WRITING

Alaina Bookman

Alaina Bookman covers violence prevention in Birmingham, Alabama, for AL.com. Raised in Dallas, she developed an interest in social activism during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. After moving to pursue her bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, she fell in love with the city's commitment to justice and tolerance. She covered social issues affecting the Black community. She also worked at the UT Austin Benson Latin American Collection as an AKA scholar Black diaspora archive intern, assisting in processing the Miss Black Austin Pageant collection. She also interned with the public affairs team at the university's College of Liberal Arts, where she wrote press releases and articles for Life and Letters Magazine.

Jordan Rusche

Jordan Rusche covers community news in rural North Dakota for the Tioga Tribune and The Journal in Crosby. She recently graduated from South Dakota State University in Brookings where she served as co-editor-in-chief of The Collegian, the student newspaper, and received a bachelor's in English and journalism. Rusche also has held internships at South Dakota Public Broadcasting, doing general reporting on stories throughout the state, and 605 Magazine, covering South Dakota arts, entertainment and more. She was part of the 2022 Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium Fellowship reporting on Indigenous representation in education.

Samuel Shaw

Samuel Shaw covers rural-to-urban transformation in East Texas for the Longview News-Journal. Previously, Shaw was one of two applicants selected for the High Country News editorial internship, where he reported on infrastructure, housing and landscape across the West, with articles syndicated in The Atlantic and Mother Jones. Shaw also contributed to open-source investigations for the award-winning Airwars investigations team based in London, UK, focusing on civilian harm monitoring in Iraqi Kurdistan. He got his start penning stories after college when he founded The Speer, an independent online magazine exploring underreported topics on the Colorado Front Range, where he grew up. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Goldsmiths University in London and a bachelor's degree in Political Science from University of California Santa Cruz. Shaw's photography has won awards with C.LAB in London, while his photojournalism has been featured in High Country News, 5280 Magazine, The Land Desk, Boulder Weekly, East London Lines and Rat Park Magazine. As a prototypical Colorado-California kid, he's frequently spotted on two wheels, two skis or a surfboard.

Arabella Saunders

Arabella Saunders covers economic development for New York Focus. Prior to joining the newsroom, Saunders’ freelance work appeared in VICE, HuffPost, DCReport.org, The Assembly NC and more. Her journalism career began in high school, where she served as editor-in-chief of the school’s newsmagazine. In 2018, she was a runner up for the National High School Journalist of the Year. In college, she worked for The Daily Tar Heel and also as a freelancer. She covered topics that ranged from Snapchat porn scams to the undercounting of COVID-19 deaths in North Carolina prisons. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and media as well as English and comparative literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A fun fact about her is that she has a Joan Didion-inspired tattoo.

Katelyn Vue

Katelyn Vue covers housing at the Sahan Journal in St. Paul. Prior to joining the Sahan Journal, she was an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, double-majoring in journalism and political science. While a student, she interned at the Star Tribune, PublicSource, American Public Media Group and Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters. She was also a student reporter and associate editor at her university's newspaper, The Minnesota Daily. Before college, Vue was a high school participant at ThreeSixty Journalism, a nonprofit program at the University of St. Thomas that teaches journalism and communication skills to diverse teenagers from all around Minnesota. Born and raised in St. Paul, Vue is Hmong American with parents from Thailand and Laos.

Shannon Chaffers

Shannon Chaffers covers the epidemic of gun violence in New York's Black, immigrant, and under-resourced communities for The New York Amsterdam News’ Blacklight investigative unit. Prior to joining the Amsterdam News, Chaffers spent a year in Berlin, Germany as a Fulbright Young Professional Journalist. She reported on the history and legacy of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium while also interning at The Local Germany. Chaffers’ journalism career began in her hometown of Wellesley, Massachusetts, where she wrote for her high school newspaper, The Bradford. She then attended Princeton University, graduating in 2022. She majored in Sociology and minored in Journalism, African-American Studies, and German and also served as the Head Opinion Editor of The Daily Princetonian, the student newspaper. Away from journalism, Chaffers loves playing soccer and cheering on her favorite team, Arsenal FC.

Brooklyn Draisey

Brooklyn Draisey covers higher education across Iowa for Iowa Capital Dispatch. Prior to joining the Iowa Capital Dispatch team, Draisey reported stories from the Quad-Cities, covering the region’s arts and culture community and connecting individual perspectives to larger issues influencing everyone. She fell in love with journalism at a young age, watching national news and reading local publications with her family, and has pursued her career in the industry since joining her high school newspaper. She worked as a reporter and editor at The Daily Iowan, the University of Iowa’s student-run newspaper, and reported on Eastern Iowa for The Gazette and The Southeast Iowa Union before graduating in 2021. Draisey holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and certificate in Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Iowa.

Kevin Chill Heard

Kevin Chill Heard covers social equity stories in the Greater Cleveland area for The Land. A lifelong journalist, he is completing his second term as President of the Greater Cleveland Association of Black Journalists. He is Executive Director of the nonprofit My Cool Solutions Inc. and worked at the Call and Post newspaper as an award-winning entertainment editor, Managing Editor and General Manager. Heard has appeared on news stations WKYC, WEWS, FOX 8, WVIZ, WOIO and PBS radio station WNPR. During the summer he is an adjunct instructor at Case Western Reserve University. Known as Cleveland’s pioneering rap artist M.C. Chill, he attended Cleveland’s John F Kennedy High School, (and inducted into its Hall of Fame) and Kent State University. A member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, he has served as Assistant Editor of its International publication, the Kappa Journal. Heard is also co-founder of the Los Angeles-based African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA).

Shannon Sollitt

Shannon Sollitt is a bilingual journalist covering Utah's tech sector and other business coverage. Previously, Shannon covered agriculture for the Statesman Journal. A multimedia journalist, Sollitt’s career started in her hometown of Jackson, Wyoming, reporting breaking news, local politics, housing and economic injustice for various news outlets. Her coverage of sexual violence prompted curriculum changes in the local high school. Sollitt says that there are few things she knows with certainty: words are powerful. Even small ones carry weight. She strives to use them to tell stories that heal, that help, that hold a mirror up to the world and ask it to change. Sollitt holds a master’s in journalism from Boston University and a bachelor’s from Willamette University.

Caleb W. Barber

Caleb Barber covers rural issues and the state legislature in Mitchell, South Dakota for the Mitchell Republic/Forum News Service. Barber was an associate editor and reporter at the Daily Emerald, the University of Oregon's flagship independent student newspaper, where he covered issues pertaining to the city of Eugene, Lane County and the UO at large. Barber interned at the Eugene Weekly, where he covered city government of Eugene, Board of Education elections for Lane Community College. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication with minors in English and Legal Studies.