WRITING

Arielle Robinson

Prior to joining the Arkansas Times, Robinson covered general assignment stories for Verite News in New Orleans as a newsroom fellow. She has also freelanced in Georgia for the Atlanta-Journal Constitution and covered city council, as well as issues related to race, at the Cobb County Courier. She also has completed a CNN internship and a ProPublica mentorship program. Robinson got her start in journalism at her university newspaper, The Sentinel, where she served as a reporter and editor. While there, she was president of her school’s Society of Professional Journalists chapter. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international affairs and a minor in gender and women’s studies from Kennesaw State University. Robinson enjoys reading, spending time in nature and journaling in her free time.

Lyric Aquino

Aquino is an award-winning multimedia journalist with a passion for writing about all things relating to science, the environment and Indian Country. Originally from Ohio, she is a proud member of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo with ancestry from Isleta Pueblo and the Jicarilla Apache Nation. She earned two bachelor’s degrees, in anthropology and journalism, from Kent State University. Aquino holds a master’s degree in science, health and environmental journalism from New York University, where she worked as editor-in-chief for Scienceline and as a science writing intern at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Prior to joining Underscore Native News, Aquino held a fellowship at Grist, where she reported on climate change and global Indigenous affairs. One of Aquino’s passions is reporting on the intersection of traditional ecological knowledge and Western science, as well as Indigenous litigation and issues. In her spare time, she can be found fawning over reptiles, geeking out over Lord of the Rings and exploring her surroundings.

Sarah Hopkins

Prior to joining Open Vallejo, Hopkins was a reporting fellow at Inside Climate News, where she wrote feature stories on environmental justice, and an editorial intern at FRONTLINE, where she assisted with the production of long-form investigative documentaries. She previously worked as an investigator, writer and editor for public interest legal organizations, including the ACLU. Inspired by the intersections of science, law and public policy, she completed a master’s in science journalism at MIT. She is the recipient of the Taylor/Blakeslee University Fellowship from the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and MIT’s S. Klein Prize for Scientific Writing for the Public. She was raised in a bilingual family in California, is fluent in Spanish and is a proud graduate of California public schools.

Mariana Martínez Barba

Prior to joining Voice of San Diego, Martínez Barba worked as a freelance journalist between the U.S. and Mexico, producing stories on immigration, culture, and climate for outlets like The Los Angeles Times, Prism Reports, and Ireland’s national radio station RTÉ. She also worked as a stringer for The Washington Post and as a field reporter and translator for The New York Times. As an intern with The Associated Press, Martínez Barba covered the historic inauguration of Mexico’s first female president, the capital’s ongoing water crisis, and investigated the growing network of migrant camps in Mexico City. She holds a master's degree from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY with a double concentration in international and bilingual reporting. She was a finalist for the Ñ Awards for NAHJ in 2024 and a recipient of the Silurians Press Club Award in 2023 for local reporting in New York City. She also holds a B.A. in Sociology from Occidental College.

Chandra Colvin

Chandra Colvin covers Native News for Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) News. Born and raised in Minnesota, she previously interned for MPR News as a general reporter covering a range of beats and stories. She has freelanced for AMPERS Radio as a reporter and producer for Minnesota Native News and has contributed to the Minnesota Humanities Center’s project titled, “We Are Water MN.” In 2024, Colvin earned two bachelor’s degrees in mass communications and global studies from St. Cloud State University. She has contributed to student-run shows at the university as well as student-led newspaper, the University Chronicle. During her undergraduate experience, she studied abroad at Akita International University in Japan with a focus on ethics and rural studies. Colvin is Native American, and a proud member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa located in northern Minnesota.

Maggie Reynolds

Maggie Reynolds covers rural communities in Kent and Sussex counties for Spotlight Delaware. Reynolds is a 2024 graduate of Middlebury College, where she majored in History and minored in Political Science and Spanish. During her senior year, she was the editor-in-chief of the college’s student-run newspaper, The Middlebury Campus. She led The Campus’ coverage of discontent over the college’s staff compensation system, a student encampment on campus and a lawsuit over the removal of a former governor’s name from the college chapel. While at Middlebury, Reynolds interned at the non-profit online investigative newspaper VTDigger, where she covered local government, housing and education in Vermont. She has also held internships covering local businesses and community events at Seven Days Vermont and The Daily Gazette in Schenectady, NY. Prior to joining the Spotlight newsroom, Reynolds spent a year teaching English at a secondary school in Madrid. In her free time, Reynolds can be found swimming, running and drinking iced maple lattes.

Simmerdeep Kaur

Before joining the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, Simmerdeep Kaur was the lead reporter at the Redwood City Pulse, where she covered city government and launched the newsroom’s first-ever podcast. The series featured in-depth interviews with Redwood City Council candidates ahead of the 2024 elections. Kaur’s odyssey into journalism began as an undergraduate, working as a part of her university’s editorial team and interning at several newsrooms in India. As a Master’s student at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, she was determined to reinvent herself and go beyond writing. She acquired data skills by learning Python and tools for visualizations to serve as a strong supplement to her stories. Kaur is a firm believer that in an era of growing threats to press freedom, robust journalism is more essential than ever. Over the past three years, she has reported on a wide range of topics, including police brutality, threats to press freedom, AI warfare, and the dangers of lithium-ion batteries.

Zoe Lewis

Zoe Lewis is a 2025 journalism graduate from Murray State University. She has been passionate about journalism since she was a curious, young girl watching the morning news. Prior to joining Southeast Missourian, she worked at WKMS, an NPR affiliate radio station, during her college career where she has reported on government and politics, criminal justice and education. She recently received 13th place for the Hearst Journalism Awards Program in the audio competition for her work at WKMS. Lewis loves to read, watch movies and play with her dog.

Daniel O’Connor

Daniel O’Connor covers rural government at Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor. Dan studied at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism for two years before his move to Maine. Working alongside his master’s program, he covered corporate behavior, trade and tariffs as a business reporter for pet industry publication GlobalPETS, wrote consumer stories for The U.S. Sun, and freelanced political news for New Jersey Monitor. Dan is a 2023 graduate of Seton Hall University, where he served as the editor of The Setonian, building out award-winning datasets to track COVID on campus for the student newspaper. While there, he reported from New Jersey’s state capitol as an intern at Politico. Becoming a corps member has brought him back to his roots; he got his start at his high school paper covering small-town budget meetings.

Emma Malinak

Emma Malinak covers the stories of Lynchburg, Virginia, for Cardinal News. Before becoming a Report for America corps member, Malinak reported on everything from climate change to child care as an intern at VTDigger. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and English from Washington and Lee University, where she was co-editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Ring-tum Phi. Malinak was the founding CEO of the Ring-tum Phi, Inc., a nonprofit corporation designed to secure a sustainable financial model and editorial independence for the student-run paper.