PHOTOGRAPHY

Dina Weinstein

Prior to joining the Henrico Citizen newsroom, Dina Weinstein reported for Virginia Commonwealth University’s News website focusing on people, programs, trends, and events in higher education. She also spent this year researching, presenting, and publishing stories about VCU’s first Black School of Nursing graduate through a Virginia Humanities fellowship. Weinstein's award-winning articles and interviews have been published in dozens of publications and outlets, including a recent Henrico Citizen series about refugees. Before moving to Richmond, Weinstein advised the student newspaper at Miami-Dade College in South Florida while reporting on higher education, the arts, parenting, civil rights anniversaries, and Jewish life for numerous publications worldwide. Weinstein earned a master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's of fine arts from Boston University. A Spanish speaker, Weinstein enjoys reading, cultural activities, cycling, and nature.

Jaylin R. Smith

Making funny videos and engaging audiences for prospects were skills Jaylin Smith learned from her graduate experience at the University of Mississippi in Journalism and New Media. While receiving her Master’s degree, the scholar worked as a graduate assistant for the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics. There, Smith started her career as a multimedia journalist and researcher, presenting her work at conferences for the Broadcast Education Association and the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Her love for diversity and passion for representation and visibility of Black culture allowed her to be chosen as a 2024 TEDx Speaker, giving a talk about the importance of respecting Black women’s hair. Smith’s strong foundation for journalistic excellence and community involvement began at her beloved HBCU, Mississippi Valley State University. Leading up to her role as the Delta reporter at the Mississippi Free Press, Smith worked as a car saleswoman at Cannon Chevrolet in her hometown of Greenwood, Miss.

Sarah Dolgin

Before joining the Fauquier Times, Sarah Dolgin covered local and statewide politics for the Chattanooga Times Free Press and launched a weekly politics newsletter. She started at the Times Free Press as a digital producer and journalist on the newspaper's web team. As a college newsroom intern for Central Current, Dolgin reported on the stories of Ukrainian refugees who left their homes at the start of the war and stayed with families in Central New York. She holds a dual bachelor's degree in newspaper and online journalism and information management and technology from Syracuse University.

Lauren Miller

Prior to joining the Montana Free Press, Lauren Miller worked as a multimedia journalist at the Casper Star-Tribune first and then the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. The Syracuse University graduate is passionate about visual storytelling, including photography, cinematography, portraiture, audio and archival work, and tailors her approach to each project’s needs. She is dedicated to genuinely capturing the intimate, mundane and beautiful moments and emotions that make up daily life. Outside of her work, she is passionate about the outdoors, running, winning card games, being with her friends, baking, fighting through her lactose intolerance for deep dish pizza and, occasionally, long walks on the beach, or rather runs in the mountains.

inewsource

inewsource is a nonprofit newsroom serving San Diego since 2009 with investigative reporting that safeguards community interests and holds power to account. Through its signature Documenters program, inewsource trains and pays community members to attend public meetings and take notes. inewsource prioritizes innovation, including interactive and illustrated storytelling across platforms, and is the only local member of the Trust Project. Through various media partners, inewsource publishes its journalism on the web, social media, radio and television for local, state and national audiences.

WUSF

WUSF is the NPR station for the Tampa Bay region; we are committed to providing accurate, honest journalism that helps the public understand the community and the world. Our journalists are independent, curious, and respectful. As a newsroom, we are committed to listening and engaging with the community to provide journalism that reflects the place we call home. This addition to the newsroom will be supported by the entire team as well as two senior editors who can guide and coach this new talent.

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

At the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, our mission is to provide the news and information people in southeast Washington need to make informed decisions about their health, safety and economic well-being. Our 11 journalists deliver news via unionbulletin.com, a three-day print newspaper and social media. We are part of The Seattle Times Co., which believes decisions about the U-B and local are best made by the people who live and work here in the community.

Verite News

Verite News, a Black-led, nonprofit newsroom, was founded in 2022 by two veterans of the Times-Picayune, Terry Baquet and David Francis. Verite has a two-fold mission: to use the power of journalism to expose and dismantle inequities that affect vulnerable populations and to educate the next generation of journalists through our news fellowship program.

Charlottesville Tomorrow

Charlottesville Tomorrow is a community-driven, socially conscious news organization and we serve our neighbors by connecting them to each other and to the issues that affect them most. We center our organization and news processes on our values — truth, community and equity — and we work to improve the health of our local news community and ecosystem through our inclusive practices in hiring, journalism and partnership.

Stocktonia

Stocktonia is a nonprofit, digital-native news source. It is devoted to the most important news in Stockton and San Joaquin County and guided by the best practices in journalism. In 2024, Stocktonia became a part of NEWSWELL, devoted to finding new ways to help local news – and local communities – thrive. Today, this startup, digital-native website employs one of the largest teams of local journalists in the region. With community support, it continues to grow.