About

Rachel Wise is an award-winning journalist with a passion for telling stories and building products across multiple platforms. She’s a proud graduate of the Poynter Women’s Leadership Academy 2019 cohort.

Rachel geeks out about:

✅ storytelling
✅ taking a nascent idea and figuring out how to make it a reality
✅ project management
✅ building and improving workflows, systems and documentation
✅ problem solving
✅ teaching and coaching
✅ strategy and big-picture thinking
✅ collaborating and working with cross-functional teams
✅ relationship building
✅ making order out of chaos
✅ learning about emerging tools and technologies, and how they can be leveraged to enhance storytelling
✅ details — the ones other people might not notice
✅ data and metrics
✅ continual learning

Rachel is currently Director of Newsroom Operations at Industry Dive, overseeing training, projects, innovation and operations across the editorial team’s 25+ publications.

Previously, Rachel was a senior editor at McClatchy, where she oversaw training and project management across 30 newsrooms, with a special focus on video and audio storytelling and products. Before that, she worked at the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism where she was a member of the Convergence faculty. She taught video and audio storytelling, multimedia production and photojournalism to graduate and undergraduate students. She also edited and produced the RJI Futures Lab, a web video show that reported on innovation in journalism.

Originally from Central Florida, Rachel holds a master’s degree in journalism from New York University and a bachelor’s degree from Florida Gulf Coast University. She has more than 17 years of experience working in a variety of roles across digital and print news organizations.

In her free time, Rachel enjoys hanging out with dogs, traveling, baking and being outside.

Awards

First Place Multimedia Project, NC Press Association, “Journey Across the 100” (2020); Second Place
Public Service Award, NC Press Association, “Fighting Misinformation in the 2020 Elections” (2020);
Best Podcast, EPPY, “Carruth” (2019); Best Podcast of the Year, Sports Illustrated, “Carruth” (2018); Best Podcast, Associated Press Sports Editors, “Carruth” (2018); McClatchy President’s Award (2018); SPJ Golden Press Card (2011, 2012, 2013); Best of Scripps (2012, 2013); EPPY (honorable mention 2012); APSE (2012); Sidney Award (2009); Harry Chapin WHY Award (finalist 2009); Native American Journalists Association (2009)