2021-2022

Kelan Lyons

Kelan was a staff writer for Salt Lake City Weekly, where he wrote about immigration, economic development and state and local politics. Before that, in Texas, he covered the Brazos County courthouse for the Bryan-College Station Eagle, where he won a 2018 Texas Associated Press Managing Editors first-place feature writing award for his story on how a 35-year-old cold case still affects the community. He was a fellow at City Bureau in Chicago, where he produced an audio documentary about police misconduct settlements. He majored in psychology at University of Pittsburgh and graduated with an M.S. from Northwestern University, where he was an Alfred Balk scholarship recipient.

Eric Schmid

Eric Schmid has interned for Fox News Channel, AccuWeather as a Dow Jones News Fund Digital Media Intern and WSHU Public Radio. He covered governments in Nassau and Suffolk counties, environmental issues and other general assignments as a News Fellow at WSHU’s Long Island News Bureau. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Stony Brook University last May as one of the journalism school co-valedictorians. Community reporting in the Metro East area in Illinois Eric covers the Metro East area in Illinois and is developing insights and knowledge about issues specific to the area, including economics, education and politics. He produces radio reports, web features and multimedia reports specific to Metro East issues and news. For example, while St. Louis Public Radio has developed a strong reputation for providing important information about ballot issues in Missouri, it has never been able to develop a similar depth of coverage and knowledge for our Illinois constituents. St. Louis Public Radio is providing training about news, production and relevant issues Eric might find himself covering.

Emily Woodruff

Emily has been the managing health editor of Being Patient, a health news start-up exclusively covering brain health and Alzheimer’s. As a freelancer, her work has appeared in STAT News, The Baltimore Sun, Gothamist and Refinery29. Earlier she worked as a copywriter and an SEO specialist. She majored in English at the University of Florida in Gainesville and received an M.S. from the Columbia University School of Journalism. Public health in south Louisiana Emily covers healthcare and public health in south Louisiana, with a focus on the New Orleans metro region. Currently, there is not a single, full-time health reporter working for any newsroom in Louisiana, a state that sits near the bottom on nearly every U.S. public health metric. The story of healthcare is also often the story of poverty in America, and the lack of coverage of health in a poor state like Louisiana means important stories are slipping through the cracks. Emily reports to the New Orleans Metro Editor and Managing Editor and covers daily news related to all aspects of public health, including coverage of hospitals, public health officials and health agencies, academic research, and city, state, and national data. She produces enterprise and feature stories for print and online related to these and other related topics. Emily works in concert with journalists who have complementary beats, such as education, business and City Hall, to create stories that have a broader impact.

Eileen Grench

Eileen is an Olympic fencer-turned-journalist. As a dual Panamanian-American citizen, she competed for the Panamanian team at the 2016 Olympic Games and also won national, Pan-American and World Cup medals. She is currently a fellow at the Global Migration Project at Columbia University, where she has told the stories of Central American women as well as inequities in migrant women’s health — writing for The Intercept, The Nation, and Documented, among others. She has also contributed research to The New York Times. Earlier in her career, she worked as a clinic assistant at Stanford Children’s Hospital, where she served as a Bilingual advocate for documented and undocumented Latino families. She majored in Spanish and international studies at the Ohio State University and received an M.S. from the Columbia University School of Journalism. Juvenile justice in the Bronx Eileen covers justice issues, starting with juvenile justice in the Bronx. The South Bronx, the poorest congressional district in the country, is home to Horizon Juvenile Center, which houses nearly one-quarter of the 700 16-and-17-year-olds incarcerated on any given day in the city. The center made headlines recently amid outbreaks of violence. The neighborhood, in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, is also home to Bronx Criminal Court, which no longer has any reporters assigned full-time to the press room. The verdict’s out on the borough’s nearly year-old innovative drug court, which stresses treatment over incarceration as the opioid addiction crisis mounts. The South Bronx, meanwhile, has been designated as the site of one of the local lockups slated to replace Rikers Island, much to the ire of many area residents. Overall, the Bronx is about 85 percent black or Hispanic, roughly mirroring the demographics of Rikers. Eileen uses a combination of data and in-person reporting to explore the human toll and political scope of justice-related issues.

