2023-2024

Joni Hess

Joni Hess covers the quickly developing communities of St. Tammany Parish for The Times- Picayune and The Advocate, a news organization in New Orleans. Hess is a native of New Orleans, which sits on the south shore of St. Tammany. Previously, she was a U.S. reporting fellow for a global media organization, openDemocracy, where she covered the imprisonment of Cameroon asylum seekers, discrepancies in Black maternal health care, and infringements on women and LGBTQI rights. As a freelancer, Hess received a reporting grant from New America to cover the lack of access to paid leave policies for families. Her feature appeared in The Lily, a publication of The Washington Post. Hess graduated from Xavier University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and went on to earn a master’s in social work.

Luis Joel Mendez Gonzalez

Luis Joel Méndez González covers government preparedness around climate change for the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, a nonprofit investigative news organization. Born and raised in Moca, Puerto Rico, he was a ProPublica Emerging Reporter in 2019, and a Google News Initiative Fellow in 2020. Méndez González, an LGBTQIA+ first-generation college graduate, has interned with The Miami Herald I-Team, El Nuevo Día Investigative and Data Unit, and Metro Puerto Rico. As a freelancer he has reported for international media outlets. Méndez González holds a master's degree in information design and data visualization from Northeastern University. In his free time, he enjoys reading and writing, and he also loves beauty pageants and coffee.

Priscilla Totiyapungprasert

Priscilla Totiyapungprasert reports on local health issues for El Paso Matters, a nonprofit news outlet based in El Paso, Texas. Previously, she covered food culture and dining in Phoenix for The Arizona Republic, including reporting on immigrant communities, the restaurant industry, school nutrition and labor abuse. Totiyapungprasert started at The Arizona Republic as an environment fellow, analyzing the disparity in neighborhood air quality and reporting on the health impact of Phoenix air pollution. Holding a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Texas at Austin, she has worked in Germany and Malta.

Sophie Austin

Sophie Austin covers the California Statehouse for The Associated Press in Sacramento. Before joining the AP, Austin was a data fellow at The Center for Public Integrity while earning a master’s degree in journalism and public affairs at American University. She has covered local and environmental news as an intern for The Dallas Morning News, and as an Emma Bowen Foundation Fellow at PolitiFact, she wrote political fact checks and climate policy stories ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Austin holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from American University, where she was editor-in-chief of the Eagle, the student-run newspaper.

Brittney Miller

Brittney J. Miller covers energy and the environment for The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Prior to this, Miller earned a master’s degree in science writing and communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. There, she wrote about anything science-related —international research, local environmental issues and more—through internships with Nature, Knowable Magazine and the Monterey Herald, and she was named a fellow at The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and an ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation Scholar. Miller holds bachelor’s degrees in biology and journalism from the University of Florida, where her journalism career began at the college’s digital and radio news outlet, WUFT News. When she’s not typing or taking pictures, Miller loves hiking, gardening and cooking.

DorMiya Vance

DorMiya Vance is a multimedia reporter for WABE, the NPR and PBS affiliate serving metro Atlanta. A recent graduate with a bachelor’s degree from the communications and media program at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, Vance was editor-in-chief of the student paper, The Voice, and has interned at The Fayetteville Observer. Vance says that she knew at an early age that she wanted to work as a writer, and she is passionate about telling stories.

Iris Kwok

Iris Kwok reports on climate and transportation for Berkeleyside, a nonprofit digital news site that covers Berkeley and the East Bay in California. As a freelance journalist, she has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, Sfgate, a news site, and KQED public media, covering stories about race and diversity, music, and their intersection. Kwok was a 2021 Asian American Journalists Association Voices fellow, where she reported on the exodus of journalists of color from the news industry. A recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Kwok studied political science, music and journalism. Outside of journalism, she is a cellist with an affinity for cats and foggy weather.

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.

Madeline Heim

Madeline Heim reports for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where she covers Wisconsin’s environmental challenges as part of the Mississippi River Basin Project, a collaborative reporting network across the Basin. Previously, she was a health and science reporter for the Appleton Post-Crescent and the USA Today network in Wisconsin—her coverage of the pandemic earned top honors from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Born and raised in the Badger State, she holds degrees in journalism and creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was editor-in-chief of the The Daily Cardinal. Heim has interned at the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, and reported for the Winona Daily News in Winona, Minnesota, where she quickly fell in love with the Mississippi River region.

Rachel Hellman

Rachel Hellman reports on the challenges and opportunities in Vermont’s small towns for Seven Days, a weekly paper and news site based in Burlington, Vermont. Previously, Hellman was a freelance journalist and her writing, which focused on the societal and environmental impact of climate change, appeared in The Guardian, The Boston Globe, Fortune, and U.S. News & World Report. As an intern for CBS News, Hellman assisted in producing a groundbreaking nationwide investigation into the changes that police departments in the U.S. have made over the past five years regarding race and policing. Since graduating magna cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis in 2020, she has worked on a carpentry team for the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, on an all-women farm crew in central Vermont, and as a commercial pie baker in Brooklyn, New York.