2026-2027

Olivia Bensimon

Olivia Bensimon covers Baltimore County for The Baltimore Banner. Prior to this role, she was a freelance journalist specializing in people-centered reporting on topics such as immigration, breaking news, protests, court cases, and local happenings. A longtime New York reporter, she has written for a variety of news outlets like The New York Times, Hell Gate, Crain’s New York Business, and City Limits. She previously roamed the streets for both of the city’s tabloids and cut her teeth as a runner at the New York Post. In 2025, she won a Front Page Award from the Newswomen’s Club of New York for a local feature she wrote for The New York Times about an asylum-seeking family from Guinea. She is a graduate of New York University and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Jessica Pearce

Before joining The Journal, Pearce interned with NonDoc Media, covering everything from Tribal Council elections to housing legislation. She also interned with Oklahoma Watch, where she reported on the sunset of a statewide school counseling program. Pearce is a recent graduate of Oklahoma State University, where she earned bachelor's degrees in journalism and political science. When she's not in the office, Pearce enjoys reading, cooking and travelling.

Jose Sandoval

Jose reports on Latino communities in the Finger Lakes region for WXXI Public Media. Prior to joining WXXI News, Jose acted as the bilingual local All Things Considered Host and general assignment reporter for Blue Ridge Public Radio where he reported on elections, language access, and contributed to BPR's award winning Hurricane Helene coverage. His journalism career started as a producer for the Hola initiative at WNIJ and later as an intern with NPR’s content development team. An Illinoisan, Jose enjoys hiking, playing basketball, and listening to music from artists like J. Cole, Feid, and Bad Bunny.

Julia Gentin

Before joining The Santa Fe New Mexican, Gentin interned at The Hechinger Report, where she covered the shutdown of Climate.gov and the rollback of federal clean energy tax credits. Previously, she investigated the bureaucratic neglect of a public housing complex in Savannah's oldest Black neighborhood for The Current GA. She has also interned for the Student Press Law Center, which helped both her mothers' and her own high school papers fight censorship, and written features for Embarcadero Media, located in her native Silicon Valley. Gentin graduated from Amherst College with degrees in Spanish and Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought. At Amherst, she served as managing news editor of The Amherst Student, covering the fall of affirmative action and expanding the paper's reach into the town and surrounding communities. Her senior thesis explored transitional justice and literature in Chile, where she studied abroad. In her free time, she enjoys running, singing, playing soccer and reading.

Katie Reuther

Katie Reuther is a Chinese American audio journalist whose work explores culture, food systems, and community storytelling. Prior to joining KUCB as a regional reporter for the Aleutian Islands, Reuther produced broadcast and on-demand content for Marketplace, APM Studios, Out There podcast, and Heritage Radio Network. Her independent work has been archived by the Vermont Folklife Center and the Library of Congress, and published by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. In 2019, she received a Fulbright grant to research organic agriculture in China. Before transitioning to audio journalism, Reuther earned a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Middlebury College and a master’s degree in food studies from Chatham University. She is an AIR New Voices alum and a graduate of the Salt Institute.

Teal Davis

Teal Davis is an environment reporter for Wyoming Public Media, covering wildlife, land use and the preservation of major national parks, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Her position is part of a partnership with High Country News Western Environmental Collaborative (WERC). Before joining Report For America, Davis worked as an environment and data reporter in central Wyoming for The Riverton Ranger and Lander Journal. Born and raised in San Diego, she interned at inewsource, an investigative newsroom, and freelanced for several publications in the city. While earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism from San Diego State University, Davis served as news editor and reporter for the university’s student newspaper, The Daily Aztec. There, Davis broke a nationally recognized investigation into a $1.3 million surveillance system with AI facial-recognition capabilities installed at San Diego State University. She also has published work with KPBS, Times of San Diego, Casper Star-Tribune and Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

Ke’Juan Humphries

Ke'Juan Humphries is the Sports Director at Grice Connect. Before joining Report for America, Humphries worked as a freelance sports writer at Grice Connect. In 2023, Humphries earned a bachelor's degree in multimedia journalism from Georgia Southern University, where he served as a sports journalist at the campus media outlet "Your Newsroom" and received several awards for his coverage. Humphries also runs a sports commentary YouTube channel called "Goin' for 2".

Matt Mencarini

Prior to joining Bridge Michigan, Matt Mencarini was a local government and investigative reporter at the Lansing State Journal. His journalism career has taken him to five different states, where’s covered mass incarceration in Kentucky and voting rights in Wisconsin. During a previous stint at the State Journal, he spent more than two years covering the case of Larry Nassar, a former Michigan State University sports doctor serving prison time for sexually assaulting women gymnasts. Mencarini also investigated Michigan State University's failures to stop the abuse sooner. Mencarini was part of the Louisville Courier Journal team that won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. He’s a Chicago native with a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee and bachelor’s degree from Augustana College in Illinois.

Sydney Salomon

Sydney Salomon is a housing and community affairs reporter covering homelessness, housing affordability, and local policy. She previously reported for New Mexico In Depth, where she produced a feature on LGBTQ+ youth homelessness that was republished as a cover story by the Santa Fe Reporter and reached the New Mexico Statehouse. She also worked as a reporter for NYU’s graduate publication, The Click, covering housing and education issues across Union County. Salomon holds a master’s degree in journalism from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in English from Saint Elizabeth University, where she graduated cum laude. In addition to reporting, she is an independent poet and the author of 7 books. She has received awards for two of her poems, separate from her published book work, The Lunchroom (2023) and The Ballads of Tragedy: America’s School Shooting Saga (2024). A New Jersey native, she enjoys creative writing and community-focused storytelling.

Max Kappel

Before joining The Yale Expositor, Max Kappel covered local government and features for The Laker Pioneer, a Lake Minnetonka area newspaper. His journalism career began when he joined his college newspaper in his senior year as a sports reporter and editor. He earned his bachelor's in Information Science from The University of Wisconsin-Madison, along with certificates in Classical Studies, Data Science, Digital Media Analytics, and Sports Communication. When he's not working, Kappel enjoys reading, playing basketball, and spending time by the Chain of Lakes.