Dori J. Maynard

Dori J. Maynard (May 4, 1958[1] – February 24, 2015) was an American author and journalist. She was the president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in Oakland, California and the co-author of Letters to My Children, a compilation of nationally syndicated columns by her late father Robert C. Maynard, for which she wrote introductory essays.[2][3]

Dori J. Maynard
Dori J. Maynard, 2008
Born
Dori J. Maynard

May 4, 1958
New York City, New York, USA
DiedFebruary 24, 2015 (aged 56)
Oakland, California, USA
EducationMiddlebury College; Harvard University
TitlePresident and CEO
Spouse(s)Charles Grant Lewis, deceased
Websitehttp://www.mije.org

Career

Doris Judith Maynard was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 4th, 1958 to Elizabeth Rosen and Robert C. Maynard, a prominent journalist and the later co-owner of The Oakland Tribune.[4][5] Maynard was the only child of Elizabeth and Robert, who divorced in 1963.[1] She spent some of her childhood in Washington, D.C., living with her father as he worked for the Washington Post.[6][7] As a teenager, Maynard worked at a regional fast-food restaurant to earn money, and traveled to Africa before applying to college.[7]

In 1982, Maynard graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont with a BA in American History.[8] After graduating, she went on to report for the The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1989, she moved to Detroit, and worked for the Detroit Free Press, where her reporting focused on politics and poverty.[9] After receiving the prestigious Nieman Fellowship, a year-long journalism program at Harvard University, Maynard moved to the Boston area in 1992.[5]

Maynard would later move to Oakland, California, where she reported for the Bakersfield Californian. In 1994, she began serving as the Special Projects Director for the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, a nonprofit organization co-founded by her father and step-mother that aims to improve diversity in journalism.[10][5] She became the president and CEO of the Institute in 2001, where she remained until her death in 2015.[6]

After her father's death in 1993, she edited and published a posthumuous collection of his newspaper columns with introductory essays by herself, titled Letters to My Children.[11][1][12]

Maynard served on the board of the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Foundation beginning in 1999, which renamed their Diversity Leadership Program after her in 2015.[13] She was also a board member of the American Society of News Editors, where she was posthumously recognized with a scholarship through the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.[14]

Accolades

When she received the Neiman fellowship in 1993, she and her father became the first father-daughter duo to be named Nieman fellows, as her father had earned the accomplishment in 1966.[9]

She received the "Fellow of Society" award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the journalism field, from the Society of Professional Journalists at the national convention in Seattle, Washington, on October 6, 2001,[15] and was voted one of the "10 Most Influential African Americans in the Bay Area" in 2004 by CityFlight Media Network.[16]

In 2008, she received the Asian American Journalists Association's Leadership in Diversity Award.[7]

Personal life

Maynard was the only child of her parents, who divorced in 1962.[7] Her father would later remarry Nancy Alene Hicks Maynard, the first African-American female to work as a reporter at The New York Times.[1] She has two step-brothers, David and Alex Maynard, and a step-sister, Sara-Ann Rosen.[12]

In 2006, she married Charles Grant Lewis, a prominent local architect in Oakland. Lewis passed away in 2008 after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.[1][17]

On February 24th, 2015, at the age of 56, Maynard passed away from complications of lung cancer.[6][1]

References
  1. Fox, Margalit (February 25, 2015). "Dori J. Maynard, Who Sought Diversity in Journalism, Dies at 56". The New York Times. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  2. "Dori J. Maynard, NF '93, dies". Nieman Foundation.
  3. Leopold, Todd (February 25, 2015). "Dori Maynard, journalism diversity advocate, dies at 56". CNN.
  4. Associated Press (February 24, 2015). "Diversity champion Dori Maynard changed American journalism". Twin Cities Pioneer Press. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  5. Maynard, Dori J. (March 15, 1998). "Falling into the Fault Line Chasm". Nieman Reports. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  6. "Dori Maynard, who led group focused on news coverage of minorities, dies". The Washington Post. February 25, 2015. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  7. Brekke, Dan (February 25, 2015). "Dori Maynard, Journalist, Educator and Diversity Advocate, Dies at 56". KQED. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  8. "Dori Maynard's Biography". The HistoryMakers.
  9. Maynard, Dori J. (September 19, 2013). "Robert C., NF '66 and Dori Maynard, NF '93". Nieman Reports. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  10. Sotomayor, Frank (2008). "The First 30 Years of MIJE: Making Newsrooms Look Like America". Maynard Institute Mission & History. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  11. Maynard, Robert C.; Maynard, Dori J. (1995). Letters to My Children. Kansas City, Missouri: Andrew McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0836270274.
  12. Mai-Duc, Christine; Lee, Kurtis (February 25, 2015). "Dori J. Maynard dies at 56; advocate of diversity in the newsroom". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  13. "Sigma Delta Chi Foundations pays tribute to Dori Maynard by renaming Diversity Leadership Program". Society of Professional Journalists. May 5, 2015. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  14. The Knight Foundation (May 5, 2015). "ASNE diversity award named in memory of Dori J. Maynard". The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  15. "Dori Maynard Diversity Leadership Program". Society of Professional Journalists Grants. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  16. The History Makers. "Dori Maynard". The History Makers. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  17. Bay Area News Group (January 25, 2008). "Noted local architect Charles Lewis dies at 59". East Bay Times. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
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