Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro is the CEO and co-founder of the National Trust for Local News, a nonprofit working with funders and communities to keep local news sustainable and in local hands. In its first transaction, the Trust worked with the Colorado Media Project, the Gates Family Foundation, the Colorado Trust, the American Journalism Project and the Colorado Sun, to acquire 24 community newspapers and place them under an innovative new structure, preserving local ownership.

She is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School. Previously, Dr. Hansen Shapiro led the news sustainability research at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and was the Research Director for the Membership Puzzle Project’s Guide to Membership.