Mila Sanina served from 2016-2021 as the executive director of PublicSource, a nonprofit, non-partisan newsroom delivering public-service journalism in the Pittsburgh region at publicsource.org. Under Mila’s leadership, PublicSource has been billed as a convener, an innovative newsroom which is known for its deep local reporting on issues of environment, police accountability, local government, education and economic development.

Under Mila’s leadership, PublicSource tripled its newsroom size, increased its audience exponentially, generated solid financial support, founded its membership program, has won many state and national honors for its journalism.

Before joining PublicSource, Mila worked for five years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette where her last position was the deputy managing editor. In that role, she led innovation in storytelling and integration of print and online operations. Before joining the Post-Gazette, Mila worked at The PBS Newshour and CNN International. She started her reporting career in Central Asia. A native of Almaty, Kazakhstan, Mila holds a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor’s degree from the American University in Bulgaria. In 2018, Mila was one of two recipients of the Emerging Leader Award from the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership at the University of Pittsburgh and was featured in Pittsburgh Magazine’s list of 40 Under 40 in 2017. In 2020, Mila has been part of the prestigious Media Transformation Challenge program at Poynter (formerly known as Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program). She is a local journalism enthusiast and a fan of Mikhail Bulgakov.