Texas

Lia Portillo

Lia Portillo is a recent graduate of Northwestern State University of Louisiana. She has interned at news stations in New Orleans, such as Telemundo 42 New Orleans and WDSU 6 News. As a student journalist, she worked for her student newspaper, The Current Sauce, throughout her college career, starting as a features reporter. In her junior and senior years, she led the newspaper as editor-in-chief.

Justin Hamel

Before joining the Waco Bridge, Justin Hamel spent the previous six years living in El Paso, Texas, as a freelance photojournalist covering migration along the U.S.-Mexico border and the energy industry in the West Texas Permian Basin. As an avid outdoors enthusiast, his photos show the increasing militarization of the populated borderlands as well as the remote and wild regions with minimal human impact. His photos always seek to humanize the effects of industry and government policy. Hamel’s introduction to the journalism industry began in the sixth grade in Galion, Ohio, and later in Montoursville, Pennsylvania, where he started delivering papers from his bike. He later went on to earn a degree in Documentary Photography from the New England School of Photography in Boston, Massachusetts.

Maria Crane

Prior to joining the Fort Worth Report, Crane worked as a freelance photojournalist in North Texas, including an internship with the Denton Record-Chronicle. Crane was the Spring 2024 photography fellow at The Texas Tribune where she covered politics and policy in Texas, and she was a part of the Eddie Adams Workshop XXXVII in Fall 2024. Crane has dual bachelor's degrees in photojournalism and political science as well as a master's degree in journalism from the University of North Texas. At UNT, she was photo editor of the North Texas Daily and Managing Editor for Hatch Visuals, a student run photo agency.

Haajrah Gilani

Haajrah Gilani covers religion for the Houston Chronicle. Before joining Report for America, she led political coverage for the Las Vegas Sun. Her reporting has brought her to growing voting blocs at the Republican National Convention, inaugural celebrations alongside donors for President Donald Trump in Washington and cryptocurrency moguls in Puerto Rico. Gilani holds a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a bachelor's in journalism from Temple University in her native Philadelphia.

Hali Mecklin

Before joining the Uvalde Leader-News as a Report for America corps member, Mecklin covered arts, culture and local news for Los Angeles Magazine. She also served as managing editor at Annenberg Media, the University of Southern California’s digital news outlet, and reported on LAPD’s response to pro-Palestinian encampment protests and the subsequent cancellation of main-stage commencement. During her time at Annenberg Media, she won best student arts or entertainment news story at the 2024 LA Press Club National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards for her reporting on the Syrian antiquity trade in Los Angeles. Before starting at USC, she began her career in journalism at 16 as an intern with the Santa Barbara Independent. During COVID-19 she took a break from reporting to work at the zoo as a giraffe experience specialist, where she helped guests feed and learn about endangered Masai giraffes. She loves Vietnamese food, abstract expressionist painting and her pet pug.

Annie Bresee

Before becoming a Report For America Corp Member, Bresee was the editor of two community newspapers in Georgia and Alabama. While there, she covered issues like the local school boards' efforts to consolidate under a federal desegregation order, citizens protesting a proposed quarry, and abuse in a small town church. Bresee became interested in journalism late in college when she began writing for the university’s newspaper and would later write a long-form feature for her undergraduate thesis. She received her undergraduate degree from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas.

KERA News

NPR and Texas public radio stations collaborated to form the Texas News Hub. It’s the first step in a systemwide collaborative project to create a nationwide virtual public radio newsroom of 1,000-plus journalists. The collaboration includes two daily, hour-long statewide programs (Texas Standard and Think) and will soon include six daily statewide newscasts, and a statewide digital news desk. The Hub is working to hire and train freelance and small station reporters to provide news service to underserved communities in the state’s news deserts.

Fort Worth Report

Fort Worth Report, a nonprofit digital newsroom, was launched in April 2021 to provide original reporting on local government, schools, economic development, health care and other news in Tarrant County, home to Fort Worth. By providing free access to nonpartisan journalism about issues that affect the daily lives of residents, this news organization’s mission is to engage, educate and empower readers.

The Waco Bridge

The Waco Bridge is an editorially independent, nonprofit newsroom dedicated to empowering Wacoans with high-quality local news and information that connects communities and fosters public engagement. Supported by The Texas Tribune, the Bridge’s goal is to deliver accessible, free news that serves people’s needs.

Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post

The Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post is a 136-year-old publication in Gillespie County, Texas. Our publishing company also has produced a visitors guide magazine for the past 46 years, and publishes an award-winning wine and lifestyle magazine, plus assorted websites and an daily email newsletter. We strive to balance the needs of our traditional readers and the influx of new, entrepreneurial residents.