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INN’s LEAD group talks nonprofit news leadership challenges ahead of INN Days 2019

July 1, 2019

INN’s LEAD cohort meets in Houston ahead of INN Days 2019. Photo by Michael Stravato.


A new leadership development cohort, serving senior leaders from INN members across the country, held its first meeting before INN Days 2019 in Houston, where group members participated in design thinking training and discussed common leadership challenges.

Six people were chosen for the LEAD cohort after INN received feedback that people who were outside the group targeted by its Emerging Leadership Council could also be served by mentorship and training. Five of them were able to come together at the conference.

“The group was formed because there were additional leaders further along in their careers that needed leadership and product development training when we announced the nomination for INN’s Emerging Leaders Council,” said INN’s Chief Knowledge Officer Fran Scarlett.

All of the participants were nominated by their INN member organizations for their strength in nonprofit news leadership.

The group includes Cassie Walker Burke, Chicago bureau chief at Chalkbeat; Ilan Greenberg, publisher and editorial director of Coda Story; Tanner Curl, development director at MinnPost; Marjorie Childress, deputy director of New Mexico In Depth; Indira Lakshmanan, executive editor at Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting; and Phayvanh Luekhamhan, director of business development, finance, and administration at VTDigger.

All except Luekhamhan met for a day of design thinking with Tran Ha of Tiny Collaborative, LLC ahead of the conference.

The entire group will meet virtually throughout the year to discuss leadership challenges and design thinking with peer group leader Kortney King, creative lead for custom content at Bloomberg Media Group in NYC, as well as with Ha.

The LEAD Council and Emerging Leaders Council is funded by the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation as part of a broader INN initiative to build leadership skills and to create a diverse talent pipeline in the nonprofit news industry. Read more about this initiative here.

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