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

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

Ben Colmery, Deputy Director: Responsible for assisting in the implementation of the program, with special emphasis on partner development, promotion of the program with international visitors, and monitoring and evaluation. Colmery has worked on developing and evaluating initiatives in Eastern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and South Asia to build the capacity of journalists and citizen journalists to inform the public through both traditional and new media. He has also completed extensive research on the use of economic journalism to foster transparency in the oil, gas, and mining industries in Ghana and Nigeria. His journalism development career began with a training program he launched in Ukraine, in the wake of the Orange Revolution in 2004, to promote print journalism in several small Ukrainian communities. He has a master’s degree in international media development and communications from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Albion College.bcolmery@icfj.org

Pedro J. Rodriguez, Program Officer: Responsible for assisting in the implementation of ICFJ's flagship program, the Knight International Journalism Fellowships. Before joining ICFJ, he served as an international programs specialist for a non-profit group that focused on engaging civil society through new media and community development. He previously interned at Greenpeace USA in Washington D.C. He received his master's degree in international relations from the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI) in Spain. Rodriguez has a bachelor's degree in political science from the from the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras. Rodriguez is a native Spanish speaker. He also is fluent in English and proficient in Italian and Portuguese.pedror@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.