Johnita P. Due is the Executive Vice President of Integrity and Inclusion for CNN Worldwide. Both the Standards & Practices and Inclusion teams report into her. Due is based in Atlanta and first joined CNN as a media lawyer in 2003. She has been Chief Inclusion Officer for CNN and TNT Sports since 2019.

Highly regarded by employees and management alike for her inspirational leadership and editorial insights, Due protects CNN’s journalistic and brand integrity across platforms. She advises on conflicts of interest, editorial fairness, sensitive and controversial topics, language and images, as well as outside activities of employees and sales and commercial matters. She is responsible for developing and enforcing CNN’s AI and social media policies. She is a champion of freedom of speech and inclusion of diverse perspectives.

As Chief Inclusion Officer for CNN and TNT Sports, Due drives the companies’ efforts to build a culture of inclusion and belonging. An essential part of Due’s strategy is an organizational investment in the growth of all employees through mentoring, development and engagement initiatives, as well as inclusive storytelling.

In her prior role as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for CNN, Due was a valued partner for editorial teams across television and digital platforms. Due advised on defamation, copyright, privacy and other newsgathering and publication-related legal issues and provided strategic guidance about content production and distribution on television and evolving digital platforms. She was the lead content attorney for the global digital teams, as well as the New York bureau, morning programming, and the health, sports, business and entertainment beats. She shepherded the development of iReport, which was the first user-generated content website of a major news organization, was an advocate and advisor on the development of “Impact Your World,” CNN’s first pro-social, global, cross-platform programming initiative to empower audiences to respond philanthropically to news events, and advised on the development of CNNgo, a next-generation digital product which gave users unprecedented control over their TV news consumption.

Additionally, Due oversaw access matters for CNN, including successful lawsuits against the State of Florida for a copy of its suspected felons list prior to the 2004 election which impacted the state’s election policy and against the federal government to gain access to Hurricane Katrina victim recovery efforts which contributed to CNN’s Peabody award-winning coverage. She also managed CNN’s multinational rights and clearances department. Recognized for her expertise in media law and journalism ethics, she has taught media law at Cornell Law School, media law and ethics at CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, and spoken on numerous panels.

Previously, as CNN’s chief diversity advisor from 2005-2013, Due chaired CNN’s award-winning Diversity Council to advance the company’s diversity mission of growing its business by reflecting diverse audiences and perspectives in its programming and supporting an inclusive culture for its employees. Due’s leadership was crucial to establishing CNN’s standing with multicultural audiences leading to some major ratings wins, earning revenue in the tens of millions of dollars for multicultural content franchises, launching employee development and student pipeline programs, and expanding the diversity of voices, including diversity of political perspectives, in CNN’s storytelling and programming. Due was key to the development of programming initiatives Black in America and Latino in America and the creation of the In America production unit. She also led a company-wide initiative geared toward producing more content for the growing and diverse U.S. Hispanic market.

Prior to joining CNN, Due was associate general counsel for The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., in New York where she practiced litigation, intellectual property, and media law.

Due has received significant industry honors for her achievements. While at McGraw-Hill, Due received a Black Achievers in Industry award from the Harlem branch of the YMCA of Greater New York. Early in her career, she was named a “Top Black Voice in Network News” by Ebony Magazine and was a McCormick Tribune Fellow. Most recently, she was honored as WICT’s “Woman of the Year” (Programmer), received Color Comm’s “Circle Award,” was named a Top 100 Diversity Officer and a Top Diversity Officer in Sports by the National Diversity Council, and has been recognized for several years on the CableFax Most Powerful Women List and Diversity List. Due was also honored as a “Woman to Watch” by Multichannel News and was named to MIPAD’s (Most Influential People of African Descent) Global Top 100 List and later received the MIPAD Most Influential 100 Hall of Fame Award.

Due serves on the board of visitors of FAMU’s School of Journalism and Graphic Communication, and the boards of ColorComm and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. She is a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) Forum on Communications Law and an associate member of the Buckhead Atlanta chapter of Jack and Jill. Previously, she was a member of Leadership Atlanta, a long-term board member and chair of Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company, a board member of the WICT Network (formerly Women in Cable Telecommunications), the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Vox Teen Communications, and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Due earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Harvard University and a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Sussex in England where she studied race relations and organizational culture under a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship. She earned her law degree from Cornell Law School, specializing in international legal affairs. She is a graduate of the NAMIC Executive Leadership Development Program (ELDP) at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.