2022-2023

Bennet Goldstein

Bennet Goldstein reports on water and agriculture as Wisconsin Watch’s Report for America representative on the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk—a collaborative reporting network across the Basin. Before this, Goldstein was on the breaking news team at the Omaha World Herald in Nebraska. He has spent most of his career at daily papers in Iowa, including the Dubuque Telegraph Herald. Goldstein’s work has garnered awards, including the Associated Press Media Editors award for an explanatory feature about a police shooting in rural Wisconsin, and an Iowa Newspaper Association award for a series that detailed the impacts of the loss of social safety net programs on Dubuque’s Marshallese community. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Connor Giffin

Connor Giffin covers climate change and environmental issues in Louisville, Kentucky, for the Courier-Journal as the Report for America representative on the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk—a collaborative reporting network across the Basin. While earning his bachelor’s degree at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Giffin contributed to “Lost on the Frontline,” an award-winning collaborative project from Kaiser Health News and The Guardian documenting the deaths of frontline health care workers during the pandemic. He also reported on state government and the environment for the Columbia Missourian, the university’s community paper.

Gabriella Paul

Gabriella Paul is a journalist at WUSF Public Media, the NPR affiliate in Tampa, Florida, reporting on the people living paycheck to paycheck in the area. Previously, Paul was the digital news editor for WUFT public radio in Gainesville, Florida. Born in Colorado, she grew up in the Tampa Bay region and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in history from the University of Florida. While there, Paul earned two Sunshine State Awards from the Society for Professional Journalism, and co-authored a report on the university’s racial legacies. As a fellow for the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Paul contributed to an award-winning investigative podcast, “Why Don’t We Know?”

Jamie Jiang

Jamie Jiang covers wildfires in Chico, California for North State Public Radio, which serves Northern California. A recent graduate of UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in linguistics, Jiang was the podcasts editor for the student paper, the Daily Bruin, and created and produced podcast episodes for UCLA’s FEM newsmagazine radio program. She has interned with KCUR public radio in Kansas City, Missouri, and her independently written and produced audio history of the University of California Police Department, “Cops On Campus,” will be published in summer 2022. A native Californian, Jiang enjoys early morning birdwatching in her spare time.

Julie Luchetta

Julie Luchetta is a reporter for Boise State Public Radio, covering Idaho's growing Latino population. She has interned as a breaking news reporter for The Arizona Republic, and is a recent graduate of the University of Arizona School of Journalism, where she focused her work on environmental journalism and audio reporting. Born and raised in France, Luchetta moved to the U.S. to study the borderlands of Arizona. Before becoming a reporter, she worked in research and social services, most recently supporting LGBTQ+ folks experiencing homelessness. Luchetta spends her free time recommending podcasts to people who did not ask for podcast recommendations.

Linsey Dower

Linsey Dower covers the cultural affairs beat for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Hawaii’s largest daily newspaper, based in the state capital on the island of Oahu. Dower hails from Oahu, and is a recent graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a bachelor's degree in journalism. She has interned at the Star-Advertiser, covering state legislature, and at Hawaii Business magazine, where she reported on a variety of topics, including community-supported agriculture, local art events and the mortuary business.

Michaela Towfighi

Michaela Towfighi reports on struggling middle-class and working-class residents for the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. Prior to joining the Monitor full time, she was a summer intern there. A 2022 graduate of Duke University with a degree in public policy and journalism and media studies, she covered education, COVID-19 and the 2020 election and helped edit stories about the Durham County Courthouse for The 9th Street, a Duke newsletter, and North Carolina’s Indy Week. Her story about a family grappling with a delayed trial for a fatal car accident in Concord, New Hampshire won top honors in Duke’s Melcher Family Award for Excellence in Journalism. Towfighi is an American expat who calls London home, despite not having picked up a British accent just yet.

Samantha Hendrickson

Samantha Hendrickson covers the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio for The Associated Press. Before joining Report for America, she was a general assignment and business reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Hendrickson is a proud alumnus of The Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota’s student-run paper, and covered the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, the trial of Derek Chauvin and the police shooting of Daunte Wright. She also freelanced for The Intercept after discovering that a key witness for the defense in the Chauvin trial had a pending lawsuit against him involving the death of a young Black man. When she isn’t reporting, Hendrickson loves to craft, cook, read, do yoga and create the perfect playlist.

Teresa Homsi

Teresa Homsi is an environmental reporter in northern Michigan for WCMU public radio, which is based in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Homsi covers rural environmental issues, and their intersection with public health and Michigan commerce. Holding a bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University in environmental studies, journalism and anthropology, she was a beat reporter for Central Michigan Life, the student paper, and interned for the Huron Daily Tribune and for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy’s superfund program. Homsi helped start her university’s sustainability office, and implemented projects, policy and programming. Her work has gained national and international recognition from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

Bethany Baker

Bethany Baker is a journalist at The Salt Lake Tribune, a nonprofit newspaper in Salt Lake City, Utah. As a documentarian creating videos, photos and multimedia content, she covers water-management issues involving the Colorado River, the Great Salt Lake and related resources, as well as issues within the region's Indigenous communities and other topics impacting Salt Lake City and Utah. Before this, Baker worked on her master’s degree in journalism at Harvard Extension School, and she was a photojournalist at daily papers throughout the West. Originally from the Chicagoland area, Baker studied French in high school, and is developing her Spanish fluency. An avid outdoors enthusiast, she loves backpacking, rafting, rock climbing and snowboarding, and has two dogs and a quarter horse gelding.