EMERYVILLE, Calif. – Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting announces that Sumi Aggarwal has been promoted to managing editor for the organization and will serve as interim editor in chief after the March 5 departure of outgoing Editor in Chief Matt Thompson. 

As interim editor in chief, Aggarwal will represent the newsroom as a member of the organization’s senior leadership team and in conversations with partners, the board and funders. She will also guide the newsroom leadership team in managing the execution of the 2021 editorial calendar, ensuring that newsroom deployment is aligned with coverage goals. 

With input and feedback from the newsroom leadership team, she’ll manage newsroomwide meetings and communications.

In her managing editor role, Aggarwal will oversee the development and implementation of Reveal’s cross-newsroom editorial agenda, ensuring the newsroom is poised to execute its most ambitious projects at their highest level of impact. In partnership with senior newsroom leaders, Aggarwal will provide editorial leadership and guidance on marquee stories, support mentorship and growth among newsroom staff and managers, and guide internal and external collaboration with editorial teams and partners. 

Since joining Reveal in May 2019, Aggarwal has been a sought-after leader for multinewsroom editorial partnerships. She has overseen the successful launch of Reveal’s Local Labs collaboration in Silicon Valley, a joint effort among news organizations serving rural communities to report on COVID-19’s impact on the  hospital sector, and community engagement efforts related to voting rights and the census. Aggarwal also runs the Reveal Investigative Fellowship program, gathering support and mentorship for budding investigative journalists at local news organizations. 

“In her time at Reveal, Sumi has built an incredible reputation for fostering high-impact editorial collaborations with a dizzying array of partners,” said Christa Scharfenberg, CEO of Reveal. “I’m thrilled she will build on this work to supercharge the internal and external collaboration that powers not only our newsroom, but hard-hitting investigative journalism deeply rooted in communities around the country.”

Aggarwal is a veteran journalist who spent nearly a decade producing award-winning investigations for “60 Minutes,” including a dive into a 50-year-old civil rights-era murder, an investigation into a discredited FBI bullet test used in hundreds of criminal prosecutions and an in-depth interview with former CIA Director George Tenet. After beginning her career at her hometown paper, The Reporter in Vacaville, California, Aggarwal worked at television stations in Portland and San Francisco, as well as “Today.” She earned her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and her master’s from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Aggarwal has received numerous journalism awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, several News Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow Award, among others. She also launched the broadcast journalism program at the City College of New York. Before coming to Reveal, Aggarwal led executive communications for the maps and search teams at Google.