Real voices.

Speaker bio

Sandra Fish

Data journalist

Sandra Fish is a data journalist specializing in politics and government. She has covered government and politics in Iowa, Florida, New Mexico and Colorado and has worked for the Boulder Daily Camera and New Mexico In Depth. She spent eight years as a full-time journalism instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder, and her reporting has appeared through The Colorado Sun, Colorado Public Radio, KUNC, The Washington Post, Roll Call and other outlets.

Fish earned bachelor's degrees in journalism and political science and a master's degree in political science with an emphasis in statistics from Iowa State University. She is a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors and a past president of the Journalism and Women Symposium. Outside journalism, she enjoys knitting, weaving, reading, bicycling and watching sports.

Speaker bio

Tim Regan-Porter

CEO, Colorado Press Association

Tim Regan-Porter is CEO of the Colorado Press Association and host of the Local News Matters podcast. He became CPA's chief executive in October 2020 and leads the association's advocacy, member services, revenue development, innovation and partnerships on behalf of Colorado journalism.

Before joining CPA, Regan-Porter served as South Region editor for McClatchy and was a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. He was the founding executive director of the Center for Collaborative Journalism at Mercer University, where students worked alongside professional newsroom partners in a shared environment. Earlier, he was president and co-founder of Paste magazine, helping build an independent music and culture publication across print and digital platforms.

Regan-Porter began his career in technology as a software developer, technical project manager and engineering director at IBM and startup companies. His work sits at the intersection of journalism, entrepreneurship, technology, education and public policy, with a focus on helping local news organizations adapt and serve their communities.

Speaker bio

Dan Grech

Founder; Author, YBYS

Dan Grech is the founder of YBYS and the author of Your Business Is Your Story: The Growth Strategy Your Competitors Cannot Copy. A former business journalist and serial entrepreneur, he helps founder-led companies uncover the experiences, struggles and breakthroughs that make their businesses distinctive, then turn those stories into practical tools for growth. His approach connects narrative with strategy: a clear and authentic business story can sharpen a company's purpose, strengthen its marketing, attract aligned customers and employees, and deepen relationships with partners and communities.

Through YBYS, Grech works with leaders to identify their origin stories, shape them into compelling narratives and build a flexible collection of shorter stories that can be used throughout the business. His work is based on the premise that competitors can copy products, pricing and tactics, but they cannot reproduce the singular journey that created a company. Grech brings a journalist's interviewing instincts and an entrepreneur's understanding of how clarity, trust and meaning contribute to sustainable growth.

Speaker bio

Laura Frank

Executive Director, Colorado News Collaborative

Laura Frank is executive director of the Colorado News Collaborative, where she works with more than 175 news outlets and their communities to strengthen local journalism and democracy across the state. She pioneered collaborative journalism in Colorado as the founder of I-News, a nonprofit investigative newsroom that merged with Rocky Mountain Public Media in 2013 in the first merger of its kind in the country. Frank led the journalism team there for seven years before launching COLab.

A Denver native, she spent 20 years reporting for newspapers, radio and public television around the country, specializing in investigative reporting and data analysis. She is a founding member and former chair of the Institute for Nonprofit News and has received media-entrepreneurship fellowships from Columbia University and the University of Southern California.

Her work has earned awards in both broadcast and print and has led to changes in laws and in people's lives. Frank also serves as a visiting professor at the University of Denver and received Colorado's Governor's Citizenship Medal for Public Service in 2026.

Speaker bio

Kimberly Spencer

Executive Director, Colorado Media Project

Kimberly Spencer is executive director of Colorado Media Project, where she leads efforts to strengthen Colorado's local news ecosystem and expand access to trusted information. A seasoned fundraiser and nonprofit leader, she has helped news organizations build financial sustainability through philanthropy, executive leadership, relationship building and revenue strategy. Before joining CMP, Spencer led fundraising initiatives for Capital B News and Chalkbeat and served as chief philanthropy officer at the Pivot Fund, an intermediary that supports diverse newsrooms.

Her work has focused especially on organizations serving communities that have historically faced barriers to equitable news access. Spencer believes reliable local information is civic infrastructure: communities need it to participate in decisions that shape their lives. Originally from rural Maine, she moved to Colorado in 2000.

She holds a bachelor's degree in strategic leadership for nonprofit organizations from Metropolitan State University of Denver and has pursued graduate study in management and leadership. She serves on the board of Open Vallejo and coaches publishers through LION Publishers.

Speaker bio

Kevin Berrier

Marketing Director, MDDC Press Association

Kevin Berrier is marketing director for MDDC Advertising Services, the full-service marketing agency of the MDDC Press Association. Drawing on more than two decades in marketing and advertising, he helps businesses and organizations define the results they need and then builds campaigns around those goals. His work can combine websites, local publications, digital advertising and other materials to reach audiences at the local, regional or national level.

Because MDDC works closely with news organizations across Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia, Berrier brings particular experience in connecting advertisers with trusted local media and developing campaigns that inform audiences while delivering measurable value. He works with clients to make sense of fragmented advertising options, select the channels that fit their needs and execute an integrated plan rather than a collection of disconnected placements.

Speaker bio

Jerry Glotzer

Safety/Risk Manager, Chicago Tribune Publishing/MediaNews Group

Jerry is a recognized subject matter expert and published author in the field of employee and environmental health and safety & risk mitigation.

