Mark Curtis, Stephen Richer join The Integrity Project Board of Directors, elevate mission to inform public about misinformation
Veteran newscaster Mark Curtis, left, of KPNX-TV 12 News in Phoenix, and Stephen Richer, a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and former Maricopa County Recorder, join the Board of Directors of The Integrity Project.
The Integrity Project
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Apolitical nonprofit and trusted mis- and disinformation research organization – The Integrity Project – is pleased to announce that veteran news broadcaster Mark Curtis and distinguished elections expert Stephen Richer have joined its volunteer Board of Directors. The additions elevate The Project's mission of research and education around the systematic use of mis- and disinformation in media constructs. Its mission includes fostering civilized public discourse to address the proliferation of misinformation as a polarizing threat to our communities and democratic institutions.
As one of Arizona's most celebrated broadcasters and a fixture on local televisions for more than 20 years, Mark Curtis of KPNX-TV 12News brings a wealth of journalism and news gathering experience to the Board, having earned 13 Emmy Awards, an Edward R. Murrow Award, and two Associated Press Awards for Best Anchor. He has covered five Olympic Games, two World Series, U.S. Presidential primaries and inaugurations, the funeral of Sen. John McCain in Washington, D.C., among other memorable news events. He recently moderated The Integrity Project's September 2024 conversation, 'Water in a News Desert,' a discussion of the decline of local news and its repercussions for information integrity.
Stephen Richer, a Senior Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School in Massachusetts, is previously known as Maricopa County's outspoken Recorder and defender of elections integrity for more than 2.6 million registered voters in Maricopa County. Richer pushed back on unproven claims of a “rigged election” in 2020, further developing systems for transparency and fostering public trust in the Recorder's Office by hosting on-site tours, town halls, and 24-7 video monitoring throughout the 2022 Midterm and 2024 General Election processes. His four-year tenure ended in January 2025 when he accepted the senior fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School to further research elections processes and develop best practices that instill public trust.
Curtis and Richer bring deep daily news and elections operations expertise to a Board steeped in decades of political, academic and business knowledge that include:
• Joseph Blackbourn, Board Chair and President and CEO of Everest Holdings
• Barry Burden, Professor of Practice and Director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Craig Krumwiede, CEO of Harvard Investments
• Mi-Ai Parrish, Managing Director of Media Enterprise at Arizona State University and CEO of MAP Strategies Group of Tempe, a communications advisory
• Wellington “Duke” Reiter, a special advisor to Arizona State University President Michael Crow
• Byron Sarhangian, a business and real estate attorney at Snell & Wilmer of Phoenix
“Mark and Stephen are ideal additions and uniquely suited for our Board, with their passion, intellect and know-how, as we look for solutions to the disinformation problem, its corresponding erosion of trust in long-standing institutions, and the broad use of false narratives which has been, frankly, successful in creating polarization of communities and families primarily for power and profit,” Board Chair Joe Blackbourn says. “We have our work cut out for us. Mark brings his many years of working in the media communications ecosystem where he has witnessed firsthand the impacts of false narratives in polarizing Arizonans, while Stephen offers his unique perspective in elections, and similar impacts to the public as it relates to intentional misinformation undermining trust in processes that have been managed with transparency and integrity. We're looking forward to having their participation and having genuine impact on the issues surrounding mis- and disinformation.”
Formed in late 2022 after contentious and fraught midterms elections that included renewed yet unfounded claims of voter fraud and “fake news,” The Integrity Project, with its apolitical approach, continues to root out misinformation, support media literacy research and awareness campaigns, and hosts regular conversations in-person and online, including such notables as acclaimed vaccine researcher and staunch critic of the anti-science movement Dr. Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD of Baylor University; Stanford legal and elections insider Nate Persily; former Secretary of State for the State of Washington Kim Wyman; social media misinformation expert Prof. Young Mie Kim of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Cailin O'Connor and James Owen Weatherall of the University of California Irvine and authors of The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread; among others. Learn more about the backgrounds of Mark Curtis and Stephen Richer on The Integrity Project website at TIP AZ.org.
ABOUT THE INTEGRITY PROJECT
The Integrity Project is an apolitical non-profit with 501c3 status that solely seeks to uphold the standards of communication that support a healthy, functioning society. Our three-tier approach of targeted research, public discourse and media literacy programming aims to point out misinformation in a non-partisan way, build communication bridges among disparate communities and provide tools for media discernment for consumers of all ages. Collaborators include faculty members of several departments at Arizona State University, including the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Hugh Downs Center for Strategic Communication, as well as affiliates of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. To learn more, visit The Integrity Project website.
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