RADIO / PODCAST

The Texas Newsroom/KERA

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.

Prince James Story

Prince James Story covers criminal and social justice for Black Voice News, an online news publication in Riverside, California. Before joining Black Voice News, Story was one of the 2021 Carnegie-Knight NEWS21 Fellows working on the multimedia reporting project “Unmasking America: The Lingering Toll of COVID-19.” Story also served as a digital reporter for the United States Olympic and Paralympic committee for their “Olympians Made Here” campaign. While earning his master’s degree from Arizona State University, he was a graduate assistant for the Global Sport Institute and covered Arizona State football. He also wrote articles on issues involving social inequalities in underserved areas and communities of color while spotlighting efforts by individuals and organizations to address these communal issues. In December 2021, Story earned his master’s degree in Sports Journalism from Arizona State University-Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and received the Outstanding Graduate Student award for the Fall Convocation. He earned a B.A. in Mass Communication and a B.A. in African American studies from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Elvis Menayese

Elvis Menayese of Cardiff, Wales, reports on the issues of race and equity in Charlotte, North Carolina, for NPR affiliate WFAE. Before teaming up with the WFAE, Menayese became one of the first Knight Summer Fellows interns for the Queens University News Service. As a fellow, he reported on grassroots initiatives that engaged Charlotte-area university students to mobilize vaccinations for COVID-19 among populations with “vaccine hesitancy,” including groups with historic distrust for government programs. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Multimedia Storytelling with a concentration in Journalism. During his time at Queens, he was awarded “The Spirit of Community” award by Queens Knight School in recognition of his journalism work done throughout the community of Charlotte. Before transferring to Queens, Menayese attended Stetson University and competed as a collegiate athlete for their men’s soccer program where he was named to the ASUN All-Freshman team recognizing superior play from freshman student-athletes. As a reporter, Menayese continues to devote his time to covering underrepresented communities within the Queen City.

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.  

Julie Luchetta

Julie Luchetta is a reporter for Boise State Public Radio, covering Idaho's growing Latino population. She has interned as a breaking news reporter for The Arizona Republic, and is a recent graduate of the University of Arizona School of Journalism, where she focused her work on environmental journalism and audio reporting. Born and raised in France, Luchetta moved to the U.S. to study the borderlands of Arizona. Before becoming a reporter, she worked in research and social services, most recently supporting LGBTQ+ folks experiencing homelessness. Luchetta spends her free time recommending podcasts to people who did not ask for podcast recommendations.

Kayla Young

Kayla Young is a bilingual reporter covering immigration, race and equity for WFAE, an NPR member station in Charlotte, North Carolina, and La Noticia, the state’s biggest Spanish-language paper. Young grew up in Greeley, Colorado and for the past five years she has lived in Grand Cayman, reported for the Cayman Compass newspaper, and worked as a freelancer for the Center for Investigative Journalism, The Economist Intelligence Unit and ABC News. After graduating from The University of Texas at Austin, Young moved to Santiago, Chile, where she covered student protests and breaking news. Since then, she has reported on South Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the U.S.

Lucy Grindon

Lucy Grindon reports on low-income rural communities for North Country Public Radio in northern New York state. A recent graduate of Columbia University, she holds a master’s degree from the School of Journalism, where she covered education for Uptown Radio, documented responses to the war in Ukraine at Ukrainian Orthodox churches, and produced written and audio stories on local news, music and food. Grindon has worked for Commonweal magazine and her reporting for the National Catholic Reporter won a Catholic Press Award for best reporting of social justice issues. At Middlebury College, she studied history and Arabic, reported for The Middlebury Campus and was an opinion editor, and hosted two radio shows.

Maria Gardner Lara

Maria Gardner Lara reports on the issues affecting the growing Latino community in DeKalb, Illinois for Northern Public Radio, a member station of NPR that’s based in DeKalb. Previously, Gardner Lara reported on state politics and policy for the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago. As an intern for the Laredo Morning Times, she reported on issues at the U.S.-Mexico border, international trade and immigrant rights’ protests. She holds a master’s degree in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois Springfield, and a bachelor’s in sociology from the University of Illinois Chicago.

Michael Livingston

Michael Livingston covers four rural counties in northern Michigan for Michigan’s Interlochen Public Radio and the Traverse City Record-Eagle. A recent graduate of Central Michigan University with bachelor’s degrees in journalism and international relations, Livingston was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper, Central Michigan Life, and won multiple awards with the rest of his staff. He has interned at WCMU Public Radio/Michigan newspaper collaborations.

Aaron Bonderson

Aaron Bonderson is a multimedia journalist covering the news in underserved communities for Nebraska Public Media, the state’s NPR and PBS stations. A recent graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism. While there, Bonderson interned as a general assignment reporter at Nebraska Public Media, covering agriculture, business, COVID-19, the environment and more. He has also worked as a sportscaster for KRNU, the university’s radio station, and as a reporter, producer, and sportscaster at KTCH radio in Wayne, Nebraska.