Ariana Proehl

Ariana Proehl is the creator, producer and host of Know This! with Ariana, an online talk show making it cool to "Know Yourself and Know Your World." In the Fall of 2011, Ariana took Know This! on a 14-city U.S. tour, interviewing next generation voices doing work with passion and purpose, proving that we are more than housewives and Jersey Shore. Named one of the Women’s Media Center’s “Progressive Women’s Voices” of 2011, Ariana’s passion for personal development work, roots in social justice education and young, fresh appeal (think Oprah and Rachel Maddow rolled into one), make her a fierce voice of this generation, educating, entertaining and empowering people to make lasting change in themselves, and in the world.

As a former Executive Director of youth development and diversity education organization DiversityWorks, a role she took on at 22, she knows firsthand about the potential of next generation voices. Her leadership garnered recognition by the East Bay Business Times as one of their “Top 40 Under 40” in 2006 and by the Center for Young Women’s Development with their Cheyenne Bell Leadership Award the same year.

Ariana has spoken to audiences across the country, including Yale and NYU, on topics of representations of women and people of color in the media, social justice, domestic violence and self-empowerment, and interviewed such figures as Dr. Cornel West, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien and actress Rosario Dawson. She has appeared on The Today Show, Al B! in the Afternoon radio show, and written for Clutch Magazine online. She holds a BA in Ethnic Studies with Honors from UC Berkeley and a Master of Public Administration from NYU's Wagner School of Public Service.

Follow Ariana on Twitter @ArianaKSS.