Katie is the digital innovation faculty at The Poynter Institute, where she teaches journalists, stays on top of industry trends and cheers on newsrooms testing out new solutions to old problems. She is on a quest to prove that newsrooms don’t have to be unhappy places.
She runs Poynter’s Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media and is the co-founder of 40 Better Hours, a project to improve newsroom culture. Prior to Poynter, she was the editor of CNN iReport, the network’s global participatory news community. A leading expert in user-generated content, Hawkins-Gaar was responsible for the site’s editorial and social strategy, setting verification standards and leading a team of producers based in Atlanta and London.
She publishes a bi-monthly newsletter, The Cohort, dedicated to women kicking ass in digital media. Outside of work, she’s perfecting a mean shuffleboard game.