Ms. P. Wanja Njuguna,
Lecturer, Print Media, University of Botswana and Coordinator and Editor in Chief, UB Horizon Student Newspaper
B.A Communication, Messiah College, Grantham, Penn, USA,
M.A Print Communication, Daystar University, Nairobi,
M. P. A. Harvard University, USA,
Diploma, Journalism & Democracy, Kalmar University/Fojo, Sweden,
Diploma, Environment Leadership, NOLS, Wyoming (Kenya Semester).
Specialization: Print Communication
Ms. Njuguna is a lecturer in the Department of Media Studies. Her strength is in teaching health, environment and science reporting combined with news gathering, beat reporting, editing, writing, law and ethics in Print journalism. Her M. A. in Print Communication project was based on creating a Code of Ethics for members of the Kenya Union of Journalists.
Work Experience
With over 18 years experience in print media before joining UB, the award winning journalist had worked in various capacities that include Writer and Editor of the largest Media Group in East Africa, Nation Media Group, Public Relations Person (Communication Specialist) for a major reform program in Kenya where her work included formulating a communication strategy and media liason, as a Senior Prisons officer in Kenya, an Opinion Polling Researcher in the US and Kenya and an Events Manager, among others.
Awards and Fellowships
During her career as a mainstream journalist, Ms Njuguna has won among others, one of journalism’s most prestigious fellowships, Stanford University’s John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship and Harvard University’s Mason Fellowship and William Starr Innovation Fellowship. In 2000, she co-won the overall CNN African Journalist of the Year Award. As part of her prize package, for winning on a piece on domestic violence among the elite in Kenya entitled “Union Made in Hell”, she worked at Time Magazine, Atlantic Edition in London. She also won Giants International Best Social Writer for 2000 for her writing on human rights issues in Kenya. Just before graduating from Harvard in June 2004, Ms Njuguna won another fellowship, Harvard Human Right Committee, Third Millenium Fellowship, to look into Job Discrimination of People with HIV/AIDS in Kenya for a year. In July 2009, she received a USA’s National Press Foundation (NPF) fellowship to train and report on International Aids Society Conference in Capetown, SA. During the same month, she won second place in Botswana’s Bessie Head Literature Awards for her fiction story entitled, Forbidden Love.
Memberships
1. Association of Health Care Journalists, USA
2. International Aids Society, Switzerland.
3. International Federation of University Women, Switzerland.
4. Association of Women Journalists in Kenya (AMWIK)
Journalistic Writing and Research Interests
Ms Njuguna’s journalism articles are varied from profiling famous people such as President Ellen John-Sirleaf of Liberia, Former Iranian President, Rafsanjani, Graca Machel and other dignitaries to writing on food security, business & finance, leadership, children’s and general human rights citizens rights vs police, rights of People Living with HIV & Aids (PLWHA) in workplace, insurances, etc. Her research interest is in print media reportage on HIV & Aids and stigma surrounding PLWHAs especially in the media. She is currently researching on Stigma and PLWHAs in the Media.
