Piper Hansen is a journalist, most recently working as the Lexington Herald-Leader's local business and regional economic development reporter. At the Central Kentucky paper, Hansen built the beat back from the ashes by writing about the Commonwealth's changing economy and its intersection with housing, education, state government and more. She made strong source connections with small business owners, union stewards, developers, company executives, bankers, fiscal policy experts and others, to break stories on the beat and write enterprise stories. Hansen is most proud of her continued coverage at the H-L on data centers, BlueOval SK and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's cabinet for economic development and its finance authority, which administers tax incentives.
Before that, she was a reporter at Louisville Business First where her coverage focused largely on economic development across five counties in Southern Indiana. Prior to making the jump to the business beat, Hansen covered four sessions of the Arizona Legislature for a handful of outlets as it dealt with COVID-19, shepherded the state to recovery then welcomed a new governor to the capitol. She was previously editor-in-chief at the Arizona State Press — the student-run, independent newspaper at Arizona State University — where she managed all written content published online and organized a staff of more than 100 across coverage areas. The Society of Professional Journalists named SP the country's No. 1 best independent online student publication in 2021 when Hansen was the paper's politics desk editor.
In June 2025, SPJ Louisville named Hansen its Rookie of the Year. A portfolio submitted for the award included her coverage of Kentucky's statewide affordable housing crisis, including stories on local efforts to update Louisville's 70-year-old land development code. Her work, in student and professional capacities, has been recognized numerous times for its excellence by SPJ, the Arizona Press Club, IRE and other industry groups.
Hansen became a National Press Foundation Local Business Journalism Fellow in 2026 and frequents professional development conferences and seminars, most recently completing the Ravitch Fiscal Reporting Program hosted by the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York in July 2024.