Laura Bennett

Laura Bennett is the founder and director of The Center for Just Journalism, an organization dedicated to fostering a media environment that equips people with the information they need to build safer communities. The Center connects journalists with reliable information on critical public safety and criminal legal issues and helps reporters, editors, and educators identify and implement practice changes that foster rigor, curiosity, and nuance, rather than sensationalism and anecdotes. Since its founding in 2022, the Center’s work has directly resulted in impactful journalism and enduring practice change at news outlets across the country. Prior to founding the Center, she worked at FWD.us and The Pew Charitable Trusts where she led major policy and research projects in states across the country, including successful legislative reforms to reduce jail and prison populations in Louisiana, Mississippi, and New York.