Kristen Hare

Kristen Hare is the Poynter faculty’s director of craft and local news and the author of Local Edition, Poynter’s weekly newsletter for and about local journalists. For nearly a decade, Kristen has taught a reframe for work/life balance, called Work-Life Chemistry, which she developed into a six-week newsletter course. Kristen spent two years running the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship for early-career journalists. She runs Level Up, a yearly program for reporters. She’s a cornerstone faculty member of Poynter’s Women’s Leadership Academy and other marquee offerings and is frequently invited to speak at journalism conferences around the country.

Before joining the teaching team, Kristen spent eight years covering the local news industry, including traveling to local metros across the country as they worked to transform. Kristen’s media reporting has been nominated for a Mirror Award. Her work before Poynter earned national honors, including the Darrell Sifford Memorial Prize in Journalism from the University of Missouri and first-place wins from the Society for Features Journalism.

Kristen also spent five years writing obituaries about regular people for the Tampa Bay Times, which she launched as part of a fellowship with the Reynolds Journalism Institute. That work earned her an award from the Society for Features Journalism. 

Kristen’s career before Poynter includes five years as a projects reporter at the online nonprofit St. Louis Beacon and five years as a features writer at the St. Joseph, Missouri News-Press. After graduating from the University of Missouri, Kristen spent two years in the Peace Corps in Guyana. 

When she’s not teaching, Kristen’s probably having a Florida adventure. She’s the author of three editions of “100 Things to do in Tampa Bay Before You Die,” and “Hotels, Motels and Inns of Florida: Beloved and Historic Places to Stay in the Sunshine State.” She lives outside Tampa, Florida, with her husband and two teens. Follow her on X at @kristenhare.