Meet our Board members.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The JFP Board of Directors is made up of 15 dedicated volunteers with extensive experience in journalism, education, law, nonprofits and philanthropy.
Orage Quarles — Chair (Founding Board Member)
Sheila Solomon – Vice Chair (Founding Board Member)
George McCanless - Treasurer
Jim Boren – Secretary (Founding Board Member)
Teri Arvesu
Misty Avila
Jennifer Conklin
Sharif Durhams
Jim Goodmon
Anders Gyllenhaal (Founding Board Member)
Ashley I. Kissinger
Andy Pergam
Mizell Stewart III
Chris Turpin
Dalton Walker
Rusty Coats – Executive Director
Marc Fiol - Communications & Administrative Coordinator
Phelena Napper - Grants Manager
Journalism Funding Partners is an organization that is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a public charity under sections 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(l) of the Internal Revenue Code. We were approved by the IRS effective June 18, 2019. Our Employee Identifier Number (EIN) is 84-2968843.
Orage Quarles — Chair (Founding Board Member)
Orage Quarles III is the former publisher of The News & Observer in Raleigh and a national leader in the publishing industry. He retired in June 2016 after 16 years as the first African American president and publisher of The News & Observer. During his tenure, The N&O doubled its community papers from five to ten, launched a magazine and added an array of digital products. He began his career as a high school senior when he took an entry-level advertising job at The San Bernardino Sun. Fifteen years later, he became its advertising director. In 1987, he was named president and publisher of The Coloradoan in Fort Collins, Colorado, and a year later, was honored as Gannett’s Publisher of the Year. He was publisher at The Record in Stockton, California; The Herald in Rock Hill, South Carolina; and The Modesto Bee. He was chair of the Newspaper Association of America and an Associated Press board member for a decade. He serves on the boards of the Freedom Forum, the North Carolina History Museum and Dorothea Dix Park Conservancy.
Sheila Solomon – Vice Chair (Founding Board Member)
Sheila Solomon, formerly a senior consultant for the Democracy Fund, has been a reporter and editor for Newsday, The Charlotte Observer, the Daily Press and Chicago Tribune. At the Democracy fund, she helped lead an examination of Chicago’s journalism ecosystem in an effort to foster a more collaborative and sustainable media environment. She’s strategic alliance liaison at Rivet Radio in Chicago, a member of The News Literacy Project’s National Leadership Council, is chair of the board of City Bureau and is a judge for the National Headliner Awards.
Solomon has served on the adjunct faculty at Hampton University and Columbia College in Chicago. Awards include the Hall of Fame at Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University, Ida B. Wells Award from the National Association of Black Journalists and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Chicago Headline Club.
George McCanless – Treasurer
George McCanless became President & CEO of United Way of Central Georgia (UWCG) in January 2013 after a successful career in the newspaper industry, the last 5 of those as President & Publisher of The Telegraph in Macon, GA. Since becoming United Way CEO, he has overseen an organizational transformation to make greater strides in UWCG’s mission to build thriving communities and disrupt family poverty within Central Georgia. Under his leadership UWCG has increased and diversified its funding base while starting critical new initiatives.
In 2014 ReadUnited was created to address the alarmingly low percentage of children reading at grade level. That same year UWCG was selected as one of four Early Education Empowerment Zones by DECAL (Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning) to bring early childhood development initiatives First Steps and Parents as Teachers to the community. These programs continue as the base of UWCG’s Birth Through Eight Continuum of Care.
George is a graduate of Wake Forest University. He has served on numerous boards during his newspaper and United Way career, and currently serves as board chair for the Grand Opera House; board member of the Museum of Aviation, and the One Macon Steering Committee. He is currently serving a second term as President of the United Ways of Georgia State Association.
Jim Boren – Secretary (Founding Board Member)
Jim Boren, who leads the Institute for Media and Public Trust at California State University in Fresno, is a veteran editor and reporter. He moved to Fresno State in 2018 after a long career at The Fresno Bee, where he was political editor, opinion page editor and finally executive editor and senior vice president.
