{{Short description|American journalist and communications executive}} {{Infobox person | name = Karen DeWitt | image = Karen DeWitt.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1944|04|18}} | birth_place = Washington, Pennsylvania | alma_mater = Miami University | occupation = Journalist | employer = | spouse = Jesse Lewis (1969-1974) }}
'''Karen DeWitt''' (born April 18, 1944<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Karen DeWitt's Biography|url=https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/karen-dewitt|access-date=April 7, 2021|website=The HistoryMakers|language=en}}</ref>) is an American journalist and communications executive. She worked for the ''New York Post'', ''National Journal'', ''The Washington Post, The New York Times'', ''USA Today'', and the ''Washington Examiner'', and was a senior producer for ABC’s ''Nightline''.<ref name=":0" /> In 2017 she joined the faculty at Morgan State University, the largest HCBU in Maryland, where she serves as Digital Newsroom Director at the School of Global Journalism and Communication.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Karen DeWitt|url=http://www.morgan.edu/school_of_global_journalism_and_communication/academics/multimedia_journalism/our_faculty/staff_/karen_dewitt.html|access-date=April 7, 2021|website=Morgan State University|language=en|archive-date=September 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919100820/https://www.morgan.edu/school_of_global_journalism_and_communication/academics/multimedia_journalism/our_faculty/staff_/karen_dewitt.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Early life == DeWitt, born in her mother’s hometown of Washington, Pennsylvania, was brought up by her parents — Geraldine (Streibling) DeWitt and Donald LeFevre DeWitt — in Dayton, Ohio. She has two younger brothers, Donald LeFevre DeWitt, Jr., and Mark Andre DeWitt.<ref name=":0" />
Her father, a native of Kingston, New York, was descended from the community of historic Black families in Ulster County, dating back to the Revolutionary War.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Groth|first=Michael E.|title=Slavery and Freedom in the Mid-Hudson Valley|publisher=SUNY Press|year=2017|isbn=978-1-4384-6457-2|pages=1–19}}</ref>
== Education == DeWitt graduated in 1962 from Julienne High School in Dayton, where she served as president of her senior class.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History of Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School {{!}} Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School|url=https://www.cjeagles.org/about-cj/history-chaminade-julienne-catholic-high-school|access-date=2021-05-03|website=www.cjeagles.org|archive-date=2021-05-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503211230/https://www.cjeagles.org/about-cj/history-chaminade-julienne-catholic-high-school|url-status=dead}}</ref> Drawn to both music and art, as well as writing, she studied violin throughout her school years and also attended the Dayton Art Institute from 1954-1962.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Museum History|url=https://www.daytonartinstitute.org/about/museum-history/|access-date=2021-05-03|website=Dayton Art Institute|language=en-US}}</ref>
From 1962 to 1966, she attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she majored in English and philosophy. After her freshman year, she spent the summer working as a paid intern for ''The Pittsburgh Courier,'' one of the most widely circulated Black newspapers in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Pittsburgh Courier|url=https://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/courier.html|access-date=2021-05-03|website=www.pbs.org}}</ref> While in Oxford, she wrote for the campus newspaper ''The Miami Student'', and also its magazine supplement.<ref>{{Cite news|last=DeWitt|first=Karen|date=May 1, 1964|title=Gregory Discusses Student's Action in Press Interview|work=The Miami Student|url=https://digital.lib.miamioh.edu/digital/collection/afamhist/id/151/|access-date=May 3, 2021}}</ref>
== Peace Corps == DeWitt applied to join the Peace Corps in 1965.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Founding Moment|url=https://www.peacecorps.gov/about/history/founding-moment/|access-date=2021-05-03|website=www.peacecorps.gov|language=en}}</ref> Required to spend a summer in preparation, following her Miami junior year she lived in Los Angeles where she was enrolled in the demanding Advanced Peace Corps Trainee program based on the UCLA campus.<ref name=":0" /> After graduation from Miami University in April 1966, she was assigned to spend two years in Ethiopia, living and working in the town of Waliso, 114 km southwest of Addis Ababa.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mindat.org|url=https://www.mindat.org/feature-336372.html|access-date=2021-05-03|website=www.mindat.org}}</ref> There she taught English to students in secondary school.<ref>{{Cite web|title=A Writer Writes — "The Right Way to Grow Tomatoes" {{!}} Peace Corps Worldwide|url=https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/a-writer-writes-the-right-way-to-grow-tomatoes/|access-date=2021-05-03|website=peacecorpsworldwide.org}}</ref>
