Jonelle Henry Named Inaugural Director of UFCJC CJCxDC Program
Jonelle Henry, veteran broadcast journalist and University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) Telecommunication alumna, will join the College as the inaugural director of the CJCxDC program on Jan. 17.
The Washington, D.C., immersion initiative will be modeled after the College’s CJCxNYC immersion program and primarily targeted at Journalism and Public Relations majors.
As director, Henry will design, oversee and promote the program, create curricula in coordination with UFCJC departments and teach at least one course per semester. She will establish connections/pipelines with individuals and companies that can provide instruction, advice and internship/career opportunities, organize events and oversee the student enrollment and application process.
Henry brings more than two decades of experience of covering news and politics in Washington, D.C. Her early career began in the office of the late Florida Senator Bob Graham, where she honed her understanding of politics, Capitol Hill and public affairs. That led to a distinguished 20-year career at C-SPAN, where she rose from production assistant to senior producer and international producer, covering major political events from the White House to Capitol Hill during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
Her portfolio includes producing C-SPAN coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, President Obama’s election night, White House state dinners and historic presidential meetings with foreign leaders. She served as one of the early National Press Foundation’s Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellows and has held leadership positions in organizations such as the Alliance for Women in Media, Gator DC Club and currently as director of programs for The White Dress Project. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Henry is founder and president of Districtly Speaking, a strategic consulting and community-building platform that provides hands-on internship experience for aspiring media professionals and has facilitated over 50 town halls on pressing social and political issues.
She also is an adjunct professor at The Washington Center, which provides immersive internships and academic seminars to students across the U.S. and more than twenty-five countries, where she has modernized a curriculum on the intersection of politics and mass media.
Her impact as a leader and public servant was recently recognized with the 2024 Mayor Muriel Bowser DC Hope Award, part of the district’s Spirit of Service Awards, and the Pearl Essence Distinguished Service Award from the Washington DC Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
In addition to her UFCJC bachelor’s degree, Henry holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in Communication.
Posted: January 6, 2025
Category: Alumni News, College News
Tagged as: CJCxDC, CJCxNYC, Jonelle Henry, Telecommunication
