Ryan L. Nave

More than 20 years ago, I was a college student with a subscription to Folio: The Magazine of Magazine Management dreaming of running my own magazine and, eventually, building a publishing empire.

Today, I'm doing it.

I've been in journalism for two decades, starting out as a beat reporter covering neighborhood and local government and later becoming an editor, newsroom leader, thought leader, coach, media consultant and strategic adviser in eight states. In my current consulting work, I get down in the trenches and roll up my sleeves with leaders of nonprofit newsrooms, journalism support organizations, startups and other media-focused companies to help them turn their visions into real working businesses.

My last full-time newsroom leadership role was as editor in chief of Reckon, where, in the middle of the pandemic, I was tasked with taking advantage of chaos and uncertainty to build a newsroom from scratch. I took a local newsroom and shaped it into a Southern, millennial-focused newsroom and then a national media company covering issues important to America's emerging majority.

Before that, I helped launch the nonprofit Mississippi Today and later became its editor in chief. I was one of the first staffers hired to start the state's first nonprofit newsroom and served as news editor running the legislative team and overseeing coverage of criminal justice and environmental issues. Long ago, I was also an editor and reporter at the Jackson (Miss.) Free Press and a staff writer for Illinois Times in the capital, Springfield.

I've also been an independent journalist and consultant, working with Serial/The New York Times, Ebony, The Root, The Source and other local and national publications. I've received dozens of state and national journalism awards. My teams have garnered local, state and national journalism awards, including the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and an Edward R. Murrow Award. I've been a fellow at Columbia University, City University of New York, the University of Colorado Boulder and Northwestern University.

I'm a past National Association of Black Journalists chapter president, frequent screener and judge for journalism awards contests, moderator, panelist and presenter. I'm a proud native of University City, St. Louis, Mo., and have a complicated relationship with my alma mater, the University of Missouri.