Katie Hawkins-Gaar

Katie Hawkins-Gaar is a journalism consultant, freelance writer, and the organizer of Poynter’s Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media. Hawkins-Gaar created The Cohort, Poynter’s newsletter dedicated to women kicking ass in journalism, and co-founded 40 Better Hours, a project to improve newsroom morale. She runs digitalwomenleaders.com, a site offering free one-on-one mentoring sessions for women working in journalism, and writes a weekly newsletter called My Sweet Dumb Brain. Hawkins-Gaar previously worked as Poynter’s digital innovation faculty. Prior to that, she was the managing editor of CNN iReport, the network’s global citizen journalism platform.