The mission of the Local Journalism Initiative is to strengthen local journalism in Delaware to fortify our democracy and inform and engage our communities.
Operating Board
Allison Taylor Levine
Founder & CEO
Allison Taylor Levine
Allison Taylor Levine, MPA, is passionate about democracy, journalism and community – especially in Delaware. After starting her career as a reporter at several newspapers, including The News Journal, Allison has spent the past 20 years in various communications and community leadership roles. Before becoming the full-time CEO of LJI, Allison spent 12 years as vice president for marketing and communications at the Delaware Community Foundation. She lives in Wilmington with her children, Rhys and Maya.
Amy Cherry
Chair
Amy Cherry
Amy has spent more than 17 years working in broadcast journalism. As Assistant News Director and a senior enterprise journalist WDEL for more than a decade, Amy cultivated and nurtured strong relationships and produced meaningful stories that sparked change in the community. During her journalism career, Amy has won several awards, including one of broadcast journalism’s most prestigious honors – a national Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative journalism – and Associated Press awards for Best Reporter in the Mid-Atlantic Region. She previously worked as an editor at WBZ NewsRadio in Boston and is a proud alumna of Emerson College. In her current role, Amy is working in communications for the College of Health Sciences at the University of Delaware, where she’s focused on creative storytelling that resonates with the community and raises the college’s profile both regionally and nationally.
Schlonn Hawkins
Vice Chair
Schlonn Hawkins
Schlonn is Chief Executive Officer and Publisher of Shelterforce. She is a communication expert with more than 15 years of experience in publicity, digital media, community relations, nontraditional fundraising, and strategic planning. Schlonn is a pioneer of innovation–having led countless organizations in the power of storytelling digitally to create meaningful resources and embrace social media to expand their influence. Also spearheaded Delaware’s largest giving day, which now raises millions of dollars for the nonprofit sector. Schlonn is a huge consumer of content daily and believes that information is vital to our daily lives. Without it, we would not progress.
Mark Baxter
Treasurer
Mark Baxter
Mark Baxter is the senior program director at Rodel. His focus is supporting the creative design and implementation of sound public-private partnerships. Before joining Rodel, Mark held leadership positions at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Texas Education Agency and Educate Texas focusing on strategy and policy implementation at the local, state and national level. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin.
Darrin Kerr
Darrin Kerr
Darrin Kerr is the Head of Growth Investments at the American Journalism Project (AJP). In that role he focuses on how to build strong, resilient nonprofit news organizations across the United States. Before joining AJP, he held leadership positions at Teach For All, helping found and scale education nonprofits across the globe and building the network infrastructure for those organizations to learn from one another. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Chuck Posnecker
Chuck Posnecker
Chuck Posnecker is a senior wealth advisor at Bryn Mawr Capital Management, a subsidiary of WSFS Bank, where he counsels high-net-worth families and nonprofits on portfolio management and financial planning. Born in Las Vegas and a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he and his wife moved to the Delaware region in 2012. He is also a proud Leadership Delaware Class of 2020 Fellow, where he began to truly embrace the need for community engagement and partnership.
José Quiñones
José Quiñones
José Quiñones, owner/broker of Linda Vista Real Estate Services in Rehoboth Beach, is a well-known fixture in Sussex County. Quiñones, who received the 2018 Trailblazer Award from the Western Sussex County Chamber of Commerce, also produces the vlog “ I Am Sussex,” which celebrates life in Sussex County.
Patricia Rivera
Patricia Rivera
Patricia Rivera, CEO of Hook PR & Marketing, provides high-level counsel to organizations throughout the mid-Atlantic – building their brands with strategic stories and content across multiple channels and in multiple languages. She founded Hook in 2007 after an award-winning career in journalism, working for The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, and The News Journal. Patricia received the Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year Award from New Castle County Chamber of Commerce and the Delaware Minority-Owned Business of the Year Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Laurie Stovall
Laurie (Jacobs) Stovall
Laurie (Jacobs) Stovall is a communications professional with close to ten years of experience working alongside Delaware nonprofits, community leaders, and advocates. She is a New Castle County, Delaware native who is passionate about sharing stories.
Jeremy Tucker
Jeremy Tucker
Jeremy Tucker serves as the manager of strategic communications and engagement at Delaware Electric Cooperative, which serves 115,000 consumers in central and southern Delaware. Prior to joining Delaware Electric Cooperative in 2011, Tucker was an anchor and political reporter for WBOC-TV (CBS and Fox) in Dover. He also previously worked for the Delaware General Assembly and CBS News. Tucker is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C.
