2022-2023

Eileen Rodriguez

Eileen Rodriguez covers COVID-19 recovery and the Latino community in Forsyth County, North Carolina for WFDD and La Noticia, a collaboration of a public radio station and the state's biggest Spanish-language newsroom. Most recently, Rodriguez interned as an audio production assistant for the Financial Times, working on podcasts about global business and culture. Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, Rodriguez holds a bachelor's degree from Baruch College in New York City, where she reported for Dollars & Sense, the online student publication. As a Walker Communications fellow for Audubon magazine, Rodriguez traveled across the U.S. to report stories that focused on environmental justice in marginalized communities. During this time, she also freelanced for Acuris, which specializes in news for financial professionals, and The New York Times, as a reporter, translator and transcriber.

Lautaro Grinspan

Lautaro Grinspan covers Latino and Asian immigrant communities for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Grinspan was previously a Report for America corps member in South Florida, reporting on immigration, the Latino vote and daily life issues among the area's Latin American diasporas. His stories appeared in English in the Miami Herald and in Spanish in El Nuevo Herald. Grinspan has interned at NPR's “Weekend Edition” and at WBUR, Boston's NPR news station, and was an engagement manager at Vox, a news site. As an editorial fellow for Washingtonian magazine, he authored the magazine's first Spanish-language stories. Grinspan grew up in Argentina and France before moving to South Florida as a teen.

Shaena Montanari

Shaena Montanari reports on health disparities in Arizona's rural communities for the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization. A scientist-turned-journalist, Montanari has been a freelancer since 2017, reporting on science and health. Her work has appeared in Popular Science, National Geographic, among others. She earned her Ph.D. in comparative biology from the Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History in 2012. But after an AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Mass Media fellowship at National Geographic, Montanari switched from a career in paleontology to journalism. In addition to her freelance work, she was a Pulliam fellow at The Arizona Republic, and holds a master's degree in investigative journalism from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Her hometown is Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Ari Snider

Ari Snider reports on Maine's refugee communities for Maine Public, a nonprofit based in Portland with radio, TV, educational and Web services. Snider grew up in Maine, and returns by way of far west Texas, where he hosted Morning Edition at Marfa Public Radio. Before that, Snider was in Southeast Alaska, reporting and hosting at public radio stations KCAW in Sitka and KFSK in Petersburg. He got his start in audio as an undergrad at Brown University and through internships at radio stations in Vermont and Rhode Island. Over the last several years, Snider has covered everything from a labor strike to a ferry-funding crisis to renewable energy initiatives in remote Alaska towns. His reporting has won three Alaska Press Club awards, and has aired on radio stations throughout Alaska, Texas, and New England. When looking to get out of town for a weekend, Snider has a special fondness for the islands of Penobscot Bay and the lakes and mountains of the North Woods.

Gabriela Martinez

Gabriela Martínez is a Puerto Rican multimedia journalist. She covers the intersection of race and identity in central Pennsylvania with a focus on the Latino community for WITF, a nonprofit multimedia organization in Harrisburg. Previously, she worked as an associate producer at Kentucky Educational Television, producing pieces on health equity in Kentucky's immigrant communities and the restoration of voting rights to former felons. At the PBS NewsHour, Martínez contributed stories to the digital politics team, and wrote pieces on gun trafficking and cockfighting in Puerto Rico. Fluent in Spanish, English and Russian, she was a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Russia, and holds a master's degree in multiplatform journalism from the University of Maryland. While there, Martínez and a team of student photojournalists produced a documentary series on opioid addiction in Maryland. It earned multiple honors, including a Best of Festival Award from the Broadcast Education Association.

Liz Donovan

Liz Donovan reports for City Limits, a nonprofit investigative news site based in New York City. She covers climate change and its implications for the city, including the disproportionate impact on vulnerable communities. Previously, as a fellow for the Global Migration Project, Donovan investigated the exploitation of immigrant women in a health care workforce. For over a decade she worked as a magazine editor, then earned her master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. As an Émile Boutmy scholar, Donovan earned a master's at the Sciences Po Journalism School in Paris in 2020. There, she interned on the climate and environment desk at Agence France-Presse and reported on France's migrant population. Her freelance work has been published in The Intercept, Documented, and The Week. In the summer she has taught reporting and editing to high school students at The School of The New York Times.

Shaun Robinson

Shaun Robinson covers northwest Vermont for VTDigger, a nonprofit daily news organization dedicated to watchdog reporting. Previously, Robinson worked as a statehouse correspondent for the Cape Cod Times, and produced coverage of Newton, Massachusetts for The Boston Globe. He has interned at GBH, Boston public radio, and did a six-month co-op at The Patriot Ledger, a daily paper in Quincy, Massachusetts, where he covered hundreds of stories, from a subway derailment to an 84-day sanitation workers' strike. When Robinson was editor-in-chief of The Daily Free Press, the student-run paper at Boston University, it won the 2019 New England College Newspaper of the Year Award. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism, summa cum laude, in May 2021. Robinson was born in Seattle but grew up in central New Jersey. He's a lifelong soccer fan, and is steadily improving at solving The New York Times crossword puzzle.

Astrid Kayembe

Astrid Kayembe is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal, a paper based on Memphis, Tennessee, covering South Memphis. Most recently, she was a social media associate for L.A. Taco, a news site, and participated in The New York Times Student Journalism Institute. Kayembe earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in media and social change from the University of Southern California in 2021, where she was a reporter and editor for Intersections South L.A. Kayembe and a team partnered with L.A.Taco and won first place in a student innovation competition hosted by the University of Missouri School of Journalism. For a fellowship, she produced the “Truth Told” video series with a team of journalists as a part of the Google News Initiative. Kayembe calls South Central LA home, and when she isn’t reporting she can be found searching for the best fried plantains in the city (which are probably at her mom’s house).

Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio

Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio covers immigration enforcement for Documented, a nonprofit news site that focuses on New York City's immigrant communities and policies that affect them. Prior to this, she was a national reporting fellow for The New York Times, writing about COVID-19, the pandemic's effect on education, and extreme weather, among other stories. McDonnell Nieto del Rio is fluent in Spanish and reported on Latino communities and breaking news as an intern for her hometown paper, the Los Angeles Times. A participant in The New York Times Student Journalism Institute, she holds a bachelor's degree from Williams College, where she majored in Latin American history. She focused on immigration reporting while earning her master's from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. McDonnell Nieto del Rio has also worked for CNN in New York and Washington D.C.

Lynandro Simmons

DJ Simmons reports on communities of color for the Athens Banner-Herald in Athens, Georgia. He has worked as a reporter for the Westport News, where he covered local government and education in Westport, Connecticut. Simmons reported the news of Darien, New Canaan and Wilton, as well as statewide environmental issues, for Hearst Connecticut Media, a network of newspapers and websites. His work has earned him several awards from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists. Simmons was editor-in-chief of the student-run Southern News at Southern Connecticut State University. While in college, he helped document descendants of World War I veterans for the Connecticut State Library. His hometown is Columbia, South Carolina.