Civic News Company, the nonprofit publisher of Chalkbeat, Votebeat, and Healthbeat, announced today that its Board of Directors has elected Amanda Bennett and Felicia Wong as new directors.
Bennett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, investigative journalist, and editor, is the former CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, where she oversaw U.S. international broadcasting to countries without a free press. She has also served as the Director of Voice of America, providing content in 45 languages to 236.8 million people each week. Previously, Bennett served as Executive Editor at Bloomberg News and the co-founder of Bloomberg News’ Women’s project. Bennett has held editorial positions at news outlets across the country, including the Herald-Leader in Lexington, Kentucky; the Oregonian in Portland, Oregon; and the Wall Street Journal, where she reported from Detroit, Washington, Beijing, and Atlanta.
Wong is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Freedom Together Foundation, where she leads the organization’s progressive vision work. She served as President & CEO of the Roosevelt Institute from 2012 to 2025. Wong has held several volunteer public service roles, including the U.S. representative to the 2021 G7 Economic Resilience Panel, member of the Biden-Harris administration Transition Advisory Board, and Vice Chair of the U.S. Treasury Advisory Committee on Racial Equity. During the Clinton administration she was appointed as a White House Fellow, serving in the Department of Justice. Wong’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, and the Boston Review.
“I couldn’t be more excited that Amanda and Felicia have joined Civic News Company’s Board of Directors,” said Civic News Company CEO Elizabeth Green. “Amanda is a true powerhouse in the field of journalism, and we have already been lucky enough to work with her as an investor and advisor over the past several years. Felicia’s expertise in domestic policy, democracy, strategy, and philanthropy will be a tremendous asset to our Board.”
“I have been following Civic News Company for many years, and I am honored to join the team,” said Bennett. “Journalism has a responsibility to rebuild trust with readers, and that’s exactly what Civic News Company is doing, through local reporting on the issues that most affect people’s daily lives.”
“I’m thrilled to be joining this dynamic team at a time when tackling the challenges facing news – and local news in particular – is critical to improving the health of our democracy,” said Wong.
About Civic News Company
Civic News Company is the publisher of nonprofit newsrooms Chalkbeat, Votebeat, and Healthbeat.
In 2014, Chalkbeat was founded by Elizabeth Green as a multilocal newsroom covering education in New York City, Colorado, Indiana, and Tennessee. By 2020, it had expanded to four more communities and helped to inspire a new wave of local nonprofit news organizations. In 2023, seeing the need for trusted local information beyond education, she established Civic News Company as a nonprofit umbrella publisher of multiple topic-based newsrooms. Today the organization has a staff of 80, including a newsroom of 50, with local Chalkbeat bureaus covering education in New York City, Colorado, Tennessee, Indiana, Chicago, Detroit, Newark, and Philadelphia; local Votebeat bureaus covering election administration and voting in Arizona, Texas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin; and local Healthbeat bureaus covering public health in New York City and Atlanta.
Civic News Company also has a longstanding commitment to field-building. CEO Elizabeth Green co-founded the American Journalism Project in 2019, the country’s first venture philanthropy firm dedicated to local journalism. The organization also led the collaborative drafting of The Roadmap for Local News, which helped to kickstart the creation of Press Forward.
Other members of Civic News Company’s Board of Directors include Gideon Stein, President of Moriah Fund; Ann Sardini, President & Founder of In Progress Advisors; Kang-Xing Jin, former VP & Head of Health at Meta; Jill Barkin, Director at The Beacon Fund; Roberto Yanez, Jr., President & Regional General Manager at TelevisaUnivision; David Rousseau, VP & Executive Director at KFF; and Rebecca Van Dyck, Chief Marketing Officer at Airbnb.