AMAYA SHYANN MCDONALD
Amaya McDonald is an Arts & Culture multimedia journalist from New York where she earned a Master’s degree in journalism at the CUNY Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in 2023. She currently works as a freelance writer and Graphics Operator I at ESPN.
Amaya graduated from Stony Brook University in May 2022 with a Journalism B.A. and minor in Media Arts. At SBU, she served as the Arts & Culture Editor with the campus newspaper, "The Statesman," where her work focused on music and social justice issues. McDonald also served as the student representative on the Diversity Committee of the School of Communication and Journalism at SBU. Post graduation, she interned at major media entities including Hearst and Warner Bros Discovery (CNN) where her writing has been published. Amaya also has bylines in The Cut, Dancehall Mag, ARTnews and more.
McDonald has received several honors and awards for her work including a Press Club of Long Island Media Award (2022), a Hearst Journalism Award in the Multimedia Narrative Storytelling division (2022) and a “Best Editing” Award from the Stony Brook Media Council (2021). She also received a Salute to Excellence Award from the National Association of Black Journalists in 2023.