Joy Mayer, Executive director, Trusting News

Joy Mayer founded Trusting News in 2016 after a 20-year career in newsrooms and teaching. She spent 12 years at the Missouri School of Journalism, where she created an audience engagement curriculum and a community outreach team in the newsroom of the Columbia Missourian and also taught web design and print design. She lives in Sarasota, Florida, and can be reached at [email protected] and on LinkedIn.

Gail Marks Jarvis, financial journalist, author

Gail Marks Jarvis is one of the nation’s most respected financial journalists and an award-winning author of a best-selling investing book for regular people. Her Chicago Tribune columns have reached millions of readers in leading metropolitan newspapers throughout the U.S.

In 2023, she received one of the highest honors in financial journalism, the Distinguished Achievement Award by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW).

She also has been named “Best Financial Columnist” by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and has received 17 other journalism awards for her work, including a National Clarion Award for human rights reporting.

Melissa Steinberg Brodsky, Blogger, anti-Zionism watchdog

Melissa Steinberg Brodsky is a former editorial strategist and copywriter who has built a national following in the past few years as an independent content creator. This type of reporting cohort has gained increasing influence and impact amid the decline of legacy media brands. Here's how she describes that role:

"History activist on a mission to preserve our truth. I write about media literacy, anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and how our history gets twisted into soundbites. This space slows things down, adds context, and pushes back on easy narratives." 

Tom Doerr, president, Press Club of Southwest Florida

Tom Doerr spent more than 40 years managing TV newsrooms across the country, including in Miami, Chicago, Houston and, in his last posting, WINK News here in Southwest Florida. Now retired, he teaches media literacy part-time at Florida Gulf Coast University and serves as president of the Press Club of Southwest Florida.