Category: Speakers

Patrick Davis

PATRICK DAVIS

Manager of Field Operations, CNN Washington

Patrick Davis serves as the Manager of Field Operations at CNN’s Washington Bureau, where he oversees technical & logistical planning for daily newsgathering, breaking news, and major events including Inauguration, State Funerals, State of the Union, Oval Office Addresses, Papal visits, and hurricanes. Over the course of his career, Patrick has worked at a variety of jobs throughout the television & radio industries: production assistant, guest booker, writer, shooter, editor, advertising sales, show producer, field producer, DJ, reporter, and anchor. During his time at CNN, he has covered numerous election cycles, and every major story since 9/11, earning several distinguished awards, including multiple Emmys and a Peabody. Patrick is a long time member of the Capitol Hill Radio & Television Correspondents Association, and serves on the Board of the Technical Advisory Subcommittee. He began his career in local television & radio, while earning his journalism degree at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Kasi Bumgarner

KASI BUMGARNER

Assistant Digital Producer, National Endowment for Democracy

Kasi Bumgarner is an Assistant Digital Producer at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). At NED, she creates a variety of digital content to highlight events and capture stories of the organization’s grantees and fellows who are advocating for democracy and human rights around the world. Before joining NED, she worked as a receptionist, a freelance video editor, and a production intern for an independent documentary, Imitating Life: The Audacity of Suzanne Heintz.

Kasi’s love for storytelling and digital media began at a young age, but it wasn’t until she attended WJMC as a National Youth Correspondent in 2011 that she realized she could turn her passion into a career. She has loved being a part of the WJMC family ever since, returning as a Junior Faculty Advisor in 2014 and a Videographer in 2016.

Kasi graduated with her bachelor’s degree in Film and Video Studies from George Mason University. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, exploring new spots in the DC area, and producing videos for her lifestyle YouTube channel, Curlyhairlove.

Shermichael Singleton

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON

Contributing Host, Vox Media

Shermichael Singleton is a political consultant, writer, commentator, and Contributing Host of Vox Media’s Consider It, a current affairs digital show that airs weekly on Facebook Watch. He is also a 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree for Law and Policy for his contributions to politics and media.

As a political operative, he has worked on the presidential campaigns of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich where he focused on youth outreach and engagement. From there he went on to work on former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in campaign operations and coalitions where he traveled the country during the 2012 election. During the 2015 and 2016 cycle, he worked on the presidential campaign of renowned Neurosurgeon, Dr. Ben Carson where he was the faith coalitions advisor tasked with targeting and building coalitions within the faith community, which would become Dr. Carson’s strongest base of support. As a result, Dr. Carson became the only candidate to surpass President Trump in polls for several straight weeks during the 2016 campaign cycle.

In addition to his work on political campaigns, he was an opposition researcher for America Rising, LLC where he did opposition research for several Republican candidates running for Congress and the United States Senate. Beyond politics, he also worked with Florida based non-profit Lauren’s Kids, which focuses on raising awareness about child sexual abuse. During his time with Lauren’s Kids, he was a part of a team of former political operatives who worked on a statewide bus tour across Florida to raise awareness for this very important issue.

When Dr. Carson ended his bid for the presidency, he appointed Shermichael as his director of communications, where he would manage all communications for the former presidential candidate. As Dr. Carson’s top aide during the presidential transition process, Shermichael played a pivotal role in successfully guiding Dr. Carson through the Senate confirmation process. Subsequently, he was appointed to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where he was sworn in as the Deputy Chief of Staff, the youngest ever appointed to the role in the history of the agency. Getting acclimated in his role at HUD, Shermichael was later fired by the Trump Administration after an articled surfaced where Shermichael criticized then-candidate Trump. After his dismissal, Shermichael went on to become a CNN Political Commentator.

In addition to co-hosting his weekly show on Vox Media, he appears weekly on MSNBC where he offers political analysis.

A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, he studied Political Science at Morehouse College and Government and Politics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Kayla Sharpe

KAYLA SHARPE

Deputy Newsletter Team Leader at Bloomberg Industry Group

Kayla N. Sharpe is a Washington, D.C.-based digital journalist focused on media, society, and audience engagement. She is the deputy newsletter team leader at Bloomberg Industry Group where she oversees the production of more than 60 newsletters covering law, government, tax, and accounting. She previously served as an associate editor at Axios, working with reporters in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Twin Cities covering national and local issues. She has also worked at POLITICO as an engagement editor for subscriber strategy and as a digital producer, and at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting supporting student and freelance journalists covering under-reported global issues.

Kayla graduated from the College of William & Mary in 2017 with degrees in film and media and American studies and served as the inaugural digital media editor for the campus newspaper, The Flat Hat. Kayla’s reporting has been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists, receiving their 2017 Regional Mark of Excellence Award for In-Depth Reporting, and William & Mary, receiving the university’s 2016 Rex Smith Journalism Award. She was also selected for the National Press Foundation 2024 “Widening the Pipeline” Fellowship focused on newsroom leadership skills for journalists of color.

Kayla is proud to be an engaged William & Mary alumna and currently serves as the co-chair of the Young Guarde Alumni Council and as vice chair of the William & Mary Washington Center Advisory Board. She is also a member of the Lambda Kappa Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.

