Senior Director of Journalism and Media Education
Free Press
As the Senior Director of Journalism and Media Education, Vanessa Maria leads Free Press’ Future of Journalism education initiatives. In this role she creates resources for newsrooms and trains journalists about civic-journalism best practices, community engagement and meeting community-information needs.
Vanessa Maria Graber is an award-winning bilingual journalist, educator, and community organizer. She has led several impactful journalism collaboratives in New Jersey and Philadelphia and organized with Free Press Action to pass the New Jersey Civic Information Bill, which led to the creation of the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium.
Her journey in media justice started as part of the movement to expand community radio. As the community radio director at the Prometheus Radio Project, she worked to pass the Local Community Radio Act and helped build dozens of Low Power FM radio stations across the United States. Vanessa Maria co-founded PhillyCAM’s community radio station, WPPM-LP FM, where she served as the station manager before joining Free Press. She is a co-owner and reporter at the worker-owned Philadelphia Hall Monitor, an independent hyper-local news cooperative focusing on civic journalism.
Vanessa Maria has taught journalism courses at Stockton University, Temple University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has conducted media research in Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She is a leading expert in community media, community engagement, and Latiné media.
Civic Journalism Engages Communities, Informs Audiences, and Empowers Action
Monday, March 30, 2026
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CT