Vikki Porter is director of the Knight Digital Media Center
and supervises Professional Development Programs for New Media
journalists at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism in Los
Angeles. She was the founding director of the Western Knight
Center for Specialized Journalism at the Annenberg School for
Communication at the University of Southern California. During
her 30-year journalism career, Porter worked in five Western
states, started a newspaper, served as top editor for three community
newspapers, and shared a 1986 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal as part
of a five-person team while city editor of The Denver Post. Most
recently, she was executive editor of The Desert Sun newspaper
in Palm Springs, CA. Porter was a Knight Professional-in-Residence
at the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University
of Kansas in 1987-88 and a Knight Journalism Fellow in Studies
of Law at Yale Law School in 1988-89, where she earned her Masters
in Studies of Law. She is active in the American Society of Newspaper
Editors, the Associated Press Managing Editors, and has been
invited to participate in conferences hosted by the Pew Foundation
for Public Journalism, the Freedom Forum, Harwood and Associates
and the American Press Institute.
213.821.0071
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Lanita Pace-Hinton is the director of Multimedia Training
Programs for the Knight Digital Media Center at University of California
Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Since April 2000, she
has been the associate director of the Western Knight Center
for Specialized Journalism, managing WKC seminars held at the
UC Berkeley. She began her journalism career as a feature writer
with Gannett News Service in Arlington, VA, and has written for
the Detroit News and the Washington Post. Pace-Hinton joined
The Press-Enterprise, in Riverside, CA as a reporter, and went
on to serve as the assistant to the managing editor responsible
for editorial recruitment, coordinating the paper's internship
programs and community outreach. She later taught journalism
and was the advisor to the student newspaper at Mt. San Antonio
College in Walnut, CA. She received her Masters degree from the
University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Education
and Bachelor's of Arts degree in journalism from Howard University.
510.643.7429
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Sophie Lafferty is program coordinator for the Knight
Digital Media Center, headquartered at the USC Annenberg School for
Communication in Los Angeles. Prior to joining the Western Knight
Center at USC in 2004, she was at the Los Angeles Times for 15
years in marketing and communications. Her responsibilities included
serving on planning committees for the 2000 Los Angeles Times/CNN
presidential debates, Los Angeles Times Reading by 9 conference
and media launch, community outreach youth awards, and companywide
task forces on marketing and strategic planning for regional
editions. She also shared in the marketing department's Team
Award for achievement in new product development in 1998. More
recently, Lafferty was business and events manager at Castle
Green, a historic landmark in Pasadena, CA, where she implemented
community outreach programs, including Concerts at the Castle,
monthly tours and a Georgia O'Keeffe-Alfred Stieglitz play. She
also served on the Board of Castle Green Historic and Cultural
Society, a non-profit support organization. Lafferty began her
marketing career at several advertising agencies, including Grey
Advertising and Foote, Cone and Belding. She has a B.A. in journalism
from USC and an MBA from Pepperdine University.
213.821.0072
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