AAJA’s governing board voted to approve Mi-Ai Parrish as board representative to UNITY, replacing Tomoko Hosaka.
Mi-Ai Parrish joined Republic Media as president and publisher of The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com in October 2015. She came to The Republic from The Kansas City Star Media Company, where she was president and publisher of The Kansas City Star and kansascity.com from June 2011 to October 2015. She also was president and publisher of The Idaho Statesman for five years before serving at The Star.
Prior to becoming a publisher, Parrish spent the majority of her career in newsroom roles ranging from reporting and copy editing, to travel editor and projects editor. Parrish served at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, The Arizona Republic, Chicago Sun-Times and The Virginian-Pilot.
Parrish serves on the boards of the Great Phoenix Economic Council and Greater Phoenix Leadership. She was The Star’s first female publisher, where she served on the boards of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, Kansas City Area Development Council and The Civic Council. She also was a co-chair for KC Rising, a regional development initiative, as well as a United Way business council member.
She’s done a variety of speaking engagements, ranging from the convocation at ASU’s Cronkite School of Journalism to presentations at Sprint’s Global Diversity initiative, the Central Exchange, American Society of News Editors, Asian American Journalists Association, Centurion’s Women’s Forum, and Middle of the Map Tech Forum on Women Innovators.
Parrish is a two-time Pulitzer Prize Juror, longtime member of the Asian American Journalists Association, and was named one of the 100 Most Important Minority Journalists of the last Century.
