Women have always worked hard. From unpaid domestic labor to civil rights advocacy, the work of women in our past and present is key to the shaping of our communities.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, we introduce 8 women from the Indiegraf network whose powerful work brings a new dimension to community journalism. Women who found clear representation and information gaps and rolled up their sleeves to do their part for democracy — just like the women of the past once did.
Today, we invite you to follow and support their work. May this roundup inspire you to amplify the voices of the hardworking women in your own communities.
Eden Fineday is the publisher and Business Aunty at IndigiNews, a digital outlet that platforms Indigenous voices and perspectives, while contributing to the long-term sustainability of independent Indigenous-led media.
Eden is a nehiyaw (Cree) artist from the Sweetgrass First Nation in Treaty 6 territory. She’s a songwriter, storyteller, mother, enthusiastic supporter of her community, and a lover of spreadsheets. She is passionate about language revitalization and her Indigenous identity, and endeavours to be a good relation as an uninvited guest on the territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqeum), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Peoples.
- Read more about Eden Fineday.
- Connect with Eden on Twitter and LinkedIn.
- Listen to Eden’s music on Bandcamp.
Colleen Hagerty is the journalist behind My World’s On Fire, a free email dispatch to help expand people’s understanding of disasters through deep-dives, Q&As, and exclusive interviews.
As a journalist, she has covered extreme weather-related disasters in the US for outlets including BBC News, NY1, and Vox. Her journalism aims to expand understanding of how disasters happen, the systems built to prevent and address them, and the many ways communities are impacted in the long-term. She created My World’s On Fire to share important stories not covered elsewhere and to make sure information is free-to-access for anyone who needs it.
- Read more about Colleen Hagerty.
- Connect with Colleen on Twitter and LinkedIn.
- Check out more of Colleen’s work.
Kelly-Anne Riess is the founder of The Flatlander, an online journalism project that covers Manitoba and Saskatchewan striving to make civic and societal issues that impact the Canadian Prairies more comprehensible.
She is a prolific writer, filmmaker and poet. Her professional peers may prefer to be based in large urban areas, but Kelly believes the best stories are found outside of big cities. Therefore most of her career has been spent working in Canada’s North and on the prairies. It’s there she digs up tales that wouldn’t normally reach a national audience.
- Read more about Kelly-Anne Riess.
- Connect with Kelly on Twitter and LinkedIn.
- Watch Kelly’s Lost Stories documentary, Yee Clun and the Exchange Café.
Dana James is the founder and publisher of Black Iowa News, a digital news platform based in Des Moines designed to showcase the Black community, amplify Black voices and contribute to an informed Black community.
She is an award-winning writer and former Des Moines Register reporter with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from Grand View University. Born and raised in Des Moines, Dana is vice president of the Iowa Association of Black Journalists. Dana and her husband are big University of North Carolina fans and got married in Hillsborough, North Carolina. She collects Black Panther figures and enjoys watching foreign language series and films on her spare time.
- Connect with Dana on LinkedIn.
- Listen to Being Heard: 2 Black Women, Coffee & Conversations with Dana and Lya Williams.
Brandi Schier is the CEO of Discourse Community Publishing, leading a growing network of independent news outlets including The Discourse, The Wren, Sun Peaks Independent News and IndigiNews.
Throughout her career as a community news publisher in the Interior, Brandi has learned people want to see independent, in-depth, solutions-focused local news. She is dedicated to living and learning new journalism models and bringing a solutions-based outlook to community news. While her work may now include other areas of B.C., her home and heart are located in Sun Peaks, the resort community that launched her as a publisher. She is also a sessional journalism instructor at Thompson Rivers University.
- Read more about Brandi’s work with Sun Peaks Independent News.
- Connect with Brandi on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Annelise Pierce is the solopreneur behind Shasta Scout, a non-profit, independent, civic news service focused on the diverse and investigative stories of California’s North State.
Her background in community development helps guide her non-traditional approach to both journalism and the process of building a news service. She seeks to center her work on an unfailing commitment to ethics and trust building that disregards traditional media’s focus on balance and objectivity.
Annelise feels she and other women in the media industry are uniquely positioned to strengthen American democracy by rebuilding trust in local news, one source, one story, and one innovative business decision at a time.
- Read how Annelise shares her personal story to strengthen trust.
- Connect with Annelise on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Nancy Flores is the editor and publisher behind Austin Vida, an outlet that amplifies, informs, and celebrates the Latinidad of its local community with culturally-competent news that centers Latino voices.
Nancy is an award-winning bilingual journalist that specializes in Latino cultural content and coverage of underrepresented Central Texas communities. She is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants, a past board member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the founder of Cultura Media, Austin Vida’s umbrella organization. Nancy grew up in the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, and loves pan dulce and naranjadas.
- Read more about Nancy Flores and her role in Austin Vida’s history.
- Connect with Nancy on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Megan Raposa is the publisher behind Sioux Falls Simplified, a digital outlet with the goal of making it easy to feel smart about the forces that shape her hometown.
She is an award-winning journalist and a millennial who still enjoys reading the Sunday paper now and again. A lifelong South Dakotan, she knows Sioux Falls well as both a resident and a longtime journalist, most recently as an editor for the Sioux Falls Argus Leader newspaper. When she’s not writing bite-sized, bullet-pointed, hyperlocal news, she’s probably chasing around her almost-3-year-old or cuddling her newborn. (Yes, Sioux Falls Simplified is essentially her middle child!)
