Some leaders have titles and glass offices. Others do not. Ashley Luthern is one of the latter, a de facto leader in the newsroom of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She inspires others through her work, journalism that is both humane and deeply researched, and her infectious attitude of care for her colleagues and her community. Ashley recently reported on a shooting that left five people dead in a north side home, presumably an act of family violence. Her reporting raises awareness that violence doesn’t stop in a pandemic and that, in fact, local organizations have seen an increase in the number of people seeking help related to domestic violence in recent weeks. This is the kind of mission-driven and essential work Ashley does as one of the paper’s investigative reporters. She has delved deeply into the causes of violence in Milwaukee and spent a year at Marquette University on an O’Brien Fellowship, investigating what justice means for victims' families. She was the Journal Sentinel's lead reporter on the award-winning Precious Lives series, a two-year collaboration across local media exploring the impact of gun violence on young people. As president of the local newspaper union, Ashley is also a champion for regional media and local journalists. She sounds the alarm about what the rapid decline in local news nationwide could mean for communities as well as the impact of cuts and furloughs on area readers and colleagues. She was devastated to see The Vindicator of Youngstown, Ohio, where she got her start as a journalist, shutter last year. Ashley and her colleagues at the Journal Sentinel are doing lifesaving work in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, work that cannot in any way be replaced by national media. Ashley would argue, and we’d agree, that preserving journalism in Milwaukee will need to become a community-wide priority if it is to be sustainable for generations to come. Consider supporting a local media organization with a subscription today, and follow Ashley’s work here.