2022-2023

Jessi Dodge

Jessi Dodge is a photojournalist with the Buffalo Bulletin, located in Buffalo, Wyo. She spent the last two years working as an assistant director of photography for the Columbia Missourian, the community newspaper managed and staffed by the University of Missouri, as well as its sister publication, VOX Magazine. She has worked as a staff photographer and won three awards from the Missouri Press Association as well as freelancing. She received both her B.J. and M.A. degrees in photojournalism from the University of Missouri. Her final master’s project included two parts: the complete editing and designing of a photo book on Boonville, a smallMissouri river town, and research to better understand the purpose of narrative as a tool for visual storytelling.

Jose Encarnación

José Encarnación is a journalist for Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, a Puerto Rican publication, where he concentrates on education issues that include massive school closures even before the coronavirus pandemic as well as various scandals involving the island’s education budget. As a journalist and graduate student at the University of Puerto Rico, Encarnación knows the island well. He specialized in Caribbean history and the intersection of sports and society. He has worked as a news and sports reporter for Diálogo UPR, NotiCel and Metro Puerto Rico. In 2019, Encarnación received awards for Best Feature Article and Best Interview granted by the Puerto Rico Association of Journalists. (Its Spanish acronym is ASPPRO.) In 2016, Encarnación completed his B.A. in Journalism at the University of Puerto Rico and is currently working on his master's thesis, which focuses on the political persecution that surrounded the 1966 Central American & Caribbean Games that took place in Puerto Rico.

Anthony Vazquez

Anthony Vazquez is a Marine Corps veteran and photojournalist for the Chicago Sun-Times where he concentrates on city’s south and west sides. Previously Vazquez was based out of Iowa and Mexico where he focused on the effects of Medicaid privatization in Iowa and rural life in the United States and Mexico. In the Marine Corps, Vazquez supervised flight line operations of multiple airfield control groups as well as aided in medical evacuations of injured personnel by securing and designating landing zones for helicopters. His experience in the Marine Corps confirmed the importance of documenting and sharing stories. After the military, Anthony pursued journalism at the University of Iowa where he served as photo editor of The Daily Iowan. Post-graduation, he moved to Mexico to continue documenting illegal immigration. While in Mexico he was a stringer for The Associated Press and AP Images.

Eileen O’Grady

Eileen O’Grady reports for the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire, where she covers education for the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper. O’Grady is the former managing editor of the Scope magazine at Northeastern University in Boston, where she reported on social justice issues, community activism, local politics and the Covid-19 pandemic. She is a native Vermonter and worked as a reporter covering local politics for the Shelburne News and the Citizen, and has had bylines in The Boston Globe, U.S. News & World Report, The Bay State Banner, and VTDigger. She has a Masters in journalism from Northeastern University and a B.A .in politics and French from Mount Holyoke College, where she served as news editor for the Mount Holyoke News from 2017-2018. She is also a traditional Irish fiddle player.

Brenda León

Brenda Millicent León reports on undercovered Latino communities for Connecticut Public Radio. She covered the recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico during her internship at The Center for Investigative Journalism in Puerto Rico. A graduate from Lehman College at the City University of New York, she focused on broadcast journalism with a concentration in political science. During her time there she was a host at WWRL La Invasora 1600 AM. Her work has been published in The Gothamist, Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN), El Deadline and The Mott Haven Herald. A Bronx native, León is a recent graduate from The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, where she obtained her master’s in Spanish-language journalism.  

Chris Welter

Chris Welter reports for WYSO, the NPR station covering the greater Dayton, Ohio, area where he focuses on climate change and its impact on southwest Ohio and explores possible solutions. Welter is an Ohio lifer. He will graduate with a self-designed degree in environmental sciences from Antioch College in June 2020. He did boots-on-the-ground conservation work at farms and conducted extensive policy research on land-use issues in southwest Ohio as a Miller Fellow with the non-profit organization, Tecumseh Land Trust. He was editor-in-chief of Antioch College’s independent community newspaper, The Record. He also worked as a paralegal at a criminal defense firm in Chicago and a bankruptcy center in Philadelphia through the college’scooperative education department. He is originally from Columbus, Ohio. Chris has two cats, Beaver and Franklin, and is an avid disc golfer playing in tournaments across the country.  

Kyeland Jackson

Kyeland Jackson covers a number of issues for Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minnesota, including the causes and effects of racial disparities. He holds bachelor’s and graduate degrees in communications from the University of Louisville and has won awards from the Kentucky Associated Press Broadcasters as well as the Louisville Society of Professional Journalists. Jackson was also selected for the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporter’s Data Institute. Raised in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Jackson was also the editor-in-chief of The Louisville Cardinal, a weekly independent newspaper at his alma mater.

Brandon Pho

Brandon Pho reports for Voice of OC, a publication in Santa Ana, California, where he covers North Central Orange County, a diverse area with thriving Korean, Vietnamese and Hispanic communities. For the past two years as an intern at Voice of OC and in writing for other publications, he has held local governments accountable. In 2019, his investigation revealed local county fair officials spending hundreds of thousands of public dollars on special dinners for themselves and uncovered a conflict-of-interest scandal involving the fair’s CEO, who was eventually fired. As the son of a Vietnamese American immigrant, Pho was senior editor for his college newspaper, The Daily Titan at Cal State Fullerton, where his work garnered first place honors at the Los Angeles Press Club and the College Media Association. His reporting has landed him on public radio, and his work has been cited in federal court. IN 2018, He won first place for Best Breaking News and second place for Best Feature Story from the College Media Association. Pho was also a Mark of Excellence finalist in 2018 for breaking news reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Anthony Orozco

Anthony Orozco reports for WITF, NPR radio and PBS television stations, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he focuses on the Latino community in Redding, Lebanon and other towns and cities along the state’s Route 222 corridor. Orozco comes to the job with a body of work devoted to community storytelling, watchdog journalism and immigration coverage. He began as a reporter and later the news editor at the University of Cincinnati’s independent student newspaper, The News Record. After graduating in 2012, Orozco immediately jumped into daily news reporting at the Reading Eagle newspaper in Reading, Pennsylvania. He specialized in writing about Latino affairs, covered breaking news and eventually took a senior position as the paper’s City Hall reporter. Orozco left the newspaper in 2019 to become an independent investigative reporter, examining issues such as local water quality, as well as telling client stories for nonprofit organizations. Orozco is also an accomplished poet and performer.  

Orion Donovan-Smith

Orion Donovan-Smith covers Congress and Washington, D.C., for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington. He worked as the Investigative Reporting Workshop fellow on the documentary “Plastic Wars,” a Frontline investigation into recycling and the plastics industry. Prior to that, he was an intern and later a part-time producer at the NPR program “1A” in 2019, while finishing a master’s degree in journalism from American University. Earlier in the program, he worked with the investigative team and as a general assignment reporter at The Washington Post, covering immigration. Before turning to journalism, he worked on international development programs in Central Africa. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington.