Mission Local, a pioneering, award-winning nonprofit news organization in San Francisco, has added three new members to its board of directors: Jeanne Carstensen, Nicola Miner and Nate Olivarez-Giles.
Together, the new board members bring decades of experience in journalism, nonprofit leadership, public service, and storytelling. They will help strengthen Mission Local’s governance as it expands to more neighborhoods across San Francisco.
Jeanne Carstensen is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The World, The Nation, Salon, Nautilus and The Global Post, among other outlets. She previously served as managing editor of Salon and The Bay Citizen, which produced the Bay Area pages of The New York Times.
Her book, “A Greek Tragedy: One Day, A Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis,” was published by Simon & Schuster/One Signal Publishers in March 2025. Born in Portland, Oregon, Carstensen has lived in France, Greece, and Costa Rica, where she worked as a shortwave radio producer and translator. She now lives in San Francisco.
Nicola Miner is the co-founder of the Miner Anderson Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advances social justice and equal opportunity in San Francisco and throughout the United States.
A former community college professor, she taught writing at City College of San Francisco, the College of San Mateo, and Berkeley City College. Miner currently serves on the board of the Presidio Trust, is vice-chair of the California Arts Council, and is a member of the Arion Press board.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Brown University, a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in English literature from Mills College. She lives in San Francisco.
Nate Olivarez-Giles is a writer and editor with extensive experience across journalism, technology and digital media. He spent seven years at Apple as the App Store’s first tech and innovation editor, and later as an editor for the Fitness+ editorial team. Earlier, he served as an assistant news editor for technology at The Wall Street Journal.
His career includes roles at The Verge, the Los Angeles Times, and Wired, as well as video production work for both the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in fiction writing at the University of San Francisco and is a member of The Writers Grotto.
A former board member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Olivarez-Giles has built, launched and grown digital media products and is known for combining storytelling, empathy and editorial rigor across platforms. He lives in Oakland and works in the Mission District.
“We are honored that Jeanne, Nicola and Nate want to offer their expertise and time to Mission Local,” said Frances Dinkelspiel, the chair of the board. “They have deep roots in the world of journalism and nonprofit leadership, skills that are critical as Mission Local grows and expands into even more San Francisco neighborhoods.”
In 2025, Mission Local also bade goodbye and thank you to two of its inaugural board members: Martin Baron, the former executive editor of the Washington Post, and Geeta Anand, the editor-in-chief of VT Digger and former dean of the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
The board reelected Joe DeRisi, president of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and professor in the department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco; Andrea Valencia, an interpreter, translator and co-founder of Linguaficient, a language services provider specializing in language access and cultural competency; and Elizabeth Zitrin, a lawyer with an enduring interest in criminal justice and death penalty issues.
About Mission Local
Founded in 2008, Mission Local is an independent nonprofit newsroom dedicated to high-impact, community-centered journalism in San Francisco. The publication covers neighborhood news, accountability reporting, housing, public safety, education, and culture, with a focus on the communities too often overlooked by traditional media. Mission Local’s reporting has earned regional and national recognition for its depth, integrity, and public service.
