Debra Jasper

Debra Jasper, Ph.D, Founder/CEO of Mindset Digital, is passionate about creating and delivering highly visual, engaging presentations and stories—both online and in person.

She and her business partner, Betsy Hubbard, Mindset’s COO/President, have provided keynotes/consulting to more than 30,000 people from Ukraine to Sweden—and as the 2012 national keynote speakers for KeyBank gave talks to thousands of business leaders in 17 cities across the country. They are also international speakers—giving keynotes to the Ukrainian Council of Ministers in Kiev, the Nordic Media Festival in Bergen, and teaching Twitter at the Schibsted Academy for Journalists in Stockholm (they really like saying they’ve taught Twitter in Sweden).

Before starting Mindset Digital, Debra and Betsy spent seven years directing the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism at Ohio State, where they launched the first social media fellowship for journalists in the nation—showing reporters from CNN, 60 Minutes, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and other top newsrooms how to tell powerful stories on the latest channels (writing engaging tweets is a whole lot harder than it looks). They also taught graduate courses in the John Glenn School of Public Affairs on the impact of digital media on public affairs.

Debra became Director of the Kiplinger Program in 2004, after working as an investigative reporter for more than a decade and covering presidential campaigns and state politics.

She won more than 40 journalism awards during her newspaper career, including 17 first-place investigative and enterprise reporting awards. As the Statehouse Bureau Chief for the Cincinnati Enquirer, she produced in-depth projects on the lack of care for mentally ill and medically fragile children, and the abuse of foster care children and people with disabilities. Debra’s work has spurred new laws, state and national reforms and numerous state audits. She has a Ph.D. from Ohio State in Educational Policy and Leadership and wrote her dissertation on the art of powerful storytelling (her dad was an amazing storyteller in the Flatwoods of Appalachia). She also has a master’s in journalism from Ohio State and a bachelor’s in journalism from Eastern Kentucky University.