2023-2024

Marissa Greene

Marissa Greene covers faith and religion in Tarrant County, Texas, for the Fort Worth Report. Previously, Greene was an audience fellow for The Texas Tribune, where she wrote an explanatory article about the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and produced Instagram and Twitter posts ahead of the state’s midterm elections. Greene got her start in journalism at Austin Community College, where she spearheaded the college’s student media organization. She reported how Winter Storm Uri underscored power concerns for an Asian American community as an Austin PBS intern. Her love for local reporting led her to internships with Austin and Dallas NPR member stations. She's a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, and has been the co-host and a producer of “Hi, How Are You?” a music and mental health podcast.

Torsheta Jackson

Torsheta Jackson is the Education Equity Solutions reporter for the Mississippi Free Press in Jackson, Mississippi. Prior to joining the newsroom full time, Jackson spent 19 years as an educator and coach and 12 years as a freelance journalist. She has bylines in YES! magazine, Mississippi Free Press, Mississippi Scoreboard, Jackson Advocate, Jackson Free Press, Eater and Bash Brothers Media. Her work as part of the newsroom's Black Women and COVID project covered education history, equity and access in Noxubee County and garnered national recognition. Jackson earned a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from The University of Southern Mississippi, graduating top of her Broadcast Journalism cohort. She also holds master’s degrees in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi and in human lactation from Union Institute and University. She lives in Richland, Mississippi with her husband Victor and the two youngest of their four children. She enjoys traveling, making memories with her family, reading and coaching youth sports.

Adriana Gutierrez

Adriana Gutierrez covers education and child welfare in Santa Rosa, California for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Prior to joining the newsroom, Gutierrez interned at the Oregonian in Portland, Oregon. During her ten-week internship, she covered the business section of the metro paper, while also serving on the breaking news, education and weather desks. Her journalism career started when she was a member of her high school's broadcast journalism program. She transferred to print journalism during her undergraduate years at Oregon State University, where she worked her way up to being the Editor-in-Chief of the student-led newspaper, The Daily Barometer.

Hiram Alejandro Durán

Hiram Alejandro Durán covers Latino and Mayan communities as a photojournalist for El Tímpano. He's from the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez border region. Although he is fourth-generation Mexican-American, Durán is the first person in his family to be raised and educated in the U.S. Before moving to New York City in 2018, he worked as a shoe salesman while studying Media Advertising and Marketing at the University of Texas at El Paso. He joined the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism with the intention of becoming a print reporter. But after auditing an intro to photojournalism course, he discovered the power of photography as a storytelling tool. His photography has won awards, and his work has been featured in the New York Times, the Marshall Project, the Pulitzer Center, Imprint News, Riverdale Press, The City, Bklyner and the Mail & Guardian in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Meredith Melland

Meredith Melland is the community engagement and neighborhoods reporter for Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Before returning to her home state and joining the newsroom, she covered COVID-19 and other topics, edited stories and managed the website and social media of the Daily Journal in Kankakee, Illinois as the newspaper’s digital content editor. During her college years interning in Chicago, Melland fact-checked articles in Chicago magazine, wrote digital stories at WGN and did a bit of everything as an editorial intern at StreetWise. Melland holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from DePaul University, where she developed a keen interest in local community journalism. While on staff as a web developer and editor at 14 East, DePaul's online student magazine, she reported multimedia stories and earned an SPJ Region 5 Mark of Excellence Award with reporter Marin Scott for in-depth reporting on a professor of color’s termination and attempt to gain tenure at DePaul. Melland got her first taste of reporting and newsroom bonding at her high school’s publication, The Norse Star.

Alaina Bookman

Alaina Bookman covers violence prevention in Birmingham, Alabama, for AL.com. Raised in Dallas, she developed an interest in social activism during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. After moving to pursue her bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, she fell in love with the city's commitment to justice and tolerance. She covered social issues affecting the Black community. She also worked at the UT Austin Benson Latin American Collection as an AKA scholar Black diaspora archive intern, assisting in processing the Miss Black Austin Pageant collection. She also interned with the public affairs team at the university's College of Liberal Arts, where she wrote press releases and articles for Life and Letters Magazine.

Isabela Weiss

Isabela Weiss covers rural government for WVIA, the NPR affiliate in Pittston, Pennsylvania. Before moving to the Keystone State, Isabela worked as a local politics reporter for NPR’s WUGA News in Athens, Georgia. At WUGA, Weiss mostly covered housing insecurity, county finances and community issues. As the daughter of Israeli and Nicaraguan immigrants, Weiss studied political science at the University of Georgia to better understand identity relationships and political psychology. Her love of literature and her high school newspaper, G-Tracks, led her to get a second bachelor’s degree in English. She adds a special thanks to Martin Matheny (WUGA), Dr. Audrey Haynes (UGA), and Dr. Krista Bowen (G-Tracks) for inspiring her to chase her dreams.

Michael J. Collins

Michael J. Collins covers K-12 and higher education in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for Bowling Green Daily News' daily print publication. Collins sees public education as essential to a healthy democracy and believes it often goes under appreciated. Prior to working at BGDN, he attended Western Kentucky University and worked at its school newspaper, the College Heights Herald. Starting his first year with no prior experience, Collins went from general reporting to Editor-in-Chief by junior year, earning the paper two Pacemaker awards in 2022. His first print publication as Editor-in-Chief covered the devastation brought on by Bowling Green's December 2021 tornadoes. He spent his summers working at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering general multimedia stories, at Louisville Public Media's WFPL radio station, writing and producing radio news segments, and at the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, exploring rising costs in Kentucky prison commissaries and judicial oversight laws. He graduated with a B.A. in journalism in 2023.

Andrew M. Lusk

Andy Lusk is a radio reporter for KUCB 89.7 FM Public Radio in Unalaska, Alaska, where he covers a wide range of issues in the Eastern Aleutian Islands. Prior to his work with KUCB, Lusk was a financial reporter for InvestmentWires, a trade publication based in New York City. He discovered his passion for journalism in 2016 by jumping on a bus to a Raleigh polling station and interviewing voters impromptu. Lusk has been walking up to strangers and asking for their thoughts on the topic of the day ever since. He holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from New York University.

Jackie Sedley

Jackie Sedley covers all things environment and climate for KGNU in Boulder, CO. Before moving to Mountain Time, she lived in sunny California working as the Internal News Director for KCSB-FM in Santa Barbara. Her journalism career thus far has also included freelancing for the New York Times, fill-in producing and freelance reporting for KCRW and working as Editor-in-Chief for her community college newspaper. Sedley was introduced to journalism during her sophomore year of high school, when she joined her high school newspaper as a novice staff writer. After working her way up to News Editor and eventually Editor-in-Chief, she realized her thirst for reporting was truly unquenchable. Over the past 10 years Sedley has covered raging fires, housing crises, local elections, protests and more. Journalism is both the reason Jackie Sedley wakes up in the morning, and the reason she does not sleep enough at night.