ABOUT NIKITTA FOSTON
As a veteran journalist, lecturer, and keynote speaker, Foston explores the transformative intersection of change and opportunity, through the power of STORY, for organizations, professionals, students and women.
Nikitta Foston is an award-winning speechwriter for the American Medical Association where she develops speeches and related content for the AMA president and members of the executive leadership team. In this capacity, she is the winner of a 2023 and a 2024 Cicero Speechwriting Award for excellence in speechwriting. Foston is an adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University where she teaches graduate journalism students the principles of news reporting, story development, and social media integration. With a background in teaching and health-related content, she is an enthusiastic fitness advocate and instructor for the YMCA USA.
Over the course of her career in journalism, Foston has sought pathways to tell stories that inspire and engage, through voices that elevate our awareness and expand our expectations. She is the personality behind the podcast, Pivotal Moment with Nikitta Foston, where she speaks with headliners in news, sports, and entertainment about the moment that changed it all. She is a keynote speaker, a frequent host for national events, and a moderator for panel discussions.
Foston began her professional journalism career at Ebony magazine where she covered Black culture, lifestyles, politics, entertainment and business - and penned a monthly finance column, Money Talks. For People and People.com, she covered news and entertainment from the Midwest; and at Reuters, she covered breaking news and legal issues. As a freelancer and broadcast commentator, Foston has also contributed to Essence, Upscale, 98.7 Kiss-FM and ESPN’s The Undefeated (now Andscape) among others.
Her essay, “Lessons from a Three-Year-Old” is published in the award-winning anthology, “Keeping the Faith: Stories of Love, Courage, Healing and Hope from Black America” by Tavis Smiley (Doubleday).
Prior to her current roles, she held leadership posts in executive communications at the American Health Information Management Association where she temporarily served as chief of staff and the American Osteopathic Association. She also led the public relations and social media teams for one of the largest suburban Chicago school districts. For True Star Media, Foston worked as a journalism instructor for college-bound students, described as “one of the most rewarding opportunities to influence young writers,” she says. For corporate leaders and industry executives, she offers media training through her company, Pivotal Moment Media.
Foston obtained an undergraduate degree in marketing from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a master of science degree in journalism from Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism where she received the Marcus J. Lowes Memorial Scholarship. She resides in the suburbs of Chicago where she is working on her first book.