California

Tran Nguyen

Tran Nguyen reports for the San Jose Spotlight, a nonprofit, community-supported digital news organization in California. A bilingual data journalist, Nguyen covers the Vietnamese community and other news in the South Bay. Before starting the Report for America position, she interned for Spotlight, where she reported on businesses, schools, city and county government. While pursuing her master's degree in data journalism at the University of Missouri, Nguyen worked as a K-12 education and graphics reporter for the Columbia Missourian, the student-run publication, and as a graduate research assistant studying the user experience of digital versus print journalism. Nguyen was a city hall reporter for the Ashland Tidings and the Mail Tribune in Oregon, and she also holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oregon. Her hometown is Saigon, Vietnam.

Genesis Chavez-Caro

Genesis Chavez-Caro covers poverty and opportunity in the Inland Empire, an area encompassing Riverside and San Bernardino counties east of Los Angeles, for the California Divide project. She is a former editor and columnist for Spanish-language publication El Aviso Magazine, where she focused on topics regarding Latino millennial trends and interests. Previously, she was a reporter for the nonprofit organization Gladeo, where her reporting provided low-income high school students the resources they need to make informed career choices. Chavez-Caro was also a reporter for bilingual newspaper El Tecolote, covering San Francisco’s historic Mission District and its ever-changing cultural climate. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism with a minor in Race and Resistance Studies from San Francisco State University. Her hometown is Huntington Park, California.

A.V. Benford

A.V. Benford reports on education for CapRadio, Sacramento's NPR affiliate, and for The Sacramento Observer newspaper. A proud native of Chicago's South Side, Benford was a staff writer and web editor for the South Side Weekly before joining Report for America. In addition to journalism, this transdisciplinary multimedia artist is also known for her work as a poet, cultural critic, chef and photographer and says the work is rooted in text and its creative applications for social change. Benford is a National Slam Champion and alum of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is also an alum of The Second City Outreach program, VONA (Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation) and WOW Cafe Theatre. Benford's work has been honored by Chicago magazine, Circle of Voices, the Chicago Reader, the Fresh Fruit Festival and Young Chicago Authors, among others.

Breanna Reeves

Breanna Reeves is a journalist for Black Voice News, a website and weekly paper in Riverside, California, and uses data-driven reporting to cover issues that affect the lives of Black Californians. Before joining Black Voice News, Reeves earned a master's degree in politics and communication from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she wrote for the London Globalist, the student-run international affairs publication. She has worked as a freelancer, covering activism and shining light on social inequality in San Francisco and Los Angeles, her hometown. Reeves honed her reporting skills while covering homelessness, social activism and inequality for the Golden Gate Xpress, the student-run newspaper at San Francisco State University. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in print and online journalism with a minor in international relations.

Charlie McGee

Charlie McGee reports on local government accountability and environmental issues for the Desert Dispatch in Barstow, California. Previously, McGee's investigative work has detailed Hurricane Florence's aftermath in an impoverished coastal town, for VICE; and sparked a criminal investigation by uncovering an illegal PAC in North Carolina for The Daily Tar Heel, the student paper of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Indy Week. McGee has written for Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal, and his investigative work on corporate titans in the coronavirus era is a soon-to-come book. He won multiple awards as a reporter at The Daily Tar Heel, including second place in the Associated Collegiate Press's 2020 Reporter of the Year competition for a series that prompted a judge to reverse a $2.5 million deal between UNC-Chapel Hill and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He grew up in Huntersville, North Carolina.

The Fresno Bee

The Fresno Bee is the primary news source for the central San Joaquin Valley, covering a six-county area that is one of the fastest-growing regions in California. The Fresno Bee’s website is the most-visited website in the region, and its mission is to inform and advocate for the enhancement of life in the Valley.

Long Beach Post

Long Beach Post is a daily, digital publication covering news, life, business, placemaking, food, sports, LGBT issues and more in the city of Long Beach, California. We became the largest newsroom in the city last summer when a handful of journalists from the city's legacy newspaper resigned amid an onslaught of layoffs and cutbacks at their publication and joined the Post.

Lookout Santa Cruz

Lookout is an emerging network of, digital-only, mobile-first, editorially robust, intensely local media outlets offering community-centric news and resources. The company’s network of websites will serve small to mid-sized markets, repopulating news and advertising desserts with modern, vibrant news products. Lookout Santa Cruz, the company’s first site, launched in November 2020. Its parent, Lookout Local Inc., is a public benefit corporation whose fundamental mission is to serve its communities with a new and higher standard of news, information and community engagement.

California News Desert & Trust Initiative

The Visalia Times-Delta, where this reporter is based, is owned by Gannett. The California News Desert Initiative aims to promote content sharing among newsrooms so residents in under-covered communities get the news they need. 

CALmatters

CALmatters is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. Environmental regulation, education, health care, criminal justice, economic inequality — the debates on these issues and others have a profound impact on the lives of 38 million Californians and beyond. Our team of experienced journalists, with the time and resources to dig deep, is committed to meaningfully informing Californians about the players, politics, and interests that shape the issues that affect their lives. Over the past year CALmatters set out to continue building a nonprofit platform that would reach a large and influential audience with information and tools that hold politicians accountable and empower Californians to participate meaningfully in their democracy.