Goli Sheikholeslami, CEO of Chicago Public Radio, explained why strong, non-partisan journalism matters to the health and wealth of our communities, our country and every citizen during the City Club of Chicago lunch program on May 25, 2017.

Shannon Heffernan and her story Excruciating Choice: Trading Parental Custody for Mental Health Care was mentioned as an example of a story that helped move the State of Illinois to act to stop psychiatric lockouts and helped legislators access data about lockout previous unattainable. (Heffernan’s work garnered a 2017 Lisagor Award.)

Sheikholeslami also mentioned an investigation that revealed that more than 300 young people were kept at Cook County Juvenile Detention Center for for as long as a week after release orders were signed. One young man waited 190 days for DCFS to pick in up. Due to that report, a monitoring system is in place and fewer young people are stuck in jail needlessly.

She also shared the audio from a story about why people pick up guns.

Distrust of media, threats to our fragile media landscape, drastic newsroom staffs reductions and their affects our country were discussed, as well as the opportunities and threats that lies ahead for hers and other media outlets.

Hear her whole 30+ min. address here.

Crain’s Lynn Marek talked to Goli in 2015.