2022-2023

Luis Joel Mendez Gonzalez

Luis Joel Méndez González covers government preparedness around climate change for the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, a nonprofit investigative news organization. Born and raised in Moca, Puerto Rico, he was a ProPublica Emerging Reporter in 2019, and a Google News Initiative Fellow in 2020. Méndez González, an LGBTQIA+ first-generation college graduate, has interned with The Miami Herald I-Team, El Nuevo Día Investigative and Data Unit, and Metro Puerto Rico. As a freelancer he has reported for international media outlets. Méndez González holds a master's degree in information design and data visualization from Northeastern University. In his free time, he enjoys reading and writing, and he also loves beauty pageants and coffee.

Nathan Hart

Nathan Hart covers education and workforce development in Ashland, Ohio for Ashland Source, a digital news organization serving residents of Ashland County in north central Ohio. Before joining Ashland Source, Nathan worked on Capitol Hill and covered the Texas delegation of Congress for McClatchy DC and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as an intern reporter. Prior to that, Nathan worked in the Ohio statehouse as a statehouse news fellow for Cincinnati-based news station WCPO. Nathan’s journalism career started in high school where he worked on his school’s newspaper and weekly news show. Nathan has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Ohio University. He is a member of Phi Betta Kappa and Kappa Tau Alpha, both academic honor societies for college students. In his free time, Nathan enjoys playing video games, performing stand-up comedy, and going to social events.

Sami Edge

Sami Edge covers higher education with a focus on community college for The Oregonian/Oregon Live, which is based in Portland. Edge has reported on public safety for The Santa Fe New Mexican, and wrote about K-12 schools in Idaho for the nonprofit newsroom, Idaho Education News. She was an American Press Institute community listening fellow, and is a graduate of the University of Oregon, where she edited the independent student paper, The Emerald. Born in Reno, Nevada, she plans to spend her career exploring the American West.

Timothy Pratt

Timothy Pratt chronicles the long-term effects of the pandemic on Georgia for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, focusing on communities—demographic and geographic—that have suffered the most and will likely face the greatest challenges moving forward. Pratt has reported for the last 25 years, in English and Spanish, from Latin America and the U.S. on immigration, education, elections and voter suppression, race and more. His work has appeared in dozens of outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, AP and Reuters. He has been a National Health Journalism Fellow, an Education Writers Association Reporting Fellow, a Marguerite Casey Foundation Fellow, among others, and the recipient of various awards, including one from the National Association of Hispanic Publications for a series in Spanish on how immigrant communities in Las Vegas experienced the 2010 World Cup.

Abigail Nehring

Abigail Nehring covers commercial and residential real estate for The Riverdale Press, a news site and weekly paper in the northwest section of the Bronx, a borough of New York City. Previously, she reported on health and education for The New Bedford Light in her home state of Massachusetts. Nehring won a New York Press Club Award for her reporting in City Limits on an East Village landlord caught on tape illegally harassing tenants and, along with Julia Angwin, was a finalist for the John Jay/H.F. Guggenheim Prize for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting for their story on police use of stun grenades, known as flash-bangs, published by Propublica and The Atlantic. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in nonfiction writing from Columbia University and has also worked as a writing teacher, fact-checked magazine stories, and tended numerous varieties of thyme in a greenhouse.

Brittney Miller

Brittney J. Miller covers energy and the environment for The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Prior to this, Miller earned a master’s degree in science writing and communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. There, she wrote about anything science-related —international research, local environmental issues and more—through internships with Nature, Knowable Magazine and the Monterey Herald, and she was named a fellow at The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and an ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation Scholar. Miller holds bachelor’s degrees in biology and journalism from the University of Florida, where her journalism career began at the college’s digital and radio news outlet, WUFT News. When she’s not typing or taking pictures, Miller loves hiking, gardening and cooking.

Crystal Niebla

Crystal Niebla is an investigative reporter focused on infrastructure and government accountability for inewsource, a nonprofit newsroom in San Diego. A second-year Report for America corps member, Niebla was a multimedia journalist at the Long Beach Post in Long Beach, California. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in sociology from The California State University, Long Beach, where she was the news editor of the student paper. Niebla grew up in South Los Angeles and realized early on that despite growing up in poverty, she could use fearless journalism to influence positive change in society.

Hannah Schoenbaum

Hannah Schoenbaum covers government and politics for The Associated Press, with a focus on the North Carolina General Assembly and the state’s congressional races. Schoenbaum previously covered Congress for The Hill, a political news site, and the Albany Times Union while a graduate student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and was a regular contributor at USA Today. Her in-depth reporting on inequities against Black farmers and urban Native Americans has been cited on the congressional record and helped inform legislation. She has covered election security for the NBC News Vote Watch team, investigated wrongful evictions for The Boston Globe and questioned presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg about corporate influence in politics, live on CNN. An alumna of Boston University, she got her start in state government reporting as the Massachusetts Statehouse reporter for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. She is a proud member of NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists.

Jayme Lozano

Jayme Lozano Carver covers rural news in West Texas for The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit digital news organization based in Austin. Prior to this, Lozano Carver  reported on the rise of rural hospital closures in Texas for Lubbock’s NPR station, KTTZ, and the PBS series “Frontline.”  Her journalism career started at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal as a copy editor, and as a reporter she reestablished the regional news beat. Lozano studied journalism at South Plains College and Texas Tech University. Her work has earned awards from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation, the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors. 

Kayla Benjamin

Kayla Benjamin is a journalist at The Washington Informer, a multimedia news organization in the metro Washington, D.C. area. Prior to this, she was an assistant editor at Washingtonian magazine, and reported on the arts, travel, real estate and politics. As an intern with Current, a national trade publication covering the public media industry, Benjamin wrote a feature story about public radio stations’ climate coverage initiatives, which was included in the Pew Research Center’s newsletter on media and on Mediagazer’s Twitter. Benjamin, a graduate of American University, is passionate about solutions journalism, environmental policy and dark chocolate.