== Personal life == In early 1969, while working for the ''New York Post'', DeWitt met Jesse Lewis, a reporter for ''The Washington Post''.<ref name=":0" /> They married six weeks later — and in June 1969, moved to Lebanon, where Lewis, appointed ''The Washington Post''’s Middle East correspondent, was to open the paper’s bureau in Beirut.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1970-06-11|title=U.S. Embassy Aide Held|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/11/archives/us-embassy-aide-held.html|access-date=2021-05-03|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Flashback: This Month in History|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/flash/articles/nov96/jordan71.htm|access-date=2021-05-03|website=www.washingtonpost.com}}</ref>
== Career == While living in Beirut, DeWitt wrote features and news articles for ''The Daily Star'', the largest English-language daily newspaper in the Middle East, from 1969 to 1972.<ref>{{Cite web|title=About Us {{!}} THE DAILY STAR|url=https://www.dailystar.com.lb/AboutUs.aspx|access-date=2021-05-03|website=www.dailystar.com.lb|archive-date=2021-05-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210502232152/http://dailystar.com.lb/AboutUs.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Having returned to the U.S., she took a staff writer position at ''The Washington Post''<nowiki/>'s Style section in 1977, before moving on to occupy a national correspondent slot at the Washington bureau of ''The New York Times'' at the end of that year.<ref name=":0" />
In 1982, she produced and starred in 26 episodes of ''Karen's Kitchen'', a cooking show for the fledgling network Black Entertainment Television.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Digital Archive Login|url=https://connect.liblynx.com/wayf/a981fe72f3b62da6f7ee0b96c9fe4910|access-date=2021-05-03|website=connect.liblynx.com|archive-date=2021-05-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503211221/https://connect.liblynx.com/wayf/a981fe72f3b62da6f7ee0b96c9fe4910|url-status=dead}}</ref>
DeWitt worked for ''USA Today'' from 1982 to 1990, where she was White House correspondent covering Ronald Reagan's second term, before becoming assistant national editor. During five of her eight years at ''USA Today'', she was a foreign correspondent, covering South Africa before the end of apartheid.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Interview With Johanna Neuman and Karen DeWitt of USA Today {{!}} The American Presidency Project|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/interview-with-johanna-neuman-and-karen-dewitt-usa-today|access-date=2021-05-03|website=www.presidency.ucsb.edu}}</ref> She also reported firsthand on wars on Honduras and Nicaragua, and covered the fall of President Manuel Noriega in Panama.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Newspaper Reporter {{!}} The HistoryMakers|url=https://devwww.thehistorymakers.org/taxonomy/term/41689|access-date=2021-05-03|website=devwww.thehistorymakers.org|archive-date=2021-05-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503211222/https://devwww.thehistorymakers.org/taxonomy/term/41689|url-status=dead}}</ref>
DeWitt then moved back to ''The New York Times'' Washington bureau, where she reported as a national correspondent until 1997.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Witt|first=Karen de|date=1997-01-19|title=Paul Tsongas, Ex-Senator Who Sought Presidency in '92, Dies at 55|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/19/us/paul-tsongas-ex-senator-who-sought-presidency-in-92-dies-at-55.html|access-date=2021-05-03|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
From 1997 through 2001, she worked as a senior producer on the ABC News late-night program ''Nightline.''<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Found Voices: The Slave Narratives|url=http://films.com/title/9180|access-date=2021-05-03|website=Films Media Group|language=en}}</ref>
After four years with ABC News, she launched her own media and communications consultation company, Suo Marte Media Consultancy, in 2001. Among her clients were the Children’s Defense Fund, People for the American Way, and the National Association of Home Builders.
