A top Reckon newsroom leader has been selected for the national Maynard 200 fellowship program.

Michelle Zenarosa is among 49 journalists chosen for the program by the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding diversity in the news media and dismantling structural racism in newsrooms.

Zenarosa, a native and resident of Los Angeles, joined Reckon as deputy editor in August 2023. Previously, Michelle was the community manager at USC’s Annenberg Innovation Lab, where they curated the MacArthur civic media fellowship.

“Leadership has been overwhelmingly white and male at nearly every news organization I’ve worked during my career, and just not working for anyone. So with the Maynard 200 fellowship, I am more than ready to step up to the plate of executive leadership and shake things up in the journalism industry, which is badly in need of a reset,” Zenarosa said.

Only 18.8% of newsroom leadership roles outside of the “top three” are occupied by journalists of color, according to the 2019 ASNE Newsroom Diversity survey data.

As part of the Maynard 200 fellowship, Michelle will participate in the executive leaders cohort. In addition to working at USC, she has spent two decades in journalism and mediamaking for news organizations such as Fusion, Everyday Feminism, New America Media and LA Weekly.

In her role at Reckon, Michelle helps manage daily operations for our national newsroom, participates in strategic visioning and oversees reporters covering climate, family and policy, perspective, faith and politics and LGBTQ communities.

“Michelle has been vital to the success and growth of our startup national newsroom,” said R.L. Nave, Reckon’s editor-in-chief. “She has an intense passion to build newsrooms that report on historically excluded communities and build meaningful relationships with the communities and people we cover.”

Odette Alcazaren-Keeley, Maynard 200 director, described the 2023 class as “propelling a mini-movement to dismantle systemic inequity in American media.”

“Our graduates are reshaping American journalism,” said Maynard Institute co-executive director Evelyn Hsu. “This program is part of the Maynard Institute’s long record of service to a craft that is critical to the health of a functioning democracy.”