Olesya is an award-winning investigative reporter with more than ten years of professional experience, and co-founder of an independent media outlet Important Stories. She has contributed to the seminal global corruption exposés including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Panama Papers, Troika Laundromat, and FinCENfiles. In 2021, Olesya was designated “foreign agent” by the Russian government along with a handful of other independent journalists. She is now looking to gain new skills in the field of public policy that will allow her to further her career and enable her to drive a more productive discourse.