Mónica Guzmán is a bridge builder, journalist and author who lives for great conversations sparked by curious questions. She joins the Consortium as its inaugural McGurn Fellow for Media Integrity and the Fight Against Disinformation, funded through a $2 million gift by University of Florida alumni Ken and Linda McGurn. As a McGurn Fellow, Guzmán will work with students and faculty at the College of Journalism and Communications, the Levin College of Law and the Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology to develop ways to educate the public about disinformation and the technology that contributes to its spread, to explore the potential for mitigating disinformation within the confines of the First Amendment and to support reporting and decision-making rooted in evidence and facts.
Her book, “I Never Thought of it That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times” was featured on the Glenn Beck Podcast and named a New York Times recommended read.
Guzmán is Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels, the nation’s largest cross-partisan grassroots organization working to depolarize America; founder and CEO of Reclaim Curiosity, an organization working to build a more curious world; cofounder of the award-winning Seattle newsletter The Evergrey; and advisor for Starts With Us and the Generations Over Dinner project.
She was a 2019 fellow at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, where she studied social and political division, and a 2016 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, where she researched how journalists can rethink their roles to better meet the needs of a participatory public. She was named one of the 50 most influential women in Seattle, served twice as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes and plays a barbarian named Shadrack in her besties’ Dungeons & Dragons campaign. A Mexican immigrant, Latina, and dual US/Mexico citizen, she lives in Seattle with her husband and two kids and is the proud liberal daughter of conservative parents.
To read more about Mónica and see her work, visit her website at moniguzman.com. Follow Mónica on Twitter at @moniguzman.
Mónica in the Media
Reader’s Digest – Nov. 7, 2022 — How to Talk to People Even If You Disagree
Forward with Andrew Yang – May 30, 2022 — How to Build Bridges in Divided Times
The Seattle Times – March 17, 2022 — Seattle’s Mónica Guzmán on curiosity and building bridges in ‘dangerously divided times’
The New York Times – March 7, 2022 — Can We Empathize With Our Enemies? One Author Wants Us to Try.
American Press Institute – Feb. 8, 2022 — What might journalism learn from ‘bridging’? A Q&A with Mónica Guzmán
TEDxSeattle – Feb. 1, 2022 — How Curiosity Will Save Us