Poynter is pleased to announce that award-winning journalist Fernanda Camarena will join the faculty of the Poynter Institute starting Aug. 28. She will deepen Poynter’s expertise in journalism ethics, craft, leadership and partnerships, and expand Poynter’s Spanish-language training capacity.
“I’m thrilled that Fernanda is joining our team, and excited for what she will contribute to Poynter’s future,” said Sitara Nieves, vice president of teaching and organizational strategy at Poynter. “Her award-winning career spans national, local and Spanish-language television, public radio and nonprofit news. Her hire reflects Poynter’s key focus on strengthening local journalism, continuing to expand our teaching into Spanish-language newsrooms, and deepening our impact on journalism and democracy.”
Camarena comes to Poynter from NBC News, where she served as a manager on the standards and practices team and provided support and guidance to NBC News, MSNBC, Telemundo and of the company’s streaming platforms to ensure high journalistic standards.
Before NBC, Camarena worked at the Texas Newsroom, an NPR collaborative project between all Texas local stations and NPR National, where she managed complex newsroom collaborations; mentored and guided early and mid-career reporters, editors and news directors; and won numerous national awards including a Gracie Award, an IRE Award and a national Edward R. Murrow Award.
She’s also worked as an editor at Latino USA, and as a reporter and producer for The Center for Investigative Reporting, where she won a Peabody Award.
“It’s a great honor to meet and get to know newsrooms of all sizes and learn more about what resources they need. And it’s a great responsibility to help them achieve their goals and do their best work,” Camarena said. “I couldn’t be more excited to bring my background and experiences to Poynter. It’s an inspiring organization and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”
Camarena’s career started in TV broadcast news, where she began as the youngest news anchor and correspondent in the history of Televisa in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. She continued with on-air reporting jobs at Telemundo in El Paso, Texas, — where she helped launch the first Telemundo news program in that city — and nationally as a general assignment correspondent in New York City. Her first job, in college, was as a local producer/fixer for “60 Minutes” as it covered the drug war in her hometown of Juarez, across the U.S.-Mexico border from El Paso.
“During the pandemic I became a naturalized U.S. citizen, and during that ceremony I felt blessed and immensely privileged to have this career. I don’t take for granted the liberties we have,” Camarena said. “Journalism is critical for our democracy and across the world. Poynter has had a huge impact in this industry, with a long legacy of educating and inspiring journalists.”
Poynter is committed to bringing fact-based information to audiences in Spanish, with recent media literacy and fact-checking initiatives dedicated to engaging Spanish speakers in the U.S. and abroad. In 2022, Poynter launched MediaWise En Español, a series of educational programs and resources on WhatsApp and YouTube, supported by Google News Initiative and in partnership with Noticias Telemundo. With more support from Meta, MediaWise En Español produced additional video tutorials and trained civic organizations such as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. Also this year, MediaWise partnered with Factchequeado to provide Spanish-speaking journalists the skills to mitigate misinformation.
Poynter-owned PolitiFact also recently launched Spanish-language fact-checking, hiring two fact-checkers to produce and translate fact-checks in Spanish. PolitiFact also established a bilingual fact-checking partnership with Florida NBC and Telemundo stations in May.
In addition to teaching core journalism skills in Spanish and English, Camarena will join Nieves, Poynter senior vice president Kelly McBride and Poynter faculty Tony Elkins to launch the Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative. This new nine-month fellowship for managers at public television and radio stations is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Camarena lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband and their two young children.
Meet the rest of Poynter’s teaching team and explore upcoming training opportunities.
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