Going Deeper: Resources Used in This Guide

Paul Mitchell

Professor Paul Mitchell, Ph.D. is a member of the faculty for the Reynolds School of Journalism (RSJ) at the University of Nevada, Reno. He coordinates the RSJ student recruitment & retention. He also taught two years at the University of Missouri in their school of journalism, while working on his master’s degree at the institution.

Before his academic pursuits, he worked in the newspaper business as a news reporter/editor starting professionally at The Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest continually-published African American newspaper. He left the Tribune and went to the Asbury Park Press, in New Jersey. He went from there to The National Sports Daily, which was first daily sports newspaper. The paper was headquartered in New York City.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Mitchell is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Nevada.

He has three children: Josiah, Sydney and Spencer (twins) and enjoys restoring old vehicles and home renovations.

Paula Umaña

Paula Umaña is the Director of Institutional Transformation at The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice. Prior to joining our team, she spent six years establishing and directing the Single Stop program at Community College of Philadelphia. That national anti-poverty, multi-service model to increase college student retention was demonstrably successful at boosting students’ academic success, according to a rigorous external evaluation. Paula also launched the first Hispanic Capacity Building Institute in Philadelphia, led programming for the Pennsylvania chapter of the Center for Progressive Leadership, and provided leadership and managed day-to-day operations for the Transitional Work Corporation, promoting workforce development and self-sufficiency in urban communities of Philadelphia. 

Paula holds a Master of Education degree from Temple University and is a native of Bogotá, Colombia where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.