Diversity in the Newsroom: Challenges and Opportunities

Wajahat Ali is a Daily Beast columnist, public speaker, recovering attorney, and tired dad of three cute kids. He is the author of Go Back To Where You Came From: And, Other Helpful Recommendations on Becoming American, published in 2022 by Norton. He believes in sharing stories that are by us, for everyone: universal narratives told through a culturally specific lens to entertain, educate and bridge the global divides. His essays, interviews, and reporting have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and New York Review of Books. Ali has spoken at many organizations, from Google to Walmart-Jet to Princeton University to the United Nations to the Chandni Indian-Pakistani Restaurant in Newark, California, and his living room in front of his three kids.

Krissah Thompson is The Washington Post’s Managing Editor of Diversity and Inclusion. She is the first Black woman to hold the title Managing Editor. She began her career at The Washington Post in 2001, after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism and College of Liberal Arts Plan II honors program. She also earned her Masters of Journalism from the University of Maryland. She has been an intern, a business reporter, covered presidential campaigns and written about civil rights and race. Before becoming an editor in the Style section, she covered the first lady’s office, politics and culture.

Christine Emba writes about ideas for The Washington Post’s Opinions section. She is the author of Rethinking Sex: A Provocation. Before coming to The Post in 2015, Christine was the Hilton Kramer Fellow in Criticism at the New Criterion and a deputy editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit, focusing on technology and innovation. She grew up in Virginia and holds an A.B. in public and international affairs from Princeton University.