Today we are mourning the loss of a beloved friend and colleague, Mandy Jenkins. We could always count on Mandy for her brilliant insights as much as her dry humor. Mandy has been an amazing collaborator and partner at Meedan, from our work together getting the First Draft Coalition started, to panels and workshops at Online News Association and International Journalism Festival conferences. Mandy was always the hardest charging person in the room, the last person at the bar, and the clearest eyed person at breakfast—because she had already logged a five mile run. 

We worked alongside Mandy on both Electionland and CrossCheck, two groundbreaking election monitoring projects in the U.S. and France respectively.  We also spent the better part of a year working to develop a 2020 U.S. project called Election Exchange with Mandy. We were honored to share a stage with her at the Online Journalism Awards and the International Journalism Festival, and to attend countless other conferences and brainstorming sessions with her.

Mandy was a remarkable colleague. She had the ability to hold larger than life energy while also being the most down to earth person in the room. For those of us Mandy inspired, her commitment to young journalists — particularly those in the small market newsrooms of middle America — continues to guide our work. Thank you, Mandy, for your being a wise friend, a trusted collaborator and a force of nature for journalism writ large.

For more on Mandy’s remarkable life and impact on journalism, please read Anna Huntsman’s reflections in Ideastream Public Media: Remembering Mandy Jenkins, Kent State grad and national digital news pioneer

We collaborated with 53 partner organizations worldwide to design and carry out our 2024 elections projects. We extend special gratitude to our lead partners in Brazil, Mexico and Pakistan, whose work we highlight in this essay.

Pacto pela democraciaINE MexicoDigital Rights Foundation

The 2024 elections projects featured in here would not have been possible without the generous support of these funders.

SkollSIDAPatrick J McGovernSVRI
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References

Authors

Words by

Ed Bice is the founding CEO of Meedan and in this capacity has since 2005 devoted his professional energies to creating digital tools and programs that promote collaborative verification, annotation, and translation.

An Xiao Mina
Ed Bice
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Published on

February 27, 2023