Kristine Villanueva is an award-winning independent journalist and editor passionate about harnessing people-powered media to reinforce and expand community-based information networks. Her current work spans diasporic reporting on Filipino-American issues and works with newsrooms to implement community engagement strategies to strengthen reporting quality and best practices. She also co-leads the Phillypinos oral history project focused on Filipino immigrants in Philadelphia in collaboration with the city’s public library system. She has worked in news organizations such as ProPublica, Resolve Philly, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and more. She has also served as the Vice President and National Board Representative of the Asian American Journalists Association, Philadelphia and taught engagement journalism at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism for four years. Her experience in engagement journalism includes leading digital, social media, newsletter and SMS texting strategies to reach disenfranchised communities. She has also led nation-wide crowdsourced, collaborative investigations. In her off hours, she likes to paint zines, go to punk shows, and cuddle her cat, Perseus (aka Percy).
Highlighted Projects:
Addiction Recovery Resource Guide
As the Director of Community News and Information Access at Equally Informed, I managed a hyperlocal newsroom Germantown Info Hub, Info Hub Captains, a cohort of nine community-based contributors who informed newsroom strategy. For this project, my team partnered with Billy Penn at WHYY to produce the first city-wide community crowdsourced and community-vetted resource guide for addiction recovery. Together with Info Hub Captains, we finalized the list based on community experiences with the organizations listed.
All partners promoted the crowdsourcing form to their respective channels, including an SMS texting list with over 1,200 subscribers that were cultivated through in-person events, social media, and partnerships with community organizations and other newsrooms.
Anti-Asian Hate
I led a project investigating coronavirus-related hate incidents in Asian communities across the U.S. After the project was cited in a letter signed by over a quarter of Congress to the Justice Department, President Joe Biden signed an executive order urging the Attorney General to find opportunities for the federal government to prevent Asian hate crimes and discrimination.
Ukraine Documents
I spearheaded the digital strategy for Public Integrity’s FOIA lawsuit against the White House and Department of Defense for documents related to President Trump’s decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine, an issue at the heart of his first impeachment trial. I presented my strategy for the Google News Initiative in New York City.
What I can help with:
Digital and Social Media Engagement and Management
Strategy for organic and paid reach
Strategy specific to social platforms and newsroom/client audience
Metrics and analytics
Newsletter writing and distribution optimization
Comment moderation practices '
Offline/Hybrid Engagement:
SMS texting strategies and campaigns
Strategic partnerships and collaboration, working with community members, influencers, community organizations.
Specialized audience outreach, based on stories, projects, and key expansion areas
In-person community engagement, events, panels, film screenings
Print distribution and place-based information sharing
Other Services:
Press releases and strategic outreach
Syllabus writing for communications and journalism majors and master’s level journalism classes
Workshop on trauma-informed interviewing
DEI initiatives
Project management and workflow