2023-2024

Adrianna Adame

Adrianna Adame covers Indigenous Democracy across the state of North Dakota for Buffalo's Fire. While in Bismarck, she will be reporting on voting rights, tribal council, school board and rural co-op meetings, tribal college stories and K-12 education. Prior to joining Buffalo's Fire, Adame graduated with her Masters in Journalism from Syracuse University's S.I. School of Public Communication, where she was a Newhouse Minority Fellow and intern at Syracuse.com In Syracuse, she reported on stories from underrepresented communities in Central New York, as well as arts and entertainment. Adame has also contributed and written for local and editorial sites such as POPSUGAR, the Stand, NPR Next Gen and Flique Editorial. Throughout her undergrad years, she also held the positions of Managing and News Editor for The Cougar Chronicle, California State San Marcos' student newspaper, where she lead, edited, reported and most importantly, first became passionate about journalism. Since her days at The Cougar Chronicle, she's has been determined to work in local journalism, primarily focusing on diverse communities. Adame is Mexican American and a proud member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy, Montana.

Aubrey Wright

Aubrey Wright is a multimedia journalist covering equity in higher education for WFIU/WTIU Indiana Public Media in Bloomington, Indiana. Prior to joining WFIU/WTIU, she worked alongside The Columbus Dispatch’s metro desk as a full-time intern and freelanced for The Columbus Jewish News. She produced a multimedia enterprise project on the rise of gunfire into family homes in Columbus and served in The Columbus Dispatch’s award-winning Mobile Newsroom while covering education, health, crime and business. She is a recent graduate of The Ohio State University, where she earned a B.A. in journalism and served as managing editor for content at The Lantern, the student newspaper. As managing editor, she covered Ohio State’s biggest issues, including police violence and its presence on campus, multiple criminal trials and a decades-long sexual abuse scandal.

Hannah Gross

Hannah Gross covers education and child welfare in New Jersey for NJ Spotlight News, a nonprofit news organization. Previously, Gross reported for NBC10 Philadelphia and Telemundo 62, where she covered gun violence prevention efforts in Philadelphia, a chemical spill in the Delaware River and other local issues in English and Spanish. She has also held education reporting internships at the National Education Association and Forbes. Gross graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Hispanic Studies. She spent most of her college career reporting for NBC10 Philadelphia, Telemundo 62 and her school newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian. Gross hails from South Orange, NJ where she got her start as a journalist working for The Columbian, the student-run newspaper at Columbia High School in Maplewood. There, she reported on school segregation, mental health and student drug use. Gross is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She enjoys baking, reading and making jewelry.

Maia Bond

Maia Bond covers poverty and healthcare in Dubuque, Iowa for the Telegraph-Herald. In college, Bond covered breaking news and the Missouri statehouse as an intern for the Kansas City Star. She also previously covered local government, housing and elections for the Columbia Missourian. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and won a White House Correspondents' Association scholarship in 2022 for government reporting.

Carly Berlin

Carly Berlin covers housing and infrastructure for Vermont Public and VTDigger. Previously, she was the metro reporter for New Orleans Public Radio, where she focused on housing, transportation and city government. Her stories have aired on Marketplace, Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Before working in radio, she was the Gulf Coast Correspondent for Southerly, where she reported on disaster recovery across south Louisiana during two recording-breaking hurricane seasons. Much of that coverage centered on the aftermath of Hurricanes Laura and Delta in Lake Charles at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center. Berlin grew up in Atlanta and earned a BA in English with a Creative Writing concentration from Bowdoin College in 2018. She’s an avid bird watcher and ultimate frisbee player.

Kevin Chill Heard

Kevin Chill Heard covers social equity stories in the Greater Cleveland area for The Land. A lifelong journalist, he is completing his second term as President of the Greater Cleveland Association of Black Journalists. He is Executive Director of the nonprofit My Cool Solutions Inc. and worked at the Call and Post newspaper as an award-winning entertainment editor, Managing Editor and General Manager. Heard has appeared on news stations WKYC, WEWS, FOX 8, WVIZ, WOIO and PBS radio station WNPR. During the summer he is an adjunct instructor at Case Western Reserve University. Known as Cleveland’s pioneering rap artist M.C. Chill, he attended Cleveland’s John F Kennedy High School, (and inducted into its Hall of Fame) and Kent State University. A member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, he has served as Assistant Editor of its International publication, the Kappa Journal. Heard is also co-founder of the Los Angeles-based African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA).

Reagan Ryan

Reagan Ryan covers climate change and the environment across Central Florida as a multimedia journalist for Spectrum News 13 in Orlando, Florida. She recently graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, where she earned a master’s degree in investigative journalism. She’s covered public housing as a reporter at the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and policing as a data and documentary journalist for the Carnegie-Knight News21 collegiate reporting initiative. She specializes in video and digital storytelling. She also holds a bachelor's degree in English from Florida State University, where she majored in editing, writing and media. Growing up in Daytona Beach, Florida, Creamer became interested in pursuing journalism by watching her local news stations, like News 13, cover hurricanes and storms.

Charlie McGee

Charlie McGee is an investigative reporter for The Tributary covering systemic problems in Jacksonville, Florida. He previously reported for the Victorville Daily Press in California’s High Desert with exclusive work prompting mass-action lawsuits against Goldman Sachs and Synagro over a sewage-pit fire, an FBI probe of alleged city-hall corruption, and policy changes across San Bernardino County. He has written for outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Rolling Stone magazine and Vice News on topics ranging from questionable COVID-19 spending to renewable-energy debates to CEO pay. He amassed research as assistant to former WSJ reporter Liz Hoffman for her 2023 book, “Crash Landing.” His work as investigations editor for The Daily Tar Heel sparked a campaign-finance investigation in North Carolina and the reversal of a $2.5 million deal between UNC-Chapel Hill and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. McGee has been recognized with honors including second-place in the California News Publishers Association’s 2021 Investigative Reporting competition and second-place in the Associated Collegiate Press’s 2020 Reporter of the Year competition.

Kyle Williams

Kyle Williams covers sports in Chicago, Illinois, for the Chicago Sun-Times. Prior to joining the Sun-Times, Williams graduated from Northwestern University with a master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism. His journalism career started the summer of his freshman year with an internship at ABC7 for the daily talk show, ""Windy City Live."" Following that internship, Williams interned at Marquee Sports Network and the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has covered everything from the Chicago Cubs to North Carolina women’s soccer. As an undergraduate student, he majored in journalism with a minor in anthropology and sociology.

Samuel Garzon

Samuel Garzon is a mental health reporter for El Tecolote, covering stories about mental health and social justice in the Bay area. With a major in journalism from UNC Chapel Hill and experience as an editor and production manager for The Daily Tar Heel student paper, Garzon is dedicated to using his skills and passion for journalism to promote empathy, understanding and awareness for those with mental illness. Originally from Colombia, Garzon discovered his love for storytelling through after-school journalism classes, ultimately leading him to pursue a career in journalism. As a bilingual journalist fluent in English and Spanish, he is committed to amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities and ensuring that diverse perspectives are represented in mental health reporting. In addition to his work as a mental health reporter, Garzon is an avid reader of science fiction. With a deep commitment to advocacy and using his platform to create positive change, he seeks to deepen his understanding of mental health issues and the people affected by them.