Illinois

Jess Savage

Jess Savage

Jesse Savage reports on clean air, water, and agricultural systems in northern Illinois at Northern Public Radio-WNIJ, part of the Mississippi River Basin Project. They recently graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Jess was awarded the Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium Fellowship, where they will be reporting on landscape-scale ecological restoration in England and its effects on local farmers. They studied ecology at the University of Vermont as an undergraduate. Jess is based in Chicago, and they love to ride their bike.  

Corli Jay

Corli Jay is the community investment reporter for Chicago-based digital news site The TRiiBE. Most recently she worked as a general assignment reporter at Crain's Chicago Business, where she covered the media beat. Jay started her career in journalism in 2020 as a fellow of the civic journalism lab City Bureau. She soon began freelancing for other publications that included Chicago Magazine and Chicago Reader. Jay would go on to write for the Hyde Park Herald, the city's oldest neighborhood newspaper. She graduated from Chicago State University with a bachelor's in media arts in 2018.  

Aydali Campa

Aydali Campa, a bilingual journalist, covers environmental justice and immigrant communities in Chicago for Borderless Magazine. She has written stories covering education, immigration, COVID-19, and climate change. Aydali is a 2024 Widening the Pipeline Fellow with the National Press Foundation. Previously, she was a reporter for Inside Climate News and earned the 2022 Shaufler Prize in Journalism for her series about efforts to remediate soil in Atlanta contaminated with lead. She has also contributed stories to The Wall Street Journal and The Arizona Republic and produced videos for Arizona PBS. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communications and a master's in investigative journalism from Arizona State University, where she co-produced an award-winning documentary. In her free time, she enjoys baking, learning to play guitar, and watching sitcoms.

Borderless Magazine

Borderless Magazine is a nonprofit news outlet that is reimagining immigration reporting. Borderless covers labor and justice, among other issues, for Midwestern immigrant communities.

The TRiiBE

The TRiiBE is a digital media platform that is reshaping the narrative of Black Chicago. Our original works in journalism and creative storytelling capture the multifaceted essence of the Black experience. The TRiiBE produces and uplifts narratives that drive social justice and equity. We build community through digital engagement, our annual print magazine and public events.

Northern Public Radio – WNIJ

Northern Public Radio, a member station of NPR, has a mission to enrich, inspire and inform listeners in northern Illinois through programs and services that share ideas, encourage thought, entertain and create community.

Melissa Ellin

Melissa Ellin covers community mental health in Normal/Bloomington for WGLT, an NPR affiliate station at Illinois State University. Before this, she did general assignment reporting for Boston.com and statehouse reporting for MetroWest Daily News, while finishing her undergraduate journalism and English degrees at Boston University. She's freelanced for The Maine Monitor, Brookline News, and The Boston Globe. She also has experience with local and national data-driven investigations, including a story for The Boston Globe that uncovered corruption in the Massachusetts Department of Correction's prisoner grievance system. You can also read her byline in NBC Boston and the AP. She graduated in May 2023 with honors.

Kyle Williams

Kyle Williams covers sports in Chicago, Illinois, for the Chicago Sun-Times. Prior to joining the Sun-Times, Williams graduated from Northwestern University with a master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism. His journalism career started the summer of his freshman year with an internship at ABC7 for the daily talk show, ""Windy City Live."" Following that internship, Williams interned at Marquee Sports Network and the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has covered everything from the Chicago Cubs to North Carolina women’s soccer. As an undergraduate student, he majored in journalism with a minor in anthropology and sociology.

Chicago Sun-Times

The Chicago Sun-Times is the legendary news voice of Chicago’s working class. The news organization was recently acquired by a diverse consortium of philanthropists, business leaders and Chicago area labor organizations.

WGLT

Founded in 1966 and licensed to Illinois State University, WGLT is an NPR member station providing the highest quality local, national and international news, balanced with music and culture. WGLT champions independent nonprofit journalism as a public service with on-air and digital content freely available. WGLT also serves as a training ground for emerging journalists. In the last decade, WGLT has won nearly 50 awards for journalism, including six regional Edward R. Murrow Awards.