Our Staff

Elisa Tinsley, Director: Responsible for supervising and implementing this world-wide media assistance program. Tinsley has three decades of professional journalism experience. From 2000 to 2007, she was World Editor at USA Today, where she directed a team of staff reporters and freelance journalists who provided international coverage for America’s largest-circulation newspaper. During her nearly 19 years at the newspaper, she oversaw the expansion of USA Today’s international bureaus and coverage of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. From 1984 to 1988, she was a Moscow-based reporter. She started her journalism career as a business reporter and editor in Chicago and New York. Tinsley received her bachelor's degree in English literature from Washington University in St. Louis. She has a master's degree in English literature and language from the University of Chicago. etinsley@icfj.org

Isaac Itman, Deputy Director: Assists in the general implementation of the program with special emphasis on Latin American projects, partner development and promotion of the program with international visitors. He previously was the Bilingual Writer/Editor for the Office of Minority Health Resource Center at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). He has also had stints as a reporter, translator, feature writer, and as a teacher’s assistant. Itman has a bachelor’s degree in communications from the Universidad Católica del Uruguay and a master’s degree in International Relations from the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals, Barcelona, Spain. He is a native Spanish-speaker and is fluent in English. iitman@icfj.org

Jerelyn Eddings, Program Director: Responsible for supervising and implementing global programs, including health and development fellowships in Africa. Eddings has extensive experience in the United States and Africa as a reporter, editor, television producer and director of media training programs. Previously, she worked as a foreign correspondent for the Baltimore Sun in Southern Africa (1990 to 1994), as Atlanta bureau chief and then chief congressional correspondent for U.S. News & World Report magazine (1994 to 1997) and as director of the Freedom Forum’s Africa media center in Johannesburg, South Africa (1997 to 2002). She also served as managing editor of Africa programming for Howard University Television (WHUT), a PBS station in Washington (2002 to 2004), and as managing editor of Editors’ World, a Los Angeles-based news organization that focused on improved coverage of global issues (2005 to 2007). Eddings holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina and is a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. jeddings@icfj.org

Emily Schult, Program Officer/Web Editor: Responsible for assisting in the implementation of ICFJ's largest fellowship program, as well as maintaining its Web site. She received her M.A. and B.A. in Mass Communication from the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University.  Before coming to ICFJ she served as a teaching assistant at LSU and an operations team member for the Junior National Young Leaders Conference.  She previously interned at Shaw Center for the Arts, an arts complex in Baton Rouge, La., and the Louisiana Book Festival. eschult@icfj.org

Advisory Committees: The Knight International Journalism Fellowships has named prestigious journalists and experts in journalism training and media management to serve on six advisory boards: one At-Large committee that looks at broad global trends, and regional committees that provide insight into developments in Asia and the Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Board members help decide which countries provide the best opportunities for change, identify projects that have the greatest potential for impact and recruit outstanding Fellows.