Meet the CMI Director Lexi Belculfine, MBA
Lexi Belculfine (BELL-cue-fine) spent more than a decade as a digital journalist in Pennsylvania before questions about the future of journalism that sat in the intersection of product, business and leadership led her to earn an MBA. During that program, she completed a research practicum on the impact of artificial intelligence on local newsrooms in America.
Belculfine, who grew up in Beaver County, earned her undergraduate degree in print journalism at Penn State University. While there, she served as editor-in-chief of the 20,000-circulation student-run Daily Collegian, covering the Jerry Sandusky scandal and the death of Joe Paterno. While at Penn State, she also notably travelled to South Africa for an international reporting class and wrote about the tension between cage diving operators and surfers, a story that led the McClatchy newswire’s traffic for days.
She returned to Pittsburgh after graduation to work at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. While there, she covered Pittsburgh and Allegheny County governments, criminal and civil courts, and crime and breaking news for the region’s largest news organization. She also spent time as a copy editor and page designer and represented two-year associates on the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh’s executive committee.
In summer 2016, Belculfine launched The Incline, a local digital news start-up covering Pittsburgh news. There, she covered the Tree of Life massacre and the 2016 presidential election. The Incline aimed to find new business models for local journalism, including events and membership, and was committed to collaboration, including with organizations such as PolitiFact, HuffPost, Report for America, 100 Days in Appalachia, and local radio and television.
As founding editor of The Incline, she spoke at the opening of Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation. Belculfine then worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer. In roles there, she oversaw daily operations of inquirer.com and its app, led a team of digital strategists focused on audience habit, and led its newsletter suite during the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 presidential election.
Belculfine also worked at the University of Pittsburgh, developing a Public Impact framework to tell stories about and count the impact that the university has beyond staff, faculty and students. She earned her MBA at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Business.
Belculfine loves discussing digital, audience and business strategies and local news, workshopping headlines, and developing new products and experiments.
She is most proud of having spoken at SXSW, launching The Incline, climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, and being a member of the Online News Association’s Women’s Leadership Accelerator.
She lives in Ingram Borough with her fiancée and their two pitt-bull mixes, Atlas and Eros.
You may reach her at lexi.belculfine@pointpark.edu.
