User:Crtew/Walterine Swanston

Walterine Swanston-NuevaEspana, also known as "Walt" Swanston, (1944 – January 18, 2018), a Journalist in Washington D.C., United States ... Walterine was best known as a diversity champion. She worked with newspapers and television and radio stations to recruit, promote, train and retain people of color and women.She was born in Clinton, LA. Her nationality was an African American Woman. Swanston died on January 19, 2018, she was 74 and suffered a massive heart attack at a Fairfax County, Va., hospital in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, and also she was currently living in Fairfax County. NuevaEspana studied at San Francisco State University. She began her career in the 1960’s for the San Francisco Examiner. She worked in Washington D.C., USA and across the nation as a journalist, radio journalist, and with newspaper and television. She had also been director of diversity management at NPR, a consultant for the American Society of News Editors and from 1993 to 1995, executive director of NABJ. She was best known working with newspapers and television and radio stations to recruit, promote, train and retain people of color and women for more than 25 years. She retired as Unity’s interim executive director and the director of diversity management at NPR in 2014.

Personal
The former Walterine Jackson was born in Clinton, La., and attended segregated schools there before she, her sister Bettye Jackson and Brothers Raphael “Ray” Jackson and Ruffin Lane “Buzz” Jackson were put on trains for Oakland, California where they lived with an aunt and uncle so they could attend integrated schools. She studied at San Francisco State University. As a little girl, Swanston would take the train from her home in San Francisco to her relatives’ in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Back and forth on those train rides she witnessed the segregation between black and whites, they would put a curtain hung across each car, separating blacks and whites.

Career
Walterine began her career in the 1960’s for the San Francisco Examiner. She was a diversity consultant and the retired director of diversity management for National Public Radio (NPR). She had a decades-long career as a champion of media diversity. For more than 25 years, she worked in Washington, DC, and across the nation with newspapers, and television and radio stations to recruit, promote, train and retain women and people of color. She was named executive editor, overseeing all of station’s newsgathering activities for WDVM-TV in 1986.[americanradiohistory] She served as the first executive director of UNITY: Journalists of Color, the joint convention of the Black, Asian, Hispanic and Native American journalism associations and spearheaded the Unity ‘94 and Unity ‘99 conventions. Swanston was named director of the NABJ Children’s Project, 25 writers, editors and photographers documenting self-help and advocacy for African American children.

Death / Notable works of journalism
Walterine died from a massive heart attack. Swanston memorial was held on February 17, 2018 at Cunningham Turch Funeral Home in Alexandria, VA.

Walterine was best known as a diversity champion. She worked with newspapers and television and radio stations to recruit, promote, train and retain people of color and women. She was a member of the strategy committee for Journal-isms Inc., the nonprofit organization created to nurture Journal-isms, and successfully nominated this columnist for the Wells Award two years after she had won it herself. Since 1999, she had been one of four organizers of the Journal-isms Roundtable, a monthly gathering of Washington journalists who discuss issues of race and journalism.

Context
Walt’s death was a tragic loss for journalism. Swanston has a decades-long professional track record as a champion of media diversity.

Impact
Walterine was a distinguished contributor and leader in journalism and media having previously served as the executive director of NABJ; executive director of Unity: Journalists of Color; and director of diversity management for National Public Radio (NPR). She was Unity’s interim executive director from 2012 to 2014, having previously been executive director of Unity: Journalists of Color, which included AAJA, NABJ, NAHJ and NAJA, and spearheaded the Unity ‘94 and Unity ‘99 conventions. She had also been director of diversity management at NPR, a consultant for the American Society of News Editors and from 1993 to 1995, and executive director of NABJ. She worked for the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, directing the organization’s diversity, educational and international programs; for the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, where she directed diversity programs; and for Knight-Ridder Inc., where she was a consultant.

Reactions
“Walt was one of the sweetest, most gentle souls, and someone who was dedicated to the success of every organization for which she worked, every project she led and every young journalist who needed her help,” said friend and fellow journalist Wanda Lloyd.

NPR host Michel Martin remembers Swanston’s time at that network. “From the minute I set foot in the door at NPR, Walt was a source of friendship and wise counsel,” Martin said by email. “And I don’t think I’ve ever met a person with a more diverse network of friends, colleagues, and mentees. Diversity was something she did, it was what she was, a way of life. She was a walking, talking example of how it can and should be done.

Keith Woods, who succeeded her as diversity executive at NPR, said “Walt was one of the most resilient, persistent, and, above all, empathetic people I’ve known. She believed deeply in the work of diversity, and so many of us who have done this work found themselves at one time or another following in her path. Walt was a true champion, and journalism is particularly poorer with her passing.

Awards
The annual Ida B. Wells Award honor highlights the achievement of a media executive who has demonstrated a commitment to diversifying the nation's newsrooms and improving the coverage of people and communities of color. Walterine Swanston is the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ)'s 2011 Ida B. Wells Award Recipient.
 * NABJ Ida B. Wells Award Winner (2011)

Temporary urls

 * journalism
 * current
 * nabjnotice
 * nabj
 * nabjyoutube
 * book1
 * kmitch
 * americanradiohistory
 * book2
 * book3
 * unityjournalists
 * nytimes1998
 * ajrarchive11
 * ajrarchive12
 * rbr
 * blackhistoryheroes
 * theroot
 * narf1 (part I)
 * narf2 (part II)
 * congressionalrec116gunit
 * book4