Caroline Porter has joined Open Campus as the director of product & strategic partnerships. In that role, she’ll lead the organization’s efforts to pilot new ways for its journalism to support students, employers, and policymakers.
Porter’s work will initially focus on Open Campus’s new community college accountability initiative, a multi-year project focused on the most local and least-covered part of higher education. At a time of remarkable upheaval in work and education, 8.5 million Americans — two out of five of all undergraduates — bet their futures on community colleges every year. Yet coverage of these campuses is scarce, leaving many people with limited understanding about how to make smart choices or push for better outcomes. When these institutions fail students, entire communities lose pathways to prosperity.
After working as a journalist and editor in the U.S. and abroad, Porter has dedicated the past decade to modernizing business, product, and civic models for news and information. Most recently at the National Trust for Local News, she served as the director of impact and strategic partnerships. Prior to working on the business side, Porter worked as a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal in the Chicago and Los Angeles bureaus, covering higher education and K-12 education.
“This initiative is prescient. At a time when these systems are already under pressure to evolve, it is a singular opportunity to reshape the news and information related to community college at the local level,” said Porter. “We need both institutional accountability and community connection — with a boots-on-the-ground approach — as we collectively navigate the next chapter for work and education.”
In addition to working on the community-college project, Porter will develop partnerships and tools to leverage reporting across the Open Campus Local Network.
Porter is assembling an advisory council to guide the project’s direction and help measure success. A mix of people from different fields and vantages, the members of the advisory council will share ideas, feedback and connections with the shared goals and ideals for higher education’s promises and potential.
Open Campus, a national nonprofit news organization, sees the project as an extension of its mission to ensure communities and individuals have the independent information they need to support thriving local economies and lives.
More details on newsroom partners and products are coming soon. The community college initiative is made possible, in part, through a grant from Arnold Ventures.
See an alignment with your work? Let’s talk.
Open Campus seeks partners who can engage with its reporting and investigations and deepen its impact within the communities the organization serves.
Do you have an idea about how higher education could work better in your community? Do you work in an organization that would benefit from more information about your local colleges and universities? Open Campus wants to talk with you.
Some examples of potential partners include: student groups, community leaders, civic organizations, workforce organizations, and individuals invested in their local community’s information access.
Or if you focus on college access, educational equity, community engagement, or workforce development and simply want Open Campus to know about your work, please reach out.
Open Campus is building networks that connect accountability journalism to the people positioned to use it. Please fill out this short form, and we’ll be in touch.
About Open Campus
Open Campus is a nonprofit news organization that ensures communities have the independent information they need about higher ed. By placing expert reporters in local newsrooms across the country, we help people understand and influence the institutions that shape their futures.
Founded in 2019, we now work with 18 newsroom partners. We’re supported by funders spanning journalism and higher education, including Arnold Ventures, the Lumina Foundation, and the American Journalism Project.