The innovative cross-sector social change leader joins City Bureau in an exciting moment of growth and evolution
By Harry Backlund and Bettina Chang, Co-founders
We’re thrilled to share the news today that after a thorough and reflective search process City Bureau is welcoming Morgan Malone as our new Executive Director!
City Bureau is entering an exciting year and I’m so thrilled to be here! Throughout my career, I’ve been guided by considering who I want to be as a thoughtful and intentional neighbor, and City Bureau’s values around community collaboration resonate so strongly for me. I’ve long been a fan—I attended my first Public Newsroom in 2019 and have deep respect for City Bureau’s approach to programming. At a pivotal moment for democracy, we’re ready to both act locally and support a national infrastructure for civic participation through the Documenters Network. I’m so excited to build alongside the team and all of our community partners.
Morgan Malone, City Bureau Executive Director
When we embarked with our board on this Executive Director search last fall, we set out to find a leader who could both continue our commitment to community-led innovation and infuse new perspective and energy for our next phase. We knew we were looking for a collaborative leader who could help our team think big about the crisis in local journalism and democracy and the impact City Bureau is positioned to make. We asked our staff to pause and help create the job description, and a few criteria came up consistently: “a communicator who can carry the message of our work"; someone who “sees three to five years down the line” and “is able to vision growth and stability at the same time.” We’re thrilled to have found that leader in Morgan. Along with a deep understanding of City Bureau’s work, Morgan brings an incredible ability to focus, operationalize, and build relationships around our ambitious mission. Her experience resonates so strongly with City Bureau’s approach to our programs: she’s been a community organizer, a local government official, and has designed and managed participatory processes to move massive projects forward. Our entire hiring committee was energized by Morgan’s passion for this work from her very first interview.
We’re thrilled to welcome Morgan Malone as our new Executive Director. We set out to find a leader with a personal relationship to our mission, responsive and accountable leadership skills, experience developing and implementing strategy that achieves systemic change, and stellar communication and presentation skills. Morgan brings all that along with extensive understanding of the inner workings of civic institutions. Her strategic vision and commitment to inclusive processes make her the ideal leader to guide City Bureau’s next era of impact.
Sheila Solomon, City Bureau Board Chair
Our decision to hire our first singular Executive Director comes as part of broader shifts for City Bureau, as our programs and the networks we support expand in complexity and scale, and as our staff grows to support them. Back in September 2023, we reflected as co-founders on what we’d learned from eight years of co-leadership and what kind of leadership City Bureau needed in its next phase. Since launching our first programs in 2016 as an all-volunteer organization, City Bureau has always been focused on a bold vision for structural change: reimagining journalism as an accessible civic act and a tool for building community power. City Bureau’s Documenters Network—which began with our own program in Chicago—has evolved into a national network of Documenters programs run by local partners in 15 cities and towns around the U.S. And this is only the very beginning. At a pivotal moment for democracy, we’re poised to scale proven structures of genuine civic participation. To guide that evolution, we knew we needed a collaborative and focused leader ready to implement our trusted model on a broader scale. Morgan’s experience co-creating programs with communities is such a strong match for that work.
You’ll be hearing directly from Morgan here as she sets the vision for City Bureau and shares what we learn along the way. We’re so glad she’s leading City Bureau, and we can’t wait for the work ahead.
P.S. Please join us for a Welcome Party to meet Morgan in Chicago and learn about taking action! Save the date of February 29, 2024 at 5:30pm. More details to follow soon.