Vassileva

About: Ralitsa Vassileva teaches undergraduate Newsource and Multiplatform Newsroom Projects courses. Her Newsource class learns how to report, produce, and present newscasts that go live on local cable. Her Multiplatform Newsroom Projects students produce in-depth Multimedia reporting about Sustainability for student online and social media dissemination. Vassileva has 20+ years experience as CNN anchor & correspondent handling daily and breaking news for diverse audiences. Her work helped CNN win awards for covering major international events like the Arab Spring, the Tsunami disaster and September 11,2001. Vassileva has worked in various media roles including news director, multi-platform writer and consultant. 

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Vassileva's work on sustainability issues started at CNN, then continued at a think tank in Denmark, and now continues at UGA. She has developed The Sustainable Reporter website, a tool for her students and others to use to better communicate this vital but complex issue to the public. Vassileva also focuses on teaching solutions journalism methods in reporting. She shares her experience beyond UGA as co-director and teaching lead of the Solutions Journalism Hub for the South.

Education

MA., Political Science/International Relations, Georgia State University
MA., English Language & Literature, Sofia University, Bulgaria

Research Interests and Activities

Vassileva grew up in Bulgaria and, as a young journalist helped introduce freedom of the press after the Berlin Wall fell. Later her reporting on Bulgaria’s transition gave her an opportunity to work in the U.S as an anchor for CNN International. She reported from spots around the world in both daily, breaking news and in depth formats like CNN’s Autumn of Change documentary. She wrote her MA thesis on how fears towards minorities can support the rise of right-wing extremism, even where there is an open discussion of ideas in a democratic environment. Later she used her skills to explain sustainability at think tank Sustainia in publications like Global Opportunity Explorer. Vassileva is a popular speaker/moderator on sustainability, women’s issues and digital change for the U.N, WHO, World Bank and E.U. She presented the European Press Prize Awards in 2019. 

Awards and Fellowships

• Doctor of Humane Letters, American University in Bulgaria, for contributions to journalism.
• Peabody: Coverage of the Arab Spring 2011 (shared award)
• Peabody:  Coverage of the Gulf Oil Spill 2011 (shared award)
• Peabody: Coverage of the 2008 US Election (shared award)
• Peabody: Coverage of the Tsunami Disaster in South Asia, 2005 (shared award)
• DuPont Columbia University Award and The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences: Coverage of September 11, 2001 (shared award)