2022-2023

Yujie Zhou

Yujie Zhou covers Bay Area tech companies and gig workers for Mission Local, an investigative news outlet based in San Francisco. Before falling in love with the city, she covered New York City’s Chinese community and studied politics in the midst of Hong Kong’s street clashes. Zhou holds a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and a bachelor’s degree in public policy and politics from City University of Hong Kong. She’s proud to be a bilingual journalist.

Arleigh Rodgers

Arleigh Rodgers covers the Indiana Legislature with an emphasis on K-12 education for The Associated Press. Before joining the AP, Rodgers was a general assignment reporter for the Las Vegas Sun, where she also reported, produced and hosted a podcast, “Heating Up,” which investigated the link between extreme heat and mental health among Las Vegas’ homeless and low-income residents. Holding a bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College, she was a multimedia reporter for the student-run paper, The Ithacan, editor of Year in Review, a magazine and host of “Re:Mixing,” a music podcast. Rodgers’ work has earned awards from the New York Press Association, the Associated Collegiate Press and the College Media Association.

Chloe Johnson

Chloe Johnson covers the environment for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, and is part of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, a collaborative reporting network across the Basin. Previously, Johnson reported on the environment, climate change and the people adapting to a warmer planet for The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina. She started her career at The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and holds a journalism degree from American University. Her work has been recognized by the Scripps Howard Foundation and the Society for Features Journalism, and she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Johnson is always looking for a good excuse to hop on a boat.

Eva Tesfaye

Eva Tesfaye covers air and water quality from Kansas City, Missouri for Harvest Public Media, a collaborative network of reporters and stations in the Midwest. She is part of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, a reporting network across the Basin. Prior to this, Tesfaye was a producer at NPR’s daily science podcast “Short Wave.” As an NPR Kroc fellow, she produced for “Weekend Edition,” reported for NPR’s national desk, helped start a podcast about the federal executions carried out under the Trump administration for NPR member station WFIU, and reported from Birmingham, Alabama for the regional collaboration, the Gulf States Newsroom. Tesfaye joined NPR after graduating from Columbia University with a bachelor’s in English and a minor in French and Francophone studies.

Isaiah Murtaugh

Isaiah Murtaugh is an education reporter at the Ventura County Star, which is part of the USA Today Network and based in Camarillo, California. As a freelance podcast producer, he created a historical documentary series for Reckon Radio and wrote and produced episodes for “The Whistleblower,” a series from The GroundTruth Project and Boston’s WGBH public radio. Murtaugh has reported audio and print stories on religion and politics, and his work has appeared in The Guardian, USA Today and Religion News Service. He calls Los Angeles home, and holds a master’s degree in specialized journalism from the University of Southern California. A train lover, shoe skeptic and songwriter, Murtaugh has performed Americana music under a stage name.

Jose Davila

Jose Davila IV covers K-12 education with a focus on Latino students and families across northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe region for KUNR, an NPR affiliate in Reno, Nevada. Prior to joining KUNR, Davila interned for The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, reporting on local businesses during the pandemic. He graduated from Yale University in 2022, where he majored in global affairs, obtained a Certificate of Advanced Language Study in Spanish, and was named a Yale Journalism Scholar. Davila was a beat reporter, a managing editor and a public editor for the Yale Daily News. He hails from Mill Valley, California, just north of San Francisco, where La Taqueria makes his favorite burrito.

Laura Harbert Allen

Laura Harbert Allen covers the intersection of religion, politics and culture for 100 Days in Appalachia, a nonprofit digital news organization. Prior to joining 100 Days, she contributed to podcasts such as “Making Contact,” “Us & Them,” “Freakonomics Radio” and “Inside Appalachia.” Allen is completing her Ph.D. at the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University, where she has taught media criticism and audio/podcasting for three years. Her career in media—a total accident—began when she unknowingly walked into a public radio studio in New Bern, North Carolina. She has since been a public media host, reporter, producer and manager in New Bern, Richmond, Kentucky, and West Virginia, and for eight years she was the communications director for the West Virginia United Methodist Conference.

Melody Mercado

Melody Mercado is a reporter for Block Club Chicago, a nonprofit news site dedicated to covering the city’s neighborhoods. Previously, Mercado was the city government reporter at the Des Moines Register in Des Moines, Iowa, covering local policy and its effect on the community. She started her career as a reporter at WHO-TV, the NBC affiliate in Des Moines, where she played an integral role in covering the Iowa caucuses and the protests calling for racial justice in 2020. A native of Belvidere, Illinois, Mercado holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Bradley University and a master’s degree in journalism from DePaul University.

Rasha Almulaiki

Rasha Almulaiki covers politics, community policy, and business in Detroit, Michigan as the multimedia journalist at the Michigan Chronicle. She is a second generation Yemeniya living in the Detroit diaspora. Prior to joining the Michigan Chronicle, Almulaiki worked as a freelance journalist for The Arab American News, Outlier Media, and Metro Times Detroit, reporting on such diverse community issues as local campaigns and elections, art and culture, community politics, public city meetings, and on building developments, using data-driven research. Her journalism aspirations stem from a decade of work in community-advocacy organizations including global diplomacy, education, criminal justice, and restorative community safety. These experiences on the ground, among others, inspired her to write stories of marginalized and underrepresented communities of color. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies from Wayne State University.

Shannon Sollitt

Shannon Sollitt is a bilingual journalist covering agricultural labor in Salem, Oregon for the Statesman Journal. A multimedia journalist, Sollitt’s career started in her hometown of Jackson, Wyoming, reporting breaking news, local politics, housing and economic injustice for various news outlets. Her coverage of sexual violence prompted curriculum changes in the local high school. Sollitt says that there are few things she knows with certainty: words are powerful. Even small ones carry weight. She strives to use them to tell stories that heal, that help, that hold a mirror up to the world and ask it to change. Sollitt holds a master’s in journalism from Boston University and a bachelor’s from Willamette University.