COVID Impacts: Misinformation in the Media – The U.N.’s Verified Initiative

Speakers for this event

• Robert Skinner

  Robert Skinner

  Robert Skinner is currently serving as a Senior Special Advisor in the UN’s Department of Global Communications, focusing on the UN’s COVID-19 Communications Response Initiative. Prior to taking on this role, Robert was the Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Partnerships. He began his tenure with the UN in 2015 as the Director of the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) in Washington, DC. Prior to joining the UN, Robert was the Executive Director in the New York Office of the United Nations Foundation. Before joining the Foundation in 2006, Robert held several positions in the United States Department of State, including as Deputy Spokesperson at the United States Mission to the United Nations in New York, and as Public Affairs Officer for the United States Embassy in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. He also held posts in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, and San Salvador, El Salvador. Robert was an attorney in the Office of the Cook County Public Defender, Chicago, Illinois before starting his diplomatic career. Robert holds a law degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Oakland University in the United States. He is married and has two children.

  URL https://www.un.org/en/

• Sandra Dawson Long Weaver

  Sandra Dawson Long Weaver

  Sandra Dawson Long Weaver is the Managing Partner and Founder of Tea and Conversations, a networking, communications, and educational event for women. She created the event when she was an editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2005. She has convened the event in Nashville, Philadelphia, and Denver. Women come to discuss current events and how they can enhance their lives and their communities. Weaver is also a founding member of the 45-year-old National Association of Black Journalists and an active member of the Nashville chapter of NABJ. The Nashville chapter has created a scholarship in her name to award each year to students pursuing degrees in journalism. She has a 45-year career working for daily and weekly newspapers including The Philadelphia Inquirer where she had various roles including Vice President for Newsroom Operations and the first female African American Managing Editor. Since 2012, she has been the Editorial Director for The Tennessee Tribune in Nashville. In 2013, she created “Take 10 with The Tennessee Tribune,” a video series featuring people who impact the Nashville-area community. Weaver is also an adjunct professor at Tennessee State University and the advisor for The Meter, the student newspaper. She is the founder and producer of the Tennessee Student Journalist Collective, a workshop designed to build collaboration among college students seeking degrees in communications and/or journalism. She is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center and chairs the Nominations and Fundraising committees. She also served on the Board of Directors for the Gallatin Shalom Zone in Gallatin, TN from 2015 to 2018. She served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 and 2006 and was a leader of the team that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 1992. Weaver is an active member of the Nashville Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She has served as the chapter journalist and has worked on a fundraising committee for the Southern Regional Conference. She was the communications coordinator from 2012 to 2013 for Imagine No Malaria for United Methodist Communications in Nashville. She received a Master of Arts in Civic Leadership from Lipscomb University in 2016 and has an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. She is married to Dr. Lance D. Weaver and is the mother of two adult children and grandmother of two granddaughters and one grandson.