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The Evolving Role of Media in Social Progress – 2013 Skoll World Forum

Speakers

  • President, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
    Alberto is president of Knight Foundation which promotes informed and engaged communities by funding quality journalism and media innovation, community engagement and the arts. Alberto is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He was a newspaper executive in Hartford and New York City before serving as publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. He is a member of the boards of PepsiCo, American Airlines, AOL and is a member of the Secretary of State’s Foreign Policy Advisory Committee. He is a former board chair of the World Wide Web Foundation and of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., and was a member of the original Advisory Committee of the PCAOB.
  • CEO, Solutions Journalism Network
    David Bornstein is CEO and co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network, which works to establish the practice of solutions journalism — rigorous reporting that examines responses to social problems — as an integral part of mainstream news. He has been a newspaper and magazine reporter for 25 years, having started his career working on the metro desk of New York Newsday. Since 2010, he has co-authored, with Tina Rosenberg, the “Fixes” column in The New York Times. He is the author of three books: How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas (2003, Oxford University Press), The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank (1996, Simon & Schuster), and Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know (2010, Oxford University Press).
  • CSO, Center for Investigative Reporting
    Before joining the Center for Investigative Reporting, Joaquin Alvarado served as Senior Vice President for digital innovation at American Public Media and Founding Senior Vice President for diversity and innovation at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He is the Founder of CoCo Studios, which promotes media collaboration and game development for fiber and mobile networks. Joaquin was the Founding Director of the Institute for Next Generation Internet, which launched in 2005 from San Francisco State University.
  • Founder and President, Pat Mitchell Media
    Pat Mitchell is a lifelong advocate for women and girls. At every step of her career, Mitchell has broken new ground for women, leveraging the power of media as a journalist, an Emmy award-winning and Oscar-nominated producer to tell women’s stories and increase the representation of women onscreen and off. Transitioning to an executive role, she became the president of CNN Productions, and the first woman president and CEO of PBS and the Paley Center for Media. Today, her commitment to connect and strengthen a global community of women leaders continues as a conference curator, advisor and mentor. In partnership with TED, Mitchell launched TEDWomen in 2010 and is its editorial director, curator and host. She is also a speaker and curator for the annual Women Working for the World forum in Bogota, Colombia, the Her Village conference in Beijing, and co-chairs the US board of Women of the World (WOW). She partners with the Rockefeller Foundation to curate, convene and host Connected Women Leaders (CWL) forums, focused on collective problem solving among women leaders in government and civil society. In 2014, the Women’s Media Center honored Mitchell with its first-annual Lifetime Achievement Award, now named in her honor to commend other women whose media careers advance the representation of women. Recognized by Hollywood Reporter as one of the most powerful women in media, Fast Company’s “League of Extraordinary Women” and Huffington Post’s list of “Powerful Women Over 50,” Mitchell also received the Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Leadership. She was a contributor to Enlightened Power: How Women Are Transforming the Practice of Leadership, and wrote the introduction to the book and museum exhibition, 130 Women of Impact in 30 Countries. In 2016, she received a Congressional appointment to The American Museum of Women’s History Advisory Council, and in 2019 was named to the Gender Equality Top 100 list of women leaders by Apolitical. Mitchell is active with many nonprofit organizations, serving as the chair of the boards of the Sundance Institute and the Women’s Media Center. She is a founding member of the VDAY movement and on the boards of the Skoll Foundation and the Acumen Fund. She is also an advisor to Participant Media and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mitchell is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia and holds a master's degree in English literature and several honorary doctorate degrees. She is the author of Becoming a Dangerous Woman: Embracing Risk to Change the World. She and her husband, Scott Seydel, live in Atlanta and have six children and 13 grandchildren.
  • Co-Founder and Curator-In-Chief, Upworthy
    Peter Koechley is Co-Founder and Curator-In-Chief of Upworthy, a new mission-driven media company dedicated to bringing mass attention to the things that really matter using irresistible social media. Before Upworthy, Peter produced viral media for the advocacy organisation MoveOn.org, was Managing Editor of The Onion (America's Finest News Source) and co-created the Onion News Network. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife, son, and dog.