Rianna Pauline Starheim is a multimedia storyteller and journalist safety trainer whose work centers on public health, wrongful conviction, trauma, and resilience. As Managing Director of Afghan communications company Rumi Consultancy, Rianna designed and spearheaded multimedia campaigns for the Afghan Palace, USAID, World Bank, European Commission, and United States Institute of Peace, among other clients. She has served as a communications consultant for the United States Department of Justice and United Nations and her work has appeared in Foreign Policy, Pacific Standard, and Virginia Quarterly Review. Rianna is a cum laude alumna of Dartmouth College, where her honors thesis examined the shelter model of response to gender violence in conflict.

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Rianna is a National Registry, Virginia, Maryland, and California-certified paramedic. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, she volunteered up to 100 hours per week as a paramedic on 911 ambulances. In 2020, she was the Loudoun County Emergency Medical Services Provider of the Year, as well as the Ashburn Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department Advanced Life Support Provider of the Year.

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In addition to her creative projects and work in emergency medicine, Rianna is a trauma-informed yoga teacher, marathon runner, avid traveler, and Vipassana meditator. She presents trainings frequently on risk assessment and journalist safety, is a Next Gen Safety fellow with the International Women's Media Foundation, and is working on her first book.​

 

In her free time, Rianna enjoys searching for four-leaf clovers. She found more than 10,000 lucky clovers in 2020, of which she picked thousands to show that she was telling the truth. She was her grandmother's end-of-life caregiver for 1.75 years, 2023-2024, during which she produced a parody housekeeping magazine and changed her life.