The Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) is excited to announce that David Stradley will serve as the director of membership and community engagement, supporting the new collaborative nonprofit newsroom, Spotlight Delaware.
In the new role, Stradley will lead the Spotlight Delaware membership program and partnership activities throughout the state, facilitating communication between the news team and communities. He also will support community engagement aspects of LJI’s other initiatives, including the internship program and the Delaware Journalism Collaborative.
Stradley has 20 years of experience connecting a broad mix of Delawareans to ideas and to each other. He moved to the First State in 2002 for a position at Delaware Theatre Company, where he directed productions, developed audience engagement events, and ran educational programs. For the past 12 years, he has served as producing artistic director of Delaware Shakespeare (Del Shakes). Stradley tripled Del Shakes’ audience and launched the Community Tour, which shares free theatre with the full spectrum of humanity in our state by traveling to locations such as prisons, homeless shelters, and community centers. Stradley lives in Claymont with his wife and son.
“I’ve always worked to bring broad mixes of Delawareans together for programming that allows them to better engage with each other,” Stradley said. “I’m honored to join the team of LJI and Spotlight Delaware, sharing unbiased news coverage with all our communities in ways that reduce polarization and foster more effective engagement in civic life.”
Spotlight Delaware will focus on covering public policy and how it affects the daily lives of Delawareans throughout the state, with a particular emphasis on communities that have not always had access to local news and information. The team is currently co-creating the Spotlight Delaware newsroom through a series of listening sessions throughout the state.
“David has a gift for bringing diverse people together to discover their shared humanity through narrative,” said LJI Founder and CEO Allison Taylor Levine. “He’s been doing this work for years in the arts, and will now shift from building community through Shakespeare’s stories to building community through the stories of real Delawareans. We are so fortunate to have him on our team.”
Reach Stradley at dstradley@ljidelaware.org or 302.408.0733.
Learn more about LJI and Spotlight Delaware, sign up for the mailing list and donate at spotlightdelaware.org.
ABOUT THE LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE (LJI)
LJI, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, is working to strengthen local journalism as a vehicle for a stronger democracy and thriving communities throughout the First State. Learn more about LJI at ljidelaware.org.
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