Camalot Todd

Camalot reported on community issues in Las Vegas, including a long-term project on underage sex trafficking, for the Las Vegas Sun and its sister publication, Las Vegas Weekly. For the Sun, she wrote a pathbreaking investigative piece called, “Children on the Cusp: The transition from foster care to adulthood is leaving some behind.” The Nevada Press Association identified this work as the best investigative story of the year and named Camalot the Best Community Reporter of 2017. She also worked as a reporter for KUNV radio. She is a graduate of University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Mental health issues in Buffalo and western New York state According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in five adults live with a mental illness and just over 20 percent of children have had a seriously debilitating mental disorder. Unprecedented changes are roiling the mental health system including Medicaid and Affordable Care Act redesign, and a historic opioid epidemic. The changes mean local governments, health care providers, etc. are constantly having to adapt in order to meet new standards. On top of that, in western New York, there’s a shortage in mental health funding, beds and workforce. Cam focuses on mental health stigma and the state of mental health care in western New York, specifically in Erie, Niagara and Chautauqua counties. With Buffalo being a border city, there’s also the opportunity to look at mental health awareness and treatment in Canada, a country that prides itself on the way it approaches the topic. Spectrum News Buffalo provides training for shooting, editing and using newsroom software, and Cam will have the opportunity to participate in regular storytelling workshops. Additionally, Cam works in conjunction with the Networks Digital team to produce content for distribution on relevant social media channels.

Becky Jacobs

Becky worked as a crime and courts reporter in Northwest Indiana for the Post-Tribune, a suburban newspaper of the Chicago Tribune. She previously covered courts, crime and general assignment at the Grand Forks Herald, where she was named the North Dakota Newspaper Association rookie reporter of the year in 2016. She also was a Dow Jones News Fund copy editing intern at the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minnesota, and interned with The Local, an English news outlet in Stockholm, Sweden. She got her B.S. from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Covering the status of women in Utah Becky covers the status of women in Utah. Utah is routinely labeled as the worst state for women because it has the nation’s widest wage gap, a low college graduation rate for women and fewer women leaders in politics and business. (That number dropped from 11.4 to 6.4 percent since 2014.) From childcare access to cultural pressures — primarily associated with Mormon culture — there is some important targeted research happening in this area. Becky translates the data and ties it to personal narratives to give more context and attention to women’s issues.

Arielle Dreher

Prior to covering public health in eastern Washington state, Arielle worked as a staff reporter and writer for the Jackson Free Press, the alternative weekly in Mississippi. She covered state government, earning numerous awards including several first place Green Eyeshade awards. She has also received awards from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Awards and the Associated Press for feature writing, politics reporting, business reporting, courts reporting and public service. More recently, splitting her time between Pasco, Washington and Andalucía, Spain, Arielle has written about rural America and happiness for 74 Million, covered local business for the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business and wrote about mental health and reproductive health for the Free Press. She received her B.A. from Azusa Pacific University and her M.A. from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Public health in eastern Washington state Arielle reports on health and social issues in Spokane and the surrounding region as part of the paper’s Metro Desk team. That includes covering breaking news and diving into issue stories about key health topics, such as opioid abuse and access to care; social issues, such as the need for more foster families; and medical research and innovation from the area’s universities. She works with the Review’s government affairs editor, who is skilled at guiding novice reporters and helping them look beyond the process to find important issues and compelling human stories that will engage readers. As part of a small newsroom team, Arielle has the chance to tackle a wide variety of assignments and gets hands-on training with our digital team.

Amelia Ferrell Knisely

Amelia examines poverty and its ramifications in West Virginia for The Mountain State Spotlight. She previously covered similar issues for the Charleston Gazette-Mail, and she covered education and children’s issues for The Tennessean in Nashville. She has written extensively about homelessness and poverty, and she previously served as editor of The Contributor, a nonprofit newspaper sold by people experiencing homelessness. Her writing on the plight of migrant tomato farmers was nominated for an international news award. Originally from West Virginia, Amelia started her journalism career as a freelance journalist in her hometown. She holds a B.A. from Shepherd University in West Virginia and a master’s degree from Marshall University. Poverty in southern West Virginia Boone County had the highest per-capita income in West Virginia a few years ago, mostly because of the salaries paid to coal miners, but as the coal industry collapsed, that money went away. The region’s economic and social problems mean southern West Virginia is a difficult place to make a living and to raise children. At the same time, early childhood education and adult education and training, important ingredients for individual employment and for a region’s economic prosperity, get squeezed out of coverage by the legitimate demands of covering traditional K-12 schools and colleges and universities. Amelia’s reporting focuses on the large areas of a population left with too few jobs, with a specific focus toward educational opportunities at all levels.

St. Louis Public Radio

St. Louis Public Radio, a news organization and NPR member station, reaches half a million people on air, online and at events in the St. Louis region of Missouri and Illinois, with additional stations in Quincy, Ill., and Rolla and Lebanon, Mo. St. Louis Public Radio is committed to broadcasting and publishing material in the public interest to provide a free and accurate flow of information for people in the region. Its mission is to inform and provide a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas and cultures for a more inspired and engaged public.

Victoria Advocate

Established in 1846 – the same year the Republic of Texas joined the Union – the Victoria Advocate has a rich tradition of local ownership and stewardship of its community. It was named the Newspaper of the Year in 2014 by the Local Media Association.