He is a member of the American Society of News Editors and served as a Pulitzer Prize juror in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, he was honored with the Ethical Leadership Award given by the Fresno State Ethics Center, the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Better Business Bureau. He was also awarded the Key to the City of Fresno for his long career in journalism and public service.
As a longtime political journalist, he covered national politics for the McClatchy Company, including presidential campaigns over four election cycles in the 1980s and 1990s.
Teri Arvesu
Teri Arvesu, the Vice President of Content for Univision Chicago Local Media, is a dynamic bilingual, bicultural media & communications executive with 25 years of experience in storytelling across platforms to achieve strategic business results and social impact. She is a 13-time Emmy Award winner, Edward R Murrow, Lisagor, and Studs Terkel recipient. In 2019, she was named one of Chicago United Business Leaders of Color; in 2016, she was named in Crain’s Chicago 40 Under 40, and in 2017 Chicago Magazine Emerging Leaders. She has worked tirelessly to advance diversity for minorities and women in the industry and in the community.
Teri holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a Master of Science in Management. In 2007, she was selected to be a McCormick Tribune Fellow at Northwestern University.
Under her leadership, Univision Chicago became the first Spanish language television station in that market to be awarded the Emmy for Best Evening Newscast. She founded a fellowship with DePaul and the McCormick Foundation to train high school and college Latinos interested in media, and in 2015 launched the first Chicago radio show for bilingual millennials by bilingual millennials. She is the Executive Producer of 3 documentaries.
At Telemundo, Teri launched the local and national AM & Weekend Newscasts. Much of her career, Teri has been asked to pioneer launching new content efforts across media platforms. Teri serves on the Board of The Chicago Network, the city’s most prestigious female network, Chicago Ideas Brain Trust, DePaul College of Communication Dean’s Advisory Council, and the National Academy of Arts & Television Midwest Chapter Board. She is a mentor at 1871/IHCC incubator and is a co-founder and chair of Univision Miami & Chicago Women’s Leadership Council.
Misty Avila
Misty Avila is the Chief Impact Officer of the James B. McClatchy Foundation and currently serves as interim program director for the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. She cares deeply about the people in the Central Valley of California.
Misty brings over 15 years of nonprofit leadership, capacity building, and community organizing experience to her role. She is trained as a participatory design facilitator and has delivered over 100+ local and global convenings in multiple languages across 11 countries spanning issues of environment, immigration, women and children's advocacy, art and culture, and youth media.
Previously, she served as the Chief Administrative Officer for UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education and currently serves on the Board for Aspiration, Journalism Funding Partners, and the California School Age Consortium (CalSAC).
Misty is a proud Mom of two daughters and enjoys reading them local, bilingual news stories about their community and world.
Jennifer Conklin
Jennifer Conklin has been on the front lines of newsroom change and innovation across a number of highly respected news organizations since the turn of the millennia. A journalist by trade, a variety of roles has helped shape her view of an industry that she believes must never lose sight of its most cherished priority: public service. Jennifer is a proud Korean-American and has been an outspoken advocate for diversity in both staffing and news coverage throughout her 25+ year career.
Jennifer is Senior Director of Content Partnerships with Advance Local, managing relationships with content partners and helping to support efforts to increase diversity and inclusiveness in coverage of the communities its media outlets serve.
A strong advocate for mentorship and learning, Jennifer has developed a number of journalism education programs in partnership with local schools and community groups. She also developed “Our Children First” during her time on her newsroom’s editorial board in Florida, allowing the newsroom to work hand in hand with local youth to listen to their needs and help serve the children in the community.
Among her achievements, she is a graduate of the Asian American Journalists Association’s Executive Leadership Program and of the Maynard Media Academy at Harvard. She also has served as AAJA’s (Asian American Journalists Association) Florida chapter secretary.
