Bridge Michigan growth continues. Kathy Kieliszewski to help lead newsroom

• Kathy Kieliszewski comes to Bridge Michigan after overseeing visuals at the Detroit Free Press for 12 years
• She will help lead the newsroom and oversee efforts to innovate content and delivery of journalism
• Emma Carr comes aboard as revenue development specialist, while Devin Scillian joins nonprofit board overseeing Bridge

Kathy Kieliszewski, a nationally decorated journalist and longtime editor at the Detroit Free Press, joins Bridge Michigan next week as its executive editor of innovation to help deliver content to new audiences in unique ways.

Kieliszewski comes to Bridge after a career marked by innovation, experimentation and excellence. She spent nearly 22 years at the Free Press, where she was senior news director for visuals for the past 12 years.

A winner of four national Emmy Awards, Kieliszewski is a documentary filmmaker who co-founded Freep Film Festival, the Free Press' annual documentary-focused film festival, and served as its artistic director. She was part of a USA Today Network team that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for its investigation into former President Donald Trump’s efforts to build a wall on the southern border.

Kieliszewski succeeds Lisa Yanick Litwiller, who served in the role for two months before dying in March, and will lead Bridge’s growing newsroom with Executive Editor for Impact Joel Kurth.

“Kathy’s career is built on innovation and excellence, and we are delighted to have her aboard to help us reimagine how to bring Bridge’s excellent content to new audiences in new ways,” said Katy Locker, the chief executive officer of The Center for Michigan, Bridge’s nonprofit publisher.

“She’s a big believer in Michigan and shares our values that journalism has the power — and responsibility — to bring about change, inform communities and improve our state.”

Kieliszewski is expected to focus on helping tell stories in different ways, deepening connections with readers and improving visuals, social media and newsletters at Bridge Michigan.

Her hiring comes as the news media is reeling on multiple fronts, from the collapse of its traditional, advertising-supported business model and layoffs to the rise of artificial intelligence and de-emphasis of news by technology companies like Google and Facebook.

“We can no longer afford to just do great journalism. We need to reinvent how we reach readers — and viewers — to make sure they find it,” Kurth said. “It’s a monumental task, and no one in Michigan journalism is better suited for it or as enthusiastic as Kathy.”

A Macomb County native, Kieliszewski is a Michigan State University graduate who lives in Grosse Pointe Park and spends her vacations camping with her family in their 1970s-era travel trailers. She is the producer of several documentaries including “Coldwater Kitchen” about a Michigan prison’s culinary program, and the Free Press’ acclaimed true-crime podcast “Where Secrets Go to Die.”

Kieliszewski’s hiring comes amid continued growth at Bridge, which recently launched the search for an Outdoors Life Reporter to join its Environment Watch Team and also hired two deputy editors this year.

In recent months, the center also hired its first revenue development specialist, Emma Carr, to help grow financial support for Bridge Michigan.

A Dearborn resident, Carr has a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and master’s in philanthropy and nonprofit leadership from Grand Valley State University. A native of mid-Michigam, Carr was the director of development for the Parliament of the World’s Religions, a global effort to help promote interfaith dialogue that most recently convened in 2023 in Chicago.

Through her contract work, Emma has supported Interfaith America and Michigan Interfaith Power and Light.

Last month, WDIV-TV Channel 4 news anchor Devin Scillian joined the Center for Michigan Board of Directors, succeeding AARP Michigan Director Paula D. Cunningham.

Scillian has been an anchor at WDIV since 1996, is the author of 15 children’s books and is a three-time winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award for broadcasting.

The moves follow a decade of growth at Bridge, which was founded in 2011 and has won more than 200 state and national journalism awards, including five Michigan Press Association Newspaper of the Year honors and four consecutive Michigan Journalist of the Year awards.

In the past three years, Bridge expanded coverage, hiring breaking news, Capitol and business reporters and launching new newsletters, while its founding chief executive officer, John Bebow, retired and was succeeded by Locker.