Marisa Porto is the Knight Chair in Local News and Sustainability and conducts research with UNC’s Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media. She focuses on entrepreneurship, AI and crisis and the news business model. Porto has held leadership roles in traditional media, nonprofits and startups.

Porto joined UNC after teaching journalism and business at Hampton University where she was an assistant dean and executive-in-residence.

Porto has led news outlets as editor, vice president of news and publisher, was past president of the Virginia Press Association and served on the state FOIA Advisory board. She has served national and international organizations dedicated to diversity and journalism sustainability and has taught digital transformation to news outlets in the U.S., Ukraine and Georgia.

Porto is a graduate of the Maynard Institute’s management program. She has an MBA from the University of Maryland Global Campus and a B.A. from the University of South Carolina.