Lynette Clemetson

Lynette Clemetson is Director of Wallace House, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists at the University of Michigan. She came to Wallace House from NPR, where she was Senior Director of Strategy and Content Initiatives, developing and guiding new projects across broadcast, digital and events. Her career in journalism spans newspapers, magazines and audio across a range of platforms. As a reporter, she was a Washington-based correspondent for the New York Times and Newsweek, writing about politics, social issues and demographic change. Prior to her work as a domestic correspondent, she worked as an international correspondent for Newsweek based in Hong Kong where she covered the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule in 1997. She moved into digital strategy and leadership in 2008 when she became founding managing editor of the website TheRoot.com, which she launched for the Washington Post Company with Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Lynette has a passionate interest in press freedom issues. She serves on the board of Forbidden Stories, an award-winning news organization dedicated to publishing the work of journalists who have been threatened, jailed or killed. She is also on the board of the Student Press Law Center and serves on the advisory council for PBS FRONTLINE.