Featured Speakers:

Isaac Ritchey, Central Michigan Life
Isaac Ritchey is a photojournalist and summer editor-in-chief of Central Michigan Life, the award-winning newspaper at Central Michigan University. He is working toward his degree in journalism with a minor in multimedia design, and is working toward a creative writing certificate. At CM Live, he’s served as photo editor and worked several beats as a senior reporter. Ritchey has professional bylines for Central Michigan Life, Western Herald, Daily Chronicle, Altoona Mirror, Michigan Out of Doors Magazine, The Detroit News, Times Union, The Spectrum, Epicenter, SFGate and the Detroit Free Press. In 2020, Ritchey won an honorable mention in the Sports Action portion at the Michigan Press Photographers Association annual conference. Ritchey was born in Pennsylvania, lived in Wisconsin for nine years and moved to Michigan in 2015.

Lizzy Lawrence, The Michigan Daily
Elizabeth (Lizzy) Lawrence is a senior at the University of Michigan and the editor-in-chief of The Michigan Daily. She joined the News section of The Daily as a freshman and has been journalism-obsessed ever since. She majors in Sociology and International Studies, and hopes to work in health or education journalism after college.

Evan Jones, The State News
Evan Jones is editor-in-chief of Michigan State University’s award-winning independent student newspaper, The State News. He’s a rising senior finishing a degree in journalism and history. In February, Jones accepted a position with The MediaWise Voter Project out of The Poynter Institute as a campus correspondent, leading a digital literacy campaign with fact-checking tools for social media. His reporting work also includes stories about Michigan’s politics, environment and economy with Capital News Service and coverage of the city of East Lansing at The State News. ​Before entering journalism he was on the MSU Debate Team.

Moderated by Jeremy Steele, Michigan Interscholastic Press Association
Jeremy Steele is executive director of the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association and a specialist in the School of Journalism at Michigan State University, where he teaches various reporting courses. Steele is an award-winning journalist who has also worked for one of Michigan’s largest independent public relations firms.