Sonali is a journalist, author, recruiter and speaker. She’s also a Senior Recruiter at URL Media, where she works with newsrooms and media-adjacent organizations who want to find fantastic candidates and treat them well.  A product of Southern California, Sonali grew up in Diamond Bar and graduated from UCLA. Sonali worked for a number of news outlets including the L.A. Times, where was part of the Times staff that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 2015 San Bernardino mass shooting, and in 2020 was named the best education journalist in the U.S. by the Education Writers Association. 

Sonali Kohli is the author of the young adult nonfiction book Don’t wait: Three Girls Who Fought for Change and Won, published from Beacon Press this June. “Don't Wait” follows the stories of three young women activists of color fighting for some of today’s most important California movements: defunding school police, increasing access to arts education and combating environmental racism.