Leezel is a bridge journalist at the intersection of everything from editorial, product to audience development, marketing and more. Currently, Leezel is the Senior Editor for Membership and Innovation at HuffPost. In the past, she worked with the Associated Press in Audience Development and was at CNNMoney (now CNNBusiness) as Assistant Managing Editor of Programming where she led a global team of multiplatform editors. She received her Bachelor’s degree at Loyola Marymount University and a Masters degree at UCLA. She is a 2019 Filipino Young Leaders Program (FYLPRO) delegate and sits on the FYLPRO Board of Directors. On this episode, we talk about Leezel’s journey into multi-media journalism, the power of storytelling and how she’s navigated the industry as a Filipina American. Harnessing her identity of being in-between Filipino and American to be a bridge reporter and bridge communities and stories, Leezel promotes embracing “being many things” and how Filipinos are some of the best bridge-people of the world. We learn about how Filipinos can embrace their history of adaptability and innovating in the present uncertain times. She also shares with us a project she’s working on around Blood Debt, a concept of owing debt transcending finances, such as time, love and obligations, due to being in the family line, challenging the traditional notion of “utang na loob.”
View all episodes
