We’re delighted to announce our leadership team is getting even stronger with the promotion of Sonya Cisneros Wierzowiecki to chief development officer.
Sonya, director of development at the Fort Worth Report since December 2023, is a strategic development leader and storyteller dedicated to building community through trusted journalism and meaningful connection. Sonya has played an instrumental role in helping secure a $1.5 million reinvestment grant from the American Journalism Project and leading efforts that resulted in 51% year-over-year growth in individual giving.
That grant, designed to bolster the Fort Worth Report’s long-term financial sustainability, supports the revenue and development team Sonya will help lead. Her team will include a new director of development and a membership director, along with current membership manager Ella Scott-Dean. Sonya will report to our talented chief revenue officer and general manager, Mike Distelhorst.
Sonya is truly a generational talent, bringing an invaluable background as a Fort Worth native who grew up working in her family’s iconic Stockyards restaurant, Los Vaqueros. You feel her spirit for community and service in every interaction with her.
“I’m driven by a lifelong passion for connecting people around shared purpose,” Sonya said, “and I believe in the power of narrative and relationships to build trust and belonging — whether in museums, newsrooms or community spaces.”
In recognition of her leadership and impact, Sonya was named a 2025 Emerging Leader in Philanthropy by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She also is a graduate of the inaugural cohort of the Nonprofit News Executive Certification Program at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY, where she deepened her expertise in nonprofit newsroom leadership and growth.
Her career bridges journalism, philanthropy and the arts. Before joining the Fort Worth Report, Sonya held development roles at Lena Pope, where she helped advance philanthropic strategy and donor engagement in support of children and families, as well as at the Kimbell Art Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, helping make cultural institutions more accessible and community-centered. A trained journalist, she earned degrees in news-editorial journalism and strategic communication from Texas Christian University.
Sonya is deeply engaged in civic leadership and currently serves on the boards of Lena Pope, the Women’s Policy Forum and the Women’s Policy Forum Foundation.
Stay tuned for more exciting additions to the Fort Worth Report. If you know of a director of development and membership director who would work well with Sonya and our team, please let us know. These jobs — and more — are posted on our website.
Our chief revenue officer, Mike, also is leading a search for a new strategic partnership manager and an events manager, additional positions supported by our American Journalism Project grant. Our newsroom’s growth is closely tied to partners like AJP, whose early investments in key business, revenue and community partnership roles help make our work possible.
The reinvestment is part of our Vision 2030 $5 million campaign to support the creation of a news network that connects Fort Worth and Tarrant County. The AJP grant is restricted to our revenue and development team, allowing our community to step forward to support the local journalism they want to see.
We continue to build relationships with national partners and local supporters to create a diverse, reliable mix of revenue that supports our journalism.
Already this year, our community has made possible the hiring of Chris Moss, our first full-time staff reporter for the Arlington Report, and associate editor Janna Franzwa Canard. Managing editor Babs Rodriguez also is leading a search for our first full-time nonprofit reporter, a position fully funded for three years by a $300,000 grant from the North Texas Community Foundation.
Chris Cobler is the CEO and publisher of the Fort Worth Report. He may be reached at chris.cobler@fortworthreport.org.
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org/2026/02/11/fort-worth-report-promotes-sonya-wierzowiecki-to-chief-development-officer/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&quality=80&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”>
<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https://fortworthreport.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=405474&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https://fortworthreport.org/2026/02/11/fort-worth-report-promotes-sonya-wierzowiecki-to-chief-development-officer/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”//cdn.parsely.com/keys/fortworthreport.org/p.js”></script>