Diversity Institute Senior Staff
Jack Marsh is president and chief operating officer of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, with offices at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., the John Seigenthaler Center in Nashville, Tenn., and the Al Neuharth Media Center in Vermillion, S.D. Marsh, a career journalist, oversees the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute and its efforts to advance diversity in the media. He also is responsible for Freedom Forum scholarship and award programs that encourage and honor high journalistic standards. Prior to joining the Freedom Forum in September 1998, Marsh was executive editor of the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D., for nearly six years and an employee of the Gannett Co. for 27 years. He has worked as a journalist at seven daily newspapers in four states. He is a distinguished alumnus of Baldwin-Wallace College. Marsh has been honored for lifetime achievement or distinguished service with awards from the Native American Journalists Association, the University of South Dakota, the South Dakota Newspaper Association and Pi Lambda Phi, an international fraternity dedicated to the elimination of prejudice. Full bio.
Karen Catone is director of the Chips Quinn Scholars program, the largest and most enduring of the Freedom Forum’s diversity initiatives. Catone began her career with the Freedom Forum in 1974 when it was then known as the Gannett Foundation and was located in Rochester, N.Y. Catone spent 10 years as grants coordinator and moved with the foundation to Arlington, Va., in 1989. When the Freedom Forum was established in 1991 as successor to the Gannett Foundation, Catone worked on various grants and scholarship programs. She assumed administration of the Chips Quinn Scholars program in 1995 and today is based at the Freedom Forum’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Val Hoeppner is director of education and is based at the Diversity Institute’s Nashville offices in the John Seigenthaler Center. She oversees multimedia instruction for the Chips Quinn Scholars program, the American Indian Journalism Institute, the Diversity Institute Multimedia Scholars Program and other Freedom Forum academic initiatives. Hoeppner is an adjunct professor of journalism at Belmont University, Nashville. She is an Associated Press Photo Managers board member. Hoeppner is a member of the Native American Journalists Association and serves on the multimedia committee for UNITY, Journalists of Color. Hoeppner came to the Freedom Forum from The Indianapolis Star where she was the multimedia director and previously the deputy director of photography. Hoeppner spent 10 years as the photo editor and a staff photographer at the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D. Hoeppner has a bachelor’s degree from Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo.
Other Diversity Institute Staff
Janine Harris is manager of the Freedom Forum’s Al Neuharth Media Center at the University of South Dakota and is assistant to Jack Marsh, president of the Freedom Forum’s Diversity Institute. She joined the company in January 2001. Previously, she was office manager of the newsroom and assistant to the executive editor at the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Dakota.
LaVondia Majors is program coordinator for the Diversity Institute and is based at the Freedom Forum’s John Seigenthaler Center in Nashville, Tenn. A native of Old Hickory, Tenn., she earned an associates degree in visual communications from Nashville State Community College. She is a graduate of Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green with a major in photojournalism and minors in English and broadcasting.
As a Chips Quinn Scholar in 2002, LaVondia interned at the Vero Beach Press Journal in Florida. Later, she interned with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Charlotte Observer before returning to Nashville for two years as a staff photographer at the Tennessean.
Ashlie Hampton is program coordinator for the Chips Quinn Scholars program and is based at the Freedom Forum’s headquarters in Washington, DC. She is also the event coordinator for the First Amendment Center. She joined the Freedom Forum in March 2008, and has more than 10 years of experience in the program/event planning field. She is a graduate of the Woodbridge (Va.) Business Institute.
Founders
Al Neuharth of Cocoa Beach, Fla., is founder of the Freedom Forum, the Newseum and USA TODAY. The Diversity Institute, conceived by the Freedom Forum, has offices, staff, programs and classes at the Al Neuharth Media Center at the University of South Dakota, Neuharth’s alma mater. Neuharth was born and raised in South Dakota and is a 1950 USD journalism graduate.
John C. Quinn of Cocoa Beach, Fla., and Carolina, R.I., the first editor in chief of USA TODAY and former deputy chairman of the Freedom Forum, is founder of the Chips Quinn Scholars program, the Diversity Institute’s largest and most enduring diversity initiative.
John Seigenthaler of Nashville, Tenn., founding editorial director of USA TODAY and publisher emeritus of The Tennessean, is also founder of the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center. The Diversity Institute’s Nashville offices and its state-of-the-art teaching facilities are located in the John Seigenthaler Center at Vanderbilt University.
Affiliate Staff
Chuck Baldwin of Vermillion, S.D. (email), is journalist-in-residence at the Freedom Forum’s Al Neuharth Media Center at the University of South Dakota. His position is jointly funded by the university and the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute. In his role as journalist-in-residence, Baldwin teaches journalism classes, administers journalism scholarships, advises the award-winning, independent student newspaper, The Volante, and assists with Freedom Forum diversity programs. Baldwin spent 35 years as a journalist, most recently as editorial page editor of the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D. He won more than three dozen state and national reporting awards in his career. He is a member of the South Dakota Newspaper Association’s First Amendment Committee and the College Media Advisers First Amendment Committee. Baldwin also is executive director of South Dakotans for Open Government.
Colleen Fitzpatrick of Simsbury, Conn. (email), has been a career coach for the Chips Quinn Scholars program since 2000. Previously, she was managing editor of Fine Gardening magazine and had a variety of editing and reporting jobs at newspapers nationwide. Her jobs ranged from reporter at the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, Mass., The Fresno (Calif.) Bee and The Providence (R.I.) Journal to national reporter at The Detroit News. She also has been a bureau manager at The Providence Journal, city editor at the Times Union in Albany, N.Y., and assistant news editor with Knight Ridder in Washington, D.C. She began her career in 1980 as a science-reporting intern at the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News. She is a graduate of Stanford University and is working toward a master’s degree at Wesleyan University.
Michelle Hedenskoog (email) coordinates communication with alumni of the Chips Quinn Scholars program and works on special projects including the recruitment, selection and training of new participants. She has been associated with the program since March 2001. Previously, she was an editorial assistant for the University of Michigan’s LSAmagazine and administrative coordinator for the Gannett Co. corporate news division. She has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of the Philippines.
Mary Ann Hogan of Boca Raton, Fla. (email), has been a career coach for the Chips Quinn Scholars program since 1997. She has been a writer for more than 25 years and a mentor to hundreds of students and young journalists during that time. Hogan started as a freelance correspondent for The Washington Post and the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News. For nine years, she was an award-winning reporter for The Oakland (Calif.) Tribune. When she left the newspaper, she created her own features syndicate. From 1991 to 1996, her stories were distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. She was a primary writer for the Newseum’s original news history exhibit in Arlington, Va., and for the Newseum book “Crusaders, Scoundrels, Journalists.” Today, Hogan conducts workshops for news professionals in newsrooms and online.