Irene McKisson is the co-founder and Executive Director of AZ Luminaria, a nonprofit news organization that connects Arizonans to information and each other to make change in their communities launching in 2022. She spent 18 years in local news at the Arizona Daily Star where she was most recently the co-founder and editor of #ThisIsTucson — a digital vertical experimenting with audience development and digital revenue. She is a past ONA speaker; a participant in Google News Initiative programs including the Google Audience Lab and GNI Innovation Challenge; and among the recipients of a 2019 Tow Center for Digital Journalism research grant. She has been an adjunct instructor at the University of Arizona for six years teaching editing.