Category: Speakers

Doni Holloway is an award-winning multimedia journalist with an affinity for telling meaningful and impactful stories.  His interest in journalism began when he was six. At that age, he fell in love with and realized the power of words. He’s a speaker, producer and frequent host.

The Laurinburg, NC native has won over 25 national, state and local awards for his journalistic and leadership endeavors. He has been featured in U.S. News & World Report, Electronic Urban Report, Talking Biz News, the National Association of Black Journalists Journal and numerous other publications.

He has served as an ambassador for the Disney Dreamers Academy with Steve Harvey & ESSENCE Magazine (DDA), returning to the program as an alumnus and guest speaker, entertainment host and mentor. He’s also an alumni board member of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) JCamp.

Holloway has reported around the country, studied media markets on the ground in China, and has spoken at a myriad of venues, including the National Press Club, where he auditioned and was selected to introduce NBC TODAY show anchor Hoda Kotb, WJMC’s keynote speaker in 2014. He’s a frequent moderator of events and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in broadcast journalism, where he was named as the National Association of Black Journalists Student Journalist of the Year. Holloway is now producer of NBC/MSNBC’s #1 original “Why Is This Happening?” podcast with Chris Hayes. He previously worked at Bloomberg News in NYC, where he created content for television, radio, podcasts and grew the Bloomberg Businessweek podcast to be the company’s highest grossing one.

Before working at Bloomberg, he was an Emma Bowen fellow in the NBC Washington network newsroom from 2015-2017.

Kevin Douglas Grant is The GroundTruth Project’s Co-founder and Chief Content Officer, as well as Vice President, Strategic Initiatives of Report for America and Report for the World.

Previously Senior Editor of Special Reports at GlobalPost, he has led reporting projects around the world and his work has been recognized by the Edward R. Murrow, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University and Online Journalism Awards among others.  Over the last 10 years, he has helped to support more than 300 reporting fellows producing in-depth work on social justice issues in more than 50 countries.

Grant is a recent graduate of the Media Transformation Challenge at Poynter, and is presently working on a project about religious leaders worldwide as a journalism fellow at USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture.

He holds an M.A. in Digital Journalism from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School, where he was a Dean’s Scholar and the founding Executive Editor of Annenberg’s pioneering news organization Neon Tommy. Grant is also the former Operations Director of semantic news aggregator Inform.com.

Grant is currently based in Washington, D.C., where he serves as a capstone adviser and adjunct professor of journalism at Georgetown University.

After attending WJMC in the summer of 2017, Collin Cope gained a newfound appreciation for the art of journalism and media production. Meeting many new friends, and even a few future colleagues, Collin’s time with WJMC encouraged him to attend George Mason for his Bachelor of Arts in Communication. With experience writing and editing for George Mason’s student-run newspaper, as well as freelancing for local outlet The Fairfax County Times, Collin emphasizes the importance of varied experience and a general sense of curiosity when reporting.

Rebecca Boggs Roberts is an award-winning educator, author, and speaker, whose books include The Suffragist Playbook: Your guide to changing the world; Suffragists in Washington, DC: The 1913 Parade and the Fight for the Vote; and Historic Congressional Cemetery.  The International Literacy Association named The Suffragist Playbook the best young adult non-fiction title for 2021.

Through her career, Rebecca has served many roles, including a journalist, producer, tour guide, forensic anthropologist, event planner, political consultant, jazz singer, and radio talk show host. Currently she is the curator of programming at Planet Word, a new museum that celebrates the joy and wonder of words and language.

Rebecca received her BA in Politics from Princeton University and her MA in Anthropology from George Washington University. An active volunteer in her native Washington, Rebecca serves of the board of the National Archives Foundation, on the Women’s Leadership Committee of the Trust for the National Mall, and on the Editorial Advisory Committee of the White House Historical Association.

She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband, three sons, and a long-eared hound dog. Rebecca’s next book is a biography of Edith Wilson, published by Viking in 2023.

Emily Buck is the Washington News Bureau Chief for RFD-TV, a pay television channel that features programming devoted to rural issues, concerns and interests. 
Emily grew up on her family’s beef and tobacco farm in Tennessee. She showed livestock and was active in 4-H and Future Farmers of America (FFA), including serving as State FFA President. Before joining RFD-TV she was Congressional staff, working to advance grassroots policy issues for Tennesseans. Now, she works with USDA, Congress, and the White House to provide the news rural America needs.

Nicholas Wu is a congressional reporter at POLITICO.  He previously covered Congress for USA TODAY, where he started at the outlet’s breaking political news team. He’s covered both of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trials, COVID relief battles, the fallout from the Jan. 6 insurrection, and more on Capitol Hill. He’s a graduate of Princeton University, where he majored in public policy and minored in American Studies and East Asian Studies.