She grew up in Asia, Europe and the U.S. and is a proud graduate of The University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism, where she earned degrees in Magazine and Newspaper Editorial as a Wooldridge Scholar. She is an avid fan of Jayhawks basketball.
Sharif Durhams
Sharif Durhams is a leading voice for diversity and inclusion in journalism and has led audience efforts at regional, national and international publishers. He is the managing editor of The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun in North Carolina, overseeing the day-to-day operations of a newsroom with 60 editors, reporters and visual journalists. He also serves as president of NLGJA — the Association of LGBTQ Journalists, which works from within the news industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of diverse communities. He has overseen award-winning audience teams at The Washington Post and CNN Digital is also a senior editor for news and alerting for CNN Digital.
Durhams also worked as a reporter at the Charlotte Observer and as the founding social media editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He was the first Black editor-in-chief at The University of North Carolina’s Daily Tar Heel, and he is the namesake of a leadership program to improve diversity in the leadership of the college publication. He is an instructor and former co-chairman of the Poynter-Washington Post Leadership Academy for Diversity in Digital Media.
Jim Goodmon
During his 45-year career Jim Goodmon has guided the explosive growth of Capital Broadcasting Company’s holdings and led the company’s expansion into satellite communications, new media, real estate and professional sports.
Known as a trailblazer and a pioneer, Goodmon explores new technology with passion and energy—always seeking out the latest and best methods of serving our audiences, clients and community partners. He holds a fierce dedication to the public interest, and all CBC divisions not only meet but exceed industry requirements and standards.
Goodmon led CBC and its stations into the digital age, gaining industry-wide recognition as a visionary whose stations constantly pushed the boundaries of technology. In 1996 the FCC granted the nation’s first experimental HDTV license to WRAL-TV, which was the first in a long line of CBC technological achievements in the field of high-definition television.
Jim Goodmon’s interests go well beyond broadcasting. Under his leadership, Capitol Broadcasting Company has expanded into real estate—developing the American Tobacco Historic District in Durham and turning it into an award-winning example of entrepreneurial restoration.
Durham is also home to another CBC-owned icon, the Durham Bulls. Jim Goodmon has always loved baseball, and in the early ‘90s CBC took over the most famous franchise in minor league baseball history. Under CBC ownership the Bulls have won championships, risen to Triple-A status, and set attendance records at the new ballpark that has become a centerpiece in downtown Durham.
Whether it’s broadcasting, real estate, new media or professional sports–Jim Goodmon is at the forefront of the industry. His leadership is based on principle, vision and a strong commitment to the community, and those ideals inspire the divisions of Capitol Broadcasting Company each and every day.
Anders Gyllenhaal (Founding Board Member)
Anders Gyllenhaal is a veteran journalist who has worked as a reporter, front-line editor, executive editor at several newspapers and as the McClatchy Company’s vice president for news.
Over four decades, he has worked in all levels of journalism, served as an industry leader and held positions with numerous national journalism organizations from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies to the Pulitzer Board. A graduate of George Washington University, he led newsrooms at The News & Observer in Raleigh, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis and the Miami Herald. In 2011, he was named vice president for McClatchy and oversaw editorial operations and the Washington bureau. He retired from the news vice president post with McClatchy in 2016, and now spends time writing about birds and the environment for newspapers around the country.
Ashley I. Kissinger
Ashley Kissinger is an experienced lawyer in the nationally acclaimed media and entertainment group of Ballard Spahr LLP. She has a nationwide practice defending complex defamation, invasion of privacy and copyright lawsuits filed against newspapers, broadcasters, film producers, magazines, and others. She fights for access to government and against government censorship, and she handles a variety of other First Amendment-related matters.
Ashley is licensed to practice law in California, Colorado, Texas, and Washington, DC, and she appears in state and federal courts around the country. She lives Colorado and is recognized as a Colorado Super Lawyer and, by 5280 magazine, as one of Denver’s Top Lawyers.
