Iowa

Estefanía Pinto Ruiz

Estefanía Pinto Ruiz covers environmental policies and regulations impacting the Mississippi River basin and explores potential solutions to ensure its sustainability. Before joining KWQC-TV 6 in Davenport, Iowa, Estefania interned as a culture reporter in Colombia's most widely read newspaper, EL TIEMPO.  She holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Florida and worked as an editor at WUFT News, focusing on their Spanish content. She also mentored students in reporting Latin American news in Spanish.  Estefania is a proud Colombian, so she is always looking for Colombian food and hosting a listening club for her favorite podcast, Radio Ambulante, to speak her native language to stay connected to her roots.

Olivia Cohen

Olivia Cohen covers environmental issues​ and will be a watchdog for Iowa’s agricultural empire. Before joining Report for America, Cohen has also reported for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Chicago Sun-Times and Gateway Journalism Review, while serving as editor-in-chief of her school newspaper, the Columbia Chronicle. Olivia holds a degree in journalism from Columbia College Chicago. She has received awards from the Illinois College Press Association, the Chicago Journalists Association and the College Media Association.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette

The Cedar Rapids Gazette, founded in 1883, is the second largest newspaper in the state. This employee-owned media organization also operates a news site and hosts Iowa Ideas, an annual conference that examines issues facing the state, bringing people together to discuss challenges and possible solutions to make the community and region stronger. The Gazette has earned the Iowa Newspaper Association award for innovation four consecutive years.

KWQC TV6 News

KWQC TV6 is the legacy broadcast and digital news organization in the Davenport IA, Rock Island/Moline, IL market, serving the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois. KWQC, owned and operated by Gray Television, has consistently been the top-rated station for news and weather information. The operation produces content for multiple platforms around the clock. In addition to an unwavering commitment to local journalism and state-of-the art weather forecasting, the KWQC news organization is dedicated to serving their communities through local programming initiatives that support diversity and inclusion.

Maia Bond

Maia Bond covers poverty and healthcare in Dubuque, Iowa for the Telegraph-Herald. In college, Bond covered breaking news and the Missouri statehouse as an intern for the Kansas City Star. She also previously covered local government, housing and elections for the Columbia Missourian. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and won a White House Correspondents' Association scholarship in 2022 for government reporting.

Brooklyn Draisey

Brooklyn Draisey covers higher education across Iowa for Iowa Capital Dispatch. Prior to joining the Iowa Capital Dispatch team, Draisey reported stories from the Quad-Cities, covering the region’s arts and culture community and connecting individual perspectives to larger issues influencing everyone. She fell in love with journalism at a young age, watching national news and reading local publications with her family, and has pursued her career in the industry since joining her high school newspaper. She worked as a reporter and editor at The Daily Iowan, the University of Iowa’s student-run newspaper, and reported on Eastern Iowa for The Gazette and The Southeast Iowa Union before graduating in 2021. Draisey holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and certificate in Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Iowa.

Iowa Capital Dispatch

The Iowa Capital Dispatch is a hard-hitting, independent news organization dedicated to connecting Iowans to their state government and its impact on their lives. The Capital Dispatch combines state government coverage with relentless investigative journalism, deep dives into the consequences of policy, political insight, and principled commentary. The Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers. It retains full editorial independence.

Brittney Miller

Brittney J. Miller covers energy and the environment for The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Prior to this, Miller earned a master’s degree in science writing and communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. There, she wrote about anything science-related —international research, local environmental issues and more—through internships with Nature, Knowable Magazine and the Monterey Herald, and she was named a fellow at The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and an ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation Scholar. Miller holds bachelor’s degrees in biology and journalism from the University of Florida, where her journalism career began at the college’s digital and radio news outlet, WUFT News. When she’s not typing or taking pictures, Miller loves hiking, gardening and cooking.

Josh Irvine

Joshua Irvine reports on poverty for the Telegraph Herald in Dubuque, Iowa. A recent graduate of Northwestern University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he’s lived in a few places but will tell you that he grew up outside Chicago. Irvine was a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune’s suburban publications, covering municipal government and local school boards. He has reported for Windy City Times, which serves the LGBTQ community, and was a copy editing intern at the Tampa Bay Times.

Dubuque Telegraph Herald / TH Media

The Telegraph Herald news site and paper, published six days a week, is the nearly-exclusive news source in the Dubuque tri-state area (Dubuque, Iowa sits on the border of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin). Its mission is to connect the community with high quality journalism, and as a locally-and independently-owned news organization, it takes its role in the community seriously.