From the Editor: Looking Ahead and Growing our Team

We have some exciting announcements to share about Proximate Press.

Over the past three years, Proximate has published 250 stories and built a readership across 100+ countries, exploring how resources move in philanthropy, global development, and the broader social sector. We’re now adding new leadership and team capacity to support the next phase of that work.

‍Welcoming Lina Srivastava as Interim Executive Director

First, I'm excited to share that Lina Srivastava has joined Proximate as our Interim Executive Director.

Lina is the founder and director of the Center for Transformational Change, a social enterprise that specializes in narrative infrastructure, collective leadership, and community-led governance. She has more than two decades of experience helping organizations rethink power, narrative, and systems. For instance: just last year, Lina launched a podcast with The New Humanitarian called Power Shift, as an experiment in dialogue featuring 1-1 conversations between aid recipients and the people who funded them.

In her role with Proximate, Lina will help define what we become next: shaping our operating model, editorial direction, and long-term architecture. She will do this while continuing to lead CfTC full-time, and will bring CfTC’s resources to her role at Proximate. 

As for me: I’ll be moving to a strategic advisory role as Lina takes over the day-to-day. I've also started a new job – I’m building something new, reach out on LinkedIn if you want to hear more.

^‍Welcoming MacKenzie Bills as Managing Director, Community-Led Development

I’m also excited to share that MacKenzie Bills has joined our team and will lead Proximate’s emerging work stream on community-led development.

MacKenzie most recently served as the Philanthropy Lead at USAID, where she gained a systems-level perspective on the relationship between philanthropy and global development at a moment of great change. Her previous experience spans across roles at the U.S. State Department and the largest coalition of CDFI's in the United States. In 2022, MacKenzie ran for the state house in Iowa, advocating for the working class and policies to support strong and thriving communities. 

In her role with Proximate, MacKenzie will work with other team members like Isabelle Clérié to shape a year-long editorial campaign and series of global convenings that survey the growing practice of community-led development. We're interested exploring what’s working on the ground, and connecting funders and practitioners to uncover insights that can inform philanthropic and policy decision-making.

Hiring an Editorial Strategy Advisor

Finally, we’re also growing our editorial capacity as Proximate enters its next phase. We've just put out an RFP for an Editorial Strategy Advisor to help shape how our editorial work evolves in 2026 and beyond. This is a three-month, contract role designed to support a period of experimentation and evolution.

The Advisor will work closely with our team to help define priorities, refine formats, and guide how our journalism adapts to this moment. This role will play a central part in testing new storytelling and distribution approaches – from incubating new series and collaborations to exploring fresh ways of elevating voices from the frontlines.

If you or someone you know might be a fit, please check out the RFP.

How you can help

All of this work – new leadership, new models, new experiments – requires resources. We’re actively fundraising to support this next phase of Proximate – seeking grants to support our general operating budget, and partners to underwrite specific series and projects.

We’ve put together a short deck that lays out what we’re building and why it matters. Reach out if you'd like to learn more: you can reach me directly at ben@proximate.press.