Visual journalist/videographer

Christiana Botic

Christiana Botic is a visual journalist for Verite News in New Orleans, Louisiana. Prior to joining Verite News, she received a master’s degree from Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication and worked as a freelancer for a number of publications, including The Washington Post and The New York Times. She also completed internships at the Evansville Courier and Press and the Boston Globe. Her career as a photographer began when she lived with, and documented, her grandmother in Serbia. As a National Geographic-Fulbright Fellow, she explored themes of identity, culture, migration and memory in the Balkans. Her work often investigates the intergenerational impacts of inequity and violence on communities, with a focus on how people challenge systems of oppression—from finding joy and connection in everyday life to forming social movements.

Ellen Schmidt

Ellen Schmidt is a visual journalist born and based in Minnesota. She comes from a newspaper background after several internships and five years as a staff photojournalist in Las Vegas, Nevada. A graduate of the University of Minnesota Hubbard School of Journalism, she started her career working as a reporter, photographer and multimedia editor at the Minnesota Daily student newspaper. Her work seeks to visualize home, capture emotion and record moments that help people relate to one another.

MinnPost

MinnPost is an independent, nonprofit newsroom producing in-depth reporting on Minnesota's most consequential civic and cultural affairs. We have no political or commercial interest. Our only agenda is to be a trusted guide. We expose problems, highlight solutions and inspire informed action. Our areas of greatest expertise include city and state politics, Minnesota's congressional delegation in Washington, health, the environment and arts & culture.

Verite News

Verite News, a Black-led, nonprofit newsroom, was founded in 2022 by two veterans of the Times-Picayune, Terry Baquet and David Francis. Verite has a two-fold mission: to use the power of journalism to expose and dismantle inequities that affect vulnerable populations and to educate the next generation of journalists through our news fellowship program.