“I always felt a call to service and learned to raise my hand even when I am unsure.”

Sandra Clark

Sandra Clark, CEO of StoryCorps, shared the story behind her title with us on May 29, 2022.

As Vice President for News and Civic Dialogue at WHYY in Philadelphia since 2016 and a member of the executive team, Sandra Clark led WHYY’s news operation across all platforms, including radio, TV, web, and digital, and works collaboratively with teams across the enterprise to expand and diversify local audiences and national program carriage, grow revenue and build membership, and amplify the station’s brand and positioning.

Sandra is a leading voice in journalism, challenging norms and practices that create barriers to building trust and meaningful, sustainable connections with communities. She is credited as the primary driver of the station’s diversity, cultural competency, community engagement, and trust-building efforts. Under her guidance, WHYY’s newsroom went from 19% to 45% BIPOC in four years. Her innovative mutual-aid engagement approach with local content creators and communities of color has drawn national recognition as models for stations across the country.

As Managing Editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer prior to joining WHYY, Sandra was a member of both the Executive Committee and the newsroom senior leadership team, facilitating ethical collaboration between the business and editorial sides of the company as the founder of the cross-departmental Innovation team. She led the paper to a 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Sandra previously served in several other roles at the Inquirer, having begun her career there in 1983.