Montana

Isabel Hicks

Isabel Hicks reports on the future of agriculture for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. A graduate of Colorado College with a degree in environmental studies and journalism, Hicks was the editor-in-chief of her college paper. Throughout her journalism career, she has strived to tell stories about human relationships with the environment. Born and raised in Denver, Hicks worked on an organic farm in Carbondale, Colorado, where she became well-versed in challenges facing food systems in the Rocky Mountain West. While working on the farm Hicks also freelanced for Carbondale’s local paper, earning front-page coverage for her environmental reporting. Hicks also wrote a weekly newsletter about COVID-19 impacts to higher education, producing work that was featured in the New York Times, USA Today, and the Colorado Sun. In her free time, Hicks enjoys fostering kittens, hiking and tending to her many houseplants.

Ellis Juhlin

Ellis Juhlin covers Montana government and the legislative session as the Statehouse reporter for Yellowstone Public Radio. Previously, Juhlin was a science reporter for Utah Public Radio. With a background in natural resources and wildlife management, Juhlin began her journalism career as a graduate student at Utah State University where she realized her passion for science communication and started working with Utah Public Radio to translate complex environmental issues for listeners across the state. She holds a master’s degree in ecology from Utah State University and a bachelor’s from the University of California, San Diego. An avid birder, Juhlin also loves to go hiking with her two rescue dogs.

Bozeman Daily Chronicle

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle has published for more than a century, covering Gallatin County and beyond in southwestern Montana. The paper publishes six days a week, and has a robust online presence.

Yellowstone Public Radio

Yellowstone Public Radio, an NPR affiliate, is the largest public radio network in the continental United States. Covering Billings, Bozeman, Helena and the rural areas of Montana and Northern Wyoming, YPR is the definitive news source for many of rural listeners, distributing news content over its website and mobile app.

Sam Wilson

Samuel Wilson is a visual journalist covering rural Montana for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. He has worked most recently as a freelance photographer based in Portland, Oregon, his hometown, and previously in southeast Alaska, while also independently producing short and full-length documentaries. Wilson interned at several community newspapers around the country after graduating from the University of Montana, where he was the multimedia editor for the student publication, the Montana Kaimin, and took first place in the Hearst National Multimedia Championship. Wilson considers the mountains of the Pacific Northwest to be home.

Taylar Stagner

Taylar Dawn Stagner covers Indigenous communities for Yellowstone Public Radio in Billings, Montana. Previously, Stagner reported on the Wind River Indian Reservation for Wyoming Public Radio. She has freelanced for NPR, High Country News, and Audubon, and is working on a season of the award-winning podcast The Modern West, reporting on tribal health care and the history of disease in Indian Country. Stagner has a master's degree in American culture studies from Bowling Green State University, and holds a bachelor's in American studies from the University of Wyoming. She is Arapaho and Shoshone, and was a Native American Journalism fellow in 2019.

Yellowstone Public Radio

Yellowstone Public Radio, an NPR affiliate, is the largest public radio network in the continental United States. Covering Billings, Bozeman, Helena and the rural areas of Montana and Northern Wyoming, YPR is the definitive news source for many of rural listeners, distributing news content over its website and mobile app.

Montana Free Press

Montana Free Press (MTFP) is a 4-year-old independent, nonprofit digital news site with offices in Helena, Montana, the state capital. MTFP covers statewide news, politics and policy via text stories, data analysis and visualization, and podcasts. MTFP's mission statement is "to bring to light essential news stories by studying arcane bureaucratic processes, seeking out dark corners of major institutions, digging deep into data and documents, and holding those in power accountable to the people." We work independently and in collaboration with other news outlets statewide to produce meaningful news stories that have an impact on the lives and livelihoods of Montanans.

Bozeman Daily Chronicle

The Chronicle has evolved over more than 100 years into Montana’s fifth largest newspaper. The newspapers that eventually became today’s Chronicle started with Bozeman’s first, the Montana Pick & Plow in 1869. That soon changed hands and title to the Avant Courier. A competing paper, the Bozeman Times, perhaps had the most notable “scoop” of the day: “Custer’s Battle and Death” was the headline for the Extra edition produced on July 3, 1876. Today, the Chronicle has a print circulation of about 15,000 and a total audience, including online readers, of more than 51,000. The Chronicle's website generates more than 1 million page views per month.

Iris Samuels

Iris Samuels covers gubernatorial and congressional elections in Montana for The Associated Press. Based in Helena, the state capital, she also covers policy issues that bear on the lives of the state’s one million citizens who face a dearth of statewide coverage. No stranger to the West, Samuels reported and investigated stories on local government, education, and healthcare for the Kodiak Daily Mirror in Alaska. It’s a world away from Israel, where she was raised and completed her mandatory military service as an intelligence analyst. (Samuels is a dual American and Israeli citizen who speaks Arabic, English, French, and Hebrew.) She is a summa cum laude graduate from Princeton where she won the John McPhee Award for Independent Journalism for her on-scene coverage of the refugee crisis in Europe based on interviews in Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Germany. In college, she also covered education for regional news outlets including public radio station WHYY in Philadelphia and penned a column for the Daily Princetonian.