Mizell Stewart III - Commissioner
In more than three decades as a journalist, Mizell Stewart III has
been an award-winning reporter, top newsroom editor in three
states, radio and television broadcaster and corporate news
executive. He is passionate about developing the next generation
of newsroom leaders, community service and advancing the critical
role journalists play in a democratic society.
Today, Stewart is senior director of talent, partnerships and news
strategy for Gannett and the USA TODAY Network, the largest localto-
national news network in the United States. He is an adjunct
faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and the founder of Emerging Leaders,
LLC, a leadership development consulting firm focused on mid-career professionals.
His prior roles include chief content officer of Journal Media Group, vice president / content of
the newspaper division of the E.W. Scripps Company and senior leadership posts at the Akron
Beacon Journal, Evansville Courier & Press and Tallahassee Democrat. He also worked as a
reporter and editor at the Dayton Daily News and Springfield News-Sun. A true multiplatform
journalist, Stewart also was an on-air personality at WNIN-TV in Evansville, Ind. and WIOT-FM
in Toledo, Ohio.
A four-time Pulitzer Prize juror, Stewart helped lead the team at The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss.
that won the 2006 Pulitzer Gold Medal in Public Service for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
He is a past president of the American Society of News Editors and the current president of the
American Society of News Editors Foundation.
He is a frequent speaker and teacher on local journalism, leadership, newsroom diversity
and community service at national journalism conferences and at colleges and universities
throughout the U.S. In 2018, the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication
recognized Stewart with the Gerald R. Sass Distinguished Service Award for his efforts to
strengthen journalism education.
Stewart is a journalism graduate of Bowling Green State University and completed the Advanced
Executive Program, a joint program of the Kellogg School of Business and the Medill School
of Journalism, at Northwestern University. He also earned a master’s degree in Executive
Leadership and Organizational Change from Northern Kentucky University, where he received
the Distinguished Student Award.
Stewart is the proud husband of Valerie Morgan-Stewart, a fellow graduate of Bedford High
School in suburban Cleveland. They reside in Aurora, Ohio.
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