Learn more about Kayla and view her work at www.kaylasharpe.com

KAYLA SHARPE

Deputy Newsletter Team Leader at Bloomberg Industry Group

Learn more about Kayla and view her work at www.kaylasharpe.com

Daniela Pierre-Bravo

DANIELA PIERRE-BRAVO

TV Producer, MSNBC's "Morning Joe"

Daniela Pierre-Bravo is a best-selling author, public speaker and MSNBC reporter for Morning Joe. She is a contributor and producer for NBC’s “Know Your Value” platform and co-author of Earn It!. A former Cosmopolitan magazine columnist, Pierre-Bravo has written on career advice, mental health, and financial wellness with an emphasis on women of color. Her work has been featured on the Today Show, Telemundo, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29, New York Magazine, and more. Her new book “The Other: how women of color can own their power at work” will be published August 23, 2022.

Laura Barrón-López

Laura Barron-Lopez, photographed for PBS NewsHour, 16 August 2022, in Arlington VA. Photo by Mike Morgan.

LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ

White House Correspondent, PBS Newshour

Laura Barrón-López is the White House Correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, where she covers the Biden administration for the nightly news broadcast. She is also a CNN political analyst.

Previously, Barrón-López was a White House reporter for POLITICO. In her time covering the Biden administration for POLITICO, she focused on the power dynamics between the White House and Capitol Hill, covering the president’s agenda on gun violence, immigration, voting rights, infrastructure and more. Barrón-López previously covered the 2020 presidential election for POLITICO as a national political reporter, focusing on voter demographics, and policy shifts within the Democratic Party.

Barrón-López previously led 2018 coverage of the Democratic Party for the Washington Examiner. Before that, Barrón-López covered Congress for HuffPost, focusing on climate change, criminal justice reform, and coal miner pensions, among other policy debates in the Senate and House.

Early in her career, she covered energy and environment policy for The Hill. Her work has been published in The Oregonian, OC Register, E&E Publishing, and Roll Call. Barrón-López earned a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Fullerton.

Lauryn Cantrell

John Hollis

JOHN HOLLIS

Media Relations Manager, George Mason University

John D. Hollis lists 17 years of daily newspaper experience, including nearly 10 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a lengthy stint as a correspondent for Time Magazine. He has authored three books, including “Sgt. Rodney M. Davis: The Making of a Hero,” the 2018 hit that chronicles the inspirational life and death of the U.S. Marine who became Macon, Georgia’s lone Medal of Honor recipient following his death in Vietnam in 1967. In 2013, Hollis teamed with former professional wrestler Lex Luger to pen “Wrestling with the Devil: The True Story of a World Champion Professional Wrestler – His Reign, Ruin, and Redemption.” Over his career, Hollis has covered the Super Bowl, the Olympics, five college basketball Final Fours, the College World Series, the NBA and the NFL and major college football and basketball within both the ACC and SEC. The University of Virginia and Woodberry Forest School alum is currently working as the Media Relations Manager at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Maria Peña

Nicaraguan-born María Peña has lived in the United States since 1978, and she has worked as a bilingual journalist in Washington for close to 30 years. Throughout her career, she has interviewed celebrities as well as local, state, and national leaders, including President Barack Obama, both as a candidate in 2008 and just prior to his reelection in 2012.

Maria has also interviewed foreign dignitaries, and she has covered international summits and various NGO events. Recently, she covered the move of the US and Guatemalan embassies in Israel, and in the Spring of 2016, she covered President Obama’s historic visit to Cuba. Later that year, she covered a world summit of mayors and regional leaders in Bogotá, Colombia.

She’s currently the Washington Senior Political Correspondent for La Opinion/Impremedia, covering all issues impacting the thriving Latino community in the US, including immigration, trade, foreign policy, education, housing, and electoral politics.

As part of her immigration coverage, she has traveled extensively throughout the southern border, visiting communities on both sides, and interviewing politicians and regular folks.

She has chronicled the deployment of the “Minutemen”, the congressional gridlock on immigration reform, the plight of undocumented workers at risk for deportation and, currently, the unprecedented activism in the immigrant community against president Donald Trump’s policies.

In the past, she has also worked for EFE, UPI, NBC Canal de Noticias, Univision, and Telemundo.
Maria is a regular panelist at prestigious TV talk shows, including Voice of America, Univisión’s “Al Punto”, CGTN America, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), CNN’s “Choque de Opiniones”, and Colombian NTN24’s “Club de Prensa”.

She also frequently participates in workshops, panels, media roundtables, and briefings organized by congressional committees, universities, NGOs, think tanks, and the State Department.

Maria is an active member of the White House Correspondents Association, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Her work got national recognition from the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in 2016.
She holds a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in French from the American University (CAS ’90), where she has occasionally done graduate courses in human rights and conflict resolution.

She lives with her husband and two teenage daughters in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Her hobbies include reading, music, art, cooking, gardening, and other outdoor activities.

Mikayla Bouchard

MIKAYLA BOUCHARD

Senior Staff Editor, The New York Times

Mikayla Bouchard is a senior staff editor at The New York Times, based in Washington, D.C., where she helps direct and execute multimedia coverage of major news events, including the presidential inauguration and the annual State of the Union address.

She works closely with The Times’s audio team on both “The Daily” podcast and “The New Washington” podcast, which featured interviews with some of the biggest names in American politics.

She also oversees The New York Times Politics Facebook and Twitter accounts and produced a daily show on Facebook Live during the 2016 Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

Originally from Michigan, she earned degrees in international relations and theatre from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in journalism from Georgetown University. She’s a captain of the press team that competes in the annual Women’s Congressional Softball Game.