Before joining Chicago Tribune Publishing and MediaNews Group, he led teams of facilities engineers, physician and nurse administrators at large university based academic medical centers.

With extensive tactical and scholarly experience in emergency management, Jerry was involved with responding to large scale mass events such as, September 11, 2001 attack; Anthrax; Pandemic flu; Hurricane Katrina, COVID.

For the last 7 plus years Jerry has supported the six newsprint facilities and over 100 Newsrooms owned and operated by Chicago Tribune Publishing and MediaNews Group.

In addition to providing an array of services germane to insurance, workers compensation, OSHA,EPA compliance, he has trained over 500 reporters and photographers on safety strategies and personal protective equipment use for high risk assignments with possible threats from event participants and law enforcement. Including the George Floyd Social Justice demonstrations, January 6th State Capitol protests, ProPalestinian spontaneous events and both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

Recently he trained reporters and photographers covering the DHS and ICE actions in California, Illinois, Minnesota and Virginia with emphasis on proper respirator use, clothing, field decontamination & credentialing.

Speaker bio

Kevin Slimp

Founder, Newspaper Academy

Kevin Slimp is a newspaper consultant, adviser, trainer, columnist and speaker who has spent decades helping community newspapers improve their products and strengthen their operations. In 1997, he founded the Institute of Newspaper Technology and went on to direct the Newspaper Institute at the University of Tennessee from 1997 through 2018. He is the chief guru of NewspaperAcademy.com and CEO of Market Square Publishing.

Slimp works directly with publishers, editors, designers and production teams on newspaper redesigns, critiques, workflow improvements, software and design training, and long-term planning. He has led workshops and keynote presentations for newspaper associations and journalism organizations across the United States and internationally.

His work combines close attention to print quality and design with a practical focus on the business realities facing local publishers. Through his consulting, columns and training programs, he encourages newspapers to invest in improvement, develop their people and create products that demonstrate the continuing value of strong community journalism.

Speaker bio

Julia Campbell

Co-Chief Executive Officer, Local Media Association

Julia Campbell is co-chief executive officer of Local Media Association. She previously served LMA as a branded-content strategist and innovative project manager, leading a joint initiative with Local Media Association, Local Media Consortium and the Facebook Journalism Project. In that work, she guided broadcasters, print organizations and digital publishers as they tested promising business models, with the goal of developing practical playbooks local media companies could use to grow revenue.

Campbell spent nearly a decade at Gray Television and served as vice president of media systems. There she created MomsEveryday, an award-winning television, digital, social and streaming branded-content initiative that helped local businesses connect with families while generating revenue for stations. Her career also includes director and editor roles at local and national television organizations, including CNN, in markets ranging from Casper, Wyoming, to Atlanta.

She brings experience across branded content, newsroom operations, local-media sustainability and product development. Campbell earned a Bachelor of Science in journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Speaker bio

Kent Thiry

TNC Global Board Member and Former CEO & Executive Chairman of DaVita, Unite America / former DaVita

Kent Thiry is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and civic leader whose work focuses on renewing democracy, protecting natural places, expanding economic mobility, developing leaders and improving health care. From 1999 to 2019, he served as chairman and CEO of DaVita, helping lead the company from the brink of bankruptcy to the Fortune 500 while growing revenue elevenfold and expanding to more than 65,000 employees in 12 countries. During his tenure, DaVita became known for its employee-centered culture, clinical innovation and leadership development; Harvard and Stanford both produced case studies about the company.

Since leaving DaVita, Thiry has remained active in nonprofit and civic initiatives designed to create systemic change. He has helped lead good-government efforts intended to broaden participation in democracy, serves on the global board of The Nature Conservancy and supports conservation and outdoor-recreation work in Colorado. He graduated with honors in political science from Stanford University and earned his MBA with honors from Harvard Business School.

Speaker bio

Garry Pierre-Pierre

Director of Partnerships, URL Media

Garry Pierre-Pierre is director of partnerships at URL Media and the founder and former publisher of The Haitian Times, one of URL Media's inaugural network partners. He brings more than 35 years of journalism experience to his work supporting independent media organizations that serve Black, Brown and immigrant communities. Pierre-Pierre spent eight years as a reporter at The New York Times and was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

He founded The Haitian Times in 1999 to provide authoritative reporting about Haiti and the Haitian diaspora, building it into an essential source of community-centered news. At URL Media, he oversees partner recruitment, onboarding, retention and long-term success, drawing on his experience operating a community newsroom and navigating the challenges facing independent publishers. His work is grounded in the belief that trusted community media can collaborate, share resources and build sustainable institutions without giving up the voices and relationships that make their journalism distinctive.

Speaker bio

Amalie Nash

VP/Journalism, Knight Foundation

Amalie Nash is vice president of journalism at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, where she guides investments aimed at strengthening local news and advancing sustainable, independent journalism.

A newsroom leader and digital-transformation strategist with nearly three decades of experience, she began her career as a reporter and rose to executive editor and then senior vice president of local news at Gannett and the USA TODAY Network. In that role, she helped form the USA TODAY Network of 110 local newsrooms and later oversaw more than 260 publications following the GateHouse merger. Nash previously served as executive editor of The Des Moines Register and assistant managing editor at the Detroit Free Press.

More recently, she led transformation work for the National Trust for Local News and advised global newsrooms through the International News Media Association. Her work spans content strategy, digital subscriptions, audience development, newsletters, technology adoption and national coverage initiatives. She has also championed public-records access and transparency throughout her career.