Massachusetts

Hallie Claflin

Prior to joining the Commonwealth Beacon, Claflin covered state government, politics and rural homelessness for Wisconsin Watch. Her journalism career started in her home state of Wisconsin, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in both journalism and political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also holds a minor in Asian American studies. In college, she interned at a number of local publications, including The Badger Project and Madison Commons. In 2023, she covered national and international affairs as a visual news intern at Voice of America in Washington, D.C. Claflin is a U.S. history buff, and she is thrilled to be reporting in Massachusetts, where her distant relative William Claflin was the 27th governor from 1869 to 1872.

Commonwealth Beacon

CommonWealth Beacon is a nonprofit, nonpartisan source of in-depth news, analysis, and original reporting on policy, politics, and civic life in Massachusetts. Our mission is to contribute to a more inclusive and vibrant civic culture that makes our government more responsive and effective by providing rigorous coverage of important issues affecting life in Massachusetts.

Adam Goldstein

Adam Goldstein covers climate, the environment, public health, and more at the New Bedford Light in New Bedford, Mass. Prior to joining the Light, Goldstein covered agricultural policy and Capitol Hill for States Newsroom in Washington D.C., regularly reporting on the farm bill. He has also worked as an education reporter at the the Columbia Missourian, and prior to that, as a digital producer for ABC7 Bay Area. Goldstein also won a 2023 NAAJ Best Student Writing Award for a story he did about climate change impacting Corn Belt agriculture. Goldstein is a San Francisco native, and a graduate of Tulane University and the Missouri School of Journalism.

The New Bedford Light

The New Bedford Light is a free, nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news outlet dedicated to in-depth coverage of urgent issues facing the City of New Bedford and the South Coast region of Massachusetts, a richly diverse and economically challenged area. In addition to hard-hitting investigative and explanatory stories, we celebrate our unique local culture through inventive coverage of the arts. It's an unusual content mix, tailored to reflect the whole of our complex city. In just over a year of publication, The Light has grown into a professional news organization with a 14-member staff, a neighborhood-based newsroom and a broad community of avid supporters. Our newsroom prioritizes watchdog/accountability journalism; we strive for impact. To date, we have exposed serious inequities in the fishing industry, evictions and gentrification, public health and safety, educational resources and much more.

The Bay State Banner

The Bay State Banner is New England’s longest-running black-owned newspaper. Founded in 1965 to serve the city’s African-American population, the Banner has provided in-depth coverage of the social movements, political developments, events and ideas in the Greater Boston area’s African-American, Latino and Asian communities. Our newspaper focuses on areas including criminal justice policy, education, politics, real estate development and the arts through the lens of communities of color.

Nirvani Williams

Nirvani Williams covers socio-economic disparities in western Massachusetts for New England Public Media, a nonprofit multimedia organization based in Springfield, Massachusetts. Prior to this, Williams was the associate editor of Seema, an online publication dedicated to spreading more stories about women in the Indian diaspora, and has written a variety of articles, including a story about a Bangladeshi American cybersecurity expert and her tips for protecting phone data while protesting. Williams interned at WABC-TV's “Eyewitness News,” WSHU public radio, and La Voce di New York, a news site in Italian and English. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Stony Brook University, where she was the executive editor of the student-run culture magazine, The Stony Brook Press. Williams hopes to inspire with her writing and to continue reporting on systemic and institutional inequalities in underserved communities.

Tiana Woodard

Tiana Woodard covers Black neighborhoods in and around Boston for The Boston Globe. A 2021 graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, Woodard studied journalism and English, co-founded the university's only Black-interest publication, BlackPrint, and worked as the first diversity and inclusion director at The Daily Texan, the college paper. She was one of five student journalists selected for ProPublica's Emerging Reporters 2019-20 program and is a recipient of a Facebook Journalism Project Scholarship. You can find her bylines in The Dallas Morning News, The Texas Tribune and The Indianapolis Star. In her spare time Woodard enjoys binge-watching “Jeopardy,” feeding table scraps to her spoiled Airedale terrier Pierre or connecting any current event to Prince. She grew up outside of Nashville, Tennessee but has called Beaumont, Texas her home for 12 years.

Greta Jochem

Greta Jochem reports for The Berkshire Eagle, a daily publication based in Pittsfield and serving western Massachusetts. She covers North Adams, and contributes to investigations. Jochem got her start in local news by reporting on Northampton, Massachusetts for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, where she covered topics like growing homelessness, city politics, and LGBTQ issues. Jochem is a graduate of Tufts University where she was an editor of the student magazine, the Tufts Observer. As a fellow at Grist, a nonprofit news organization devoted to covering climate solutions, she reported on climate change, and has written about science as an NPR intern. Jochem grew up in Wisconsin and outside of work, she can be found biking.

Daniel Ackerman

Daniel Ackerman covers Massachusetts’ South Coast, including the port cities of New Bedford and Fall River, for NPR affiliate WCAI in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. His audio coverage of science and the environment has aired on NPR, “Marketplace” and “99% Invisible,” while his writing has appeared in Scientific American, National Geographic and The Washington Post.  Ackerman holds a Ph.D. in climate change ecology from the University of Minnesota. He has reported from the bottom of a sinkhole and interviewed former presidential candidates (though not at the same time).

WCAI: The Cape and Islands NPR Station

WCAI is a listener-supported public radio station and the National Public Radio affiliate serving Cape Cod, the Massachusetts South Coast, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The station provides local newscasts with original reporting. It strives to celebrate the uniqueness of the communities it serves while spurring discussions about common issues.