Samaruddin ‘Sam’ Stewart

Samaruddin “Sam” Stewart is a journalist and media technologist based in California.  He serves as a program manager for the SPJ Training Program in partnership with the Google News Initiative which has trained over 19,000 US journalists in the past two years across 48 US states.  Prior, he was awarded a Knight Foundation Prototype Grant for his innovative work in verification of visual content for journalism and was also selected as a Stanford University John S. Knight Journalism Fellow where his research focused on countering misinformation through technology.  His prior work includes senior managing and editing roles at Aol News, Agence France-Presse, The Arizona Republic, and he was also selected as the US Department of State’s 189th Franklin Fellow, serving as a media expert providing strategic advising on media outreach and audience engagement. He holds an MBA from Central European University and both a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism. In his work he has traveled to over 80 countries on 6 continents but more so cherishes his time at home with his wife and young daughter.