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Meet the 6 nominees for LION Publishers’ 2026 Community Member of the Year Award

LION members: Cast your vote by midnight on May 29.

May 13, 2026 by Natalie Van Hoozer

Voting is now open for LION members to recognize a peer who exemplifies our core values as LION’s 2026 Community Member of the Year. This person routinely goes above and beyond to support, acknowledge, and celebrate their fellow news entrepreneurs. They are dedicated to building a sustainable news business and helping others do the same.

As part of our eighth annual LION Sustainability Awards, LION members nominated their peers, and the finalists and winner will be determined by membership-wide vote. We’re accepting ballots now; the deadline to cast your vote is Friday, May 29, at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Voting guidelines:

One vote, for one candidate, is allowed per news business. Please coordinate with your colleagues to determine who will submit your organization’s vote.
You need to be an active LION member to vote. If you’re not on our list of active LION members, please email membership@lionpublishers.com. We’re ready to help answer any questions about your current membership status.

The three nominees with the most peer votes will become finalists for the award, and the winner will be announced during the Independent News Sustainability Summit in San Diego, California, on September 9, 2026.

Steps to cast your vote:

Create an account on the LION Awards platform or use your existing account.
Click on “Judge.”
Select “Vote” underneath the name and photo of the nominee you’d like to vote for.
That’s it! When you see the “+1” under your desired candidate, your vote is submitted, and you can exit the voting page.
To change your vote, you can unclick your selected nominee and click “Vote” on your preferred nominee.

CAST YOUR VOTE

The nominees are:

Nominations edited for length and clarity.

Claudia Yaujar-Amaro

Founder, Planeta Venus (Wichita, KS)

From the nomination: Claudia Amaro is a superstar, and she doesn’t use her superpowers only to support her community in Wichita, Kansas. She is an inspiration to others. As an RJI fellow, she developed tools to help journalists better cover the immigration beat. As an Altavoz Lab fellow, she created a guide to connect bilingual communities to vital health resources.

Claudia has been a cheerleader and listener to other solopreneurs in the Spanish-language ecosystem; she has raised her voice in spaces where this group is not often heard. She shows up with warmth, care, and strength. Two years ago, she was a formidable Spanish-language ambassador for LION.

Dana Amihere

Founder & Executive Director, AfroLA (Los Angeles, CA)

From the nomination: Dana Amihere is the founder and executive director of AfroLA, a nonprofit newsroom covering Los Angeles through the lens of the Black community, with a focus on how news may disparately impact the city’s most vulnerable groups and communities of color. She built it from scratch and embodies every quality this award recognizes.

Dana is a visible and generous presence in the broader news entrepreneurship community. She spoke at the LION’s 2024 Independent News Sustainability Summit on AI and local news, and has presented at IRE, SRCCON, AEJMC, and international data journalism conferences, consistently sharing what she’s learned rather than keeping it close.

She has also co-developed tools for the wider field: DigInThere, a free audience engagement tool for news publishers, reflects her instinct to build things that help other newsrooms, not just her own.

Garry Pierre-Pierre

Founder, The Haitian Times (Brooklyn, NY)

From the nomination: I had the privilege of working alongside Garry Pierre-Pierre through a LION coaching program, and the experience fundamentally changed how I approach my work as an independent journalist and media founder.

What made it remarkable was the generosity behind it. The Haitian Times and my publication serve largely the same community — the Haitian diaspora in the United States. Garry had every reason to be guarded. Instead, he gave fully: sharing institutional knowledge, editorial guidance, and the kind of honest, practical support that is rare in this industry, let alone between outlets that could be considered competitors.

That reflects something deeper than professional courtesy. It speaks to Garry’s belief that strong independent media serving the Haitian community is not a zero-sum competition — it is a shared mission. His investment in other newsrooms makes the entire ecosystem stronger.

John Adams

Founder & Executive Director, Montana Free Press (Helena, MT)

From the nomination: Last year, I got a call from my friend John Adams, the founder and executive director of Montana Free Press. He wanted to enlist my involvement on the steering committee for an idea to raise awareness about the importance of local journalism. The result? This year’s inaugural Local News Day, which galvanized more than 1,200 newsrooms, nearly 200 partners, and 14 sponsors in a collective call to action.

It’s hard to get people to collaborate in one newsroom. But John managed to achieve this task with thousands of newsrooms.

This is just one (albeit huge) example of John’s entrepreneurial drive and communal spirit that also underpins LION’s core values. Over the last ten years, John has openly shared his experiences and insights in the nonprofit news space, fostering a sense of community and shared mission around solving the challenges that come with creating and maintaining a sustainable news organization.

Mia Warren

Managing Director, Feet in 2 Worlds (New York, NY)

From the nomination: Mia Warren of Feet in 2 Worlds has been not only a friend, but also a mentor and a steadfast ally to immigrant‑focused newsrooms and journalists within the LION community.

Mia has used her role at Feet in 2 Worlds and her experience as a LION Publishers Community Ambassador to create space, support, and practical guidance for immigrant news leaders. She has facilitated peer‑learning groups and mentorship opportunities that help smaller outlets navigate fundraising, storytelling, and sustainability, directly strengthening the ecosystem LION seeks to build.

What makes Mia stand out is that she shows up as a real collaborator — someone who listens, shares resources, and lifts up others’ work without ego. She has been a consistent ally to leaders like me, offering honest feedback, strategic advice, and emotional support, all while modeling how to center immigrant voices in our journalism. Because of that, she doesn’t just help one newsroom; she strengthens the whole LION community by nurturing relationships that last beyond grants or programs.

Valeria Fernández

Executive Director (CEO), Altavoz Lab, Inc. (Phoenix, AZ)

From the nomination: Valeria Fernández embodies LION’s values in every way that she approaches her work — both at Altavoz Lab and in the larger LION community. In Valeria’s dealings with others, she is warm, effusive, and helpful. I think of Valeria as a connector — she is always building relationships and partnerships that are strategic and beneficial for all stakeholders. As the leader of Altavoz Lab, she is investing in community-powered journalism through a unique fellowship model that strengthens individual journalists’ skills and builds a pipeline of talent that serves us all. Valeria is also open-minded and iterative; she’s constantly testing out new ways to reach her audience and produce excellent journalism.

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