I wish I had known then… (advice from a founder and executive director on building a mission-first newsroom with impact) Sarah Alvarez and Candice Fortman have worked together closely for four year...
Sarah Alvarez believes journalism should be designed as essential civic infrastructure and be responsive to the needs of all people. Before founding Outlier Media, she worked in civil rights law, social justice management and public radio. She developed Outlier’s model after years of trying to figure out how journalists could do a better job filling information gaps and increasing accountability to low-income news consumers. She launched Outlier in 2016, during her year as John S. Knight (JSK) Fellow at Stanford University. In 2021-2022 she was a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network where she investigated and wrote about the high price of electricity and electricity shut offs in Detroit.
She is a graduate of the University of Michigan, The Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and Columbia Law School. Her work has also been featured in The New York Times, ProPublica, NPR, and The Detroit Free Press. She lives in northwest Detroit with her family.