WHO WE ARE
The National Trust for Local News comprises a team with diverse perspectives, expertise, and experiences from different parts of the country, generations, and ethnicities.
These backgrounds help us speak with knowledge and empathy with our stakeholders: owners of local news organizations worried about their future, digital startups looking for growth capital, academics exploring new models, investors seeking to make an impact and a return, and intermediaries looking to bring their expertise to new partnerships.
STAFF
Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, Ph.D., CEO & Co-Founder
is a Harvard Business School-trained leading expert on local news business models and organizational change.
Ross McDuffie, Chief Portfolio Officer
is a performance-focused publishing executive with more than 15 years of experience on the front lines of local news transformation.
Caroline Porter, Director of Impact & Strategic Partnerships
is a media strategist, researcher, and former staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal.
Fraser Nelson, Chief Partnerships Officer
led the historic transformation of the Salt Lake Tribune into a nonprofit newspaper.
is a social impact strategist who has spent the past decade building and advising organizations that create a more inclusive and just world.
Reshena Johnson, Operations Manager
is a dynamic operations and administrative expert with over a decade of experience helping nonprofit organizations thrive.
BOARD MEMBERS
is a co-founder of the National Trust for Local News and the founder of the Public Media Venture Group, a group of 31 public media entities operating 130 stations.
is a lifelong journalist and community servant who is President and CEO of Emerging Leaders LLC. Previously, he was a senior news executive for Gannett/USA TODAY Network, Journal Media Group and Scripps and led local newsrooms in Akron, Ohio, Evansville, Indiana and Tallahassee, Florida.
is a journalist, entrepreneur, and digital media strategist and is the chief content officer and executive vice president of WFAE, the NPR station in Charlotte.
designs, builds, and leads game-changing organizations across media, technology, financial services, and the arts. He most recently served as publisher of THE CITY and has sat on numerous boards, including National Public Radio, Texas Tribune, and New Museum of Contemporary Art.
ADVISORS
is a co-founder of the Trust and its first board chair. He also co-founded Report for America and founded the Rebuild Local News Coalition.
