WRITING

Alexander Banks

Before joining the Yakima Herald-Republic, Banks completed two internships with the Baker City Herald, through the University of Oregon's Snowden internship, and the Statesman Journal, in partnership with the Asian American Journalists Association. During those internships, he covered education, economic development, breaking news and feature stories. He holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Oregon State University and is currently studying for his master’s in strategic communications from Washington State University. His passion for journalism started while working for OSU’s student newspaper, The Daily Barometer, where he wrote his first feature story on the dean of the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. Banks enjoys screenwriting, photography, videography and learning Spanish in his free time. A fun fact about him is that his mother used to be a columnist for The Oregonian.

Katelyn Ferral

Katelyn Ferral is a reporter with the Tampa Bay Times covering the impact of federal policy on local communities. Prior to coming to the Tampa Bay Times, Ferral taught English Language Arts in a Title I, inner city public elementary school through Americorps' Teach For America program. Before spending a year in the classroom. she was a reporter on the investigations team at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Her work was regularly published in USA TODAY. Ferral spent a month in 2022 in Poland along the Ukraine border documenting the refugee crisis and human toll of the Russian war in Ukraine for USA TODAY. She has reported extensively on the military and veterans affairs on the state and national level. She was named a Livingston Award finalist in 2022 for national reporting for her investigative work on the National Guard. She has also received the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi award. Before the Journal Sentinel, she was the investigative reporter at The Cap Times in Madison, Wis. Prior to that, she covered the energy industry at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review and local government at the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.

Owen Racer

Before joining Cascadia Daily News, Racer reported on intergenerational farming in Ecuador and El Salvador for The Guardian, documenting how consumerism, climate change and emigration collide on farms that future generations decide to inherit or leave. In Washington, D.C., he covered the IRS and Congress for Bloomberg. In New York City, he reported on maternal health disparities, riding the city’s subways with mobile mental illness teams to explain how the increasingly popular model of mental health care impacts the workforce. From producing audio stories on mental health for NPR stations WHYY and WVXU in Cincinnati, Ohio, his hometown, to photographing youth impacted by gun violence in New Orleans, his reporting crosses topics and mediums. During the 2024 presidential election, he was the lone U.S. correspondent for The Kyiv Independent, Ukraine’s English-language media outlet, covering campaigns, foreign policy and Congress. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.

Tabius McCoy

Before joining The Atlanta Voice, Tabius McCoy was a visual journalism fellow at the Connecticut Mirror, where he reported on a variety of topics across the state, including politics, social justice, education, and culture. During his time at The Connecticut Mirror, he produced a written and photographic documentary on the 50-year history of Connecticut hip hop, making it one of the first publications in the nation to document and tell the history of Connecticut’s hip hop scene. McCoy's journalism journey began during his senior year at Georgia Tech, where he was a writer and photographer for The Technique and a weekend jazz radio personality for 91.1 FM WREK Atlanta, the university’s campus station. After graduating, he attended the Columbia School of Journalism, where he discovered his passion for photojournalism. In his spare time, McCoy enjoys weightlifting, running, and discovering new music to add to his Spotify playlist.

Alexandra Markovich

Ally Markovich is an investigative reporter covering criminal justice at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting. Previously, she was an education and enterprise reporter at Berkeleyside, where her data-driven, accountability and narrative journalism earned multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists of Northern California. At Berkeleyside, her investigation into a sexual misconduct case exposed how a school district knowingly kept a predatory teacher employed for over 15 years. Markovich’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Huffington Post, and The Washington Post, and she has reported internationally from Ukraine. Before journalism, she taught high school English in high-poverty schools in Mississippi, New Jersey and California. She holds a B.A. in Politics from Princeton University and an M.A. in Journalism and Politics from Columbia University.

Katherine Lin

Before joining Mississippi Today, Katherine Lin graduated with her master’s in journalism from Columbia Journalism School reporting on business, housing and economics. She attended UC Davis where she worked at the student paper, The California Aggie. After graduating with a degree in history, she spent four years working in the biotech industry. She then returned to journalism through an internship at The Palo Alto Weekly on their editorial and audience engagement desks. Five generations of her family have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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.

Hannah Shields

Before joining Daily Inter Lake, Hannah Shields reported on the Wyoming state government for the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, covering health care policy, education and state politics, among other issues. She earned a first-place Pacemaker Award from the Wyoming Press Association for an investigative piece on special education in public schools. She placed third in the Top of the Rockies Award for a story on Medicaid in Wyoming. Her passion for journalism was sparked while taking Journalism 101 at a community college in California. From there, she transferred to Long Beach State University and immediately joined the student newspaper, where she served as the news editor. She interned at The Sacramento Bee the summer after graduating with her bachelor's degree in journalism and political science. When not writing, Shields enjoys dancing ballet, reading and listening to podcasts!

Amanda Pérez Pintado

Amanda Pérez Pintado covers health for the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI), a nonprofit investigative newsroom. Some of her recent work has focused on Puerto Rico’s prison health care system. Before joining the CPI, she reported on science and politics for El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico’s largest daily newspaper. She previously worked as a reporter for USA Today and as a Report for America corps member at Investigate Midwest, a nonprofit news site based in Champaign, Illinois. Pérez Pintado holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Puerto Rico’s Río Piedras campus and a master’s from New York University. She has taught journalism courses at her undergraduate alma mater and Sagrado Corazón University. Pérez Pintado is a native of Bayamón, Puerto Rico, and a lover of books and horror movies.

Kori Skillman

Kori Skillman specializes in investigative journalism and visual storytelling. Before joining the Baltimore Beat, she worked on ABC News’ assignment desk, covering breaking news and editing live broadcasts. She also produced video and social media content at McClatchy Publishing. Her passion for social justice reporting—rooted in lived experience—grew during her investigative fellowship in Vermont, where she broke stories on police accountability, including a mishandled 911 call for VTDigger and unethical officer moonlighting for SevenDays. Kori also worked in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office under Alvin Bragg and in the San Diego County D.A.’s Office, covering trials and assisting with media communications. She has written for Black Voice News, focusing on COVID-19’s impact on Black Californians. A Bay Area native, Kori holds a dual B.A. in Journalism and International Business from San Diego State University, with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa, and an M.S. from Columbia Journalism School. She aspires to cover global conflicts.