Missouri

Hurubie Meko

Hurubie Meko reports for The Kansas City Star, where she works as part of a team focusing on gun violence in Missouri. Previously, she was the data and visualizations reporter at LNP|LancasterOnline, which covers the news in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where Meko calls home. She has reported on the local criminal justice system's treatment of sexual assault cases in Plain communities, and the impact of COVID-19 on nursing homes. Her investigative series “What's Lurking in Your Well?” examined private well water in Pennsylvania, and won an award from The Lenfest Institute honoring a journalist's outstanding contributions. Prior to graduating from American University in Washington, D.C, in 2016, Meko interned at Amnesty International USA and studied abroad in Morocco.

Karen Robinson-Jacobs

Karen Robinson-Jacobs is a business reporter for The St. Louis American, which covers the African American community in St. Louis, Missouri. This Chi-Town native has been chasing the big story for decades. Most recently she was a freelance journalist with the St. Louis American and NBCBLK.com, writing about issues of concern to African Americans. Robinson-Jacobs spent 15 years reporting for The Dallas Morning News, where she was part of the Pulitzer Prize finalist team lauded for coverage of the 2016 shooting spree that killed five police officers and injured nine others. Prior to that, she spent 15 years with the Los Angeles Times, helping to launch their website. A longtime Midwesterner, Robinson-Jacobs also worked at the Milwaukee Journal, where she was among the first African American editors.

Maria Benevento

Maria Benevento covers education for The Kansas City Beacon, a nonprofit newsroom focused on in-depth public service journalism. Prior to joining The Beacon, she reported on the Missouri state government as an intern for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Jefferson City bureau. While earning her master's at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Benevento worked on the education and state government beats, the graphics desk, and as a teaching assistant on the copy desk for the Columbia Missourian, the school's community paper. Benevento's investigative work for the paper focused on the struggles domestic violence victims face while trying to divorce their abusers. She spent two years as an editorial intern at the National Catholic Reporter in Kansas City before heading off to graduate school. Home for Benevento is Kirksville, Missouri.

The Kansas City Beacon

The Kansas City Beacon is a non-profit online news outlet focused on in-depth journalism in the public interest. It launched in March 2020 and is part of The Beacon, a regional nonprofit news network serving Kansas and Missouri. Beacon stories are revelatory, contextual, data-driven and solutions-driven. Our reporting centers around issues in healthcare, education, economics, environment and civic engagement.

The Kansas City Beacon

The Kansas City Beacon is a nonprofit, digital-only news outlet based in covering the 2 million metro area and both sides of the state line (Kansas and Missouri). Our mission: To spur reforms in the public interest by shining light on wrongdoings and abuse by government, businesses and other institutions in the region through in-depth, solutions-driven journalism. The Beacon was founded in April 2019 and began publishing in early 2020.

The St. Louis American/Type Investigations

The St. Louis American has covered the African American community since 1928. The Black-owned newspaper is now the largest weekly newspaper in Missouri. The American also is a 13-time recipient of the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s Russwurm Award, which recognizes the top African-American newspaper in the country. Type Investigations is the signature program of the Type Media Center, and provides expert editorial guidance, researchers, and funds for reporting costs to foster investigative reporting.

Kansas City PBS

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.  

Catherine Hoffman

Catherine Hoffman covers rural issues in Missouri for PBS Kansas City. She has interned as a video journalist covering faith stories for the past year, and before that was a video reporting intern at PBS Kansas City. In the spring of 2020 she premiered her first documentary short, “46 Years,” and has explored faith and resilience in her work. She holds a degree in documentary journalism from the University of Missouri with minors in French and black studies. She was raised in Dallas, Texas.

Jacob Douglas

Jacob Douglas covers rural issues including economic sustainability in small-town Missouri for Kansas City, PBS. Douglas covered education technology, renewable energy and rural life during internships with CNBC and Kansas City Public Television. He graduated with honors from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in the Spring of 2020. His most recent projects at the journalism school include leading a team of reporters seeking out much-needed information about COVID-19 in underreported areas in Southern Missouri and developing an arts and culture podcast for the J-School. He grew up in Dallas City, Illinois and got started in journalism by covering high school sports for the Hancock County Journal Pilot.

Humera Lodhi

Humera Lodhi reports for The Kansas City Star where she works as part of a team focusing on gun violence and uses her data skills to offer a deeper understanding of firearms statistics. She is a writer, programmer, multimedia creator and proud Missourian who has reported for various Missouri outlets such as the St. Louis Post Dispatch and KCUR on civil rights legislation, social media extremism and neglected public infrastructure. She was part of an award-winning research team that created a digital database mapping the British suppression of the African slave trade, created and produced a Snapchat series covering the midterm elections for Raycom Media and built an app for journalists that uncovered hidden relationships between topics using artificial intelligence. Lodhi graduated from the University of Missouri with degrees in journalism and statistics in 2019. Afterwards, she pursued a master’s degree in data journalism from Columbia University.