Shereen Marisol Meraji

Shereen Marisol Meraji is a journalist, audio producer, and educator whose work has influenced how public media covers race and identity in the United States. Meraji has worked in audio storytelling for more than two decades, drawing on her mixed Puerto Rican and Iranian heritage to inform her approach to journalism. She grew up in a multicultural home, where the rhythms of daily life inspired her story pitches and narrative style.

Meraji began her career as a radio reporter and producer, joining NPR as a producer and director for the midday show "Day to Day." She later worked at Southern California Public Radio as a business and economy reporter and contributed to Marketplace's Wealth & Poverty desk. Meraji received the International Reporting Project Fellowship, which supported her reporting in Beirut, Lebanon.

Meraji is recognized as the co-founder, senior producer, and former co-host of NPR's "Code Switch," a podcast that examines race and identity in the United States. Under her leadership, "Code Switch" became a resource for educators, scholars, and media organizations seeking to deepen conversations about systemic racism. The podcast was named Show of the Year by Apple Podcasts and received an Ambie Award for Best Society and Culture Podcast. Meraji also produced the feature "Audio Code Switching: Tackling Race on the Radio" for Third Coast Festival, addressing the lack of diverse voices in public radio.

Her audio documentary work includes a contribution to "Little America" for Vox/Apple, focusing on the immigrant experience, and an ongoing role as interviewer for City Arts & Lectures, where she engages with leading thinkers on race, belonging, and cultural change. Meraji serves as an associate professor of race in journalism and head of audio at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She was awarded the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard prior to joining the faculty and is the school's first female tenure-track faculty member specializing in audio journalism. Meraji has led equity and inclusion initiatives on campus, mentored students into internships and jobs, and frequently speaks to national audiences about journalism's role in fostering a more inclusive democracy.