2021-2022

Ari Snider

Ari Snider reports on Maine's refugee communities for Maine Public, a nonprofit based in Portland with radio, TV, educational and Web services. Snider grew up in Maine, and returns by way of far west Texas, where he hosted Morning Edition at Marfa Public Radio. Before that, Snider was in Southeast Alaska, reporting and hosting at public radio stations KCAW in Sitka and KFSK in Petersburg. He got his start in audio as an undergrad at Brown University and through internships at radio stations in Vermont and Rhode Island. Over the last several years, Snider has covered everything from a labor strike to a ferry-funding crisis to renewable energy initiatives in remote Alaska towns. His reporting has won three Alaska Press Club awards, and has aired on radio stations throughout Alaska, Texas, and New England. When looking to get out of town for a weekend, Snider has a special fondness for the islands of Penobscot Bay and the lakes and mountains of the North Woods.

Dante Miller

Dante Miller reports for WFAE as a member of a Race & Equity team that will cover topics affecting communities of color, including economic mobility, race and justice, health disparities, police reform, housing, environmental inequality, etc. through audio and text for digital and radio audiences. Miller knows the area well. She covered community-based stories during her time as a reporter and freelancer for QCityMetro, Charlotte’s leading digital platform for the African-American community. She was the Union County Reporter for Charlotte Media Group, the owners of Union County Weekly, South Charlotte Weekly, and Matthews Mint Hill Weekly. Miller is a proud alumna of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and received her Bachelor's of Science in journalism and mass communications in August 2017. As a student, she served as the first Yard Section Editor for her university newspaper, which focused on hard and campus news stories. During her free time, Miller enjoys reading, singing and writing poetry. She's a military brat who was born in Arlington, Texas, but raised in Wilson, North Carolina.

Jasmine Demers

Jasmine Demers reports on issues related to youth, social services and legislative accountability for the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit newsroom based in Louisville. Previously, she worked for the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, her hometown, covering science, health, government and the pandemic. Following months of local coronavirus coverage, including deaths in Arizona nursing homes, Demers received top awards from the Arizona Newspapers Association. The Arizona Press Club has honored her science reporting. She holds a master's degree from The University of Arizona School of Journalism, where she was editor-in-chief of the student-run Daily Wildcat, and received the Philip Mangelsdorf Award for Outstanding Newsperson of the Year as well as the Douglas D. Martin Award for Courage and Integrity.

Lynandro Simmons

DJ Simmons reports on communities of color for the Athens Banner-Herald in Athens, Georgia. He has worked as a reporter for the Westport News, where he covered local government and education in Westport, Connecticut. Simmons reported the news of Darien, New Canaan and Wilton, as well as statewide environmental issues, for Hearst Connecticut Media, a network of newspapers and websites. His work has earned him several awards from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists. Simmons was editor-in-chief of the student-run Southern News at Southern Connecticut State University. While in college, he helped document descendants of World War I veterans for the Connecticut State Library. His hometown is Columbia, South Carolina.

Becca Savransky

Becca Savransky is an education reporter for the Idaho Statesman in Boise, Idaho. Before joining the Statesman, Savransky was a reporter for SeattlePI, the website of the former Seattle Post-Intelligencer paper, where she wrote about the surge of COVID-19 cases and the pandemic's impact on the Seattle community. Savransky has also covered homelessness and housing in Seattle, reporting stories about the lack of affordable housing in the region and the barriers people faced in finding permanent housing. She has worked as a reporter and social media curator at The Hill in Washington, D.C., and was managing editor and summer editor-in-chief at The Daily Northwestern, the student paper at Northwestern University. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and political science. She's from Stamford, Connecticut.

Tiana Woodard

Tiana Woodard covers Black neighborhoods in and around Boston for The Boston Globe. A 2021 graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, Woodard studied journalism and English, co-founded the university's only Black-interest publication, BlackPrint, and worked as the first diversity and inclusion director at The Daily Texan, the college paper. She was one of five student journalists selected for ProPublica's Emerging Reporters 2019-20 program and is a recipient of a Facebook Journalism Project Scholarship. You can find her bylines in The Dallas Morning News, The Texas Tribune and The Indianapolis Star. In her spare time Woodard enjoys binge-watching “Jeopardy,” feeding table scraps to her spoiled Airedale terrier Pierre or connecting any current event to Prince. She grew up outside of Nashville, Tennessee but has called Beaumont, Texas her home for 12 years.

Ariama Long

Ariama C. Long is a reporter for the New York Amsterdam News in New York City, covering local politics, city council and city agencies. A born-and-raised Brooklynite, Long was a Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism fellow and worked as a multimedia reporter at PoliticsNY in Brooklyn. Her beat went beyond politics and elections, and included coverage of the arts and culture. She has interned as an audio reporter at WNYC, a public radio station, and at the Brooklyn-based Heritage Radio Network, a nonprofit radio station that focuses on food. Her favorite thing about being a journalist is the risk it takes to be informed, curious and brave. Long holds a master's degree in journalism from the City University of New York, and a bachelor's from Chestnut Hill College, where she double-majored in English literature and communications.

Dustin Bleizeffer

Dustin Bleizeffer covers the energy beat for WyoFile, a nonprofit public-interest news website based in Lander, Wyoming that reports on the state's people, places, and policies. Bleizeffer has worked as a coal miner, an oilfield mechanic, a reporter and editor primarily covering Wyoming's energy industry, and a freelancer writing about the environment and rural life. Most recently he co-authored the “Reckoning in Coal Country” investigative series, published on WyoFile, the Energy News Network site, and as a book. Bleizeffer was communications director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, and beginning in 2010, he served as WyoFile's editor-in-chief for six years. He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and communications from the University of Wyoming, and as a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, he examined how emerging technology can help reinvigorate news and democracy in the American West. Bleizeffer lives in Casper, Wyoming.

Jayna Omaye

Jayna Omaye covers ethnic and cultural affairs for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Hawaii's largest daily newspaper. Born and raised on Oahu, Omaye recently worked as a staff writer at Honolulu Magazine, where she led one of its largest projects in recent years—a 19-page cover story and 20 individual pages online—about the life stories of Hawaii's Japanese-American veterans. The multimedia feature won two national first-place awards. Her work has also garnered three local awards. Omaye began her journalism career as a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel in Florida, and then moved back home to work at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in 2015. She earned her master's degree from Northwestern University, and her bachelor's from the University of Oregon. Omaye has danced hula for most of her life and recently began playing taiko, a percussion instrument, after a story on Honolulu's ethnic festivals inspired her to reconnect with her Japanese heritage.

Madeline Thigpen

Madeline Thigpen covers education for The Atlanta Voice in Georgia. As an independent journalist, she has reported on the school district in her hometown of South Orange, New Jersey. Her coverage tackled the district's elementary school integration plan and its struggle to reopen schools during the pandemic. She has written about parents groups that demanded that schools be reopened, and the teacher's union that undertook multiple job actions to ensure safe working conditions. Thigpen has also provided local news coverage in Elizabeth, New Jersey, writing about the city's large community of domestic workers and the intersection of labor and immigration rights that affects their community. She interned at “The Brian Lehrer Show,” a daily call-in program on WNYC, New York's leading public radio station, and for four years hosted a show on WVAU, American University's student-run radio station.