Diverse Group of Delaware Leaders Seeks to Strengthen Local Journalism

The Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) is pleased to announce the appointment of the organization’s new leadership team and board members.

Allison Taylor Levine, MPA, APR will serve as president of the organization, having founded and incubated LJI over the past several years. Known for her passion for democracy, journalism, and community, Allison has spent the past 20 years in various communications and community leadership roles in Delaware.

“We have the opportunity to build up our democracy and our communities in Delaware by strengthening the local news and information ecosystem,” Levine said. “LJI is committed to working with the existing local newsrooms and finding new ways to provide the information Delawareans need to thrive on a daily basis, participate in our democracy, and build the powerful social connections that make us a community.”

The seven board members will continue to advance the organization’s mission of increasing coverage that reflects the diverse needs of Delawareans. They are:

  • Chair: Amy Cherry, Communications Manager, University of Delaware
  • Vice Chair: Schlonn Hawkins, Chief Executive Officer and Publisher of Shelterforce
  • Treasurer: Mark Baxter, Senior Program Director at Rodel
  • Secretary: Matt Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer, Short Order Production House
  • Jill DiPaolo, Outreach Services Librarian, Sussex County Public Libraries
  • Laurie Jacobs, Director of Public Relations, Delaware State Housing Authority
  • Andre Smith, Digital Communications Manager, University of Delaware

“I’m honored to serve as chair of the board for the Local Journalism Initiative. With more than a decade as assistant news director at WDEL and several years as an editor at WBZ in Boston, I’ve dedicated the bulk of my career to journalism as both a form of public service and a vehicle for holding public officials accountable,” Cherry said. “With local news in crisis across the country, LJI is poised to have a profound impact on the state of journalism in the First State. Through innovation and partnerships, LJI is committed to improving the quality of information and increasing transparency and access to information for all Delawareans.”

In June of 2022, LJI released https://ljidelaware.org/news-and-information-study/, a report on its comprehensive, community-centered research project that explores how Delawareans consume local news and information, analyzes gaps in coverage, and provides a set of recommendations for how the community can work together to improve access to high-quality, independent, local news and information for everyone.

LJI also is working to build a pipeline of historically underrepresented journalists through an internship program, established in partnership with the Delaware Community Foundation and the Maryland Delaware DC Press Association. Through the program, aspiring journalists are placed in newsrooms throughout the state to elevate the voices and stories of people of color and other historically underrepresented communities.

LJI also launched the Delaware Journalism Collaborative, a coalition of local news outlets that are pooling their resources to create coverage and lead conversations on important community challenges. Funded by the Solutions Journalism Network, this solutions-journalism collaborative is currently focused on the issue of polarization – what divides our communities and how we can work together more effectively.

“The work of LJI comes at a critical time, locally and nationally,” Hawkins said. “People are tuned in now more than ever to key issues like housing, education, racial justice, and more. Local journalism has served as a critical role in bridging the gap between people and the information they need to know about their communities. However, in the last decade, we have witnessed a dramatic loss of reliable local news sources. My hope is that the efforts of LJI will be one of many catalysts reinvigorating local journalism in Delaware that serves its people, especially communities of color.”

To learn more about LJI, please visit ljidelaware.org.

ABOUT THE LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE (LJI)
LJI is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, currently operating its programs through a fiscal sponsorship fund of the Delaware Community Foundation. LJI’s mission is to strengthen local journalism as a vehicle for a stronger democracy and thriving communities throughout the First State. LJI is not affiliated with any media organization.