Advisory Board
Suzanna de Baca
Huxley, Iowa
As CEO of Story Board Advisors, Suzanna provides coaching and advisory services to CEOs, boards, and family businesses, to help them define a clear vision for the future, navigate complex challenges, and achieve sustainable growth and lasting legacies. Previously, she served as CEO of Business Publications Corporation in Des Moines, where she led the company to significant growth and industry recognition, including being named a “Top Ten Publisher to Watch” three times by Editor & Publisher. She also served as CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and for over two decades held senior executive roles at Fortune 250 companies like Ameriprise Financial and Bank of America. Suzanna holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor's from Iowa State University, where she graduated with distinction. She holds National Association of Corporate Director Certification and is a Certified Executive Coach. She is currently a faculty member at Iowa State's Ivy College of Business in the Management and Entrepreneurship Department, where she teaches leadership and organizational behavior to MBA students. She is also an award-winning poet whose work has been published in national and international journals, magazines and anthologies.
Ryan Ford
Los Angeles, California
As the president and chief creative officer of Cashmere Agency in Los Angeles, Ryan Ford leads all creative and marketing campaigns across the lifestyle marketing firm's diverse set of clients--including globally recognized brands such as Google, Instagram, Facebook, BMW, and Disney. Prior to Cashmere, he served as executive editor at The Source, once dubbed as “hip-hop’s bible.” For nearly a decade, he played a pivotal role in the construction and content of every issue. He earned a journalism degree from the University of Iowa and a master's in African-American studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. In his prime, he played football for the University of Kansas as an offensive guard and was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa.
Richard Gilbert
Iowa/Florida
At the age of 20, Chicago native and Simpson College graduate Richard Gilbert went to work for the Harlan Tribune and News-Advertiser. At 27 he was editor of the Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative News. At the age of 29 he bought the Eagle Grove Eagle and was editor and co-publisher. His writing career took on another form when he served as Iowa Gov. Bob Ray’s press secretary, a position from which he was plucked to join the corporate ranks of The Des Moines Register and Tribune Company; he rose to the rank of president before the company’s sale to Gannett. In 1986 he left Iowa to run public company Park Communications (Park/NASDAQ) as president/CEO in Ithaca, NY, with more than 110 small dailies, weeklies and shoppers plus TV and radio stations across 23 states. He was recruited back to Chicago by the Field Corporation to become CEO/publisher of Pioneer Press and its 55 weeklies. In the last 30 years he has served in more than a dozen corporate directorships including lead independent director for Principal Mutual Funds, advisor to Bulkley Capital investment banker, chairman of Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, interim CEO to Creative Loafing alternative weeklies (including Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper) and chairman of a Vistage CEO group in Chicago. His biggest hobby is sailing; as an experienced ocean skipper he has crossed the Atlantic in a small boat and served as volunteer sailing coach at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. Gilbert and his life partner, Julie Gammack (founder of the Okoboji Writers’ Retreat and Iowa Writers’ Collaborative), live in Des Moines, Okoboji, and Punta Gorda, Florida.
Michael Giudicessi
Iowa/California
Attorney Michael Giudicessi, a nationally recognized expert on the First Amendment, is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and earned his law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law. He began his career as a staff attorney at the Des Moines Register and later became general counsel for Palmer Communications. He recently retired as partner in the Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath law firm in Des Moines and serves as legal counsel to the Iowa Freedom of Information Council.
Jim Howard
Maryland, Virginia
Jim Howard is a retired national broadcast journalist and producer for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. His deep Midwestern roots include his earlier career at Illinois Public Radio where he served as statehouse bureau chief and directed news coverage of state government and politics for a 13-station network. He brings the experience of running a 10,000-member nonprofit and consulting with community news organizations such as NOISE in North Omaha.
Amber Hunt
Cincinnati, Ohio
Amber Hunt is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, podcaster, photographer, and college instructor. She forged her journalism career in a series of Midwestern newsrooms, most recently the Cincinnati Enquirer. She's co-founder of Grab Bag Collab, a profit-sharing podcast network. She's host of the true-crime history podcast "Crimes of the Centuries" and also hosted two previous series, "Accused" and "Aftermath." She's author of "Crimes of the Centuries: The Cases That Changed Us" and New York Times bestseller "The Kennedy Wives: Triumph and Tragedy in America’s Most Public Family."
Harry Smith
New York City, New York
Harry Smith's Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalism career carried him around the globe and began more than 50 years ago in local radio before he joined a public TV station in Denver, Colorado, in the early 1980s. He was hired by CBS News in 1986 and went on to host "CBS This Morning" and its successor, "The Early Show." He hosted programs on affiliated networks as well as his own "Travels With Harry" reports on the evening news. In 2011 he moved to NBC, frequently co-anchoring "Today" and reporting for "Sundays With Harry" and other features. He retired in 2024 and now serves on the faculty of his alma mater, Central College in Pella, Iowa, where he inspires students with a curriculum grounded in the virtues and discipline of lifelong curiosity. He's also the 2025 honoree of the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism.
Julia Thompson
Phoenix, Arizona
Julia Thompson is director of audience and membership at NEWSWELL, a news nonprofit helping communities and democracies thrive through local news transformation. She was previously a professor of practice at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, where she co-led Cronkite News, an immersive newsroom program. She has also worked in newsrooms as a senior editor and digital director, including at USA TODAY, the Arizona Republic, the Des Moines Register, and the Tallahassee Democrat. She is a Pulitzer Prize winner and finalist and served as the City of Mesa’s first chief digital officer. Thompson holds bachelor's degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Missouri.