Digital producer
PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs, Arlington, Va.
Age: 30
In three words: “Creative, honest, conscientious”
What her colleagues say: Rawan is creative and disciplined in her work, bringing innovative content experiments to the NewsHour journalism training program, such as the beginning-of-the-year school takeovers of the TikTok and Instagram accounts. She is a team player and makes connections across different departments. For example, she translated footage from Arabic to English for the NewsHour’s international team. She was chosen for Poynter’s 2024 Leadership Academy for Women in Media and passed through multiple rounds of review led by program alumni.
What Rawan says
Decision to work in public media: After the 2016 election, I realized that I needed to do more to combat misinformation and tell stories specifically about my community. I had decided to go back to school to get a master’s degree in journalism at Georgetown University when I stumbled across the opportunity to work for PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs.
Key accomplishments: Leading and developing digital content strategies, managing and growing our social media platforms, producing and editing video and audio stories for SRL’s award-winning series like Moments of Truth and On Our Minds. I’m also incredibly proud of working with the NewsHour‘s foreign team by leading translation work for the reports coming in from Gaza. Our coverage was recently recognized with a Peabody Award.
Inspired by: My upbringing as a first-generation American Muslim, the community around me, the people I meet and the new places I get to see.
Advice for young public media professionals: Speak up, even if it’s intimidating. It’s important to talk about your own experiences to share the most accurate and diverse news coverage.
Advice for public media leaders: Listen to people who have out-of-the box ideas. Be open to modernity and change. TikTok is not a bad place.