North Carolina Local News Lab Fund Announces Cierra Brown Hinton as New Director
Visionary leader with deep roots in North Carolina’s local news and information ecosystem to lead Fund
June 2, 2026 — The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund has named Cierra Brown Hinton as its next Fund Director. Brown Hinton will assume the role on July 7, 2026, succeeding Lizzy Hazeltine, who has led the Fund for the past seven years. Brown Hinton was selected for the role following a national search led by the Fund’s advisory board.
“Cierra Brown Hinton is a skilled leader and trusted partner whose work has shaped the North Carolina and national news landscape,” said Teresa Gorman, Board Chair of the NC Local News Lab Fund and Associate Director at Democracy Fund. “She combines strategic vision with a deep, critical understanding of what this ecosystem needs — and she leads with values that put communities first. We are confident in what her leadership will mean for the Fund’s mission and the people it serves.”
Cierra Brown Hinton is a nationally recognized strategist, fundraiser, and movement infrastructure builder working at the intersection of media, philanthropy, and social change. A North Carolina native from Reidsville and living in Durham, she has dedicated her career to helping mission-driven organizations grow sustainably — without losing the clarity, creativity, or community accountability that make them matter in the first place.
Most recently, as the Development Director at Blue Engine Collaborative, Brown Hinton coached newsrooms across the country on fundraising strategy, revenue diversification, and long-term sustainability. She is also a strategist at the Southern Power Fund, a growing movement infrastructure project working to raise and redistribute $100 million for Southern movement work, where she helps shape the project’s vision, narrative and donor strategy, governance development, and ecosystem partnerships. Brown Hinton is the Board Chair of LION Publishers, the national membership organization for local independent digital news outlets.
Prior to that, Brown Hinton served as the Executive Director-Publisher at Scalawag, a Southern, Black-led, abolitionist media organization reporting with communities across the South on race, power, culture, and liberation. In that role, she led the organization's business and operational development — building the revenue infrastructure, governance systems, and organizational capacity that allowed Scalawag to grow into a nationally recognized institution.
“I've sat on many sides of this work: inside a newsroom, alongside news organizations as a coach, and in rooms where funding decisions get made. What I've carried through all of it is a conviction that this work is about more than journalism. It's about whether communities have the infrastructure they need to understand their world, organize around what matters, and hold power accountable — and whether the people and organizations doing that work can survive and grow.” said Cierra Brown Hinton, incoming Director of the NC Local News Lab Fund. “For nearly a decade, the NC Local News Lab Fund has been building a news and information ecosystem rooted in communities and built to last. I'm deeply committed to carrying that work forward, in the state I call home, at a moment when it couldn't matter more.”
In her role as Fund Director, Brown Hinton will lead the Fund’s strategic vision and translate it into action, mobilizing funders and partners around local news and information that serves North Carolina communities. Hazeltine will remain through the summer as a senior advisor, working under Brown Hinton’s leadership to support the Fund's continued momentum.
“Cierra has a proven track record as a leader, coach, fundraiser, and trusted partner to both news organizations and funders” said Lizzy Hazeltine, founding Director of the NC Local News Lab Fund. “I could not be more excited for the Fund’s future under her leadership. Our mission to make sure that everyone in North Carolina can find, trust, and use the information they need to thrive is in excellent hands at a critical time.”
The NC Local News Lab Fund’s grantmaking to North Carolina’s newsrooms, community organizations, and trusted communicators continues in full force — with a proven model of impact, strong systems, and an unwavering commitment to North Carolina’s communities.
Contact: info@nclocalnews.org.
About the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund
The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund is a pooled fund established in 2017 to build a resilient news and information network that serves all of North Carolina. The Fund invests in a diverse range of news and community organizations so that everyone in North Carolina can find, trust, and use the information they need to thrive. As the home of Press Forward's local chapters in North Carolina, the Fund also deepens ongoing partnerships with regional and national funders while continuing to advance the vision of informed, connected, and thriving communities across the state. The Fund was founded by a group of local and national funders at the North Carolina Community Foundation and is now housed at NEO Philanthropy.
For more information about the Fund and its partners, approach, and impact, visit nclocalnews.org and sign up for their newsletter.