Meet MIF’s New Civic Science Fellow, Patricia Flores
We’re excited to welcome Patricia Flores to Media Impact Funders as our new Civic Science Fellow!
Patricia joins the 2026–28 Civic Science Fellows cohort, the program’s largest to date, bringing together 44 Fellows and more than 60 funding and host partners working to strengthen connections between science and society. MIF is among this year’s host partners.
Patricia will manage MIF’s Science & Health Media Funders Network, a new community exploring how media investments can advance public health and science outcomes. The network will help grantmakers understand the funding landscape, identify gaps and opportunities for investment, and explore how audience trust, behavioral science and AI can inform their grantmaking. Patricia will contribute original research and translate the network’s insights into practical guidance for funders across the field.
The fellowship is part of a broader civic science movement based on the idea that science serves communities better when more people have a voice in shaping scientific research and its applications. Civic science seeks to build two-way collaboration between scientists and the communities affected by their work.
At MIF, Patricia’s work will focus on exploring the role public interest media can play in supporting this collaboration between science, health and civil society. Health and science funders often work in isolation, with few opportunities to compare notes or coordinate their giving. Patricia’s job is to help close that gap. She’ll turn what she learns into guidance that funders can use in their own grantmaking.
Patricia brings extensive experience at the intersection of media, science and philanthropy. During nearly seven years at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, she built a $1.5 million science journalism grantmaking portfolio supporting hyperlocal nonprofit newsrooms and managed communications strategy across CZI’s multi-billion-dollar science portfolio.
Patricia also serves as on the board of Acción Latina, which publishes California’s oldest bilingual newspaper, El Tecolote,. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Patricia’s fellowship is made possible thanks to generous support from the Rita Allen Foundation and Burroughs Wellcome Fund. We’re grateful for their investment in this work.