The Emerging Newsroom Leaders Programme is a new initiative supporting diverse journalists as they take their first steps into editorial leadership.
Moving from doing the job to leading others is one of the most important transitions in a journalist’s career and we’ve designed a 12-month-long package of mentoring, masterclasses and group work to support individuals in this crucial stage of their career.
We are grateful to ITV and Sky for supporting the programme in its pilot year.
Joe is an Assistant Editor for Sky News’ Digital Video team, working with producers, correspondents and editors to create video content for the Sky News website and app, as well as their socials channels.
His career started in local news, working as a reporter for KMTV in Kent, England, before freelancing as a digital producer for 5News and then working permanently for The Independent for five years. He specialises in editorial and vertical video content.
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Laura García is an award-winning multimedia journalist, presenter and creative storyteller from Mexico, living and working in the UK since 2011. She’s an incurable nerd, she loves cats, books, science and finding creative ways to tell stories.
She works for the BBC World Service, helping to lead a team that makes creative explainers for YouTube. A social media specialist with a passion for innovation, Laura combines audience insights, analytics and data to understand what resonates, shape channel strategy and establish distinctive channel voices. If you give this lady a phone, a tripod and some microphones she will find a way to tell stories – finding them on the ground or producing them from the newsroom.
Previously, Laura was a video producer and presenter at BBC Mundo. She has also worked as a photographer, TV producer, production coordinator, politics reporter, disinformation researcher and lecturer.
Laura is passionate about diversifying the media and helping young people find their voice. She mentors with Women in Journalism, the John Schoofield Trust, Global Women in News at the BBC and One World Media.
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Leah has been a journalist at ITV News for 7 years, having previously worked with children excluded from mainstream education.
She is now a Content Editor and line manager at ITV Tyne Tees, with responsibilities including producing the flagship 6pm news programme.
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Liz is Senior Investigations Producer at Sky News. Before that she was Digital Investigations Editor in Sky’s Data and Forensics Team. She has more than two decades’ experience creating national and international news and long-form content for TV, digital and audio.
Her reporting includes the Primodos drug scandal, grooming gangs and police strip searches, and has led to major public inquiries, police investigations and policy change. Her recent work includes the documentaries Groomed: The Truth Behind The Lie; Iran School Bombing: The Search for Truth; Prey: Inside Today’s Grooming Gangs, and the award-winning Unreliable Witness podcast series.
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Peter joined ITV News five years ago, and is now a Content Editor managing the daily editorial output of their streaming team, where he produces bespoke and curated journalism for ITVX and YouTube.
He has also worked across ITV News’ network programmes, producing their coverage of major news events including the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the 2024 General Election.
Before moving to ITN, he was based in Norwich working in local radio and then with ITV News Anglia. And all this started at university, where he spent more time with University Radio York than he did on my actual degree!
Away from work he enjoys Arsenal and volunteering on a heritage steam railway.
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Reshma Rumsey is Senior Producer for Investigations and Special Projects at ITV News with nearly 30 years experience in journalism.
She began her career in newspapers before moving into regional television news.
Reshma joined ITN as their Social Affairs Producer and has since worked on a number of high-profile exclusives, investigations and special projects covering major national and international stories.
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Rhiann has worked in news for a number of years, progressing through the planning team at Good Morning Britain from Producer to Deputy Content Editor and, most recently, Content Editor.
Along the way, she’s developed a real passion for spotting strong stories, booking great guests and working with teams to get the best out of a programme.
She’s now really excited to be part of the John Schofield Emerging Newsroom Leaders mentorship. She’s keen to get stuck in, meet people from across the industry, learn from different experiences and perspectives, and challenge herself as she takes the next step in her career. She’s particularly looking forward to having the chance to learn from someone outside her usual newsroom and bring some of that thinking back into her own work.
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Sarah Gough is a digital video assistant editor at Sky News, where she leads breaking news and premium video coverage across the organisation’s digital platforms. She runs editorial teams delivering on-the-day video journalism, and plays a key role in commissioning engaging, informative content for audiences beyond traditional broadcast TV.
Previously, Sarah was a US-based field producer for Sky News, working out of Los Angeles and Washington DC. She led complex newsgathering operations and delivered major eyewitness reporting alongside senior correspondents, covering stories including the 2024 US presidential election, the Los Angeles wildfires and Hurricane Melissa’s impact on Jamaica.
Sarah began her career at Channel 4 News, where she launched and ran Krishnan Guru-Murthy’s award-winning Ways to Change the World podcast and produced/edited digital video content across social platforms and YouTube.
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Sofia Ellen Lewis is a journalist at ITV Cymru Wales.
She is the first Cynefin Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, having spent the first half of 2026 researching public interest journalism in Wales and how it could better serve communities with low political participation.
Day-to-day, she works across the newsroom’s broadcast and digital output, from breaking news coverage to politics to investigations.
Prior to working at ITV Wales, she was a freelance journalist with bylines in The Independent, Vice, and Cosmopolitan, as well as an Italian and Spanish translator.
Originally from Port Talbot, Sofia is passionate about increasing access to the media industry and striving to ensure it is representative of the audiences it serves. She previously worked on the launch of ‘A Writing Chance’, a programme co-founded by actor Michael Sheen to break down barriers for new and aspiring writers from working-class backgrounds.
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Teresa Gottein-Martinez is a Sky News journalist specialising in defence, security, geopolitics and international affairs. As part of Sky News’ Security and Defence team, she helps shape coverage of the conflicts, political decisions and emerging technologies reshaping global security.
Previously, Teresa spent two years securing and producing agenda-setting interviews for The World with Yalda Hakim, while working on stories across Europe. Her work has taken her from field-producing Sky News coverage from Israel during a pivotal period in the Gaza conflict to covering the rise of the AfD during Germany’s federal election campaign.
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Tyrone Francis is a Specialist Producer at Sky News, specialising in sports journalism and major live events. Based at Sky’s headquarters in west London, he coordinates coverage across television, audio, digital and social platforms.
With extensive experience in breaking news, long-term editorial planning and original journalism, Tyrone has helped shape coverage of some of the world’s biggest news and sporting events. Most recently, he led the planning and execution of Sky’s cross-platform coverage of the FIFA World Cup across North America, delivering content to audiences across multiple platforms.
Before joining the sports team, Tyrone held roles as a Crime Producer and Senior News Editor on the Home Desk. He began his career at ITN, working across ITV’s national and London regional news services.
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