Charles Sennott

Founding CEO @Report Local

Boston, MA, US

As founder of The GroundTruth Project, I am incredibly proud of the whole team and the successes we have achieved together in building what is now a movement through our flagship programs Report for America and Report for the World. Our mission since we started more than a decade ago is the same: to inspire and support a new generation of journalists to tell the stories that matter in under-coverered corners of the world including the United States. Based at the flagship PBS station WGBH in Boston for our first ten years, GroundTruth\'s mission is to provide training, mentoring and resources to emerging journalists to do work that seeks to make a difference, and to do it safely. In our earliest years, we sponsored approximately 30 reporting fellowships a year through support from the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Luce Foundation, Kaiser Foundation as well as individual and family support. We built reporting teams around the world that produced in-depth and investigative work that focused on social justice issues, such as human rights, emerging democracies, religious freedom, global health, the environment, freedom of expression and rising income inequality. This award-winning reporting was done in partnership with WGBH, PRI The World, PBS FRONTLINE, PBS NewsHour, ABC News and others. Through the years we\'ve garnered many awards, including the Alfred I. duPont Award, the national Edward R. Murrow Award and the Overseas Press Club award for international reporting on television. The most meaningful and poignant recognition for me personally was the 2024 World Press Freedom Award from the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation. Jim has always been our true North since he started working with GlobalPost at the beginning of this journey and our most searing tragedy was when he was captured and killed by ISIS in 2014 in Syria. He lives on in our hearts and his dedication to service and to bearing witness in the world\'s most challenging corners continues to inspire.

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), History

Columbia University - Graduate School of Journalism

MS, Journalism