Kat Duncan
Feb. 26, 2021
Kat Duncan has been named the director of innovation at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) at the Missouri School of Journalism. She will also serve as an assistant professor of professional practice on the Missouri School of Journalism faculty.
Duncan, who joined RJI in 2017, will continue the duties she took over as the interim director including organizing and leading innovative projects in the various School of Journalism newsrooms that can help benefit the news industry. She will also continue managing the RJI Fellowship program, which includes leading and supporting fellowship projects, particularly those that strengthen local journalism, and the annual RJI Student Innovation Competition.
During her time at RJI, Duncan has developed several initiatives to help journalists and newsrooms around the country thrive. She launched the Innovation in Focus series in 2018. The series is designed to teach, by example, how to tell a story using various emerging technologies. It also highlights challenges and opportunities, tips and tricks, and equipment costs.
Duncan founded the Women in Journalism Workshop in 2018 to help women deal with different situations, from how to protect oneself while photographing a protest to how to recover mentally after reporting a fatal car accident to how to negotiate a fair salary. She also developed the idea for JSafe, an app that helps female journalists document harassment, bullying and assault.
Duncan says her mind is constantly “whirring with new ideas,” and she is looking forward to continuing to tackle more projects, create more programming and help more newsrooms and journalists.
