Kelsey Ryan (GNI Fellow)

Kelsey Ryan is founder and publisher of The Beacon, a nonprofit news network serving Kansans and Missourians with newsrooms in the Kansas City metro and Wichita, Kan. In this role, Ryan created a business plan and pitched to local and national funders, raising nearly $4 million in launch funds through grants and individual giving. She developed an editorial strategy based on audience research, and has implemented operations across the organization, including editorial, business and product. Previously, Ryan worked at The Kansas City Star as a data and investigative journalist. She was on the investigative team that was named a 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Public Service for its series on government secrecy in Kansas. Ryan began her career at The Joplin (Mo.) Globe the day after an EF-5 tornado destroyed one-third of the city. She later worked at The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, covering health care and later city government and investigations. Outside of daily journalism, she’s worked in nonprofit management at the National Freedom of Information Coalition, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for government transparency and press freedom. She also worked at Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers, a journalism trade association, connecting news entrepreneurs with resources to help them grow more sustainable businesses and contributed to research on the growing digital news landscape. She’s received fellowships from Investigative Reporters & Editors, the Association for Health Care Journalists, the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Press Foundation, and was selected for the 2020 Online News Association Women’s Leadership Accelerator. She’s on the board of directors for the Kansas Sunshine Coalition for Open Government and the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), and she frequently lectures at universities across Kansas and Missouri.