2023-2024

Gabriela Szymanowska

Gabriela Szymanowska reports on the judicial system for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Prior to this, she covered breaking news and public safety for the Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi. Born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, she holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and electronic media from The University of Tennessee, where she was editor-in-chief of The Daily Beacon, the student paper. Szymanowska earned top honors for features/hard news photography at the 2020 Southeastern Journalism Conference on-site competition. As a fellow in the Carnegie-Knight News21 investigative program, Szymanowska, along with 34 other journalists, investigated juvenile justice in America in the multimedia reporting project, “Kids Imprisoned.” Their work won the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy College Journalism Award. Beyond reporting, she’s passionate about photography and capturing the everyday, ordinary moments of people’s lives.

James Hanlon

James Hanlon reports for The Spokesman-Review, based in Spokane, Washington, covering rural counties in eastern Washington and the Idaho Panhandle. Previously, Hanlon reported for The Oxford Leader in Oxford, Michigan. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and Snowflake, Arizona, and he holds bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and film and media studies from Arizona State University. After college, Hanlon spent three years living in a Japanese village of 700 people, teaching English and writing about revitalization projects in the countryside for a local nonprofit. His work has also appeared in Kyoto Journal, Tokyo Cheapo and Asia Matters for America by the East-West Center.

Kayla Young

Kayla Young is a bilingual reporter covering immigration, race and equity for WFAE, an NPR member station in Charlotte, North Carolina, and La Noticia, the state’s biggest Spanish-language paper. Young grew up in Greeley, Colorado and for the past five years she has lived in Grand Cayman, reported for the Cayman Compass newspaper, and worked as a freelancer for the Center for Investigative Journalism, The Economist Intelligence Unit and ABC News. After graduating from The University of Texas at Austin, Young moved to Santiago, Chile, where she covered student protests and breaking news. Since then, she has reported on South Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the U.S.

Mia Khatib

Mia Khatib is an gentrification/affordable housing reporter at The Triangle Tribune, which serves Black communities in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina. She is passionate about amplifying the voices of marginalized communities and enjoys investigative, multimedia and data journalism. In January 2022, she graduated from Boston University with a bachelor’s in journalism and a minor in international relations. While there, she was a reporter, photographer and associate photo editor of the student paper, The Daily Free Press. Khatib has covered Middle East politics and policy for The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, a magazine based in Washington, D.C.

Samantha Hendrickson

Samantha Hendrickson covers the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio for The Associated Press. Before joining Report for America, she was a general assignment and business reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Hendrickson is a proud alumnus of The Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota’s student-run paper, and covered the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, the trial of Derek Chauvin and the police shooting of Daunte Wright. She also freelanced for The Intercept after discovering that a key witness for the defense in the Chauvin trial had a pending lawsuit against him involving the death of a young Black man. When she isn’t reporting, Hendrickson loves to craft, cook, read, do yoga and create the perfect playlist.

Victoria Franco

Victoria Franco is a disabled bilingual reporter based in Stockton, California, covering the news around San Joaquin County for Bay City News Foundation and its Local News Matters, a nonprofit news site. She is a research fellow at the Starling Lab for Data Integrity, which was co-founded by Stanford University and the University of Southern California. A San Jose State University alumna, Franco served as the managing editor of her student paper, the Spartan Daily. She helped lead her staff to the California College Media Association Awards, earning first place in general excellence. In her spare time, Franco enjoys traveling to Europe with her mother.

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.

Claire Rush

Claire Rush reports on state government for The Associated Press in Portland, Oregon. Prior to joining the AP, Rush lived in France for nine years. She worked for France 24 television and Radio France Internationale, state-funded international news broadcasters, in various roles—news desk reporter, anchor and producer. Fluent in French, Rush earned a master’s degree in journalism from the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris, and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, where she double majored in geography and French. Rush loves maps and cooking.

Gabriella Paul

Gabriella Paul is a journalist at WUSF Public Media, the NPR affiliate in Tampa, Florida, reporting on the people living paycheck to paycheck in the area. Previously, Paul was the digital news editor for WUFT public radio in Gainesville, Florida. Born in Colorado, she grew up in the Tampa Bay region and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in history from the University of Florida. While there, Paul earned two Sunshine State Awards from the Society for Professional Journalism, and co-authored a report on the university’s racial legacies. As a fellow for the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Paul contributed to an award-winning investigative podcast, “Why Don’t We Know?”

Jamie Jiang

Jamie Jiang covers wildfires in Chico, California for North State Public Radio, which serves Northern California. A recent graduate of UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in linguistics, Jiang was the podcasts editor for the student paper, the Daily Bruin, and created and produced podcast episodes for UCLA’s FEM newsmagazine radio program. She has interned with KCUR public radio in Kansas City, Missouri, and her independently written and produced audio history of the University of California Police Department, “Cops On Campus,” will be published in summer 2022. A native Californian, Jiang enjoys early morning birdwatching in her spare time.