Great Conversations Speakers
Katrice Hardy
Katrice Hardy is the Executive Editor of The Dallas Morning News. Before that, she was the executive editor of the IndyStar and Midwest Regional Editor for USA Today Network.
Katrice joined USA Today Network in 2016, where she started as the top editor of the Greenville News and then took on responsibilities as South Regional editor for the Network, overseeing news organizations in South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Virginia. Previously, Katrice worked at the Virginian-Pilot for 20 years where she started as an intern and left as the managing editor.
Katrice is a board member of the Marshall Project and the News Leaders Association. She's also a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, where she is a former president of the Hampton Roads, Virginia chapter of that organization. She is also a former executive board member for the South Carolina Press Association. Katrice's newsrooms have won many top honors including a Pulitzer Prize in national reporting while she led the IndyStar and an IRE Top medal for investigative journalism.
She believes strongly that a news organization’s role is to shine light on the wonderful people and organizations that are making a difference in our local communities as well as it is to uncover the problems, ills, misuses and abuses to help bring about positive change.
Dr. James Henson
James Henson, Ph.D. teaches in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is the founder and executive director of the Texas Politics Project - a hub of research and public affairs work focused on providing non-partisan resources for understanding Texas government and politics. He co-founded the longest running academic survey of public opinion in Texas as part of a larger ongoing commitment to understanding Texas public opinion through regular non-partisan, statewide polling based at UT Austin.
His writing about Texas politics has appeared in every major Texas newspaper, as well as a variety of publications including The Washington Post, The Hill, Texas Monthly, The Texas Tribune, and others. He is the principal author of the Texas Politics textbook published by Soomo Learning and used in introductory Texas government courses across the state, and is a frequent resource for news media, researchers, and civic and interest groups.
Maria Reeve
Maria Douglas Reeve is the Executive Editor of the Houston Chronicle. She joined the Chronicle as Managing Editor in November 2019. The Houston Chronicle has been named Texas Newsroom of the Year for four years in a row.
Before joining the Houston Chronicle, she was Assistant Managing Editor/News at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. Reeve had been a Features team leader and Deputy Metro Editor before taking on the role of AME/News. Reeve was a reporter and editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press prior to joining the Star Tribune, including State Capitol reporter and Politics Editor. Reeve was the editor in charge of the Pioneer Press’ coverage of the 2008 Republican National Convention.
Reeve is also an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists and served as Program Chair for the 2018 and 2019 conventions in Detroit and Miami. She is a past president of the Twin Cities Black Journalists.
Reeve was a Nominating Juror in the Breaking News Category for the Pulitzer Prizes for work completed in 2019 and a Local News juror for work completed in 2020.
Reeve graduated from Davidson College with a degree in English and earned an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Maryland-College Park. In 2022, Reeve was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the University of Maryland’s Phillip Merrill College of Journalism.