Fisayo Okare is a multimedia journalist with eight years of experience and recently led the production of a Newsletter, “Early Arrival,” at Documented, an immigration-focused publication in New York. While there, she also led the interview series “Our City.”

She joined the Documented team in 2021 as a lead writer for the newsletter and helped relaunch the product by leveraging user research and digital innovation. During her four years as the voice of “Early Arrival,” subscribers grew from 12,000 to 50,000. The newsletter achieved a 40% open rate on average and became Documented’s largest platform. As a key source of immigration news for immigration lawyers, professionals, advocates, legislators, and other New Yorkers, Fisayo’s work on the newsletter underscores her commitment to impactful journalism and her ability to transform complex narratives into engaging stories for diverse audiences.

On December 18, 2024, Fisayo’s work was recognized in the 2024 Front Page Awards from The Newswomen’s Club of New York. She earned Best Blog/Newsletter of 2024 for her “Our City” column. The award gala was held in February.

From late 2023 to early 2024, she hosted and produced 9 episodes of “Documented,” a short-term radio show on WBAI 99.5 FM, which covered everything from policy changes in the immigration industry to stories about immigrant communities in New York City. A special guest was featured each week to share their expertise and experiences, including Documented staffers, frontline service professionals, and prominent advocates.

She is a graduate of Columbia University’s journalism school (M.Sc. 2021), and Pan-Atlantic University’s School of Media and Communication (B.Sc 2018).

Past:

In 2020, Fisayo was hired as a financial journalist at Stears Business in Lagos, Nigeria, to help launch a premium subscription news product on the digital publication which is now renowned for its reporting and data-driven analysis of the Nigerian economy.

In 2019, she served in Abuja for Nigeria’s mandatory national youth service year and worked in the media department of Yiaga Africa, a civil society organization focused on democracy and good governance. While there, she produced and edited magazines and newsletters for the organization.

She is also a published author. Fisayo co-authored Yiaga Africa’s “Beating The Odds”—the first book on the life, political experience, and campaign strategies of the initial beneficiaries of the historic Not Too Young To Run law. It was published and distributed in 2021 with support from the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. In it, she uncovered stories about legislators, below 30 years old, who overcame threats to win Nigeria’s elections in 2019. She interviewed and wrote about the campaign journeys of five State Houses of Assembly representatives, including the youngest State House of Assembly Speaker in Nigeria. Fisayo has also written stories of female aspirants that were oppressed while running for elections, and volunteered with WatchingTheVote as an elections Data Entry Clerk in 2019.

In 2018, she graduated with first class honours, Bsc. Mass Communication, from Pan-Atlantic University—home to Lagos Business School.

While pursuing her bachelor’s degree, she began writing and publishing her work. She later pursued an editorial internship in 2017 with The Native, Lagos, Nigeria, where she grew into a journalist and sub-editor.

Fisayo has won awards including a Scholarship Award from the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the United States (AFPC-USA) in 2020, and 1st Runner-Up in a Global Case Study Competition on Inclusive Business Models and Financial Inclusion organized by Lagos Business School in 2016. In 2014, she was one of three students in her high school to win the ‘Principal’s Award’ — her high school’s highest honor for students. Her’s was ‘for compassion’ — a principle she still lives her life by today as a Christian Believer.