MDC Journalism Speaker Series To Broadcast On Instagram Live This Summer

Future journalists—get ready.

The Miami Dade College Journalism Speaker Series will broadcast live on The Reporter’s Instagram page—@mdcthereporter—this summer. Miami Herald municipal reporter Joey Flechas will kickoff the series on Wednesday, June 30 at 10 a.m. 

Interviews will be in 25-minute intervals every Wednesday at 10 a.m. through July 28. Viewers will be able to interact with guests during 15-minute Q&A sessions at the end of each presentation. 

“It’s a great opportunity for students to learn what steps they should take to have a career in journalism,” said Adriana Dos Santos, who serves as editor-in-chief of The Reporter. “These journalists have been in our shoes and will share the journey they took to the jobs we hope to get. It’s amazing to get to learn from their experiences.”

Here is the schedule for this year’s MDC JSS:

• June 30: Joey Flechas, municipal reporter for the Miami Herald.
• July 7: Jessica Bakeman, seasonal investigative journalist for WLRN.
• July 14: Terence Shepherd, news director at WLRN.
• July 21: Frances Wang, morning news anchor for CBS Miami.
• July 28: Lazaro Gamio, graphic editor for The New York Times.

The Speaker Series was launched in February 2008. To date, more than 66 journalists have participated as guest speakers. All presentations are free and open to the public.

For Gamio, the Speaker Series is a return home of sorts. He is a graduate of Wolfson Campus and the New World School of the Arts. 

Gamio was also an integral part of the staff that launched The Reporter on Oct. 4, 2010. He created the paper’s design and its trademark “R” logo before blazing a career that has taken him to the Miami Herald, Axios, the Washington Post and The New York Times.   

“I just want to give back and contribute to others,” Gamio said. “I am glad to have been there for the paper.”

Flechas covers government and public affairs in the city of Miami. In 2018, he won a Sunshine State Award for revealing ties between a Miami Beach political candidate and an illegal campaign donation in a series of stories co-written with Miami Herald investigative journalist Nicholas Nehamas. His work has been featured in the St. Petersburg Times, The Washington Examiner and the Gainesville Sun. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Florida and served as editor-in-chief of its student newspaper, The Independent Florida Alligator.

Bakeman covers K-12 and higher education for WLRN, South Florida’s NPR station. In 2019, she received a Salute to Excellence Award from the National Association of Black Journalists—along with three other journalists—for How Racism Persists In Latin American Communities. Bakeman also played a leading role covering the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Before joining WLRN, Bakeman worked at POLITICO in Albany and Tallahassee and covered New York state politics for The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and English literature from SUNY Plattsburgh, a public college in upstate New York.

Shepherd serves as the news director at WLRN News, the public radio news station that covers Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Monroe counties. Before joining WLRN, Shepherd spent 14 years editing business and financial coverage for the Miami Herald and as a clerk and editor at the Boca Raton News. He was previously chair of the Radio Television Digital News Association and a fellow in the Next Generation Leadership program, which helps public media expand diversity. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in international business from Florida Atlantic University.

Wang currently anchors the morning news for CBS Miami. Born and raised in San Francisco, she has previously worked in the CBS-affiliated television station KREM in Washington, and the digital channel ABC10 in Sacramento. Wang, who graduated from the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, interned for CNN in Los Angeles and Beijing, E! News and KABC-TV. 

Gamio is a graphics editor for The New York Times. He previously served as deputy managing editor at the news website Axios, where he led a team that created charts, maps and data visualizations on topics like volcanoes, wildfires and former President Donald Trump’s personal schedule. He has also worked for The Washington Post and The Miami Herald. Gamio earned a bachelor’s degree in intermedia/multimedia from the New World School of the Arts.