WRITING

Gerard Edic

Gerard Edic covers the effects of gun violence on LeFlore County in the Mississippi Delta at The Greenwood Commonwealth. This marks his second stint at the newspaper, where he began his journalism career as a general assignment reporter. Most recently, Edic worked at PBS News, where he assisted with research and editorial production for PBS News Weekend and Washington Week with The Atlantic. He also co-produced various segments for PBS News Weekend, including tensions in the South China Sea, gang violence in Haiti, and school lunch junk fees. Edic has also edited pieces submitted by incarcerated writers for Prison Journalism Project and wrote about policy issues at The American Prospect. Edic earned his master’s degree in journalism, focusing on business and economics reporting, at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. Edic has won several awards from the Mississippi Press Association’s Better Newspaper Media Contest, including the Bill Minor Prize for General News Reporting for a piece assessing the community impact of record-high homicides in Leflore County in 2020. Edic is an avid runner and loves to cook.

Safura Syed

Safura Syed was a newsroom fellow at Verite News in New Orleans before continuing as an education reporter through Report for America. During first year at Verite News, Syed reported on environmental justice issues and energy sustainability. Born and raised in Metro Detroit, Syed covered health and culture stories in the city as an intern for WDIV, the local NBC affiliate. Syed's journalism career started in high school and continued into college at the University of Michigan's student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, where she was an editor. Syed holds a bachelor’s degree in ecology and evolutionary biology and creative writing.

Hallie Claflin

Prior to joining the Commonwealth Beacon, Claflin covered state government, politics and rural homelessness for Wisconsin Watch. Her journalism career started in her home state of Wisconsin, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in both journalism and political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also holds a minor in Asian American studies. In college, she interned at a number of local publications, including The Badger Project and Madison Commons. In 2023, she covered national and international affairs as a visual news intern at Voice of America in Washington, D.C. Claflin is a U.S. history buff, and she is thrilled to be reporting in Massachusetts, where her distant relative William Claflin was the 27th governor from 1869 to 1872.

Lia Portillo

Lia Portillo is a recent graduate of Northwestern State University of Louisiana. She has interned at news stations in New Orleans, such as Telemundo 42 New Orleans and WDSU 6 News. As a student journalist, she worked for her student newspaper, The Current Sauce, throughout her college career, starting as a features reporter. In her junior and senior years, she led the newspaper as editor-in-chief.

Fabianna Rincón

Prior to joining El Tiempo Latino, Fabianna graduated from American University with her bachelors in journalism, bridging politics and the media working at the School of Communications and studying mis- and disinformation with the University Honors Program. Throughout her time at AU, she worked as a digital journalist for NBC10 Boston and worked with in the student newsroom of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She also received scholarship opportunities from The LAGRANT Foundation, and continued exploring political communications as an intern with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. Raised in a household of Venezuelan journalists, her passion for reporting began at just seven years old when she was first publishing Spanish-language interviews with musicians, politicians, and public figures. She is thrilled to return to Spanish reporting with El Tiempo Latino, and cannot wait to cover the local government and communities that welcomed her into the world of local journalism.

Alex Frick

Before joining the Port Townsend and Jefferson County Leader, Alex Frick studied journalism at the University of Florida. As a non-traditional student, Frick returned to school to pursue his reignited passion for storytelling and discovered journalism. While in college, he interned at the Leader, where he experienced firsthand the challenges of providing consistent and sufficient, high-quality local news coverage in rural areas. Frick was also one of 24 students from the United States selected by CNN to participate in a 10-day global crisis simulation in Abu Dhabi, joining 120 students from 20 countries to experience fast-paced reporting under pressure. Prior to his return to school, Frick worked in automotive management, following in his father’s footsteps where he developed valuable leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills. He now brings that same drive, curiosity, and passion to covering real-life stories and pressing issues in Jefferson County.

Theo Wells-Spackman

Theo Wells-Spackman covers economic inequality in Vermont for VTDigger, where he previously reported on education, floods, and general news as an intern. Prior to joining that newsroom, he was production intern for the Trenton Project, a documentary series diving into the local history and culture of Trenton, New Jersey. He has also worked as a research intern for Facing History and Ourselves. His journalistic work began in high school, when he worked on a documentary covering gender bias in Vermont public schools for the program “What’s the Story?” He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Princeton University, where he was a producer and editor for the podcast section at the Daily Princetonian. He is from Weybridge, Vermont.

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.

Jake Kincaid

Jake Kincaid is an investigative reporter at inewsource covering the impact of federal policy in San Diego. Before moving to San Diego, he reported from across the U.S. and Latin America covering misconduct by prosecutors in Ohio that left innocent people in jail for decades, abuse of political prisoners in Nicaragua, the impact of U.S foreign policy on the Colombian peace process and the failure of the coroner system in the U.S to accurately count COVID-19 deaths in rural areas. His reporting won National Headliner awards and he was an Overseas Press Club fellow with Reuters in Mexico City. His work has appeared in National Public Radio, The Guardian, USA Today, The Miami Herald and Univision. He holds a master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School in the Toni Stabile Investigative program and was an investigative reporter at Columbia Journalism Investigations. Jake speaks fluent Spanish. In his free time, he enjoys rock climbing, surfing and salsa dancing.

Molly Bohannon

Prior to joining the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, Bohannon worked as a breaking news reporter for Forbes and covered local government and education for the Fort Collins Coloradoan. She earned a master's degree in investigative reporting from Arizona State University, where she worked on an investigation into COVID-19's impact on America’s homeless population that was supported by the Pulitzer Center. That project won multiple awards, including first place in student reporting from the Association of Health Care Journalists Awards and best news story in the EPPY Awards. She is also a graduate of Creighton University, where she studied journalism and was editor-in-chief of the school’s student newspaper, the Creightonian.