Midwest

Avery Martinez

Avery Martinez is currently the water, ag & environment reporter for KMOV-TV in St. Louis, Missouri. He has worked in television, radio and newsprint across multiple states and markets. He brings a community approach to reporting. He cut his teeth in smaller family papers, before working in major syndicates and networks. Martinez has been a mental health correspondent, anchor, producer, legal staff writer, immigration specialist, editor, campaign correspondent and columnist—in addition to covering city, state and federal courts and legislatures. He was the first graduate of Fort Lewis College’s Journalism and Mass Media Studies program. Martinez has won awards and fellowships for his international coverage of healthcare systems, election committees, immigrant legal representation and the future of law school exams.
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.  

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.

Kansas City PBS/Flatland

Kansas City PBS has a long tradition of public service that has laid the foundation for expanding its news gathering relationship with our community. Our content platforms — television, radio, digital, social media and educational outreach — exist to serve the diversity of our region. We explore complicated issues with thoughtful reporting. We share the diverse stories of people, places, and progress in our community. We advance conversations through community engagement and social media. Specifically, Kansas City PBS operates four KCPT-related public television channels; KTBG 90.9 The Bridge, an NPR-affiliated AAA music station; and FlatlandKC, an online digital magazine; in addition to social media and community events.

KBIA and the Missouri School of Journalism

KBIA News is an award-winning, innovative newsroom located in the university town of Columbia, on the campus of the Missouri School of Journalism. Reporters at KBIA News cover this dynamic Mid-Missouri community, coach and edit journalism students, and file reports and features to NPR and other national programs. KBIA News enjoys close collaborations with Harvest Public Media, Side Effects Public Media, and with innovative campus organizations such as the Reynolds Journalism Institute.

KMOV-TV

KMOV in St. Louis is the most watched station in all of Missouri and Southern Illinois. KMOV is one of the top CBS affiliates in the country, a leader in Market #23, and known for its award winning news and weather coverage, numerous community service projects, and effective broadcast and digital marketing solutions. KMOV is the 2023 National Edward R Murrow Award Winner for Best Newscast and Regional Winner for Overall Excellence.

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.

Planet Detroit

Planet Detroit is an award-winning nonprofit newsroom with a mission to produce quality climate, equity, health and environment journalism in the public interest that centers grassroots voices, holds power accountable, spotlights solutions and serves the community.

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.