Wayne State University

Wayne State University is a nationally recognized public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, with 24,000 students across 13 schools and colleges, including the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at its Law School. The Keith Center promotes the educational, economic, and political power of underrepresented communities in urban settings, advancing civil rights through research, community networks, and investigative journalism. Through Verifying and Exposing Radio Disinformation and Discourse (VERDAD), the Keith Center equips journalists, researchers, election officials, and civil society organizations with an AI-powered platform to monitor, identify, and respond to disinformation circulating on Spanish-language and ethnic radio broadcasts across the United States. The primary beneficiaries are Spanish-speaking communities who are frequently targeted by disinformation but remain largely absent from conversations about information integrity, as well as the journalists and researchers working to make those communities' media ecosystems more visible and accountable. Success looks like a strengthened local news infrastructure in which harmful narratives targeting Latino and other underserved communities are identified in real time, countered with accurate information, and documented for public accountability.