2022-2023

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.

Madeline Heim

Madeline Heim reports for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where she covers Wisconsin’s environmental challenges as part of the Mississippi River Basin Project, a collaborative reporting network across the Basin. Previously, she was a health and science reporter for the Appleton Post-Crescent and the USA Today network in Wisconsin—her coverage of the pandemic earned top honors from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Born and raised in the Badger State, she holds degrees in journalism and creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was editor-in-chief of the The Daily Cardinal. Heim has interned at the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, and reported for the Winona Daily News in Winona, Minnesota, where she quickly fell in love with the Mississippi River region.

Noah Biesiada

Noah Biesiada is a reporter for Voice of OC, a digital news outlet in Orange County, California, one of the largest counties in the U.S. This new Report for America position allows him to continue working for this nonprofit publication. Biesiada covers the communities of south Orange County, reporting on city councils, municipal agencies, disasters and education. In his time at the Voice, Biesiada has won state and local awards for his coverage of local politics, failed disaster communication and education reporting, along with reporting an investigative series on misuses of taxpayer dollars. Holding a bachelor’s degree in communications from California State University, Fullerton, Biesiada worked at the college paper, the Daily Titan, and served as the lead news editor on several major breaking news events.

Santiago Ochoa

Santiago Ochoa is a bilingual journalist covering health care access at the Yakima Herald-Republic in Yakima, Washington. Before joining the Herald, Ochoa reported for Flint Beat in Flint, Michigan, covering the city’s Latino population—health care, education, community building and more, and winning top honors in the Michigan Press Association’s feature category. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan-Flint, where he was editor-in-chief of the school’s paper, The Michigan Times. When he’s not working, Ochoa enjoys cross-country trips on his motorcycle, going to the movies, reading and skiing.

Victoria Franco

Victoria Franco is a disabled bilingual reporter based in Stockton, California, covering the news around San Joaquin County for Bay City News Foundation and its Local News Matters, a nonprofit news site. She is a research fellow at the Starling Lab for Data Integrity, which was co-founded by Stanford University and the University of Southern California. A San Jose State University alumna, Franco served as the managing editor of her student paper, the Spartan Daily. She helped lead her staff to the California College Media Association Awards, earning first place in general excellence. In her spare time, Franco enjoys traveling to Europe with her mother.

Abriana Herron

Abriana Herron covers the role of Black churches in the Indianapolis, Indiana community for the Indianapolis Recorder. A recent graduate with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana University Bloomington—she has also studied a semester abroad at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England—Herron wrote for Indiana’s student paper, covering racial disparities, government policies, among other news. She interned with the Recorder and she is excited to return to the nation’s fourth oldest Black newspaper as a full-time reporter.

Brooke Schultz

Brooke Schultz is a Statehouse reporter for The Associated Press in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Before joining the AP, she was a digital editor for the Delaware State News, and has covered education for the Newark Post in Newark, Delaware. A graduate of Washington College, Schultz was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper, The Elm.

Danielle Duclos

Danielle DuClos reports on K-12 education in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for the Green Bay Press- Gazette, part of the USA Today Network. Prior to joining the Press-Gazette, DuClos reported for ABC News, The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and the Anchorage Daily News. A recent graduate of the University of Missouri, where she was a state government reporter for the Columbia Missourian, the university’s community paper, DuClos holds a bachelor’s degree in investigative reporting and pre-law political science. She is passionate about the law and has interned for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Raised in Anchorage, Alaska, DuClos was a senior producer of “Podcast in Place,” a youth-run podcast that chronicled the impact of COVID-19 on Alaskan communities, and loves to spend time in the mountains and on the water.