REPORTING

Madison Lammert

Madison Lammert covers child care and early childhood education across Wisconsin for the Post-Crescent, which is based in Appleton, Wisconsin and part of the USA Today network. Previously, she reported for the Republic-Times, the only local news source dedicated to Monroe County, Illinois. Lammert graduated summa cum laude from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications, and was editor-in-chief of the student paper, The Alestle, which won multiple Illinois College Press Association awards under her leadership. Lammert’s photos of a Black Lives Matter protest took home a College Media Association Pinnacle Award.

Priscilla Totiyapungprasert

Priscilla Totiyapungprasert reports on local health issues for El Paso Matters, a nonprofit news outlet based in El Paso, Texas. Previously, she covered food culture and dining in Phoenix for The Arizona Republic, including reporting on immigrant communities, the restaurant industry, school nutrition and labor abuse. Totiyapungprasert started at The Arizona Republic as an environment fellow, analyzing the disparity in neighborhood air quality and reporting on the health impact of Phoenix air pollution. Holding a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Texas at Austin, she has worked in Germany and Malta.

Sarah Michels

Sarah Michels is a general assignment reporter for the Bowling Green Daily News, a central Kentucky newspaper covering Bowling Green and outlying counties. Michels interned at the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Cincinnati Enquirer, where she found her niche as a storytelling reporter. Michels holds a dual bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science, with minors in Spanish and business from the University of Kentucky, where she worked at the Kentucky Kernel, the student paper, as the opinions editor, assistant news editor, breaking news reporter and features reporter. She ran track and cross country in college, and you can still find her competing in road races and exploring the nearest trails.

William Perkins

William T. Perkins is a data reporter for the Traverse City Record-Eagle in Michigan. Previously, he was a reporter at the Petoskey News-Review in northern Michigan, covering local government and environmental issues, including concerns surrounding the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline in the Great Lakes. A native of metro Detroit, Perkins holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, where he was a news editor at The Post, the student paper, and a Scripps Statehouse news bureau fellow reporting on state government for The Columbus Dispatch.

Bennet Goldstein

Bennet Goldstein reports on water and agriculture as Wisconsin Watch’s Report for America representative on the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk—a collaborative reporting network across the Basin. Before this, Goldstein was on the breaking news team at the Omaha World Herald in Nebraska. He has spent most of his career at daily papers in Iowa, including the Dubuque Telegraph Herald. Goldstein’s work has garnered awards, including the Associated Press Media Editors award for an explanatory feature about a police shooting in rural Wisconsin, and an Iowa Newspaper Association award for a series that detailed the impacts of the loss of social safety net programs on Dubuque’s Marshallese community. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Cora Lewis

Cora Lewis covers workers and the business of agriculture for The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit newsroom based in Champaign, Illinois. Prior to joining The Midwest Center, Lewis reported on labor and breaking news for BuzzFeed News, where she received a Front Page Award from The Newswomen’s Club of New York for stories covering on-call scheduling. Her work has led to the resignation of an abusive CEO and has been featured on “This American Life.” She has followed minimum wage movements, teachers’ strikes, automation, the on-demand economy, alternative organizing models and union politics. Born and raised in New York City, Lewis received her bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Yale University and her master’s in fiction from Washington University in St. Louis.

Ginny Monk

Ginny Monk is a housing reporter for The Connecticut Mirror, a nonprofit news site that reports on politics and policy across Connecticut. Previously, she covered real estate and consumer issues for Hearst Connecticut Media Group. Monk was on the investigations team at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette where she reported on housing, homelessness and children’s welfare issues, including juvenile justice. As a data fellow with the University of Southern California’s Center for Health Journalism, she wrote a series of stories about the unnatural and preventable deaths of children in Arkansas. Monk grew up in Pencil Bluff, a small township in Arkansas, and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Arkansas, where she was editor-in-chief of The Arkansas Traveler, the student paper.

Jayme Lozano

Jayme Lozano Carver covers rural news in West Texas for The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit digital news organization based in Austin. Prior to this, Lozano Carver  reported on the rise of rural hospital closures in Texas for Lubbock’s NPR station, KTTZ, and the PBS series “Frontline.”  Her journalism career started at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal as a copy editor, and as a reporter she reestablished the regional news beat. Lozano studied journalism at South Plains College and Texas Tech University. Her work has earned awards from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation, the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors. 

Kayla Benjamin

Kayla Benjamin is a journalist at The Washington Informer, a multimedia news organization in the metro Washington, D.C. area. Prior to this, she was an assistant editor at Washingtonian magazine, and reported on the arts, travel, real estate and politics. As an intern with Current, a national trade publication covering the public media industry, Benjamin wrote a feature story about public radio stations’ climate coverage initiatives, which was included in the Pew Research Center’s newsletter on media and on Mediagazer’s Twitter. Benjamin, a graduate of American University, is passionate about solutions journalism, environmental policy and dark chocolate.

Malak Silmi

Malak Silmi covers city and government affairs for Outlier Media, a nonprofit service journalism organization based in Detroit, Michigan. Previously, she was a digital reporter for the San Antonio Express-News in Texas, covering trends and breaking news. Silmi holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and international studies from Wayne State University, where she was a reporter and news editor of the student paper, The South End. She has interned at Michigan public radio, and participated in The New York Times Student Journalism Institute. Shortly after graduating in 2020, Silmi reported for Outlier Media, providing updates on COVID-19 guidelines, elections and other topics, with information in both English and Arabic. For fun, she enjoys traveling, reading and enjoying the outdoors (when it’s warm).