Meet The Board of Directors

The Board of Directors of The Press Institute is a diverse group of men and women from all over the globe. Members of the Board are experts and pioneers in the fields of journalism, online technologies, gender justice, anthropology, law, peace and security, finance, development, the arts and international relations. Board Members are called upon to provide networking and development opportunities, budgetary oversight, and general counsel that will increase the strength and capacity for growth and excellence of all Press Institute activities.

Cristi Hegranes, Chairman of the Board, Founder

Cristi Hegranes is the president and founder of The Press Institute. She is an award-winning journalist and a renowned international journalism trainer.

Hegranes, the recent recipient of the Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism, has taken her education and experiences and crafted a series of truly unique and inspiring media curricula that allow journalists everywhere to live up to their potential, create ethical journalism, and allow readers to live freer, fuller lives by providing greater access to information. Cristi is the winner of a Clarion Award for Investigative Journalism, a Lifestyle Journalism Prize and numerous other honors. She holds a Masters Degree from New York University, served as a fellow-in residence at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg and received a B.A. from Loyola Marymount University in L.A., where she is often a lecturer in the English Department. Cristi teaches News Entrepreneurship at San Francisco State University.

Sibyl Masquelier, Vice President

Sibyl Masquelier is President of Executive Resource Group, Inc.,an executive search firm serving newspaper, broadcast, online and mobile industries. Sibyl has a BA from the University of Pittsburgh and a M.Ed. from the University of Miami. Previously, she was a department head at the Miami Herald, and prior to that, a manager with the State of Florida Division of Family Services/Cuban Refugee Assistance Program. Sibyl serves the Boards of Maine Women’s Fund, Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and Seven Eagles Media Productions (documentaries of Maine’s Wabanaki Tribes: Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Mik’maq and Maliseet). She lives in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Jonathan Hegranes, Treasurer

Jonathan Hegranes has served on the Press Institute Board of Directors since 2006. Jonathan is also managing director of Katabatic LLC, a firm focused on global asset management and strategic consulting, and sits on the board of directors of UNS, Inc. Jonathan earned his BBA in finance from Texas Christian University. He is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of San Francisco.

Amber Nelson, Secretary

With a degree in journalism and life history as a proponent for women's rights, Amber Nelson is delighted to be a part of the adventure known as The Press Institute. From her first review in her junior high newspaper to her tenacious muckraking at her senior high student publication, Amber has believed in the power of the press to do more than educate, inform and entertain. The press can change the world. While in college she founded and edited Womyns, a regional publication and interned at NARAL and other social and political organizations.

From a position at Planned Parenthood to her work in health care to her present role as a qualitative researcher, Amber has sought professional work that introduces people to their own voices. She lives in Glendale, CA with her 9-year-old son, a Golden Retriever and a cat called Malcom. She can often be found hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains, investigating the wonders of wine and McGyvering new solutions for home repair.

Ryan Blitstein, Member

Ryan Blitstein is an award-winning investigative reporter, educator, and media consultant who has written extensively on the media industry and the future of news. A contributing editor at Miller-McCune, Blitstein is a former staff writer at the San Jose Mercury News, and his work has also appeared in TIME and The Chicago Tribune. He is the co-founder of several experimental media projects, including the Chicago Elections Wiki and the research and social forum Journalism Innovation Chicago. Blitstein holds degrees from Stanford University and the Journalism School at Columbia University and has lectured at Stanford and San Jose State University

Bridget Huber, Member

Bridget Huber was the Press Institute's first program director at its training site in Chiapas, Mexico. Raised on the coast of Maine and a graduate of Bates College and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, Bridget covers issues including the environment, food, and labor and contributes frequently to a number of regional and international publications. She has also worked with migrant farm workers, refugees, and grass-roots community groups in the US, Brazil and Mexico. In her free time, Bridget gardens, forages for wild foods, and is an apprentice to a cheesemaker. This fall, she'll enter a masters' program in journalism at the University of California at Berkeley.

Frances Johnson, Member

Frances Johnson is a life-long lover of stories. She has worked as a reporter at the Denver Post and Salt Lake Tribune, and served as assistant editor for the Enterprise Newspaper Group in Salt Lake City. She is currently working as a technical writer for a defense contractor in Washington, D.C.

Frances has a BS in journalism from Boston University, and was a fellow-in-reisdence at The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. She spent 18 months as a religious missionary in Japan, and traveled for six weeks to India as a member of a Group Study Exchange team sponsored by the Rotary International Foundation in 2008. Frances has served on boards for the YWCA of Salt Lake City, and for Salt Lake City-based non-profit People Helping People, a successful employment program for low-income single mothers.

Frances enjoys blogging, road biking, eating meals cooked by other people and singing in the car. She dislikes taking out the garbage, sending text messages, and movies where geeky guys land beautiful women.

To contact members of the Board, email board@globalpressinstitute.org, and your message will be forwarded.