Jessi Navarro

Jessi Navarro is the Poynter Institute’s Vice President of Business and Finance. In this role, she oversees Poynter’s business, revenue, and operations departments in addition to serving as Treasurer and Secretary for the Board of Trustees. Jessi is an executive leader whose passion is at the crossroads of finance, project management and technology. As a lifelong learner, she combines knowledge with strong analytical and communication skills to identify areas of improvement and then work collaboratively to make long-lasting change.

Jessi has deep experience in both finance and the Tampa Bay media industry. She worked for the Tampa Tribune and TBO.com, first as a business/financial analyst at the Tribune and then as Controller of TBO, focusing on innovation and process improvement. Before that, Jessi was a founding partner and CFO of a digital media startup, Xable.com, an online network targeted to persons with disabilities.

Jessi is a Tampa Bay native and 2012 graduate of the Tampa Connection program for executive leadership. She earned an MBA from the University of South Florida in 2005 and joined Poynter in 2015. During her tenure, Poynter has tripled its revenue, achieving consecutive years of double-digit revenue growth for the last four years. She recently became Project Management Professional (PMP) certified in November 2021, as part of strengthening her team’s overall agile project management expertise.