About

I am a journalist and writing consultant living in Washington, DC, where I am a senior writer at Whiteboard Advisors.

Like many journalists, I began my career as a student reporter. Unlike many of my peers at the time, I was also a first-generation college student from a low-income family. Today, I help college presidents and faculty, K-12 leaders and teachers, former governors and White House officials, and policy experts and researchers turn their important insights on educational equity into clear, powerful prose.

For the past six years, I have worked at Whiteboard Advisors, where I have helped develop hundreds of op-eds, speeches, white papers, and articles about early childhood, K-12 education, postsecondary learning, and workforce development. Before joining Whiteboard, I covered student affairs for Inside Higher Ed, where my reporting focused on nontraditional students, campus sexual assault, college athletics, mental health, and student learning.

In 2017, I served as interim publications fellow at the Student Press Law Center. While studying journalism at Indiana University, I filled many roles at the Indiana Daily Student, including editor-in-chief. I also sometimes write about movies, books, history, and culture.

My work as a reporter and writing consultant has also appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Barrons, Fast Company, Fortune, CNBC, Newsweek, Slate, PBS Newshour, Indianapolis Monthly, Teen Vogue, Bright Wall/Dark Room, Times Higher Education, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and most education trade publications under the sun.

My reporting has won a third place Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award in the category of In-Depth Reporting and a first place Indiana Collegiate Press Association award in the category of Best News Feature Reporting. As a student journalist, I was a finalist in the Keating Feature Writing Competition. In 2013, I was awarded the Chronicle of Higher Education’s David W. Miller Award for Young Journalists for my work reporting on education and technology.

Email me at jaketnew@gmail.com