RADIO / PODCAST

Lev Gringauz

Before joining Silicon Prairie News, Lev Gringauz reported on the Jewish communities of Minnesota and Cincinnati for Jewfolk, Inc., and was a regular freelancer for MinnPost, covering the business of media in Minnesota. His writing career started with making love songs for high school sweethearts. On a two-year leave of absence from college, he fell into journalism while exploring Ukraine and Belarus, where his parents were born. Lev cut his teeth with internships at The New York Jewish Week and MinnPost. As a freelancer he developed a niche in enterprise philanthropy reporting, while also writing stories on subjects ranging from cybersecurity issues to the intersection of AI and journalism. Lev speaks Russian (begrudgingly), has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota, and his favorite journalism movies are “The Paper” and “Spotlight.”

Lillian Avedian

Lillian Avedian covers education for the Nashville Banner. She is a former assistant editor and staff writer at the Armenian Weekly, where she reported on international politics, women’s rights, and diasporic identity. Her writing and reporting on the Middle East, North Africa, Russia, and the Caucasus has been published in Democracy in Exile, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Hetq, and Girls on Key Press, among other outlets. She has traveled to Morocco to report on the rise of women DJs and LGBTQ rights and to Armenia to cover the regional conflict and displacement crisis. Avedian holds master’s degrees in journalism and Near Eastern studies from New York University and bachelor’s degrees in peace and conflict studies and Slavic studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She is also a published poet with a deep love for Armenian feminist poetry.

Megan Jackson

Prior to joining Marietta Daily Journal as a city government reporter in suburban Atlanta, Megan Jackson worked as an intern for the Macon Telegraph and Georgia Public Broadcasting. Jackson also acted as editor-in-chief for her school paper, The Mercer Cluster. During her time as a journalism student at Mercer University, Jackson worked to tell stories researching blight and illegal dumping in her community, focused on school and educational issues, and researched pedestrian safety issues throughout Macon-Bibb County.

My Ly

Before joining Evanston RoundTable, My Ly covered the health disparities in Little Rock for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Ly is a graduate of Auburn University where she worked as a managing editor, community reporter and editor for The Auburn Plainsman, the student-run newspaper. While at Auburn she earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism.

Patricia Serrano

Prior to joining Enlace Latino, Patricia Serrano was a freelance reporter, podcast producer, and host at Enlace Latino Podcast, where she covered immigrant communities in western North Carolina. Her work focuses on immigrant rights, cross-cultural stories, and grassroots responses to natural disasters. Originally from Argentina, she began her journalism career working in news agencies and later as a freelance narrative reporter and communications specialist. Patricia has experience as a co-producer for Radio Ambulante, including an episode about Guatemalan immigrant Juana Tobar, and has also co-produced bilingual audio documentaries such as Dreaming las Américas. She studied journalism at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata and continues to develop independent audio journalism projects. Based in Asheville, she is bilingual in Spanish and English. In her free time she enjoys reading and hiking along the Appalachian Mountain trails.

Adam Smith-Perez

Prior to joining Investigative Post, Smith-Perez produced podcasts, fact-checked and reported for The Nation. Smith-Perez has also worked extensively as a freelance fact-checker for several outlets, including Mother Jones, Ambrook Research, Noema Magazine, and HarperCollins. He started his journalism career reporting on COVID's impact on immigrant communities in his hometown of Boston, where he worked for an immigrant and refugee advocacy non-profit writing newsletters. As a student at Columbia Journalism School, Smith-Perez reported more extensively on the housing and overdose crisis. Following his graduation, he hosted and produced a segment about Hepatitis C for VICE News, and was a fellow at the Columbia Age Boom Academy, where he honed his reporting and research skills on the aging, housing and health beats. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists, and a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Io Yeh Gilman

Before joining Mission Local as an RFA corp member, Io Yeh Gilman interned there in 2024, covering Pride, crime, homelessness, animals, and more. Born and raised in San Francisco, she previously reported on the city while working at The Lowell, her high school’s newspaper. In college, Gilman led Fifteen Minutes, The Harvard Crimson’s weekly magazine. She edited features and long form stories and wrote about a variety of topics including right wing attacks on DEI programs, climate change, science research, and more. Gilman holds a bachelor’s degree in History and Science from Harvard University and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Áine Pennello

Prior to joining Connecticut Public, Áine Pennello was a reporter and Morning Edition newscaster at WUFT in North Central Florida. She has a background in video journalism and documentary filmmaking, producing films and series for Soledad O’Brien Productions, Netflix, HBO Films and more. She is a graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Vahini Shori

Before joining WBHM, Vahini Shori was a graduate student at Columbia Journalism School, where she reported on arts, culture, ethics, and criminal justice. Her love for audio blossomed while working at Kaleidoscope, a podcast studio based in New York, where she helped produce narrative documentaries on Amazonian chocolate, Afghan musicians, and turbulent space missions. She graduated from Rutgers University with degrees in Political Science and Critical Intelligence. As a proud New Jerseyan, “The Sopranos” is her comfort show. Vahini enjoys reading, creating Spotify playlists, and learning new recipes.

Alex Cox

Alex Cox is a graduate from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. They worked at a variety of newsrooms in the Missouri News Network, with their primary newsroom being KBIA, the NPR affiliate for Mid-Missouri. In their many jobs, they've wore many hats, but their favorite type of reporting is working with audio and data. They believe in trying to take themselves out of the story as much as possible to let their sources tell the story.