Alina Panek

Alina supports the efforts of the program team to build visibility, impact, and financial resources with place-based philanthropy in communities across the country.

Alina has a background in journalism, making her efforts in rebuilding local news a personal passion. Most recently, Alina wrote proposals, reports and stewarded grants; starting her local news development career as a Grant Writing Specialist at The GroundTruth Project supporting their Report for America and Report for the World initiatives. Prior to her nonprofit work, Alina was on the Assignment Desk for CBS 2 Chicago, planning newsroom assignments, supervising photographers and reporters, contributing with story ideas and aiding production of the newscast. She started as an Emma Bowen fellow at both, helping build the Report for America program and contributing to the investigative team at CBS.

In her free time during the early years of the pandemic, she researched her family tree and co-founded an award-winning Asian American news podcast, At the Moment, which she helped report and fact-check.

Alina is a graduate of Denison University where she won the presidential medal. She lives in Chicago, a born and raised native of the beautiful Second City.