Michelle Faust Raghavan
founder and executive director

Michelle Faust Raghavan (they/them) is the founder and executive director of Claridad Media, a journalism consultancy that transforms relationships between newsrooms and communities. A journalism leader with more than 15 years in the nonprofit news industry, Michelle has trained journalists from more than 20 countries and specializes in community engagement.

Their award-winning reporting has influenced public discourse on critical policy issues across the United States, particularly in health care policy and social equity. At Southern California Public Radio/LAist and other public media outlets, Michelle's coverage spanned health insurance reform, vaccine policy, addiction medicine, health disparities, and elder abuse, earning recognitions that include a regional Edward R. Murrow Award and a Los Angeles Press Club award.

Professional Leadership

Michelle serves on the board of directors for the Foundation for Los Angeles Journalism and is a regular managing editor with NPR's Next Generation Radio. As the Solutions Journalism Network's former Equity Initiative Manager, they pioneered comprehensive diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies.

Michelle is a lifetime member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, where they led the design of entrepreneurship and freelance programming for the 2024 NAHJ conference, contributed to research on investigative team composition, and collaborated on national and local board election processes. Their leadership spans roles on both the NAHJ Los Angeles chapter board and the Rochester Association of Black Journalists board.

Expertise & Impact

Michelle brings bilingual proficiency in English and Spanish, with intermediate French capabilities, to their work in deep-listening strategies and participatory journalism. Their research focuses on innovative approaches to BIPOC journalist retention and newsroom culture transformation.

Education & Recognition

Michelle holds a Master's in Spanish and a Bachelor's in Journalism and Romance Languages from the University of Oregon. They’ve received competitive fellowships, including the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford (2023-2024), the Maynard 200 Fellowship (2021), and fellowships in Data and Community Engagement from the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism (2018-2019).

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