Stefanie Murray is the Director of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. A Michigan native, Stefanie previously worked in Michigan and Tennessee as a reporter, editor, digital media manager and news executive. Before joining Montclair State, she worked for Gannett Co. as vice president and executive editor of The Tennessean in Nashville, and was with the Detroit Free Press before that.

Her professional passions are collaborative journalism, local journalism, community engagement and audience analysis. She has a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting and journalism from Central Michigan University.

Tom Kearney has been a Stowe Reporter since 2005; managing editor; also in charge of overhauling the news coverage and presentation of the weeklies the company acquired since 2015 — the News & Citizen of Morrisville, The Other Paper of South Burlington, Shelburne News, and The Citizen of Charlotte and Hinesburg. The Stowe Reporter has won best small weekly in New England twice in six years.

Kearney took an 18-month break to be senior manager for global editorial quality in a Yellowbook startup that launched 700 monthly community magazines in 15 months. It folded, everybody was laid off, and he got his Stowe Reporter job back.

Prior to the Stowe Reporter Kearney spent twenty years as executive editor of The Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire, a regional daily that was judged best small daily in New England.

He is past president, New England Society of News Editors; former board member of New England First Amendment Coalition, New England Newspaper and Press Association, New England Press Association, First Amendment Committee of Vermont Press Association, N.H. Committee on Judiciary and the Media.

Two-time juror for Pulitzer Prizes in journalism and delegate in New England exchanges with Russian journalists, and a short lived exchange with Iran journalists.

His awards inlcude: New England Newspaper Hall of Fame, Yankee Quill Award, N.H. First Amendment Award, various writing awards.

Kearney is married, has two children, two stepchildren and five grandchildren.

Dawn DeAngelis oversees the broadcast, online, educational outreach and communications efforts for New Hampshire’s PBS station, She is passionate about producing locally relevant content with impact long after broadcast.

She also acts as liaison for the station’s Community Advisory Board and cultivates and manages strategic partnerships and initiatives. She is a member of the Granite State News Collaborative’s Advisory Team.

She has been at NHPBS since 2000 when she launched the station’s new nightly public affairs program, NH Outlook. She and her excellent team of producers and videographers have won Tellys, regional Emmy awards and nominations, and more than a dozen local New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters awards for excellence.

Before joining NHPBS, DeAngelis worked in San Francisco producing television news programs for the ABC and CBS owned stations. Along with supervising the daily production of live newscasts, she produced special coverage for elections, earthquakes, wildfires and floods.

Kimberly Kirchner is Editor of The Herbalist, a quarterly magazine covering cannabis news and culture in Western Massachusetts published by New England Newspapers Inc. Between issues, she serves as Special Sections Editor for the company’s four newspapers, overseeing content creation, design and production of specialty publications distributed across Berkshire County and Southern Vermont. She lives in Dalton, Mass. with her partner, their cat and just enough lizards to keep things interesting.

Kevin L. McCrudden is an international author, speaker and the only motivational and leadership speaker in American history to ever have a day of recognition passed by The United States Congress and New York State. He is the founder of National Motivation & Inspiration Day®, which was passed by The United States Congress after the tragic events of 9/11/2001. January 2^nd is acknowledged as National Motivation & Inspiration Day® and, in New York State, January is Motivation & Inspiration Month® ! 

McCrudden studied soccer, Political Science and Journalism/Communication in college. He became a professional / semi-professional soccer player. Has worked in Government and politics and has been a candidate for political office. And has written eight (8) books, been on national and international TV and has hosted his own radio and TV shows. He was also publisher of his own soccer magazine and created the Long Island Soccer Player Hall of Fame.

He is currently a National Key Note Speaker, Business Consultant and Guest Lecturer at Amity Education Group, as well as an Entrepreneur and Executive Coach and “Millennial Mentor.” 

Kevin’s media career actually started at 12 years old, when he became a newspaper delivery boy for his hometown newspaper, Newsday. In his media career, he has worked with representatives from over 2,000 newspapers and media companies all across North America where he conducted management, leadership and sales training programs. He established three (3) separate University Programs for Fortune 500 newspaper companies and created one of the first “Media Convergence Models” in America in 1998. 

His book, “Who Are You? Become the Very Best You That You Can Be” introduces the most significant addition to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in 60 years and his 7 audiobooks have sold in over 30 countries around the world. 

Kevin has appeared on Fox News, Fox & friends and ABC News in New York, as well as international radio and TV programs, in addition to being a TV and Radio Host. 

He speaks on topics of Motivation, Inspiration, Management, Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Sales, Sports, Soccer and maximizing performance to corporations, universities, students and athletes. 

Carol Robidoux is founder, publisher and Chief Instigating Officer of manchesterinklink.com, a digital news and information site based in Manchester, NH. She has been a journalist since the early 1990s, working for the Bucks County Courier Times in Levittown, PA, as a columnist and features writer before moving to New Hampshire for a staff reporting job at the NH Union Leader in 2001. As newsroom jobs dwindled she continued writing freelance for various publications including the Boston Globe, The Concord Monitor, Business NH Magazine and the NH Bar News. She spent more than two years learning the ways of digital news as local editor for NashuaPatch.com from 2011-2014 before launching the Inklink in June 2014. She is a founding member of the Granite State News Collaborative, an active member of LION Publishers, and a past board member of the NH Press Association.On Twitter: @ManchInkLink @CarolRobidoux

Autumn Phillips is Managing Editor of The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C. She previously served as Executive Editor of the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa, and the Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho. Her work has been recognized twice by Editor & Publisher Magazine’s “10 Newspapers That Do It Right.” At The Post and Courier, she has used one-on-one data coaching of editors to keep the newsroom focused on audience and digital revenue strategy, and has developed a training culture focused on improving and deepening journalism. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt.