Chris Krewson was most recently the vice president of strategy for Spirited Media, which was the parent company of three independent news sites: Billy Penn, The Incline and Denverite. He was the founding editor when Billy Penn launched in 2014. Prior to his five years at Spirited Media, Krewson was the top digital editor at both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. He is also the former executive online editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, and held a variety of digital roles at The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa. He started his career as a reporter at the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa.. He lives outside Philadelphia with his wife, children, dogs, cat and goldfish.
Phayvanh Luekhamhan was most recently VTDigger’s associate publisher. She was previously the executive director for Montpelier Alive, Montpelier’s non-profit downtown revitalization organization, where she increased the organization’s public profile with coordinated marketing and promotional efforts that contributed to successful fundraising campaigns. Her work on Montpelier Art Walk, PoemCity and Capital City Cash earned awards from the Vermont Downtown & Village Centers Program. She is co-founder of PoemCity and serves as its Vermont state coordinator. She has received non-profit training from Marlboro College and Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP). A life-long Vermonter, she lives in Barre.
Anika Anand was most recently the cofounder of The Evergrey, and the storytelling and product director of WhereBy.Us, parent company of The Evergrey. She was the engagement editor for The Seattle Times Education Lab, when she also helped produce Under Our Skin, a project exploring words we use to talk about race that won multiple awards, including a 2017 Online Journalism Award in Explanatory Reporting. Before that, she was the product and engagement director at Chalkbeat and led the development of a WordPress plugin to track journalistic impact. She has a bachelor’s in journalism from UNC-Chapel Hill and a master’s in business and economics reporting from the CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. She was named one of the 50 most influential women in Seattle by Seattle Met Magazine and participated in the Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media. Originally from North Carolina, she lives in Seattle with her husband and son.
Kelsey Ryanis LION’s membership and communications manager. She’s also the founder/publisher of The Beacon, a nonprofit news organization in Kansas City, Missouri, focused on in-depth, regional public interest journalism. The Beacon is also a LION member. While working to launch The Beacon, Kelsey worked full-time as the outreach manager for the National Freedom of Information Coalition, a nonprofit alliance of state coalitions promoting free press, litigation and legislative reforms to ensure transparency in state and local governments. Previously, Kelsey worked as a data and investigative reporter at The Kansas City Star, where her team was a finalist for thePulitzer Prize, and before that, a data journalist at The Wichita Eagle and an education reporter at The Joplin Globe. Kelsey is on the board of directors for the Kansas Sunshine Coalition for Open Government, a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), and part of the 2020 cohort of theOnline News Association’s Women Leadership Accelerator. She frequently lectures at universities across Kansas and Missouri.