Racine County Eye
Racine County Eye is the city's only locally owned and operated news source. Founded in 2013 to news information void, it is a hyperlocal news source with a focus on solutions-based journalism and strategic partnerships.
RADIO / PODCAST
Olivia Reingold
Olivia has been a producer at Georgia Public Radio, an 18-station NPR network that airs across the state, into parts of South Carolina and Alabama. She’s a producer for two podcasts, “Political Rewind” about local issues and “Two Way Street,” about arts and culture. She won a first place award for feature writing from the Associated Press and first place award for “Radio Reporting Excellence” given by the Atlanta Press Club. She was also an intern at WSB TV in Atlanta. got her B.A. from Oglethorpe University and an M.A. from Columbia University Journalism School.
Gerard Albert III
Gerard Albert III covers rural communities in Western North Carolina at Blue Ridge Public Radio. Before joining Report for America, Albert worked at WLRN in South Florida reporting on affordable housing, law enforcement, and local government accountability in Broward County. There, he won multiple state and national awards for his coverage of the Parkland school shooter death penalty trial. His work has been featured on NPR, Here & Now and the BBC. Previously, he reported on the criminal justice system in Palm Beach and South Carolina, where he won state-wide awards for his reporting on police policies. Albert started his journalism career at Florida International University’s student-run newspaper. He became Editor in Chief his senior year and earned state-wide awards for his investigation into the university spending millions of dollars on palm trees from a shady dealer. In Florida, he spends most weekends knee-deep in the Everglades and looks forward to exploring trails in the Blue Ridge Mountains. When not outdoors, he enjoys reading, writing poetry, and perfecting the sugar-to-coffee ratio for his coladas.
Jess Savage
Jesse Savage reports on clean air, water, and agricultural systems in northern Illinois at Northern Public Radio-WNIJ, part of the Mississippi River Basin Project. They recently graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Jess was awarded the Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium Fellowship, where they will be reporting on landscape-scale ecological restoration in England and its effects on local farmers. They studied ecology at the University of Vermont as an undergraduate. Jess is based in Chicago, and they love to ride their bike.
Sierra Pfeifer
A native of Hillsborough, North Carolina, Sierra Pfeifer is a mental health and addiction reporter for KOSU in Oklahoma. Previously, Pfeifer served as the audio editor for The Daily Tar Heel, where she led a team covering everything from local politics to the UNC-Duke rivalry. She also served as the producer for Carolina Connection, a student-run radio show covering higher education, and worked as a reporter for local radio station WCHL. Pfeifer was a part of NPR’s Next Generation Radio fellowship, where she put together a non-narrated audio story covering modern ties to “home” in the American South, and won first place in the National Hearst Audio Competition this year. In her free time, she likes making collages and wading through creeks.
KOSU
KOSU is more than a radio station. We’re a community organization dedicated to sparking curiosity with stories, resources, events and information that connect people. We report news in collaboration with the public, not just for the public. KOSU helps Oklahomans understand issues that are important to them and discover new things about our state.
David Escobar
David Escobar covers diversity in the Adirondacks for the Adirondack Explorer & North Country Public Radio. He previously served as the news editor for WFUV 90.7 FM in the Bronx. Along with mentoring student reporters, he produced, directed, and hosted the station's daily news podcast "What's What". Escobar has also worked as an associate producer for the podcast and radio show "Our Body Politic" and as an intern for WNYC's "The Takeaway". His journalism career started at WFUV as an anchor and student reporter. Prior to working in journalism, Escobar researched the history of Chinese migrant labor at the John Muir National Historic Site as an intern for the National Park Service. He has a master's degree in public media from Fordham University, where he also earned bachelor's degrees in journalism and digital technology & emerging media.
Harshawn Ratanpal
Before joining KBIA and the Missouri School of Journalism, Ratanpal covered money in politics at OpenSecrets, tracking campaign finance and lobbying data. At the Missouri School of Journalism, he covered local government, homelessness and the state legislature for mid-Missouri’s NPR member station KBIA and the Columbia Missourian. He was also the news director of KCOU, the campus student-run radio station. He holds a bachelor’s in journalism and a Bachelor of Science in economics. His first real-world gig was interning for his hometown newspaper, The San Diego Union-Tribune. He started his career in the 7th grade, writing for his school paper, the PawPrints. In his free time, Ratanpal makes music, lifts weights and climbs rocks.
Julie Freijat
Prior to joining Report for America, Freijat served as a data reporter for Kansas City PBS through the Dow Jones News Fund, where she produced data-driven articles about local and state issues. She also held two internships at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where she gained valuable experience in science communication working across platforms. Freijat was also heavily involved in her campus newspaper at Kansas State University, where she served in multiple leadership roles and won awards for her design and writing at the state and national levels. While at Mizzou, Freijat worked as a research assistant for Investigative Reporters and Editors and served as a student staffer at the Reynold’s Journalism Institute Innovation Lab. Freijat received her master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2024, and graduated from Kansas State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in biology in 2022.
Kathryn DePauw
Kathryn DePauw covers Indigenous and tribal communities in Northern Michigan for the Traverse City Record-Eagle. Before this, she editor-in-chief for the White Pine Press, Northwestern Michigan College’s newspaper. There, she earned awards for her photojournalism and reporting on local stories, COVID-19, and the 2020 election. In 2022, the Michigan College Press Association named her the Janet Nellis Mendler Student Journalist of the Year. DePauw earned a degree in freshwater studies and has worked with many local nonprofits as a water quality monitor, geographic information systems specialist, and digital content creator. She was awarded the 2021 Student Environmentalist of the Year award from the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council for establishing a chloride monitoring program.