The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has hired online news pioneer and ONA member, Gary Kebbel, as Journalism Initiatives Program Officer.

Kebbel will help the foundation identify the people, processes and projects that will advance quality journalism and community vitality in the coming century.

“Gary understands both the power and the perils of new media,” said Eric Newton, Knight Foundation’s director of Journalism Initiatives. “He’s the right news person at the right time to help us map and navigate the future of journalism.”

Kebbel was news director at America Online, where he trained and directed the team that built AOL News into the world’s largest online news site, with 24 million monthly users. Before that, he helped create USAToday.com and Newsweek.com, and was a home page editor at washingtonpost.com. His journalism career began in newspapers.

Most recently, Kebbel worked at Education Week’s web site, edweek.org, where he was in charge of content development, strategy and planning. He helped plan the successful switch of edweek.org from a free to a paid subscription web site.

“I am incredibly excited about the opportunity Knight Foundation has given me to help new pioneers in digital communication and community connectedness,” Kebbel said.

Kebbel, a former graphics editor at USA Today, also teaches online journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, as an adjunct instructor.

As a Fulbright Senior Specialist in online journalism in 2005, Kebbel trained U.S. public affairs and public information officers at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute in the effective use of new media in public diplomacy.

Kebbel has three masters’ degrees: one in social work from The Catholic University of America, and one each in political science and journalism from the University of Illinois. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities. For more information about Knight Foundation, go to www.knightfdn.org.