Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro

Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro is the CEO and co-founder of the National Trust for Local News, a nonprofit dedicated to keeping local news in local hands. The National Trust for Local News conserves, transforms, and sustains community news organizations. Our mission is to keep local news in local hands by providing scaled operating capacity paired with local governance. Our transformation strategies are designed to ensure established, trusted news organizations thrive and remain deeply grounded in their communities.

From 2020 - 2022, Dr. Hansen Shapiro was a Senior Research Fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School. At the Tow Center, Dr. Hansen Shapiro’s work focused on the future of journalism in public media and public policies to support local news. She has published research on the impact of local media collaboratives; combining audience revenue and engagement strategies; the relationship between news publishers, social scientists, and social platforms; and the opportunities and challenges of funding local and single-subject news. From 2017 - 2020, Dr. Hansen Shapiro led the news sustainability research at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. She also served as the Research Director for the Membership Puzzle Project’s Guide to Membership in News. From 2016 - 2017 she was a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She received her PhD in Organizational Behavior and Sociology from Harvard Business School.