2022-2023

Kaitlin Cough

Kate Cough covers energy and the environment for The Maine Monitor, an investigative outlet based in Maine, where she was born and raised. She was previously a reporter and then the digital media strategist for The Ellsworth American, a 150-year-old weekly paper based in Ellsworth, Maine. While there, she won awards from the Maine Press Association and the New England Newspaper Association for her work on where local recycling really winds up, how businesses are coping with the labor shortage, and a local network of white supremacists, among other pieces. Kate graduated with honors from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Magna Cum Laude from Bryn Mawr College, and spent time in medical school before leaving to pursue her dream of becoming a journalist.

Megan Zerez

Megan Zerez reports on education for WSKG, an NPR affiliate station in Binghamton, New York. In 2021, she earned her degree from The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Zerez has interned with WNYC public radio and has written for The City, a nonprofit news site. She grew up in Honolulu and before she was a reporter, Zerez was a researcher in a bioengineering lab. But when ongoing nationwide protests in South Africa disrupted her work there, she began to record interviews and document clashes with police, and later realized that journalism was for her. That realization led to an internship at KERA, Dallas’ NPR station, where her story on refugees won statewide recognition. Zerez wrote an investigative series on alleged sexual harassment and labor law violations by a major university contractor for The Mercury, the student paper at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her work earned her honors from the Society of Professional Journalists.

WSKG Public Telecommunications Council

WSKG is a public radio station serving the Binghamton, N.Y., area with educational programming and news. Its areas of focus include the arts, culture and heritage of the region as well as other matters of local importance. It is an affiliate of National Public Radio. The station seeks to represent diverse viewpoints to help listeners reach better conclusions that can be clearly explained, effectively defended or, when appropriate, revisited and revised.

Bennito Kelty

Bennito Kelty covers the IDEA beat, taking a close look at inclusivity, diversity, equity and access for the Tucson Sentinel, a nonprofit news site in Tucson, Arizona. Before this, he worked for the Yuma Sun in Yuma, Arizona reporting on the Arizona-Mexico border and county government. Kelty calls Aurora, Colorado home and its diverse immigrant community led him to become interested in understanding cultures from around the world that exist in America and how these groups of people live together. That interest, plus growing up in a Mexican American home, influenced his love of languages, including his own native Spanish and English. Kelty started reporting as a journalism student at the University of Missouri, where he won recognition from the Missouri Press Association for a story in the Missourian, the school’s community paper. Kelty has also won an award with The St. Louis American for breaking news coverage.

Atavia Reed

Atavia Reed reports on Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods for Block Club Chicago, a nonprofit news site dedicated to covering the city’s neighborhoods. Previously, Reed was a reporter at the Chicago Tribune Media Group covering suburban news for the Pioneer Press, including stories on the pandemic’s effect on senior living and education. A multimedia journalist, Reed says she was once described as “too nosey for her own good” and decided to make a career out of it. She’s covered culture and news for USA Today, VICE, the Chicago Tribune, South Side Weekly and the Chicago Reader. Reed holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she was the assistant editor for the school’s culture magazine, Buzz, contributed a narrative feature to the local paper and spent a semester studying dramatic writing at New York University.

Hannah Critchfield

Hannah Critchfield covers issues affecting people 65 and over for the Tampa Bay Times. A second-year corps member, she previously reported on conditions inside prisons and jails during the pandemic and gender-based health disparities for North Carolina Health News. Critchfield's investigation into the state's underreporting of incarcerated people who died of COVID-19 changed state prison policy. She has worked for the Phoenix New Times, covering immigration and criminal justice, and her reporting has also appeared in The New York Times, VICE, The Intercept, and PBS. Critchfield, from Normal, Illinois, holds a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she focused on workplace abuse within undocumented communities and received the Melvin Mencher Award for superior reporting. Her investigation into the rehiring of university faculty accused of sexual harassment in 2019 earned her the Fred M. Hechinger Award for Education Journalism.

Maria Benevento

Maria Benevento covers education for The Kansas City Beacon, a nonprofit newsroom focused on in-depth public service journalism. Prior to joining The Beacon, she reported on the Missouri state government as an intern for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Jefferson City bureau. While earning her master's at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Benevento worked on the education and state government beats, the graphics desk, and as a teaching assistant on the copy desk for the Columbia Missourian, the school's community paper. Benevento's investigative work for the paper focused on the struggles domestic violence victims face while trying to divorce their abusers. She spent two years as an editorial intern at the National Catholic Reporter in Kansas City before heading off to graduate school. Home for Benevento is Kirksville, Missouri.

Sriya Reddy

Sriya Reddy covers South Dallas for The Dallas Morning News, where she had interned earlier. A 2021 graduate of Southern Methodist University, Reddy holds a bachelor's degree and majored in journalism, history, corporate communications and public affairs. She was editor-in-chief of The Daily Campus, the student-run publication, and her in-depth reporting about gentrification in Dallas earned her a first-place award from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association, and her opinion piece “Local Journalists Pay Attention When No One Else Does” was also honored. SMU recognized her work with an Outstanding Achievement in Digital Journalism award. Reddy grew up in Plano, Texas. She has worked at KERA, a public radio station in Dallas, Central Track, and the Dallas Free Press. In her free time, she loves to journal, buy more books than she reads and spend hours in local museums.

Breanna Reeves

Breanna Reeves is a journalist for Black Voice News, a website and weekly paper in Riverside, California, and uses data-driven reporting to cover issues that affect the lives of Black Californians. Before joining Black Voice News, Reeves earned a master's degree in politics and communication from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she wrote for the London Globalist, the student-run international affairs publication. She has worked as a freelancer, covering activism and shining light on social inequality in San Francisco and Los Angeles, her hometown. Reeves honed her reporting skills while covering homelessness, social activism and inequality for the Golden Gate Xpress, the student-run newspaper at San Francisco State University. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in print and online journalism with a minor in international relations.

Ian Karbal

Ian Karbal reports on state politics for Mountain State Spotlight, an investigative and enterprise news site based in Charleston, West Virginia. Before joining the Spotlight, Karbal was a Delacorte Magazine fellow at the Columbia Journalism Review, covering mis/disinformation and the media industry. He holds a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he specialized in investigative reporting in the Toni Stabile Center program. His work has also appeared in The Trace, OpenSecrets, and the Gateway Journalism Review. Karbal, from Chicago, began his career reporting on local government for the Pinckneyville Press in Illinois. His investigative work uncovering biased and for-profit policing practices earned him a Freedom of Information Award from the National Newspaper Association, and made him a finalist for the 2018 Chicago Headline Club's Peter Lisagor Awards.