Biography

Andrea Wenzel is an assistant professor in Temple University’s Department of Journalism and a member of the Klein College of Media and Communication graduate faculty. Her research focuses on initiatives to create more connected and inclusive communities and newsrooms through community-centered and reflexive journalism—as well as other media and cultural initiatives.

As a Knight News Innovation Fellow with Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, she has led projects on local news with a focus on marginalized groups in rural, small town, suburban and urban communities. Her projects have explored issues of equity and inclusion, engaged journalism, and solutions journalism. She is the co-founder of the community journalism project, the Germantown Info Hub.

Her research has appeared in journals such as Digital Journalism, Journalism Practice, Journalism Studies, Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism and the International Journal of Communication. Her work also appears in trade publications such as the Columbia Journalism Review and Nieman Lab, and she serves on the editorial board of Journalism Practice.

Prior to academia, Andrea worked for 15 years as a public radio producer, editor, and media development consultant. She managed projects and trained media makers in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq and India for media development organizations such as BBC Media Action and Internews—and taught journalism as a Fulbright Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana. Andrea produced global affairs series including WAMU’s Latitudes and WBEZ’s Worldview as well as features and documentaries for a range of US and international outlets.

She holds a PhD from the USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and a MA and BA from the University of Chicago.