Mizell Stewart III
In more than three decades as a journalist, Mizell Stewart III has been an award-winning reporter, top newsroom editor in three states, radio and television broadcaster and corporate news executive. He is passionate about developing the next generation of newsroom leaders, community service and advancing the critical role journalists play in a democratic society.
Today, Stewart is Senior Director of Talent, Partnerships and News Strategy for Gannett and the USA TODAY Network, the largest local-to-national news network in the United States. He is an adjunct faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and the founder of Emerging Leaders, LLC, a leadership development consulting firm focused on mid-career professionals.
His prior roles include Chief Content Officer of Journal Media Group, Vice President / Content of the newspaper division of the E.W. Scripps Company and senior leadership posts at the Akron Beacon Journal, Evansville Courier & Press and Tallahassee Democrat. He also worked as a reporter and editor at the Dayton Daily News and Springfield News-Sun. A true multiplatform journalist, Stewart also was an on-air personality at WNIN-TV in Evansville, Indiana, and WIOT-FM in Toledo, Ohio.
A four-time Pulitzer Prize juror, Stewart helped lead the team at The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Mississippi, that won the 2006 Pulitzer Gold Medal in Public Service for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina. He is a past president of the American Society of News Editors and the current president of the American Society of News Editors Foundation. He is a frequent speaker and teacher on local journalism, leadership, newsroom diversity and community service at national journalism conferences and at colleges and universities throughout the U.S.
Stewart is a journalism graduate of Bowling Green State University and completed the Advanced Executive Program, a joint program of the Kellogg School of Business and the Medill School of Journalism, at Northwestern University. He also earned a master’s degree in Executive Leadership and Organizational Change from Northern Kentucky University, where he received the Distinguished Student Award.
His service to BGSU continued through membership on the Board of Student Publications and the Journalism Alumni Advisory Board. Today, he serves on the Board of Directors of the BGSU Alumni Association. He was inducted into BGSU’s Journalism Alumni Hall of Fame in 2007.
He was part of the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy, an initiative of the Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute. He also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University and on journalism advisory boards for the Gannett Foundation and the Scripps Howard Foundation. His past community service includes the Indiana Debate Commission, the Board of Visitors at the University of Evansville, the Evansville African American Museum, WNIN Public Broadcasting, the Akron Press Club, Leadership Tallahassee, Young Actors Theatre in Tallahassee, Florida, and the Florida First Amendment Foundation.
Chris Turpin
Christopher Turpin is Chief of Staff at NPR. In this role, Turpin oversees NPR’s development division and activities, liaises with the news and programming divisions and helps the CEO manage the operations of the executive team and critical projects.
Before his appointment to chief of staff, Turpin served as Vice President for Special Projects + Innovation at NPR. He was responsible for leveraging the NPR newsroom to tell stories in new, innovative and more impactful ways, and for elevating NPR’s public service journalism in all its myriad forms across our newsroom and the NPR system.
Previously, he served as NPR’s interim Senior Vice President for News and Editorial Director, overseeing NPR’s newsroom and its operations. He moved into that role after serving as NPR’s Vice President of News Programming and Operations, where he oversaw all news programs, newscasts, news operations, innovation in news storytelling and training, ensuring NPR’s continued excellence across a range of journalistic skills.
Prior to that, Turpin was the Executive Producer of All Things Considered, NPR’s afternoon newsmagazine. On a daily basis he guided the show’s editorial direction and managed the show’s production staff.
Andy Pergam
Andy Pergam is a media and technology leader whose career has focused on building projects in journalism, emerging tools, and platform governance. He currently serves on the executive board of the Video Consortium, and advisory boards for the Poynter Institute and the Sustainable Media Center. He is also co-founder of Spark Camp, a gathering of thinkers inside and outside the media industry.
Until early 2022, he was a senior director at Meta, helping construct the independent Oversight Board and Trust. Before that, he was part of the executive team at McClatchy where he developed the video business, managed global partnerships, and led corporate venture investments. As Senior Editor at The Washington Post he guided long-term video strategy and operations.
