​Alberto Avendano is Washington bureau chief of the National Association of Hispanic Publications. Previously, he was executive associate publisher and executive editor of El Tiempo Latino.

​Sarah Baker is coordinating political producer/booker at NBC News Washington bureau. Previously, she held various positions at ABC News, including Washington senior producer of Good Morning America, and at CNN, where she focused on coverage of the White House, Congress, campaigns, and special events.

​Kavitha Cardoza is a correspondent for Education Week, and her stories appear on PBS NewsHour. She also is a regular contributor to NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition.

​Melissa Kane Connolly is vice president for university relations at Hofstra University. She chaired Hofstra’s 75th Anniversary committee, helped lead the university’s hosting of the 2016, 2012, and 2008 presidential debates, and produced the 2010 New York State gubernatorial debate at Hofstra in conjunction with Newsday and Cablevision.

​Steve Drummond is senior education editor at National Public Radio, where he heads the new education reporting project, NPR Ed. He has worked in various roles at NPR since 2000 and has more than 20 years of experience covering education issues.

​Steve Givens is associate vice chancellor and chief of staff in the office of the chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis. He led the overall planning efforts and served as university media spokesperson for three internationally broadcast general election presidential debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates (2016, 2004, and 2000) and led the media team for the 2008 vice presidential debate.

​Tim Goral, editor-in-chief of University Business, has been a member of Professional Media Group since 2000, first as features editor of District Administration (a publication for K–12 educators) and later as editor of the higher education business magazine, Matrix, which merged with University Business in 2002.

​Kelli Grant covers personal finance and consumer spending for CNBC.com. Previously, she was the senior consumer reporter for MarketWatch.com and SmartMoney.com. Grant’s work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, SmartMoney, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Good Housekeeping, Real Simple, and Family Circle, among other publications.

​David Grimm is an award-winning journalist and online news editor of Science magazine. His work also has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Slate, Time, BuzzFeed, U.S. News & World Report, Financial Times, and a variety of other publications.

​Kimberly Hefling is senior education writer at POLITICO Pro. She is part of the Morning Education team, POLITICO’s daily newsletter on education policy and politics. Previously, she served as the national education writer for the Associated Press.

​Caroline Howard is executive digital editor-producer at Forbes. She arrived at Forbes in 2009 after working as senior editor for AOL and contributing correspondent for People magazine.

​Scott Jaschik, editor and co-founder of Inside Higher Ed, leads a team of reporters and editors who will exchange ideas with conference participants. Inside Higher Ed is a national daily online publication about higher education that attracts more than 3.8 million monthly page views.

​Melissa Korn is higher education reporter for the Wall Street Journal’s U.S. news team, based in New York City. She began her career at Dow Jones writing about corporate news in 2007 and moved to the Journal in 2011.

​Peter F. Lake is professor of law, Charles A. Dana Chair, and director of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University College of Law. He is an internationally-recognized expert on higher education law and policy, has authored numerous law review publications, has been quoted or referred to in top news publications, and has appeared on several major media networks.

​Doug Lederman, editor and co-founder of Inside Higher Ed, leads a team of reporters and editors who will exchange ideas with conference participants. Inside Higher Ed is a national daily online publication about higher education that attracts more than 3.8 million monthly page views.

​Camille Lepre is assistant vice president for communications and media relations at American University. Before joining AU in 2009, she spent 20 years leading external, internal, and crisis communications for large corporations and entrepreneurial companies.

Ron Lieber has been a personal finance columnist since 2008 for the New York Times, where his columns about student loans won the 2011 Loeb award in the personal finance category. Previously, he wrote the “Green Thumb” column for the Wall Street Journal’s “Money & Investing” section. Lieber is the author of The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart about Money.

​Chad Lorenz is news editor at Slate. Previously, he reported for Washingtonian magazine and the Washington Post.

​Jon Marcus serves as higher education editor for the Hechinger Report and is North America correspondent for the Times (U.K.) Higher Education magazine. He also has written about higher education for Time, the Atlantic, Washington Post, New York Times, and Huffington Post, and contributed to the book Reinventing Higher Education.

​Mary Beth Marklein is U.S. correspondent for University World News. Previously, she served as USA Today’s higher education reporter for more than 17 years.

​Patricia McGuire has been president of Trinity Washington University since 1989. Previously, she was the assistant dean for development and external affairs for Georgetown University Law Center, where she also was an adjunct professor of law. Earlier, she was project director for Georgetown‘s DC Street Law Program.

​Liz McMillen, on The Chronicle staff since 1984, became editor in 2011. Previously, she edited the Chronicle Review, the weekly magazine of ideas in print. She manages more than 70 editors and reporters who write about higher education.

​Lauren Morello is chief of U.S. correspondents for Nature magazine and frequent contributor to Scientific American. Previously, she reported on climate change science and policy at ClimateWire. She also has written extensively about oceanography, ecology, nanotechnology, and biotechnology.

​Anita Narayan is the managing editor of the education section at U.S. News & World Report, where she handles daily online editorial content as well as the online production of the company’s key education rankings franchises, such as “Best Colleges,” “Best Graduate Schools,” “Best High Schools,” and “Best Global Universities.”

​Libby Nelson is associate editor for policy and politics at Vox; previously, she covered education for Vox as a beat reporter. Earlier, she covered education at POLITICO Pro, helping launch the Morning Education newsletter, and at Inside Higher Ed, where she focused on federal higher education policy.

​Justin Pope is a former Associated Press higher education reporter (1999–2013) who has served as chief of staff and advisor to the president of Longwood University in Virginia since fall 2013. He oversees strategic communications and initiatives and directed preparations for the university’s hosting of the 2016 vice presidential debate.

​Elizabeth Quill is interim editor-in-chief of Science News, where she leads daily digital and print coverage. She has edited four ebooks on topics ranging from consciousness to general relativity. Her writing has appeared in Science News, Smithsonian, Science, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

​Jon Riskind is assistant vice president for public affairs at the American Council on Education. Previously, he was a longtime reporter and Washington bureau chief for the Columbus Dispatch, where he covered Congress, the White House, federal agencies, and state and national political campaigns.

​Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar is vice president for public affairs and university relations at Dominican University of California. Previously, she served the university as senior advisor for strategy and planning, among other positions.

​Jeffrey J. Selingo is the author of There Is Life After College and two other books. He is a regular contributor to the Washington Post, a professor of practice at Arizona State University, and a visiting scholar at Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities. He is the former top editor of the Chronicle of Higher Education, where he worked for 16 years in a variety of reporting and editing roles.

​Karen Travers covers national and international news for all ABC News platforms. She has worked at ABC News since 2000, primarily covering Washington and national politics, including presidential elections.

​Jamal Watson is the executive editor of Diverse: Issues In Higher Education, where he had served as a senior staff writer for more than a decade. He is a regular contributor to The Root.com.