2022-2023

Mandy Kraynak

Mandy Kraynak covers economic development for The Land, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on in-depth solutions journalism in Cleveland’s neighborhoods. Before returning to northeast Ohio, where she grew up, Kraynak was managing editor at The Daily Orange, an independent, student-run newspaper in Syracuse, New York. She also worked as a culture editor, assistant feature editor, assistant copy editor and staff writer at The Daily Orange, writing feature stories on arts and culture. She has freelanced for publications such as The South Side Stand in Syracuse and The Devil Strip in Akron, Ohio, and studied journalism at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Amy Diaz

Amy Diaz covers education in North Carolina’s Piedmont region and High Country for WFDD, the state’s charter NPR affiliate, which covers 32 counties. Previously, Diaz wrote about local government and the police for Flint Beat, a hyperlocal news site in Flint, Michigan, and her work won awards from the Michigan Press Association. Diaz got her start in journalism in elementary school, writing the scripts for the morning news. Holding a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Florida, where she was a staff writer for the college paper, Diaz has interned at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and freelanced for the Tampa Bay Times.

Caroline Love

Caroline Love is the Collin County reporter at KERA in North Texas, an NPR affiliate station and the leader of The Texas Newsroom, a public radio journalism collaboration across the state. Previously, Love covered daily news at Houston's NPR station, Houston Public Media. She holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University—with an emphasis on investigative social justice journalism—where she reported feature stories that aired on KERA and the Texas Standard. In her free time, she enjoys bullet journaling and attempting to recreate the recipes she finds on TikTok.

Ellen Heffernan

Ellie Heffernan is Mountain State Spotlight’s community watchdog reporter, based in Charleston, West Virginia.  She is a recent graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, where she studied journalism and environmental studies. Ellie has written for several publications in North Carolina, including INDY Week, The Local Reporter, The UNC Institute for the Environment, and The Daily Tar Heel, and was also a MDDC Press Association Reese Cleghorn Intern at The Daily Record in Baltimore, Maryland, for which she was recognized for her reporting on the area's independent music venues. In her spare time, she likes reading, playing her clarinet or guitar, and hanging out with her cat, Franklin. She can also (kind-of) speak four languages: Macedonian, French, English, and Wolof.

Hunter McLaren

Hunter McLaren covers the city of Hastings, Michigan and surrounding Barry County communities for The Hastings Banner. McLaren has reported for Michigan’s MLive.com news site, covering breaking news and community stories, including NASCAR races at the Michigan International Speedway. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Central Michigan University. There, he worked as a reporter, photographer and associate editor of Central Michigan Life, the student paper. McLaren’s reporting has taken him to Edinburgh, Scotland.

Jesse Bedayn

Jesse Bedayn reports on Colorado’s Statehouse with a focus on housing for The Associated Press. A second-year corps member, he previously covered California’s wealth inequality for The Mercury News and CalMatters, connecting policy decisions to the voices of those impacted on the ground. An investigation by Bedayn exposed how low-income seniors become stranded in nursing homes and how their pleas for help go unanswered. That investigation was carried over from his work at the Investigative Reporting Program and as a stringer for The New York Times. He holds a master’s degree in narrative writing and investigative reporting from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, and a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of Kent in England. Having grown up in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, Bedayn can be found bumming around the wild or woodworking.

Lacey Latch

Lacey Latch covers communities in northern Arizona for The Arizona Republic. Previously, Latch was a Pulliam Fellow at the paper. She has covered local and state politics, public safety and local culture for The Pueblo Chieftain in Pueblo, Colorado, and says that most of her foundation as a journalist was formed while attending DePaul University in Chicago, where she held various positions, including editor-in-chief, on the student paper. Latch holds a master’s degree in journalism from DePaul as well as her bachelor’s. Hailing from Mullica Hill, New Jersey, a small farming town just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Latch has an incredibly cute, very large dog named Deuces who, like her, is always up for a good road trip.

Mara Cavallaro

Mara Cavallaro reports on health in the Latino community in San Francisco for El Tecolote, a bilingual community newspaper. A recent graduate of Brown University, she holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in ethnic studies and international and public affairs. Cavallaro was the managing editor of The College Hill Independent, southern New England's largest alt-weekly paper, run by students from Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design. She was also an editor for Somos Latinx Literary Magazine, a biannual student publication. Cavallaro has performed with the Mezcla Latin Dance Troupe, and also speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

Rachel Carlton

Rachel Carlton covers the Harris County Commissioners Court in Houston for Community Impact Newspaper, which delivers hyperlocal news. Before joining Community Impact, Carlton was a freelance journalist based in Houston, and a contributor to the “City Cast Houston” podcast. A standout in the 2020 Big Scribble competition, Carlton graduated from Rice University with bachelor’s degrees in cognitive sciences and linguistics. Her first taste of journalism came as a junior at Rice, where she co-authored an opinion piece for the student paper, the Rice Thresher, on the experience of sexual assault survivors. Carlton later joined the paper’s staff and provided key COVID-19 coverage.

Sarah Huffman

Sarah Huffman reports on business and technology in Philadelphia for Technical.ly, the technology news network. Before joining Technical.ly, Huffman was an intern and then freelance reporter for Norwood News, covering local government and community events and organizations in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. She is a 2021 graduate of Fordham University, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and communications, and was an editor for the student newspaper. In her free time, Huffman is an amateur baker and enjoys testing new dessert recipes.