We map the Chicago culture that travels by word of mouth.

The Brown Line is founded and edited by Ghazala Irshad, a Chicago-based journalist, editor, and media entrepreneur whose work spans international reporting, nonprofit media, standards editing, and community storytelling.

She works full-time as an editor at a national nonprofit newsroom; The Brown Line is a separate, independent project. Because this work is community-rooted, she may have personal or professional connections to some of the people or spaces featured. Those relationships don't determine coverage, and when context matters, she shares it.

Her career spans international reporting, nonprofit media, and community storytelling. After teaching English to refugees and orphans in Thailand, she lived in Egypt during the Arab Spring, reporting on protests and abuses of power. She later produced an award-winning documentary series highlighting grassroots changemakers across the Global South, and developed a Muslim diaspora-focused, decolonial travel storytelling platform as a Tow-Knight Entrepreneurial Journalism Fellow at CUNY.

She serves on the board of Borderless Magazine, focused on immigrants and immigration news in Chicago, and is a fellow of executive leadership programs at the Asian American Journalists Association and the Poynter Institute.