Local News, Local Impact Event

Steve Goldstein served as an award-winning public radio host and reporter in Phoenix for 25 years. His work featured discussions about various topics, including politics, education, arts and culture, and the environment. He currently hosts The Press Room, a weekly TV and radio news and public affairs program on AZPM in Tucson. In addition, Goldstein has been a regular on-camera contributor to Arizona Horizon, Arizona PBS’s nightly public affairs program. Goldstein has also moderated numerous congressional and statewide debates and has worked with the Center for the Future of Arizona and Clean Elections. He is almost an Arizona native, having moved to the state with his family as a four-year-old.

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.

Liliana López-Ruelas is a bicultural borderlands journalist and mother of two, born in Douglas, Arizona, and raised in Agua Prieta, Sonora. She recently earned her M.A. in Bilingual Journalism from the University of Arizona and founded Somos Tucson, a Spanish-language digital media outlet serving immigrant communities. Liliana spent a decade working in political and business media in Mexico City, including as editor-in-chief of the official magazine of a national political party. She later spent 12 years at the Arizona Daily Star, serving as editor of La Estrella de Tucson and the Star’s Hispanic Community Engagement Editor. She co-founded a family business and leads Aliados, a grassroots network of Latino entrepreneurs focused on financial education and community connection. Her mission as a journalist is to create, facilitate, and uplift useful, community-centered journalism that serves the rich and diverse Spanish-speaking communities of Tucson and Southern Arizona.