2022-2023

Camila Vallejo

Camila Vallejo reports for Connecticut Public Radio in Hartford, Connecticut, where she focuses on housing disparities in Fairfield County. She got her start in radio as an intern for that station, later becoming a producer for All Things Considered. Prior to radio, Vallejo freelanced for Hearst Connecticut Media, a network of newspapers and websites, the Record-Journal, and the Connecticut Health Investigative Team, a nonprofit web-based news service. As an intern for the Hartford Courant, a daily paper, she kept readers informed about local entertainment, food news, and more. Vallejo graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in journalism and communications. She grew up in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Jasmine Demers

Jasmine Demers reports on issues related to youth, social services and legislative accountability for the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit newsroom based in Louisville. Previously, she worked for the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, her hometown, covering science, health, government and the pandemic. Following months of local coronavirus coverage, including deaths in Arizona nursing homes, Demers received top awards from the Arizona Newspapers Association. The Arizona Press Club has honored her science reporting. She holds a master's degree from The University of Arizona School of Journalism, where she was editor-in-chief of the student-run Daily Wildcat, and received the Philip Mangelsdorf Award for Outstanding Newsperson of the Year as well as the Douglas D. Martin Award for Courage and Integrity.

Mirtha Donastorg

Mirtha Donastorg covers innovation and start-up initiatives at historically Black colleges and universities for The Plug, a news site based in Atlanta and devoted to Black tech trends, investigative stories and breaking news. She is a journalist with experience in TV, digital and radio, and was most recently an associate producer at CNN Digital where she helped curate multiple homepage platforms, as well as craft breaking news alerts viewed by millions daily. As a researcher for CNN, Donastorg fact-checked scripts from correspondents all over the globe and most notably, reported on the conviction of an abusive Catholic priest. Outside of work, she shares her love of soul music from around the world as a host of a weekly two-hour local radio show. Donastorg grew up in Auburn, Alabama. She’s a proud alumna of North Carolina State University, and is fluent in Spanish and French.

Tran Nguyen

Tran Nguyen reports for the San Jose Spotlight, a nonprofit, community-supported digital news organization in California. A bilingual data journalist, Nguyen covers the Vietnamese community and other news in the South Bay. Before starting the Report for America position, she interned for Spotlight, where she reported on businesses, schools, city and county government. While pursuing her master's degree in data journalism at the University of Missouri, Nguyen worked as a K-12 education and graphics reporter for the Columbia Missourian, the student-run publication, and as a graduate research assistant studying the user experience of digital versus print journalism. Nguyen was a city hall reporter for the Ashland Tidings and the Mail Tribune in Oregon, and she also holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oregon. Her hometown is Saigon, Vietnam.

Carolina Cuellar

Carolina Cuellar reports on immigration and communities in the Rio Grande Valley for Texas Public Radio, which is based in San Antonio. Cuellar is a bilingual reporter who grew up in Stockton, California after she and her family emigrated from Colombia. A scientist-turned-journalist, she worked on the science desk at KQED, public TV and radio stations serving Northern California, and has written about dog DNA criminal forensics and the largest fire in Santa Cruz County history, the CZU Lightning Complex wildfire that started in August 2020. Her work has appeared in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, The Mercury News, and science sites such as Eos and Mongabay. Cuellar, a first-generation college graduate, holds a master’s degree in science communication and a bachelor’s in molecular, cellular and developmental biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was a researcher in a virology lab and at a genomics company, with a focus on protein engineering, before pursuing a career in journalism.

Julia Shanahan

Julia Shanahan covers the changing nature of public services for the Rappahannock News and Foothills Forum in Washington, Virginia. A 2021 graduate of the University of Iowa with bachelor degrees in journalism and political science, Shanahan was the politics editor at The Daily Iowan, the student-run paper. It was named the Iowa Newspaper Association's Newspaper of the Year in 2020 and 2021, with Shanahan earning awards for her reporting. She was a finalist for national Reporter of the Year from the Associated Collegiate Press in 2020, and has interned with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents' Association. Shanahan, of Naperville, Illinois, hopes to one day report from the White House.

Olivia Sun

Olivia Sun is a photojournalist with the Colorado Sun in Denver, covering statewide politics, education and the environment. Before this, she spent two years in her home state at the Des Moines Register photographing daily news, focusing on economic disparities, investigations and coronavirus coverage. Sun holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa, and while studying journalism and film she interned at The Chautauquan Daily in western New York, the China Daily in Beijing, and NPR's science desk in Washington, D.C. Sun's coverage of the 2020 caucus season has appeared in Liberation, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Associated Press, The Washington Post and more.

Vanessa Colon Almenas

Vanessa Colon Almenas helps lead a team of reporters for the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI), a nonprofit investigative news organization. Colon Almenas, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and her team are delving into the island's recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria in 2017. With more than 25 years of journalism experience, she has worked as a reporter, a deputy director and a multimedia editor at Primera Hora, a newspaper. Later, she was the digital deputy director of Puerto Rico's two largest news sites, El Nuevo Dia and Primera Hora. Colon Almenas recently completed her master's at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. As an independent journalist her work has been published by the CPI, City Limits, Latino Rebels and CNN en Español.

Caroline Eggers

Caroline Eggers covers environmental issues with a focus on equity for WPLN, an NPR member station in Nashville, Tennessee. Before this, she spent several years covering water quality issues, biodiversity, climate change and Mammoth Cave National Park for newsrooms in the South. Her reporting on homelessness and a runoff-related fish kill for the Bowling Green Daily News earned her awards from the Kentucky Press Association. Eggers studied journalism and creating writing at Emory University and began her science communication career in Washington, D.C. at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry and the American Wind Energy Association. Beyond deadlines, she is frequently dancing to electronic dance music, playing piano or photographing wildlife or her poodle, Princess. She's from Owensboro, Kentucky.

Kate Stockrahm

Kate Stockrahm reports on local nonprofits and businesses for Flint Beat, a digital publication that’s focused on government accountability, solutions journalism and filling news gaps for the community of Flint, Michigan. Stockrahm holds a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in Latin from the University of Michigan, and began her career as an event manager in Washington, D.C. before moving to New York City to earn her degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. There, she developed skills in audio and visual storytelling while covering everything from divisive police union endorsements and failing museum diversity initiatives to COVID-19’s impact on local comedy club culture and the future of nuclear fusion as an energy source. Originally hailing from Michigan, Stockrahm says that the only two people more excited about her return to the Great Lakes State are her mom and dad.