Tune Into Instagram Live For This Year’s MDC Journalism Speaker Series
The Miami Dade College Journalism Speaker Series is back.
This year’s episodes will broadcast on Instagram Live—@mdcthereporter—and highlight five journalists whose work has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Miami Herald, Politico, CNN and WLRN. Three of them have ties to Miami Dade College.
“We are delighted to have such a decorated lineup of journalists sharing their knowledge with our students,” said Manolo Barco, who serves as the media adviser to The Reporter.
Gregg Birnbaum, a former editor at the Miami Herald, Politico, CNN and NBC News, kicked-off this year’s series on May 13.
The next guest will be Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald photojournalist Matias J. Ocner who played an integral role in the paper’s coverage of the Surfside condo collapse that won the publication a 2022 Pulitzer Prize in the Breaking News Reporting category. He will appear on May 20 at noon.
Ocner covers sports, features, breaking news and arts & entertainment. His work has appeared in Cuba Trade Magazine, the Tampa Bay Times, WLRN, EFE, and AFP, among others.
He earned an associate’s degree from Kendall Campus in journalism and mass communications and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications with a focus in photography from Florida International University. During his time at MDC, he served as a staff writer for The Reporter.
Sherrilyn Cabrera, a WLRN PM newscast and digital producer, will be the guest on May 27 at noon. She got her start in journalism as a 2019 spring and summer intern at WLRN. After her internship, Cabrera continued to report, anchor and produce for the station as a freelancer.
A year later, she covered the 2020 election as a reporting fellow for TCPalm writing stories about the election’s impact on communities along the Treasure Coast. The following year she worked at WBUR—a Boston NPR member station—as an associate producer for newscasts and in the newsroom’s digital team.
Cabrera has an associate’s degree in mass communications and media studies from MDC and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from FIU.
Angie Martoccio, who is the associate managing editor at Rolling Stone, will be the guest on June 10 at noon. She has interviewed celebrities such as Olivia Rodrigo, Neil Young, Phoebe Bridgers, Marisa Tomei and Joan Jett.
Martoccio, who served as an arts & entertainment writer for The Reporter during the 2013-14 school year, has an associate’s degree from MDC and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and creative writing from Baruch College.
The final guest of this year’s series will be New York Times tech reporter Kashmir Hill. The details about when she will appear have not been finalized yet.
The Journalism Speaker Series was launched in February of 2008 to provide students with an opportunity to meet working journalists. To date, more than 71 journalists have participated in the series.
Interviews are in 25-30-minute intervals and viewers can interact with guests at the end of each presentation during a 15-minute Q&A session.
For more information, contact Manolo Barco at (305) 237-1255.
