2024-2025

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.

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.

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.

Sandra Sadek

Sandra Sadek reports on growth in Fort Worth, Texas and the communities impacted by it for the Fort Worth Report, a nonprofit news organization. Previously, Sadek reported local news for the Community Impact Newspaper in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and was the interim news editor of The Fort Stockton Pioneer newspaper in West Texas. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and a minor in international studies from Texas State University, where she reported for the student paper. When she’s not reporting, Sadek enjoys learning languages and training in Taekwondo.

Andrea Briseño

Andrea Briseño is an investigative reporter at inewsource, a nonprofit news outlet in San Diego, California. She is fluent in Spanish and covers K-12 education with a focus on Latino families. Previously, Briseño was the equity/underserved communities reporter at The Modesto Bee, where she shed light on communities and issues that had gone underreported in Stanislaus County, California. She also partnered with McClatchy Company staffers from across California to produce Spanish written articles and La Abeja, The Bee’s weekly newsletter centered on topics important to Latinos. A Fresno native, Briseño began her journalism career at The Rampage and The Fresno Bee. She is a graduate of Palomar College community college and San Jose State University.

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?”

Laura Kebede-Twumasi

Laura Kebede-Twumasi is launching the Civil Wrongs project at the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis in Tennessee. Previously, she wrote and hosted a WKNO public television special on unresolved civil rights crimes in the Memphis area, and spearheaded a partnership between The New Tri-State Defender and WKNO public radio on a forgotten civil rights journalism hero, L. Alex Wilson. Laura Kebede-Twumasi is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has a decade of reporting experience, including five years writing about education inequities in Memphis for Chalkbeat.

Sarah Michels

Sarah Michels is a general assignment reporter for the Bowling Green Daily News, a central Kentucky newspaper covering Bowling Green and outlying counties. Michels interned at the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Cincinnati Enquirer, where she found her niche as a storytelling reporter. Michels holds a dual bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science, with minors in Spanish and business from the University of Kentucky, where she worked at the Kentucky Kernel, the student paper, as the opinions editor, assistant news editor, breaking news reporter and features reporter. She ran track and cross country in college, and you can still find her competing in road races and exploring the nearest trails.

Aryana Noroozi

Aryana Noroozi is a photojournalist covering environmental health effects for Black Voice News, which gives a voice to the community by using data and solutions-oriented reporting. Prior to joining Black Voice News, Noroozi was a Migration Fellow at The GroundTruth Project and a Crisis Reporting Fellow at the Pulitzer Center. Noroozi holds a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and she has been documenting addiction’s impact on a family in rural Illinois and plans to expand this to a long-form body of work around addiction and resilience.

Ginny Monk

Ginny Monk is a housing reporter for The Connecticut Mirror, a nonprofit news site that reports on politics and policy across Connecticut. Previously, she covered real estate and consumer issues for Hearst Connecticut Media Group. Monk was on the investigations team at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette where she reported on housing, homelessness and children’s welfare issues, including juvenile justice. As a data fellow with the University of Southern California’s Center for Health Journalism, she wrote a series of stories about the unnatural and preventable deaths of children in Arkansas. Monk grew up in Pencil Bluff, a small township in Arkansas, and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Arkansas, where she was editor-in-chief of The Arkansas Traveler, the student paper.