Ariel Zirulnick is a journalist with a passion for community engagement and sustainable journalism. She is currently serving as the senior editor for community engagement at KPCC and LAist in Los Angeles. Ariel previously led the Membership in News Fund as the fund director, an effort by New York University and the Media Development Investment Fund to encourage global experimentation with membership as a source of sustainable revenue and impact for independent journalism. Ariel has also worked as the director of The New Tropic, a local media startup that helps Miamians connect to, understand, and explore their city through a daily newsletter, storytelling, and events. She has been widely published in prominent publications, including the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Independent, Foreign Policy, and Quartz, as a freelance foreign correspondent based in Nairobi.