: What needed to be done to get critical information by and for impacted communities out there?
The group developed a “lightweight website driven by Google Docs that could be easily accessed and navigated by folks with minimal cell and internet service.” In the first six weeks, more than 100,000 people used the platform for information about food, water, supplies, shelter, transportation, disaster recovery resources, and more. We think there’s a lot journalists can learn from this effort, and seek to replicate in their daily work or disaster planning.
Appalachia Relief Executive Director Micah Spain and a co-presenter will share more about how the organization has evolved and how journalists and storytellers can be integral parts of such mutual aid efforts.
Micah’s strategic oversight and behind-the-scenes coordination continue to be pivotal in the ongoing effort to house displaced individuals and families, as they work to link local relief initiatives and broader community networks. They are a dedicated advocate for social justice and community empowerment, with expertise in conflict management, organizational structure, and facilitation. Drawing on their experience organizing regional Burning Man events, Micah brings invaluable crisis management skills and a unique perspective on creating temporary infrastructure in high-pressure situations.
These two keynotes perfectly highlight what we mean by partnerships with purpose — journalism collaborations that create tangible, positive outcomes in their communities.
We plan to announce the rest of the schedule for the 2025 Collaborative Journalism Summit in the coming few weeks. If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, you can register here. This year’s conference at Delta Hotels Denver Thornton and our block of rooms is $139 a night, so grab one of those before they sell out, too!
This year’s conference is presented by the Gates Family Foundation and also supported by funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Inasmuch Foundation, Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri, and The Lenfest Institute.
We hope to see you May 15–16 in Denver as we explore how journalism partnerships can drive meaningful change in our communities!
Questions? Email the Center at summit@collaborativejournalism.org.
👋 Want to learn more about collaborative journalism
Sign up for our biweekly newsletter or visit collaborativejournalism.org
Joe Amditis is the assistant director of operations at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. Contact him at amditisj@montclair.edu or on Twitter at @jsamditis.
Stefanie Murray is the director of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. Contact her at murrayst@montclair.edu.
About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a primarily grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism and support an informed society in New Jersey and beyond. The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, the Independence Public Media Foundation, Rita Allen Foundation, Inasmuch Foundation and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. For more information, visit centerforcooperativemedia.org.
