Keiona Williamson

Keiona Williamson is the co-founder of DRIP, a former espresso cafe in Sacramento that served as a hub for civic engagement, driving participation in local democracy from its community of customers.

Keiona began her career in journalism as the executive assistant to the Publisher of The New York Times Sunday Magazine, where she worked on the advertising and expanded distribution strategy for The 1619 Project. She went on to establish The Equity Lab, a first-of-its-kind initiative for The Sacramento Bee, aimed at diversifying the paper’s historically white, wealthy audience. As a Sacramento native, Keiona remains committed to finding solutions to the Central Valley’s challenges with news deserts and mainstream outlets that fail to meet the needs of the region’s rapidly diversifying communities.

She now focuses on capacity building, programmatic strategy, and technical assistance for philanthropy, government, and corporate collaborators investing in journalism as part of her work with the James B. McClatchy Foundation.

Keiona is featured in JBMF’s Sunrise Futures: Moving Towards Liberation series spotlighting extraordinary Central Valley leaders.

See Keiona’s full story.