Mili Mansaray

Mili Mansaray is a Sierra Leonean-American journalist from Columbia, South Carolina. She earned her bachelor's degree in digital journalism, Africana studies, and Spanish from New York University in 2020. That same year, she was selected for the Dow Jones News Fund’s business reporting internship program.

Since graduating, Mili has freelanced for a range of publications, covering topics from interior design to housing insecurity, racial segregation, and voter rights. In 2022, she joined The Kansas City Beacon, where she spent three years reporting on housing and labor. Her work focused on contextual and solutions-oriented journalism that shed light on issues affecting Kansas City’s diverse communities — including the crisis of missing Black women, the challenges families face when filing missing persons reports with the KCPD, and the lack of shelter resources for unhoused people in Kansas City.

Mili now serves as the Editor & Director of Radical Media Initiatives at The Kansas City Defender. In this role, she is committed to amplifying the voices of marginalized and underrepresented communities through colorful, engaging storytelling that drives meaningful, real-world change.