WRITING

Adrian Ashford

Adrian Ashford covers religion for the Houston Chronicle. Ashford studied religion and politics at Harvard University and wrote a thesis on a new theology of religious exemptions. After college, he spent two and a half years as the faith reporter at The Dallas Morning News through Report for America. Before coming back to the God beat, he covered campaigns and elections for the South Carolina Daily Gazette. He’s also covered arts and entertainment for The Boston Globe and USA TODAY. Ashford grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, and as a kid memorized 21 chapters of the Bible.

Erick Solorzano

Erick Solorzano is a reporter at Cardinal covering accountability in New River Valley. Prior to joining RFA, Solorzano pursued a career in marketing and communications, serving in key roles for a private corporation and a mission-driven nonprofit. Solorzano’s dream of becoming a journalist began at the University of Georgia, where he graduated in 2020 with a bachelor's of arts from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications. As a first-generation college student, Solorzano discovered his passion for storytelling by becoming a student news contributor for The Red & Black newspaper and a student news reporter for Grady Newsource, the university’s student-run television news program. Although his post-graduate career began in other professional industries, Erick Solorzano never lost sight of what becoming a journalist meant to him and the community he serves. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he created The Solo Segment, an independent social media news channel covering important news events in Georgia and the world. Today, he’s proud and grateful to transition from independent journalism into a staff journalist role.

Anna Oakes

Anna Oakes covers children and families for The Current. Before joining The Current, she was a freelance journalist and podcast producer covering immigration, housing, protests and free speech, and, occasionally, rat infestations around New York City. Anna has written for outlets including The Guardian, El Pais, Documented, The City Reporter, and Hell Gate. As a 2025 Reporting Fellow at the Pulitzer Center, she reported on the impacts of US immigration policy across Mexico’s northern and southern borders, including US veterans deported to Tijuana and Haitian asylum seekers stranded in Chiapas. Anna has produced and co-hosted podcasts for LWC Studios, Heritage Radio Network, and Radiotopia Presents, including the podcast “Bot Love,” listed as one of The Atlantic’s best podcasts of 2023. Anna is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia Journalism School.

Maya Miller

Based in Jackson, Mississippi, Miller has reported on issues of housing insecurity, and food and water access for Mississippi Today. Previously, she worked with the Gulf States Newsroom covering reproductive health and elections in Alabama. She is formerly the managing editor of Black Girl Times, a nonprofit news blog for The Lighthouse | Black Girl Projects, as well as the former Deputy News Editor for the Jackson Free Press, where she covered criminal justice and City Hall. She has won multiple NABJ awards and a regional Edward R. Murrow award for her work covering civil rights in the Mississippi Delta. When she's not tracking FOIA requests, she can be found crocheting while rewatching Audrey Hepburn films.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman

Before joining The Associated Press, Mayes-Osterman covered the Pentagon and national security from Washington, D.C., for USA TODAY. She previously worked as an associate producer for PBS NewsHour and Washington Week. A New Mexico native, Mayes-Osterman entered journalism as an intern at the Santa Fe Reporter. She holds a degree in English literature, creative writing, and East Asian studies from Barnard College. Outside of work, she sings jazz.

Ellis Juhlin

Prior to joining Mountain Journal, Juhlin was Montana Public Radio's first Environment and Climate reporter. For four years she covered state and federal policy, wildlife, natural resources, and agriculture - and the threads of climate change woven throughout those stories. She is experienced in converting local stories for a national audience and her pieces are regularly picked up by NPR. Her journalism career began unconventionally. While getting her master's in ecology at Utah State University, she began working as a science reporter for her local public radio station. Through that experience with Utah Public Radio, she fell in love with storytelling and being able to use her research background to communicate to a wide audience. In addition to her master's, she also has an undergraduate degree in ecology. When she's not reporting you can find her birding, or on a trail with her three dogs or wrangling a bevy of runner ducks at her home in western Montana.

Elijah de Castro

Elijah de Castro reports on health disparities for WAER, Syracuse Public Media. Prior to WAER, he was the health reporter at The Keene Sentinel, where he led the Monadnock Region Health Reporting Lab, a newsroom journalism project focused on investigative and solutions journalism about New Hampshire’s health care system. Previously, he was a climate fellow at the Solutions Journalism Network and a Report for America corps member in South Carolina, where he was on the rural communities beat covering issues like systemic poverty and gun violence in rural Allendale County. He got his start in journalism as News Editor of The Ithacan, the student newsroom of Ithaca College, where he graduated in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He is an avid player of pool and ping pong.

Jacqueline GaNun

GaNun is currently a Federal Impact Reporter at The Associated Press. She previously worked as a Dow Jones News Fund intern on the publishing desk at The Wall Street Journal, business news intern at NPR and reporting fellow at The Current of coastal Georgia. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia, where she also earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and international affairs. At her independent student newspaper, The Red & Black, she served as editor-in-chief and won an award from the Georgia College Press Association for an article about unaffordable housing. GaNun has run two half-marathons on two continents.

Mikella Schuettler

Mikella Schuettler covers the impact of federal politics on communities across Arizona. Before joining the Associated Press, she reported on crime, courts and the craziness of New York City for Bloomberg and the New York Post. This included covering the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial and tracking asylum denial rates across New York’s immigration judges. Schuettler is from Alberta, Canada, but grew up in South Africa, Thailand and Singapore. She recently earned a master’s degree from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, specializing in data journalism, and loves hunting for the story in the numbers.

Shelby Swanson

Shelby Swanson covers sports business for The Minnesota Star Tribune. Born and raised in North Carolina, she most recently covered UNC athletics for The Raleigh News & Observer. At the N&O, she broke news pertaining to university legal matters and led coverage of the Smith Center arena debate — using public records and source-building to give readers visibility into decisions that weren’t meant to be visible. Her work at the N&O earned four APSE Top-10 finishes in breaking news, long feature and short feature categories. Swanson’s journalism career started when she joined her high school newspaper and soon discovered nobody wanted to lead the sports desk. She holds degrees in Media & Journalism and Hispanic Literatures & Cultures from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she served as sports editor of the independent student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel. When she’s not chasing a story, Swanson is playing pickup basketball, discovering new music or binge-watching Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.