Back to PMJA 2023 Speakers
Lenfest Institute
Media Professional
Amy Kovac-Ashley
Head of National Programs
Lenfest Institute
Contact information may be available to logged in members.
Professional Bio
Amy Kovac-Ashley is head of national programs at the Lenfest Institute for Journalism. She oversees the institute’s communities of practice, which connect and support journalists and media professionals across the industry. She also leads the institute’s advisory services and directs the institute’s national strategy.
Formerly, she was the executive vice president and chief of news transformation at the American Press Institute, where her portfolio encompassed all of API’s Journalism programs. Those included accountability journalism; diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB); and organizational transformation and culture change, a major piece of which is the Table Stakes program.
Amy has been an adviser and coach to news leaders on community listening and engagement, cultural change and DEIB initiatives, including mentorship programs. She cares deeply about the sustainability of local news — for communities, news organizations and the people who work in them. She is interested in finding new ways to support talent development in news organizations and to facilitate peer learning.
She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the nonprofit news organization Open Campus Media.
Prior to her work at API, Amy worked as a journalism educator. She was the managing director of West Virginia University’s Reed College of Media Innovation Center and the assistant dean of Georgetown University’s master’s in journalism program. She has taught journalism ethics, media writing, media law and Capstone courses.
Amy spent a dozen years as a professional journalist, with most of her time working in print or digital news. She reported on education and other local affairs at The Herald News and The Roanoke Times and was an editor at Foreign Policy magazine, Patch.com and The Washington Post, where she was the paper’s first social media editor. She is a graduate of Stanford University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Formerly, she was the executive vice president and chief of news transformation at the American Press Institute, where her portfolio encompassed all of API’s Journalism programs. Those included accountability journalism; diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB); and organizational transformation and culture change, a major piece of which is the Table Stakes program.
Amy has been an adviser and coach to news leaders on community listening and engagement, cultural change and DEIB initiatives, including mentorship programs. She cares deeply about the sustainability of local news — for communities, news organizations and the people who work in them. She is interested in finding new ways to support talent development in news organizations and to facilitate peer learning.
She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the nonprofit news organization Open Campus Media.
Prior to her work at API, Amy worked as a journalism educator. She was the managing director of West Virginia University’s Reed College of Media Innovation Center and the assistant dean of Georgetown University’s master’s in journalism program. She has taught journalism ethics, media writing, media law and Capstone courses.
Amy spent a dozen years as a professional journalist, with most of her time working in print or digital news. She reported on education and other local affairs at The Herald News and The Roanoke Times and was an editor at Foreign Policy magazine, Patch.com and The Washington Post, where she was the paper’s first social media editor. She is a graduate of Stanford University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Company
Lenfest Institute
Media Professional