Mara Schiavocampo Profile…

American Journalism Reviews’ Priya Kumar profiles MSNBC.com’s Mara Schiavocampo…

She sold her work to outlets including ABC News, National Public Radio, Current TV, Yahoo! and Ebony. In August 2007, the National Association of Black Journalists named Schiavocampo its Emerging Journalist of the Year.

The eloquence of Schiavocampo’s acceptance speech at the awards banquet and her poise on the podium caught the eye of Lyne Pitts, then a vice president at NBC. Looking at her work, Pitts thought, “This is a courageous young woman who will go anywhere to get a story that she believes in.”

NBC President Steve Capus and Wallace, who at the time was executive producer of “Nightly News,” were also impressed. In October 2007, Schiavocampo became NBC’s first digital correspondent.

Schiavocampo’s job at the network is unique. She comes up with story ideas, shoots video and still photography, edits, blogs and produces packages for the Web and television. Often her only travel companion is her guide.

Her subject matter spans everything from how Detroit citizens are coping with the struggling auto industry to lighter features like the rising popularity of cupcakes.

Her favorite story was born from her curiosity about the source of American women’s hair extensions. That question led her to a Hindu temple in India that sells the hair that religious devotees shave off. The visuals of bald women and children, colorful saris and bags of hair were perfect, she says.