Amy Kovac-Ashley

  • Head of National Programs
  • Lenfest Institute for Journalism

Amy L. Kovac-Ashley is the head of national programs at the Lenfest Institute for Journalism. In that role, she oversees a portfolio that includes the Institute's communities of practice, including the newly launched Statewide News Collective, as well as other national initiatives. She cares deeply about the sustainability of local news — for communities, news organizations and the people who work in them.

Prior to joining Lenfest, she spent six years at the American Press Institute, where she most recently served as the EVP/chief of news transformation. Her portfolio encompassed all of API’s Journalism programs, including accountability journalism; diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB); and organizational transformation and culture change, a major piece of which was the Table Stakes program. In 2020, she oversaw API's Trusted Elections Network.

She's been a journalism educator and administrator and worked for a dozen years as a professional journalist, first in print newsrooms and then in digital. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the nonprofit news organization Open Campus Media.