In 2004, DeWitt became the first Washington editor at the ''Washington Examiner''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Karen DeWitt {{!}} C-SPAN.org|url=https://www.c-span.org/person/?karendewitt|access-date=2021-05-03|website=www.c-span.org}}</ref>
In 2005 she was appointed Director of Communications for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Examiner's DeWitt Departs|date=16 March 2006 |url=https://www.adweek.com/performance-marketing/examiners-dewitt-departs/|access-date=2021-05-03|language=en-US}}</ref> and later, Vice-President of Content for the Leadership Conference on Human and Civil Rights after the organization changed its name in 2010.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2006-03-16|title=Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Taps Veteran Journalist for Top Communications Post|url=https://civilrights.org/2006/03/16/leadership-conference-on-civil-rights-taps-veteran-journalist-for-top-communications-post/|access-date=2021-05-03|website=The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights|language=en}}</ref>
As Communications Manager for The Sentencing Project — a research and advocacy group dedicated to working for “a fair and effective criminal justice system" — from 2011 to 2014, DeWitt once wrote: “I spent a lifetime writing who, what, where, when, why and how. I know how to tell and sell a story. At this point in my life, I could be selling soap. I’d rather sell justice.”<ref>{{Cite news|date=Fall 2011|title=Staff Profiles|work=Sentencing Times|url=https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2011-TSP-Fall-Newsletter.pdf|access-date=May 3, 2021|archive-date=May 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503211222/https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2011-TSP-Fall-Newsletter.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
From 2014 to 2017, she was speechwriter for the president of the American Bar Association.
Since 2012, DeWitt has been a regular contributor to the ''Baltimore Post-Examiner''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Karen DeWitt, Author at Baltimore Post-ExaminerBaltimore Post-Examiner|url=https://baltimorepostexaminer.com/author/karen-dewitt|access-date=2021-05-03|website=baltimorepostexaminer.com}}</ref>
She began teaching at Morgan State University in 2017, and has served as Digital Newsroom Director at their School of Global Journalism and Communication since 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Karen DeWitt|url=http://www.morgan.edu/school_of_global_journalism_and_communication/academics/multimedia_journalism/our_faculty/staff_/karen_dewitt.html|access-date=2021-05-03|website=Morgan State University|language=en|archive-date=2020-09-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919100820/https://www.morgan.edu/school_of_global_journalism_and_communication/academics/multimedia_journalism/our_faculty/staff_/karen_dewitt.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Awards and fellowships == DeWitt received a journalism award in 1979 from the University of the District of Columbia.<ref name=":0" />
During the 1989-90 academic year, she was an R.M. Seaton Fellow at Kansas State University.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Seaton, Richard M. {{!}} Kansas Press Association|url=https://kspress.com/seaton-richard-m|access-date=2021-05-03|website=kspress.com}}</ref>
In June through September 1995, she was a U.S.-Japan Leadership Program Fellow in Tokyo.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Legacy|url=https://www.japansociety.org/page/about/legacy|access-date=2021-05-03|website=www.japansociety.org|language=en|archive-date=2021-05-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512182822/https://www.japansociety.org/page/about/legacy|url-status=dead}}</ref>
She won a Best Feature award from the National Association of Black Journalists for writing and producing the 1999 ''Nightline'' episode "Found Voices: The Slave Narratives."<ref name=":2" />
== References == {{div col}} {{reflist}} {{div col end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:DeWitt, Karen}} Category:Living people Category:American journalists Category:African-American journalists Category:People from Washington, Pennsylvania Category:1944 births Category:Miami University alumni Category:Morgan State University faculty Category:African-American women journalists Category:American women academics Category:21st-century African-American people Category:20th-century African-American people Category:20th-century African-American women Category:21st-century African-American women