2019-2020

The News & Observer

The News & Observer’s roots go back to 1865, when its predecessor The Sentinel was launched to expose corruption in the Reconstruction era. Among the News & Observer’s many awards are three Pulitzer Prizes, including the 1996 gold medal for public service. The News & Observer is the paper of record in the capital city of North Carolina, covering the statehouse, the legislature and its impact on the lives of all North Carolinians. The newspaper’s mission is to produce fearless and independent public service journalism that gives a voice to underrepresented, unheard groups and communities.

WPLN

Nashville Public Radio’s flagship news station, WPLN 90.3, is a dynamic local news provider that reaches more than 20 counties in Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky. With a potential audience of over 2 million listeners, many of whom are located in rural areas outside of Metropolitan Nashville, our content is distributed through multiple delivery platforms and channels, via FM, AM, HD radio, computer streams, a robust website and podcasts. WPLN has an award-winning news team of 10 journalists: two editors, five reporters, two host/reporters and a digital director. Its mission is to create stories that help our audience understand the most important issues facing the community.

Zachary Podmore

Zak is a journalist and film producer who has covered rural Utah politics, public lands and conservation issues for Outside Online, Sierra, Four Corners Free Press, Canoe & Kayak and the Huffington Post. In early 2019, he revived a local newspaper in southeast Utah, the Canyon Echo, which he edits. His writing has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Colorado chapter and Folio magazine. Zak has worked as a river ranger in Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. He has an M.F.A. in environmental nonfiction writing, and has written a book, “Confluence: Navigating the Personal and Political On Rivers of the New West.” Zak has lived in Utah’s San Juan County since 2015.

Yadira Lopez

Yadira is a former reporter for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida, where she covered education, politics and breaking news. During this time, she was an IRE CAR Bootcamp Diversity Fellow and a Poynter video journalism workshop scholarship recipient. She also worked as an instructor at New College of Florida, where she taught newspaper writing and production. Since 2017 she has been working as an English language assistant in two small towns in the north of France. She was also an editor at the Catalyst, New College of Florida’s student paper. Born in Santa Clara, Cuba, she grew up in Miami, FL.

Wyatt Massey

Wyatt has covered religion, immigration and social services for the Frederick News-Post in Maryland. There and as a freelance writer, he has covered stories ranging from childhood malnutrition in Haiti to gentrification in Brooklyn to faith in rural Kansas to heroin and opioid addiction in Milwaukee. Massey was an O’Hare Fellow at America, a respected national Catholic magazine. As an intern at The Baltimore Sun, he covered crime, along with researching for and helping craft Justin George’s yearlong “Shoot to Kill” investigation of US gun homicide trends. Wyatt grew up on a family farm in Hollandale, Wisconsin and majored in English at Marquette University.

Will Wright

Will Wright covered the environment and government accountability during internships at the Sacramento Bee, the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. He was editor-in-chief of University of Kentucky’s independent student newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel. After graduating from University of Kentucky in December 2016, Wright completed a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. He grew up in Eighty Four, PA, a small town outside Pittsburgh. Since joining RFA as a Galloway Fellow, Will has been awarded the McClatchy President’s Award for Journalism Excellence and a First Place Kentucky Press Association Award for his ongoing coverage of water in Eastern Kentucky and holding public agencies accountable. Watchdog reporting in Eastern Kentucky Wright has reopened the Lexington Herald Leader’s Pike County Bureau in Kentucky. He already put a spotlight on Kentucky’s “worst water district” where some residents went without water for weeks. The district’s business manager retired shortly after publication, and the state committed $3.4 million to fix water issues in eastern Kentucky. Will also collaborated with veteran reporter Bill Estep to break a story about $3 million in back taxes owed by Kentucky-based coal companies linked to West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice. Will continues this work in his second year as a Report for America corps member.

Victor L. Rodriguez-Velazquez

Victor has been a journalism professor and freelance reporter in Puerto Rico. He started his career at the Metro Puerto Rico, where he covered business, the economy and entrepreneurship. When he joined Universidad Ana G. Méndez & Universidad del Sagrado Corazón as a professor—teaching journalism, communication theory, and multimedia production—he also took over as acting director of Diálogo UPR, the official newspaper of the University of Puerto Rico. In this role, he coordinated and supervised editorial projects and was responsible for increasing audience across digital platforms. More recently, he has worked as a freelance investigative reporter for Centro de Periodismo Investigativo de Puerto Rico. Victor earned a B.A. in journalism and M.A. in communications from the University of Puerto Rico.  

Theodora Yu

Theodora Yu worked in a startup investigative organization in Hong Kong called FactWire News Agency, where she covered child abuse, a suspected arson attack in a wetland and other controversies. She earlier worked as a video assistant for the Associated Press in Hong Kong. She earned her Bachelor degree at University of Hong Kong and an M.A. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she was a Toni Stabile Fellow in Investigative Reporting. She speaks Cantonese, Mandarin and a bit of Japanese.  

Shirley L. Smith

Shirley L. Smith is an investigative journalist with experience covering topics ranging from the HIV/AIDS epidemic and other health care issues to criminal justice, natural disasters, education, municipal government and a myriad of social issues.  She is one of 61 reporters who was selected to cover under-covered communities and issues across the country as part of the Report for America program, a national public service program dedicated to local journalism. Prior to joining MCIR, Shirley worked as a freelance writer for several years.  She also worked as a full-time reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Virgin Islands Daily News, The Telegraph and The South Fulton Neighbor.  Her work has also been featured in numerous other publications and news sites including The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi Today, The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, HealthQuest magazine, Spinal Column magazine, Women’s eNews and MedHelp.org. She has also taught journalism at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California. Shirley earned her master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She also had a stint as a gubernatorial speechwriter, and as a public relations executive and consultant.

Savannah Maher

Savannah has been a producer for NPR’s midday show “Here & Now,” where her work explored everything from Native peoples’ fraught relationship with the American elections to the erosion of press freedoms for tribal media outlets. A proud citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, Savannah got her start in journalism reporting for her hometown’s local newspaper, The Mashpee Enterprise, and public radio station, WCAI. She has since contributed to New Hampshire Public Radio, High Country News, and NPR’s Code Switch blog. She graduated from Dartmouth College.