2026-2027

Colin Tiernan

Before joining CT Insider, Tiernan worked on his family’s farm in Connecticut. And before that, he spent six years at papers out West. He’s covered every beat at one time or another. Tiernan is conversationally fluent in Spanish, a tenacious defender in pick-up basketball and a mediocre-but-passionate wildlife photographer.

Cheree Franco

Cheree Franco is an award-winning print and photojournalist. She has profiled both a US Senator and the founder of OkCupid, covered South by Southwest and Sundance festivals, reported for three months from the Dakota Access Pipeline protest camps, and followed the grassroots caretakers at New Orlean’s Lincoln Beach, a segregation-era Black beach that has been officially closed since 1964 but never abandoned by users. In Arkansas, she investigated a 20-year-old murder conviction, highlighting procedural errors and details that juries never heard. Her coverage ultimately helped the Innocence Project secure a woman’s release from a life sentence without parole. She has reported from New York, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Pakistan, with work appearing in newspapers on two continents, as well as in VICE, Huck, Places Journal and elsewhere. Most recently, she taught journalism at Tulane University.

Aaron Levy-Wolins

Before joining J. The Jewish News of Northern California as a member of Report for America, Aaron Levy-Wolins worked for the publication as a part-time photojournalist, focusing heavily on Bay Area reactions and fallout from the Israel-Gaza War and winning six SF Press Club Awards. Levy-Wolins’ found his passion for storytelling in high school as he worked at a local television station, which gave him training and opportunities to produce and broadcast programs. In the student publications at San Francisco State University, Levy-Wolins concentrated on covering demonstrations during the first Trump Administration, particularly the 2017 Berkeley Protests. He went on to intern and freelance for numerous SF-based news publications, cultivating a better understanding of various Bay Area communities and finding opportunities to photograph local legends, from “Say Hey!” (Willie Mays) to Stephen Curry. Levy-Wolins’ work has been featured in many publications, including the San Francisco Standard, Mission Local, The Bold Italic, Israel’s Haaretz and most recently, 60 Minutes.

Brittany Bowyer

Before joining the Daily Independent as a high school sports reporter, Bowyer was a freelance sports journalist in Arizona for the last decade. She spent the last six years primarily covering high schools and athletic programs in the Tucson area. Her journalism career began back in 2015 when she got her start covering MMA and Arizona State Football for an online publication. Bowyer's passion and love for reporting pushed her to pursue her Master’s in Sports Journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.

Caelan Bailey

Caelan Bailey covers the new rural landscape for 100 Days in Appalachia. Before joining Report for America, Bailey's freelance work appeared in 100 Days, The Assembly, and Burnaway. Previously, she was West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s state politics reporter and managing editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator’s long-form journalism magazine, The Eye.

Eleanor Shaw

Eleanor Shaw is an accountability reporter at The Richmonder in Chesterfield County. Before joining Report for America, Shaw was editor-in-chief of James Madison University’s student-run newspaper, The Breeze, for two years. She also covered the Democratic and Republican national conventions on behalf of the Virginia Association of Broadcasters. The summer before her senior year, Shaw interned at The Richmonder. In 2026, she graduated from James Madison University with a bachelor's degree in media arts and design with a concentration in journalism.

Amy Schafer

Prior to joining The Mississippi Free Press, Schafer worked as a freelance reporter for The Washington Post where she covered the extradition hearings for Luigi Mangione. She also served as editor-in-chief and business manager of Penn State's student newspaper The Daily Collegian. During her time as a student journalist she also completed an independent reporting project where she covered the criminalization of domestic and sexual violence in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She is graduating from Penn State Schreyer Honors College with degrees in public relations, global and international studies and women's, gender and sexuality studies as well as a minor in spanish.

Anna Wilder

Prior to joining The Associated Press, Wilder was a political and Statehouse reporter in South Carolina with The Post and Courier. During three years covering the Statehouse, including a year and a half at The State newspaper, she chronicled the state’s most contentious policy fights, documenting both the legislative maneuvering and the people most affected. She also spent months covering the arrest and indictment of a former lawmaker on charges related to child sexual abuse material. She is a Florida native and graduated from the University of Florida, where she was managing editor of The Independent Florida Alligator, the student newspaper. Her work has appeared in outlets like Politico, the Miami Herald, and ProPublica.

Aydali Campa

Aydali Campa is a multimedia bilingual journalist based in Chicago whose reporting and video work span education, environmental justice, and immigration. Her work has appeared in The Arizona Republic, The Wall Street Journal, Inside Climate News, and Borderless Magazine. She has produced an investigative documentary, segments for an Arizona PBS primetime series, and short-form videos in English and Spanish for various media organizations and social media platforms. She began her journalism career as an undergraduate at Arizona State University, where she focused on video production and magazine writing, before serving as a Teach for America corps member teaching third and fourth grade. She later returned to ASU to earn a master's degree in investigative journalism. When she's not reporting, she's watching reality TV, working out, or searching for her next hobby.

Ben Bennett

Ben Bennett covers education in Lower Bucks County for the Bucks County Beacon. Before joining Report for America, Bennett interned and worked as a newsroom fellow at WHYY, Philadelphia's NPR affiliate station. There he covered K-12 education, school closures, and youth civic engagement stories. His interest in journalism began in high school, writing movie reviews for the school paper. Bennett went on to study journalism at American University and graduated in 2024. When he is not reporting, you can find him at the local AMC, rooting for the Knicks and Giants, or exploring Philadelphia with his dog.