In a previous life, he was an on-air television reporter and managing editor in local news. Andy graduated from Johns Hopkins University and earned a master's degree from the Columbia Journalism School. He and his family live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dalton Walker
Dalton Walker is the managing editor for ICT, an independent, nonprofit news enterprise covering Indigenous peoples. He joined ICT in January 2020 as a national correspondent.
Walker is an award-winning journalist based in Phoenix. He's Red Lake Anishinaabe and his homelands are in northern Minnesota.
Walker is a speaker and presenter to various local academic institutions concerning journalism and Native youth empowerment. He served on the Native American Journalists Association board of directors from 2013-2016, where he's a longtime member and supporter.
He has nearly two decades of experience in daily and tribal newsrooms. Walker has written for the New York Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Duluth News Tribune, Omaha World-Herald, Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Colorado Springs Gazette and O'odham Action News.
Walker is a proud father and husband. In his spare time, he works on his audio skills by delivering news reports to his hometown radio station, WRLN 105.3 FM.
Rusty Coats – Executive Director
Rusty Coats is Executive Director of Journalism Funding Partners, an organization focused on serving as a bridge and leader in the growing realm of philanthropy-supported journalism.
Coats brings to the position a long track record of building innovative funding paths for local journalism. During more than a decade as a consultant, he worked with entrepreneurial local news startups and public media to generate revenue through a mix of philanthropy and earned income. As an executive with McClatchy, Media General and Scripps, he was an early leader in driving digital revenue to support newsrooms. He served as founding Executive Director of the Local Media Consortium, securing partnerships with major technology companies to drive hundreds of millions of dollars in digital revenue.
His commitment to local journalism has been the hallmark of his professional life. His career began as a reporter for his hometown newspaper in Jeffersonville, IN, (circulation 8,000) and included stints at papers in Maine and Miami. He was an investigative reporter and columnist for the Modesto Bee before becoming a technology reporter in 1993 covering the birth of interactive media.
He is married to longtime editor and media consultant Janet Coats, who is Managing Director at the Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology at the University of Florida.
Marc Fiol – Communications & Administrative Coordinator
Marc Fiol is the Communications and Administrative Coordinator at Journalism Funding Partners. His role consists of helping grow the awareness and Impact of JFP’s work by increasing the depth, diversity and sustainability of local news.
He graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Advertising in 2020. Previously, he interned for the local newspaper, The Independent Florida Alligator, in Gainesville, Florida before officially joining the team as an account executive selling advertising space to local organizations. In addition to working with the Alligator, he also worked with their in-house advertising agency, SparkIt Creative, as their Content Developer designing advertisements for their many business accounts.
He is a Florida native, being born and raised in Miami, Florida, and values creativity, honesty and hard work. When he’s not working, he enjoys designing websites and apps, along with playing his guitar at home.
Phelena Napper – Grants Manager
Phelena Napper is a dynamic hybrid professional, seamlessly blending her roles as a fourth-generation educator, seasoned journalist, and prolific grant author. With a career spanning over two decades, Phelena has left an indelible mark on the realms of education and journalism, having lived and reported across four continents.
In the field of journalism, Phelena's journey has been extraordinary. Having reported from diverse corners of the globe, she brings a unique global perspective to her storytelling. Her insightful narratives have not only informed but also inspired and led her to over forty countries.
One of Phelena's most remarkable achievements lies in her ability to secure substantial funding for education and social impact initiatives. With a track record of authoring grants totaling eight figures, she has played a pivotal role in bringing transformative projects to life.
In her current role at Journalism Funding Partners, Phelena Napper is on a mission to reshape the landscape of journalism. Focused on creating a more robust pipeline of journalists dedicated to reporting on educational and social justice issues, Phelena aims to amplify voices that often go unheard. Her vision extends beyond reporting; it is a commitment to fostering a media ecosystem that actively contributes to social change and equity. Her grant-writing skills underscore a commitment to translating vision into tangible, transformative projects.