Local News, Local Impact Event

Silvia Rivera serves as the Director of the Local News portfolio at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She leads the Foundation’s latest Big Bet and is a member of Press Forward’s management committee. Silvia brings over twenty years of experience in journalism, cultural expression, public media, and civic engagement to her role. Prior to her current position, she worked at Listening Post Collective and Chicago Public Media. Silvia began her career as a youth journalism apprentice at Radio Arte, a community radio station that served the Latine community, and where she eventually became General Manager. Silvia earned her Bachelor of Arts in Media Management from Columbia College Chicago.

Christina Shih is the associate director of Press Forward. Previously, Shih served as the senior vice president of revenue at the News Revenue Hub, where she was instrumental in helping the organization grow from a pilot project into a multimillion-dollar mission-driven operation that has helped newsrooms across the country launch membership programs. From 2017 to 2022, she served as a lead partner on NewsMatch by helping to develop training and campaign toolkits and coach individual newsrooms on fundraising strategies. Prior to launching the News Revenue Hub, Shih oversaw the membership and events program at Voice of San Diego. She helped implement digital marketing strategies that increased the member base, deepened relationships with readers, and established VOSD as a model for other newsrooms across the country. In collaboration with the newsroom and community partners, she helped plan events and developed products that augmented editorial coverage, including the Politifest public affairs conference and A Parent’s Guide to San Diego Schools. Shih is a San Diego native and holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of Washington and an executive M.B.A. from the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego. She is a member of the Asian American Journalism Association and a graduate of its Executive Leadership Program.