2026-2027

Alexandra Markovich

Ally Markovich is an investigative reporter covering criminal justice at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting. Previously, she was an education and enterprise reporter at Berkeleyside, where her data-driven, accountability and narrative journalism earned multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists of Northern California. At Berkeleyside, her investigation into a sexual misconduct case exposed how a school district knowingly kept a predatory teacher employed for over 15 years. Markovich’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Huffington Post, and The Washington Post, and she has reported internationally from Ukraine. Before journalism, she taught high school English in high-poverty schools in Mississippi, New Jersey and California. She holds a B.A. in Politics from Princeton University and an M.A. in Journalism and Politics from Columbia University.

Justin Taylor

As a visual journalist for The Current, Justin Taylor covers the stories of the challenges and cultural changes residents face with sea-level rise and fast growth in Coastal Georgia's six counties. He is a self-taught photographer who started his own photography business in 2017 and began freelancing in photojournalism in 2023. Before journalism, Taylor spent 15 years in the marine industry as a captain on a tugboat in the Savannah River. His journey with photography began during his time in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he served two combat tours in Iraq, including the 2003 invasion. Taylor brought a 35mm camera with him and started photographing daily life in a war zone, sparking a lifelong interest in documentary photography.

Sophia Kalakailo

Before joining City Bureau, Sophia Kalakailo reported on the Ypsilanti, Michigan area for MLive. She covered homelessness, dire conditions in one of the city’s largest apartment complexes, excessive flooding in predominantly Black and low-income neighborhoods and raids of pro-Palestine protesters’ homes in late April. As a college freshman, she served as the news editor for Eastern Michigan University’s student newspaper, The Eastern Echo. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in documentary film from Michigan State University. As an editor at The State News, she oversaw an investigation revealing allegations that one Title IX executive slowed crucial civil rights and sexual misconduct investigations. Interning at the nonprofit newsroom Bridge Michigan and the statewide NPR station Michigan Public, Kalakailo covered misinformation and cultural divides over the state’s reintroduced wolf population. She also followed the late Dr. Robert Anderson sexual abuse scandal at the University of Michigan and the unionization of Starbucks workers across the state.

Justin O’Connor

Prior to joining Report for America, O’Connor produced data-driven investigations as an intern for The Buffalo News and in-depth feature stories as a reporter for the Rochester Beacon in New York. He has covered everything from the Starbucks unionization movement to pro-Palestine protests and local housing issues. His journalism career started when he joined the Campus Times at the University of Rochester as a first-year student and dove into coverage of the city’s Black Lives Matter protests before going on to become a staple in the paper’s news and features sections. He served as news editor, managing editor, and editor-in-chief for the paper, winning two New York Press Association awards along the way — one for producing the best college newspaper feature story in the state in 2022 and another for leading the state’s second-best overall college newspaper in 2024. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and English: Language, Media, and Communications from the University of Rochester.

Amanda Pérez Pintado

Amanda Pérez Pintado covers health for the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI), a nonprofit investigative newsroom. Some of her recent work has focused on Puerto Rico’s prison health care system. Before joining the CPI, she reported on science and politics for El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico’s largest daily newspaper. She previously worked as a reporter for USA Today and as a Report for America corps member at Investigate Midwest, a nonprofit news site based in Champaign, Illinois. Pérez Pintado holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Puerto Rico’s Río Piedras campus and a master’s from New York University. She has taught journalism courses at her undergraduate alma mater and Sagrado Corazón University. Pérez Pintado is a native of Bayamón, Puerto Rico, and a lover of books and horror movies.

Katelyn Ferral

Katelyn Ferral is a reporter with the Tampa Bay Times covering the impact of federal policy on local communities. Prior to coming to the Tampa Bay Times, Ferral taught English Language Arts in a Title I, inner city public elementary school through Americorps' Teach For America program. Before spending a year in the classroom. she was a reporter on the investigations team at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Her work was regularly published in USA TODAY. Ferral spent a month in 2022 in Poland along the Ukraine border documenting the refugee crisis and human toll of the Russian war in Ukraine for USA TODAY. She has reported extensively on the military and veterans affairs on the state and national level. She was named a Livingston Award finalist in 2022 for national reporting for her investigative work on the National Guard. She has also received the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi award. Before the Journal Sentinel, she was the investigative reporter at The Cap Times in Madison, Wis. Prior to that, she covered the energy industry at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review and local government at the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.

Graham Krewinghaus

Before joining Nogales International, Krewinghaus reported as a summer intern for VTDigger and the Cape Cod Times. He recently graduated from Georgetown University, where he studied Spanish and journalism. There, he was editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Voice, the student newsmagazine. Having grown up in the Boston area, Krewinghaus is a vocal fan of the Celtics and plays basketball in his free time. He speaks Spanish fluently and Portuguese conversationally.

Oona Wood Milliken

Before joining The Nevada Independent, Oona Milliken was a student journalist at Columbia Journalism School, where she covered politics, housing and business. Prior to that, she worked as a metro reporter and freelancer in New York City. She holds an undergraduate degree from Occidental College in Los Angeles, where she first fell in love with journalism.

Annie Bresee

Before becoming a Report For America Corp Member, Bresee was the editor of two community newspapers in Georgia and Alabama. While there, she covered issues like the local school boards' efforts to consolidate under a federal desegregation order, citizens protesting a proposed quarry, and abuse in a small town church. Bresee became interested in journalism late in college when she began writing for the university’s newspaper and would later write a long-form feature for her undergraduate thesis. She received her undergraduate degree from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas.

Maggie Reynolds

Maggie Reynolds covers rural communities in Kent and Sussex counties for Spotlight Delaware. Reynolds is a 2024 graduate of Middlebury College, where she majored in History and minored in Political Science and Spanish. During her senior year, she was the editor-in-chief of the college’s student-run newspaper, The Middlebury Campus. She led The Campus’ coverage of discontent over the college’s staff compensation system, a student encampment on campus and a lawsuit over the removal of a former governor’s name from the college chapel. While at Middlebury, Reynolds interned at the non-profit online investigative newspaper VTDigger, where she covered local government, housing and education in Vermont. She has also held internships covering local businesses and community events at Seven Days Vermont and The Daily Gazette in Schenectady, NY. Prior to joining the Spotlight newsroom, Reynolds spent a year teaching English at a secondary school in Madrid. In her free time, Reynolds can be found swimming, running and drinking iced maple lattes.