A conversation between Alberto Ibargüen, Columbia High School graduate and president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Rebecca Blumenstein, longtime Maplewood resident and Deputy Managing Editor of The New York Times.
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ALBERTO IBARGÜEN
Alberto Ibargüen is president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a leading funder of efforts to promote informed and engaged communities in the US. In 2018, The Knight Foundation made over $105m in grants to nonprofit groups in communities across the country where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. The Knight Foundation’s work is grounded in the belief that engagement includes participating in community and civic affairs, voting, volunteering or simply taking part in the social life of the community. In turn, Knight supports initiatives that connect people to the places where they live and to the public life of the community. This is done through the design, construction and programming of inclusive and equitable public spaces, investments in inclusive and effective pathways to economic opportunity, and technology-enabled efforts--all helping residents connect to each other and become more informed, while also helping cities be more responsive to residents.
Mr. Ibargüen is the former publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. During his tenure, The Miami Herald won three Pulitzer Prizes and El Nuevo Herald won Spain’s Ortega y Gasset Prize for excellence in Spanish language journalism. For his work to protect journalists in Latin America, he received a Maria Moors Cabot citation from Columbia University
Mr. Ibargüen grew up in South Orange, NJ and graduated from Columbia High School, Wesleyan University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He served in the Peace Corps in Venezuela’s Amazon Territory and in Colombia and practiced law in Hartford, Connecticut, until he joined the Hartford Courant, then Newsday in New York, before moving to Miami. He has served on numerous boards of directors, including PepsiCo, American Airlines, AOL, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, ProPublica, Wesleyan University, Smith College, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Committee to Protect Journalists. He is also a former board chair of PBS and the Newseum in Washington DC, and of the World Wide Web Foundation.
Mr. Ibargüen holds honorary degrees from several universities, including Wesleyan and The George Washington University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
REBECCA BLUMENSTEIN
Rebecca Blumenstein has been Deputy Managing Editor of The New York Times since February 2017, where she heads the digital report and focuses on making The Times an essential destination for business, economics and technology coverage. Prior to joining the NYT, Ms. Blumenstein served as Deputy Editor in Chief of The Wall Street Journal. She joined the WSJ in 1995 as a reporter in the Detroit bureau, and over the years served as the deputy chief of its New York Technology Group, managing editor of WSJ.com, China bureau chief, deputy managing editor and international editor, and Page One Editor. She began her journalism career at The Tampa Tribune, and then later moved to Gannett Newspapers and Newsday, where she covered breaking news and the New York State legislature.
Ms. Blumenstein received a 1993 New York Newswomen’s Award for best deadline writing for her coverage of the aftermath of the Long Island Railroad shootings. In 2003, she was part of a team that won the Gerald Loeb Award for deadline writing for coverage of WorldCom. She oversaw the China team that won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 2007 and was named to the Aspen Institute's Henry Crown Fellowship for 2009.
Ms. Blumenstein holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and social science from the University of Michigan, where she was editor in chief of the Michigan Daily. A native of Essexville, Michigan, Ms. Blumenstein is a long-time resident of Maplewood, NJ, where she lives with her husband, writer Alan Paul and three children.