Ellen Hume

Journalist, Teacher, Civil Society Activist

PAST EMPLOYERS:   MIT, various newspapers, PBS

Ellen Hume is a Boston-based journalist, teacher and civil society activist who works on the front lines of democracy around the world. Before moving to Budapest (2009-2016) where she mentored journalists and founded a project on Roma integration, she was research director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT (2008-9), creator of the New England Ethnic Newswire (2007-2009), a founding partner of the International Media Development Advisers group, a consultant to the Global Investigative Journalists Network, and an advisor for Not In Our Town and Direkt36. 

She started her career as a newspaper reporter, covering the White House for the Wall Street Journal after multiple beats at the Los Angeles Times, Detroit Free Press and other papers. She became executive director of Harvard’s  Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy from 1988-1993. She was executive director of the PBS Democracy Project in 1996-1998 before moving to Prague for two years for family reasons. She was awarded two honorary doctorates. 

Hume has served as a past vice president of the Examiner Club and currently is on the vestry of Old North Church in Boston. She is married with four children and seven grandchildren. A more detailed look at her work and life is at www.ellenhume.com.