UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Maggie Messitt, Norman Eberly Professor of Practice in Journalism in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, is the recipient of the 2026 Undergraduate Program Leadership Award.
The award recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated exemplary leadership benefiting a Penn State undergraduate degree program. Specifically, it recognizes those individuals who have major responsibilities for the delivery of undergraduate education within a unit and who are providing leadership that has transformed or revitalized the undergraduate program in some way.
Messitt has worked as a social entrepreneur, journalist and editor inside underserved communities in rural South Africa and across the United States for twenty years.
Nominators said Messitt has enhanced the journalism major — one of the largest at Penn State — by creating advanced, experiential learning opportunities for students. She directs the News Lab, a teaching newsroom and R&D space that offers students professional journalism experiences on campus while also serving Pennsylvanians with in-depth, investigative and accountability journalism.
“Launched three years ago through Messitt’s vision and the college’s support, News Lab provides students with hands-on newsgathering and storytelling experience while serving Pennsylvania communities,” a nominator said. “Messitt manages the program’s budget, cultivates partnerships with news organizations and community stakeholders, recruits and trains students and ensures their work reaches residents in rural counties across the commonwealth. To date, News Lab stories have been published in more than 25 news outlets statewide.”
Messitt has also secured grant funding from significant organizations like the American Press Institute, Hearst Foundations and the Knight Election Hub to support this work and to launch Centre Documenters, a program that trains community members — or, in this case students — to attend and document local government public meetings. It is the first student-run and first rural documenters program in the country. This service, nominators said, offers a great training opportunity for civically engaged students and the community they serve, and has become a model for other journalism schools.
“In fact, students in other colleges at Penn State who are interested in learning more about civic engagement have requested training,” a nominator said. “News Lab and the documenters program have gotten national attention among our journalism-school peers across the U.S. for their success.”
Nominators said Messitt continues to attract new students and keep them engaged. In addition to directing the News Lab, she teaches a large-enrollment introductory course that’s often where students first learn out about News Lab and its range of opportunities.
Messitt also teaches smaller, more intimate and intensive workshops through which she guides students to report as a team and produce narrative and often interactive journalism. This has included a 20-stop audio tour chronicling the East Palestine train derailment and its aftermath across the region; an audio documentary born out of reporting on the intersection of agriculture and aging in Pennsylvania; an open source investigation into historic missing persons cases; and more.
Messitt also launched the college’s first robust badging program through the News Lab. In-person and online trainings and badging opportunities are available each semester. Students have earned badges in public records requests, photographic lighting, scriptwriting, broadcast packages, building a beat and more. Trainings are open to students across Bellisario and the University, and an average of 700 spots are occupied each semester.
Another area Messitt made an impact, nominators said, is increasing opportunities for underserved students, many of whom must balance academics with employment. Through fundraising efforts and professorship resources, Messitt created paid opportunities for student work. Nominators said this has had an impact in increasing transformative, career-relevant opportunities for Pell-eligible and change-of-campus students.
“Her vision, dedication, and results exemplify the highest standards of leadership and innovation,” a nominator said. “She is truly deserving of this honor.”