Kyra Kyles

Kyra Kyles has spent over 20 years in the media industry, with a consistent emphasis on equity and representation and an impressive track record of expanding young, multicultural audiences and leading sustainable organizational growth. As CEO of YR Media, she has expanded the nearly 30-year-old organization to a new market, Chicago, and continues to work with the YR team to deepen and expand both platforms and supports for majority BIPOC 14-to-24 year old content creators in the Oakland headquarters, the newly established Midwest hub, and across the nation.
Prior to joining YR Media, Kyra served as Field Foundation’s inaugural Program Officer of Media and Storytelling, she managed a groundbreaking equity-focused journalism and documentary filmmaking fund, the first of its kind in the organization’s history. Before joining the Field Foundation, she led both the iconic EBONY and JET brands as Editor-in-Chief and Senior Vice President of Digital Editorial, where she expanded audiences, created new revenue streams, and scaled up operations, including establishing a Los Angeles office and an in-house branded and original content studio.
Kyra also worked at the Chicago Tribune for six years, where she was recruited specifically to attract and energize young audiences via its millennial-focused RedEye brand. In addition to achieving this, she increased the Tribune’s multicultural coverage and gained recognition as a digital pioneer, print reporter, blogger, on-air personality, and well-known pundit with her own TV segment, “The Kyles Files” on WGN-TV.
Among her volunteer activities, Kyra served as two-time President of the award-winning National Association of Black Journalists-Chicago where she built a mentorship program connecting students and working members of the media. Kyra is an elected member of the Board of Directors for the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) and was recently selected as a Fellow for LeaderSpring’s LeadStrong cohort.