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Vicky Díaz-Camacho: Being a news leader takes heart, gusto, and conviction

Reflections from the Lenfest Constellation News Leadership Initiative

By Vicky Díaz-Camacho

November 19, 2024

The Lenfest Constellation News Leadership Initiative launched in 2020 as a professional development fellowship supporting mid-career media professionals of color in Philadelphia. We reached out to program alumni to reflect on how their careers have evolved since participating in the program. Vicky Díaz-Camacho is a member of the Constellation class of 2023-2024.

The concept of “news leadership” had a different connotation before I began the Constellation News Leadership program. It felt out of grasp. Prompted by the gentle guidance of coaches Anita Zielina, CEO of Better Leaders Lab, and media consultant Shazna Nessa, I reflected on different seasons in life where I had exhibited potential. I had been a music coach, an arts editor, and documentary showrunner. Collaborators, mentees and supervisors I trusted said I have lots of energy and a knack for bringing people together. But how could those skills set me up for news leadership? Was this even a feasible avenue for me? 

The Lenfest Constellation News Leadership program taught me that, a) the soft skills I had were transferable in a business setting and b) yes, this avenue is possible. I just needed to learn how to tap into my natural strengths while building up new muscles, e.g. business planning know-how or how to put strategic planning into practice. (Shoutout to Richard E. Brown for an intense, but fruitful class exercise that showed me and my team we could put a business plan together.)

During interactive exercises with Nessa and heartfelt conversations with guest speakers — such as StoryCorps CEO Sandra Clark and Prison Journalism Project co-founder Yukari Kane — I learned I am already a newsroom leader. I remain principled and steadfast in my goals to produce ethical reporting projects, while also making space to build others up. I am driven by empathy, connectedness, and humanity, and I am motivated by team collaboration and synthesis. I gleaned this from the Gallup skills assessment, which served as a clear roadmap on how to fuse various skills to supercharge my leadership potential. Ultimately, this program helped me tease out the knots in my pie-in-the-sky aspirations and gave me clarity on where I truly want to be. I learned to be honest about what is most fulfilling to me, helping redirect my energy and refine my career focus. Part of business strategy begins with honesty about where current and future goals align with my personal values. Because of this program, I found my North Star. 

Employing lessons on strategy and confidence building, I secured a reporting grant with the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, allowing me the freedom and privilege to work with top-tier editors on a project illuminating critical issues affecting Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican diaspora — my community. It also inspired my potential pivot to become an independent journalist, realizing my prowess in creative direction, and to get the ball rolling on a personal project: a biographical-fiction film with my sister. A big lesson for me: it is OK to pivot.  

The Lenfest Constellation News Leadership program allowed for much-needed introspection that will shape the next phases of my career for years to come. Being a leader encompasses more than being a manager — although I no longer doubt I can do the job. Being a news leader takes heart, gusto, and conviction. This program inspired me to believe in my personal power, tackle the more foreign and difficult lessons, and to simply stop doubting what I clearly have to offer.