North Carolina

Jasmin Herrera

Jasmin Herrera reports on affordable housing in Charlotte, North Carolina for La Noticia, the state’s largest Spanish-language paper. Herrera is a trilingual Mexican American journalist born in California and raised in North Carolina. She earned an associate degree at Central Piedmont Community College and holds a bachelor’s in media and journalism with a minor in social and economic justice from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As part of a multimedia team project covering the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and its devastating effects on Puerto Rico and its people, Herrera reported on the island’s fallen electrical grid and helped the team win the Online Journalism Awards’ top honor for student journalism in 2018 and earn second place in the Society of Environmental Journalists’ student awards. The judges deemed this multimedia project “a superior example of the potential of modern journalism.” Herrera has also interned with her local NPR affiliate and Creative Loafing Charlotte.

Laura Brache

Laura Brache is a reporter for The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, covering the effects of changing demographics on minority communities across the region. Brache spent her first year as a RFA corps member in Charlotte, North Carolina covering immigration and the Latino community for both WFAE public radio and La Noticia, a Spanish-language paper. She is a multilingual, multimedia journalist from North Carolina who was born in Massachusetts and raised in the Dominican Republic. Brache led the production of “Believe It, Do It, Earn It,” an award-winning documentary about the twice-undefeated field hockey team at her alma mater, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A recipient of the Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for social media, Brache was part of the news team at WFMY-TV in Greensboro that won for its bilingual coverage of a series of severe weather events. She holds a master’s degree from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Maria Ramirez Uribe

Maria Ramirez Uribe is a bilingual journalist covering the Latino community in Charlotte, North Carolina for WFAE, an NPR member station, and La Noticia, the state's biggest Spanish-language paper. Before starting her Report for America position, Ramirez spent a year reporting on the economic impact of COVID-19 on Charlotte's Latino community for WFAE. She was born in Caracas, Venezuela to Colombian parents and raised in Maryland. Ramirez has worked as a freelance researcher for CNN's international desk, where she previously interned, helping the network's coverage of international breaking news. Ramirez graduated from North Carolina's Elon University with a double major in journalism and strategic communications.

Marisa Mecke

Marisa Mecke reports on environmental issues in western North Carolina for the Mountain Times, a newspaper based in Boone, North Carolina and also serving nearby counties. A 2021 graduate of Davidson College, Mecke was a feature writer for The Davidsonian, the student paper, and an intern for WDAV, a classical music public radio station, where she produced a video series of interviews with station volunteers and contributed to WDAV’s blog, “Of Note.” She was also the programming director of the student radio station, WALT. Davidson College awarded Mecke the Latin American Studies Prize in 2021 for “her groundbreaking study highlighting the often-silenced transnational relationships between Cubans on the island and in the United States since the 1959 Revolution.” Home for Mecke is Atlanta, Georgia.

WFAE

WFAE is the NPR station serving a 32-county listening area in the Charlotte region. Our mission is to produce journalism that informs, enriches and inspires. For 32 years, people across the Carolinas have relied on WFAE to offer comprehensive and in-depth reporting on the topics they need to understand, whether of local, national, or international importance. Acclaimed NPR programs and our local show, Charlotte Talks, continue to be cornerstones of our trusted on-air brand. Our increasingly diverse community consumes content through our broadcast signals, online at WFAE.org, through smart speakers, newsletters, podcasts and social media. Stories produced by our staff often air on NPR stations across the country as well as on BBC news.  

WFAE / La Noticia

WFAE is the NPR station serving a 32-county listening area in the Charlotte region. For 32 years, people across the Carolinas have relied on WFAE to offer comprehensive and in-depth reporting on the topics they need to understand, whether of local, national, or international importance. La Noticia is a media company that produces the largest Spanish language newspaper in North Carolina. For over 22 years, we have been serving the growing Latino community in North Carolina with coverage of immigration, local and state government, politics, and community news and events. Our readers are immigrants from Latin America with a news source in their native language, providing them with the news and information they need to make informed decisions and help them adjust to the culture in the United States, in North Carolina, and in the cities they call home.  

The News & Observer

The News & Observer’s roots go back to 1865, when its predecessor The Sentinel was launched to expose corruption in the Reconstruction era. Among the News & Observer’s many awards are three Pulitzer Prizes, including the 1996 gold medal for public service. The News & Observer is the paper of record in the capital city of North Carolina, covering the statehouse, the legislature and its impact on the lives of all North Carolinians. The newspaper’s mission is to produce fearless and independent public service journalism that gives a voice to underrepresented, unheard groups and communities.

North Carolina Health News

NC Health News launched in January 2012 in response to the disappearance of people to explain this complicated topic. Our reporters each take on multiple roles. Topics include children’s health and Medicaid, oral health, mental health, rural healthcare, environmental health issues and legislative health issues. We’ve been a “virtual” newsroom, with reporters spread across the state. We have a weekly phone-in via Google Hangout and there’s almost constant communication via phone, text, email, Slack, etc. However, we’re renting a physical office in the Triangle to better accommodate meetings and provide a hub for operations.

La Noticia

La Noticia, The Spanish-Language Newspaper, is the largest Spanish-language Newspaper in North Carolina. We have been serving the Latino community here for 22 years. We cover immigration, local and state government, politics and community news and events. Our readers are immigrants from Latin America who prefer to read in Spanish. They are new to the country and they rely on La Noticia to provide them with local news and information in their own language, that will help them make informed decisions and also help them adapt to the culture in the United States, in North Carolina and in the cities where we serve and they live.

Carolina Public Press

Carolina Public Press is a 501(c)(3) independent nonprofit news organization dedicated to nonpartisan, in-depth and investigative news. Founded in 2011, it was primarily focused on the state’s Appalachian Mountains until February 2018, when it expanded to cover the entire state. The organization operates with a leadership team of six, including two full-time editors, a news and community partnership manager, two full-time reporters and 10 freelancers, located across the state. Its content is widely distributed to media outlets across North Carolina.