2022-2023

Tandy Lau

Tandy Lau reports on public safety for the New York Amsterdam News in the historic Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem. Before joining Report for America, Lau was down the street working on his master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University, and reporting on race, sports and workers’ rights as a student journalist. He hails from Los Angeles, where he began working in minority press as a regular contributor to Character Media, an Asian American entertainment magazine. When he’s not writing or reporting, Lau can be found watching boxing and struggling to keep his houseplants alive.

Bella Davis

Bella Davis covers Indigenous affairs for New Mexico In Depth, a nonprofit, digital news outlet. She’s based in Albuquerque. Most recently, Davis reported on cannabis, housing, local government and more for the Santa Fe Reporter. She got her start in journalism at her college newspaper, which she joined at the beginning of the pandemic, and primarily covered protests spurred by the police murder of George Floyd. A graduate of the University of New Mexico with a degree in journalism, Davis was born in Eureka, California, grew up in central New Mexico, and is a Yurok tribal member.

Colleen Cronin

Colleen Cronin covers rural communities in Rhode Island for ecoRI News, a nonprofit newsroom that reports on environmental and social justice issues. Prior to joining ecoRI, Cronin worked as a digital producer and metro correspondent at The Boston Globe, writing education stories and breaking news overnight. She’s also worked on a year-long project investigating the opioid epidemic in Rhode Island, freelanced for The New York Times, and interned at People Magazine. Cronin is bilingual and received her bachelor’s degree in English from Brown in 2021, where she covered state and local politics, the college admissions scandal, and the university’s response to COVID-19 for The Brown Daily Herald. She eventually worked her way up to the role of editor-in-chief and president.

Gabriela Szymanowska

Gabriela Szymanowska reports on the judicial system for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Prior to this, she covered breaking news and public safety for the Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi. Born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, she holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and electronic media from The University of Tennessee, where she was editor-in-chief of The Daily Beacon, the student paper. Szymanowska earned top honors for features/hard news photography at the 2020 Southeastern Journalism Conference on-site competition. As a fellow in the Carnegie-Knight News21 investigative program, Szymanowska, along with 34 other journalists, investigated juvenile justice in America in the multimedia reporting project, “Kids Imprisoned.” Their work won the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy College Journalism Award. Beyond reporting, she’s passionate about photography and capturing the everyday, ordinary moments of people’s lives.

James Hanlon

James Hanlon reports for The Spokesman-Review, based in Spokane, Washington, covering rural counties in eastern Washington and the Idaho Panhandle. Previously, Hanlon reported for The Oxford Leader in Oxford, Michigan. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and Snowflake, Arizona, and he holds bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and film and media studies from Arizona State University. After college, Hanlon spent three years living in a Japanese village of 700 people, teaching English and writing about revitalization projects in the countryside for a local nonprofit. His work has also appeared in Kyoto Journal, Tokyo Cheapo and Asia Matters for America by the East-West Center.

Joshua Rosenberg

Joshua Rosenberg covers the environmental beat for The Lens, a nonprofit digital newsroom based in New Orleans, where he reports on storm surges, hurricanes, and the continuing disappearance of wetlands. Prior to joining The Lens, Rosenberg reported on federal tax policy for the legal newswire Law360, tracking down stories in the halls of Congress before moving into a more features-oriented role. As a 2014 Teach For America corps member, he taught high school history in Indianapolis. Rosenberg hails from Roxbury, New Jersey, and he earned his undergraduate degree in history and secondary education from William Paterson University, and holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Brown University.

Lindiwe Vilakazi

Lindiwe Vilakazi reports for The Washington Informer, a multimedia news organization serving African Americans in the metro Washington, D.C. area. Previously, she was a contributing editor at Acumen Magazine, a Washington-based publication featuring investigative stories that examine eugenics, African-American history, social movements and popular culture. Vilakazi says that she is an investigative journalist whose work highlights the lives and stories of those groups of people who often go unnoticed in the mainstream news. Her freelance work has appeared in several digital and print publications.

Michael Goldberg

Michael Goldberg covers the Mississippi Legislature for The Associated Press, concentrating on poverty and inequality. Before joining the AP, Goldberg covered state government for the Washington State Wire news site, and health care policy for State of Reform, a site devoted to policy journalism. He has reported on the economic impacts of the pandemic, Medicaid expansion and the 2020 election cycle, and his work offered a window into the inner workings of political institutions through the stories of individuals, detailing the politics of public broadband implementation and economic dislocation in rural Washington. Goldberg holds a master’s degree in specialized journalism from the University of Southern California, where he reported on topics at the intersection of politics, culture and labor for Annenberg Media.

Sam Ogozalek

Sam Ogozalek is a health care reporter focusing on mental health for the Tampa Bay Times in Florida. Previously, he covered COVID-19 and local government for The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette in South Carolina. Hailing from Hancock, New York, a small town along the Delaware River, Ogozalek was editor-in-chief of Syracuse University’s student paper, The Daily Orange, and has interned at the Tampa Bay Times, The Buffalo News and the Naples Daily News.

Tashi McQueen

Tashi McQueen is a political beat reporter concentrating on voter education for Afro News, which serves Baltimore’s Black community. Prior to joining the Afro, McQueen freelanced for The Baltimore Sun, with her first story earning a spot on the front page. Holding a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Goucher College, McQueen got her start in journalism by reporting for The Goucher Eye, the college’s digital news source. She is a member of the Baltimore Association of Black Journalists, and she speaks French and Spanish and enjoys learning new languages in her free time.