Carla Wills Joins WNYC/Gothamist Newsroom as Community Partnerships & Training Editor

Read more in this note from WNYC’s Sean Bowditch, Director of Audio Strategy

I am thrilled to announce that Carla Wills is joining the newsroom as the new Community Partnerships & Training Editor!

In this role, Carla will focus on expanding our community engagement work across New York City, including forging partnerships, planning live events and remote broadcasts, and producing first-person narratives, among other initiatives. She will conceive of smart, thoughtful ways to weave that work into our journalism across all platforms. She will also oversee the newsroom’s ongoing training and professional development efforts. It’s an exciting and important remit, one that is central to many of our strategic goals.

Carla brings more than 25 years of journalism experience to WNYC, spanning print, television, radio, podcasts, and digital media. Most recently, she served as manager of audio at National Geographic, where she led several award-winning projects—from unpacking the harrowing history of the Tulsa Race Massacre on the flagship podcast, Overheard, to diving deep (literally) into the transatlantic slave trade in the podcast Into the Depths. Her work there earned top industry honors, including Webby, NABJ, Signal, and Jackson Wild awards.

Before Nat Geo, Carla was a senior producer at Democracy Now! where she extensively covered climate change, environmental justice, politics, and social movements. She has also held leadership roles in public radio, including serving as News Director at WEAA-FM in Baltimore, where she oversaw the newsroom’s coverage of the 2015 uprising following the police-involved death of Freddie Gray—guiding responsive, community-centered reporting during a fraught moment in the city’s history. Carla began her public radio career as senior producer of The Michael Eric Dyson Show.

Carla’s deep commitment to amplifying underrepresented voices has also fueled such award-winning projects as Moments of the Movement, in partnership with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Carla’s first day is July 22. Please join me in welcoming her!