Marisa Porto

Assistant Dean

Location: Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications, 113
Phone: 757-727-5713
E-mail: marisa.porto@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Business Strategy, Media Management, Organizational Assessment, Change Management, Staff Development, Digital Innovation, Crisis Management

Marisa Porto has a background in strategic and operational leadership of news media outlets, nonprofits and higher education institutions. Until moving into the role of assistant dean, Porto served as Executive in Residence at Hampton University in 2019, providing consultation on university organizational and administrative matters and teaching business entrepreneurship and management.

Before joining the university, Porto was the business and news leader of Tribune Publishing's Virginia Media operations, which included more than 10 publications from Richmond, Va., to Morehead City, N.C. The organization's largest publications are The Virginian-Pilot and the Daily Press. Previously, she served as publisher and editor of Tribune Publishing's Daily Press Media Group, overseeing operations on the Virginia peninsula in Hampton Roads.

Porto has held news leadership positions with organizations in Florida, Delaware and Ohio. She is currently a member of the news advisory council of The Trust Project, an international nonprofit devoted to media transparency. She is the past president of the Virginia Press Association and served a four-year term on Virginia’s Freedom of Information Advisory Council.

Porto has a journalism degree from the University of South Carolina and a master of business administration from the University of Maryland Global Campus.

She is lifelong Girl Scout and is currently vice chair of the Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast and chair of the sustainability committee.