Two journalists with varied experiences will be featured in a presentation and question-and-answer session Oct. 22 as part of the Journalism Speakers Forum, which features weekly speakers during the fall semester at Penn State.
Journalists Alexis Johnson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Michael Santiago of Getty Images will talk with students and others at 7 p.m. Oct. 22 on Zoom. LINK
Johnson, a Pittsburgh native, joined the Post-Gazette in 2019 as a digital news editor after previously working as a breaking news reporter for NJ.com. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Johnson started her professional journalism career as an on-air TV reporter in West Virginia before switching to digital and print news. She earned her master’s degree from Temple University after securing her bachelor’s at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Santiago is a staff news photojournalist with Getty Images. His work has focused on issues ranging from health, race and identity to family relationships, youth empowerment and more. Santiago was a member of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of the shooting deaths of 11 people and the wounding of seven others at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Judges called the staff's work "immersive, compassionate coverage ... that captured the anguish and resilience of a community thrust into grief."
Santiago earned his bachelor of fine arts from San Francisco Art Institute and a master's degree from Syracuse University.
The series of special guest presentations was coordinated by Will Yurman, the Norman Eberly Professor of Practice in Journalism in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. A complete schedule for the Journalism Speakers Forum may be found online.