2021-2022

Mountain State Spotlight

This new investigative and enterprise hub is led by longtime West Virginia journalists Greg Moore, a former editor at the Charleston Gazette-Mail; and Ken Ward Jr., a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant winner for his longtime work covering coal mining and other polluting industries.  

San Antonio Express-News

The San Antonio Express-News is a legacy daily whose roots go back to 1865. For many years, the paper was known as “the Voice of South Texas,” a motto that still appears on our masthead. San Antonio is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, and we aim to be an authoritative and indispensable source of local and regional news. We aggressively cover City Hall, county government, the largest local school districts, courts and law enforcement. We also do ambitious enterprise reporting on the U.S.-Mexico border and U.S. immigration policy. Other coverage priorities include local arts and cultural institutions, high school sports, the San Antonio Spurs, and a burgeoning food and restaurant scene. Our editorial board maintains a robust opinion section – two pages per day of editorials, letters and op-ed pieces. We are part of Hearst Co. and share a Statehouse bureau in Austin and a Washington team with our sister paper, the Houston Chronicle.

Annie Blanks

Annie Blanks covers the thriving city of San Marcos, Texas for the San Antonio Express-News. Not only is she is serving her first year as a Report For America corps member, she’s also living and working for the first time in the great state of Texas. Annie has been a working journalist for more than five years, all of which have been spent in the Florida Panhandle. While in Florida, Annie spent three years with the Pensacola News Journal covering Santa Rosa County, which is the 11th fastest growing county in the state. She wrote about local government, environmental issues, courts and cops, education, and, yes, the occasional “Florida Man” story. Prior to that, she was a general assignment reporter for the Northwest Florida Daily News. Annie loves journalism and newspapers, and is very much enjoying her newest career adventure in Texas.

The News Tribune

We are a digital-first news outlet that covers Pierce County, a fast-growing county of nearly 1 million people in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. We have been the leading source of news, information and thoughtful commentary for the greater Tacoma region for more than 125 years.

Hadley Hitson

Hadley Hitson covers the rural South and the Black Belt communities in Alabama for the Montgomery Advertiser, a daily newspaper in the state capital. Hadley previously worked as a freelance education reporter for Fortune magazine, while the media outlet launched its first annual list of the Best Online MBA Programs. As a Fortune editorial intern, she authored articles on the technology, business, and politics beats. Hadley is a graduate of the University of Mississippi, where she was the managing editor of the university’s award-winning, student-run newspaper, The Daily Mississippian. She has also interviewed a member of the presidential Cabinet, covered the relocation of a 114-year-old Confederate monument, and appeared on the The Paul Finebaum Show for the SEC Network.

Kansas City PBS

Kansas City PBS has a long tradition of public service that has laid the foundation for expanding its news gathering relationship with our community. Our content platforms — television, radio, digital, social media and educational outreach — exist to serve the diversity of our region. We explore complicated issues with thoughtful reporting. We share the diverse stories of people, places, and progress in our community. We advance conversations through community engagement and social media. Specifically, Kansas City PBS operates four KCPT-related public television channels; KTBG 90.9 The Bridge, an NPR-affiliated AAA music station; and FlatlandKC, an online digital magazine; in addition to social media and community events.  

Cami Koons

Cami Koons covers rural affairs in the communities surrounding Kansas City for Kansas City PBS. Koons has served as a volunteer features reporter for The Eudora Times, a paper dedicated to bringing news back to a small Kansas town. Reporting for The Times taught Koons the importance of community journalism which led her to Report for America. Throughout the pandemic, Koons has worked with Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health as a communications intern to help inform her community about COVID safety and local guidelines. Koons was also heavily involved with 90.7 FM KJHK, the campus radio station at the University of Kansas, where she produced video, audio, print and on-air content. In 2020, Koons received local and national awards for her reporting with KJHK and for her weekly French radio show. Koons spent a semester in France and is known to show up to gatherings armed with baguette, cheese and a playlist of French tunes.

Kaitlin Cough

Kate Cough covers energy and the environment for The Maine Monitor, an investigative outlet based in Maine, where she was born and raised. She was previously a reporter and then the digital media strategist for The Ellsworth American, a 150-year-old weekly paper based in Ellsworth, Maine. While there, she won awards from the Maine Press Association and the New England Newspaper Association for her work on where local recycling really winds up, how businesses are coping with the labor shortage, and a local network of white supremacists, among other pieces. Kate graduated with honors from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Magna Cum Laude from Bryn Mawr College, and spent time in medical school before leaving to pursue her dream of becoming a journalist.

Luca Powell

Luca Powell is an investigative data journalist reporting for the Traverse City Record-Eagle. Luca has been working in New York City throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, reporting on the inequities impacting patients living with such co-morbidities as sickle cell disease. His coverage of the sacrifices of Filipino frontline nurses was featured on the cover of the New York Times’ metro section in January 2021. Most recently, Luca’s work on police misconduct was featured at WNYC and in The Intercept, where he exposed loopholes in New York’s decertification system, which allowed for problem officers to be rehired in new jobs. He is a 2020 Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholar and a graduate of CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.

Sara Ernst

Sara Willa Ernst reports for Houston Public Media, where she covers health disparities related to factors including income that affect Houston communities. Ernst was a Reporting Fellow at New Hampshire Public Radio, working both in daily news and long-form podcasting. During her time there, she was a producer for the podcasts The Second Greatest Show On Earth and Outside/In. She co-reported a two-part podcast on sex education in New Hampshire, covering topics from the statewide curriculum, abstinence-based education, LGBTQ inclusivity, consent and more. Before working on the podcast team, she was a General Assignment Reporter in the NHPR newsroom, covering the charter school debate embroiling the Granite State and the 2020 New Hampshire Presidential Primary. After graduating from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Ernst interned for NPR in Washington D.C. She previously held internships at Nashville Public Radio and WBUR Boston. She was a Chips Quinn Scholar in 2018 and is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association.