Stephanie Wang

Stephanie Wang is the senior editor for Lumina Foundation, an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. In this role, she guides Lumina’s editorial strategy, edits Focus magazine and other publications, and coordinates a team of writers who work on executives’ speeches and writing projects.

Before being named senior editor, Wang was a strategy director, working to elevate awareness of Lumina’s work in news media and the public. She has played a leadership role in Lumina’s $10 million, five-year commitment to the Press Forward initiative to strengthen local and national news coverage and will continue to lead Lumina’s Indiana projects.

Before joining the foundation, Wang was the Indiana bureau chief for Chalkbeat. In 2020, she wrote a show in partnership with NPR’s “This American Life” about an Indianapolis elementary school reopening during the pandemic. The Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists repeatedly honored her coverage of race and K12 education.

In addition to overseeing Chalkbeat’s statewide coverage, Stephanie covered higher education. She also reported on the state’s colleges and universities for IndyStar, where she worked for five years and shaped the newspaper’s emerging coverage of diversity and equity. Her work also has been published by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, the Indianapolis Business Journal, and WFYI. She began her journalism career as a reporter for the Tampa Bay Times.

In 2020, Wang was a national finalist for the Education Writers Association’s beat reporting award. She is a member of EWA and Investigative Reporters & Editors. The Institute for Citizens & Scholars awarded her a Higher Education Media Fellowship to improve coverage of career and technical education. She serves on the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation board, annually sponsoring a writing contest for college journalists.

Wang holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in Spanish from Northwestern University.