Maryland

Sophie Burkholder

Sophie Burkholder is the lead reporter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for Technical.ly, the technology news network, where she focuses on economic development, equity, and access in the area's tech and innovation communities. A native of Pittsburgh, Burkholder has covered science, health, business and economics through internships and freelance work at Philadelphia Magazine, the Philadelphia Inquirer, PublicSource and TechCrunch. Her work has explored various topics, including the economic impact of the pandemic on Philadelphia's small business community, renewed grassroots efforts towards equity in the tech workforce, and the challenges of COVID-19 vaccine access for homebound patients. Burkholder earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees in bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, with an additional concentration in startup operations and entrepreneurship.

Megan Sayles

Megan Sayles is a business reporter for The Baltimore Afro-American paper. Before this, Sayles interned with Baltimore Magazine, where she wrote feature stories about the city's residents, nonprofits and initiatives. Her love of music inspired her to be a writer. At a young age she realized it was not the melody that she was so infatuated with, but the lyrics that made up the song and connected with listeners. Sayles grew up in Pasadena, Maryland, and is a 2021 graduate of the University of Maryland, where for her senior capstone project she reported on how the coronavirus and inequality intersected in Baltimore. She also worked as a staff writer and copy editor for campus publications, including Stories Beneath the Shell and The Black Explosion. Sayles teamed up with a partner to report on how the pandemic had put many more responsibilities on the oldest child in families. The Associated Press and other news organizations picked up her story.

Baltimore Afro-American

The Baltimore Afro-American newspaper is one of the oldest Black-owned newspapers in the country. For more than 128 years, it has been the town crier that sounded the alarm when needed in the Black community and the last voice at night that declared “all is well.” Today, The AFRO-American reports on a variety of issues affecting African-Americans. It has two publications — one in Washington, D.C. and the other in Baltimore.

Stephanie Garcia

Stephanie García reports for The Baltimore Sun focusing on Latinos, the fastest-growing ethnic group in the Maryland city. She is a former news assistant for PBS NewsHour and a foreign desk intern for The Independent. Garcia spent two years teaching English in Madrid. As an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in Arizona, she was an Adult Education Coordinator assisting refugees in Phoenix. Originally from Queens, New York, Garcia graduated magna cum laude from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

Tatyana Turner

Tatyana Turner reports for The Baltimore Sun, where she focuses on poor and working class African-American communities that have often been neglected in media coverage. This new beat tells the stories of these neighborhoods from the front lines. It’s a great fit for Turner, who was inspired by her upbringing in the South Bronx and began her career in journalism writing for her hometown newspaper, the Norwood News, where she covered issues surrounding public housing, poverty, gentrification and land-use. Turner was honored by the New York Press Association for in-depth reporting and best feature series after exposing the fears and frustrations of tenants living under New York City’s most notorious landlord. She was also recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists in 2018 for community journalism after creating a video series that highlighted trailblazers in the Bronx. Turner received her B.A. from Temple University and her M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Donte Kirby

Donte Kirby covers winners and losers in the tech economy for Technical.ly, a Baltimore-based news source publishing stories about the impact of the technology economy on growing cities and focusing on the entrepreneurs and technologists that make up that ecosystem. Kirby has spent the last year and a half as an education volunteer with the Peace Corps in Rwanda, where he taught English to over 150 students. Before that, as a journalist, he wrote for hyperlocal publications like JumpPhilly, the Philadelphia Citizen and Generocity covering arts, social impact, and community development. He had an earlier stint with Technical.ly as a contributing reporter. He holds a BA from Temple University in Philadelphia. “Break dancing saved my life,” says Kirby, who got into breakdancing his freshman year of high school after his mother died. He became interested in journalism after he became a Wallis Annenberg scholar.

Elizabeth Shwe

Elizabeth Shwe covers a range of health policy issues, including the status of asbestos victims, for Maryland Matters, a news nonprofit based in Takoma Park, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., that focuses on politics and policy in the state. Shwe covered California state politics during her internship at The Sacramento Bee in 2019. She graduated from Princeton University with a political science degree in June 2020. During her time at Princeton, she was a producer for WPRB 103.3 FM News & Culture section, the station’s only long-form podcast-type program. She also wrote for The Daily Princetonian and tutored with the Petey Greene Program, which offers free tutoring to incarcerated people. She speaks Arabic and is a member of the Asian American Journalist Association and has studied in India and the United Kingdom.

Bennett Leckrone

Bennett Leckrone is a reporter for Maryland Matters, a news nonprofit based in Takoma Park, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. Leckrone will concentrate on state elections, money, and ethics. He is a recent graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, and recently completed an internship at The Chronicle of Higher Education in Washington, D.C.. Prior to graduating, he wrote about state and local governments during internships at The Columbus Dispatch, Dayton Daily News, PennLive.com and his hometown paper in Ohio, The Troy Daily News. Leckrone got his start covering city council meetings for the independent, student-run newspaper at Ohio University, The Post, and eventually became the paper’s long-form editor. Leckrone is a lifelong Ohio resident and has written extensively about Appalachian issues and the opioid epidemic.

Heather Mongilio

Heather Mongilio writes for the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland. She concentrates on military affairs, in particular, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and nearby Ft. Meade, home to the National Security Agency. Her reporting focuses on the locals who staff these nationally known institutions and how their work affects the region. Mongillo previously covered health, social services and Fort Detrick for The Frederick News-Post in Maryland. She also reported on crime and courts for the Carroll County Times. More of her work can be seen in Environmental Health News and PBS NOVA Next. She earned her master’s degree in science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and her bachelor’s degree in journalism and psychology from American University, where she was editor-in-chief of its student newspaper, The Eagle. Mongilio grew up in Ellicott City, Maryland. Her reporting has been recognized by the Maryland, Delaware, and D.C. Press Association, including first and second-place awards for crime, health and investigative reporting. Among those honors was First Place investigative reporting for “What Happened to Amy Metz?” a project that raised questions about a woman found dead outdoors during a blizzard.

Sarah Kim

Sarah Y. Kim reports for WYPR in Baltimore, where she focuses on the city’s housing and health crisis. Kim has spent her senior year at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore as editor-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, one of the oldest student newspapers in the country. It was through The News-Letter that Sarah fell in love with Baltimore and decided to pursue a career in local journalism. After becoming a staff writer in 2017, she served as news editor and opinions editor. Sarah is also a paid freelance researcher for Baltimore magazine and was an editorial intern there in the summer of 2018. Though born in Walnut Creek, California, Sarah grew up in South Korea for over 12 years, where she developed a passion for storytelling. She is an avid writer of fiction and poetry and graduates this spring with a B.A. in creative writing and international studies. Sarah is also an intern at the Baltimore division of international nonprofit Impact Hub, where she continues to expand her growing network of local entrepreneurs, activists and community members. She is excited to continue her career in journalism in Baltimore, the city she calls home.