WRITING

Frances Mize

Frances Mize covers the climate and environment for Valley News, a paper and news site serving the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire, based in West Lebanon, New Hampshire. Mize was born and raised in Atlanta, and she is a recent graduate of Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in anthropology. She has written about clean water and sustainable energy issues for The Working Waterfront, which is published by the Island Institute in Rockland, Maine. Mize was a general assignment reporting intern and freelancer for Valley News, and says that she is thrilled to continue growing as a reporter in the community that first taught her how to report.

James Hanlon

James Hanlon reports for The Spokesman-Review, based in Spokane, Washington, covering rural counties in eastern Washington and the Idaho Panhandle. Previously, Hanlon reported for The Oxford Leader in Oxford, Michigan. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and Snowflake, Arizona, and he holds bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and film and media studies from Arizona State University. After college, Hanlon spent three years living in a Japanese village of 700 people, teaching English and writing about revitalization projects in the countryside for a local nonprofit. His work has also appeared in Kyoto Journal, Tokyo Cheapo and Asia Matters for America by the East-West Center.

Joshua Rosenberg

Joshua Rosenberg covers the environmental beat for The Lens, a nonprofit digital newsroom based in New Orleans, where he reports on storm surges, hurricanes, and the continuing disappearance of wetlands. Prior to joining The Lens, Rosenberg reported on federal tax policy for the legal newswire Law360, tracking down stories in the halls of Congress before moving into a more features-oriented role. As a 2014 Teach For America corps member, he taught high school history in Indianapolis. Rosenberg hails from Roxbury, New Jersey, and he earned his undergraduate degree in history and secondary education from William Paterson University, and holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Brown University.

Madison Lammert

Madison Lammert covers child care and early childhood education across Wisconsin for the Post-Crescent, which is based in Appleton, Wisconsin and part of the USA Today network. Previously, she reported for the Republic-Times, the only local news source dedicated to Monroe County, Illinois. Lammert graduated summa cum laude from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications, and was editor-in-chief of the student paper, The Alestle, which won multiple Illinois College Press Association awards under her leadership. Lammert’s photos of a Black Lives Matter protest took home a College Media Association Pinnacle Award.

Priscilla Totiyapungprasert

Priscilla Totiyapungprasert reports on local health issues for El Paso Matters, a nonprofit news outlet based in El Paso, Texas. Previously, she covered food culture and dining in Phoenix for The Arizona Republic, including reporting on immigrant communities, the restaurant industry, school nutrition and labor abuse. Totiyapungprasert started at The Arizona Republic as an environment fellow, analyzing the disparity in neighborhood air quality and reporting on the health impact of Phoenix air pollution. Holding a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Texas at Austin, she has worked in Germany and Malta.

Sarah Michels

Sarah Michels is a general assignment reporter for the Bowling Green Daily News, a central Kentucky newspaper covering Bowling Green and outlying counties. Michels interned at the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Cincinnati Enquirer, where she found her niche as a storytelling reporter. Michels holds a dual bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science, with minors in Spanish and business from the University of Kentucky, where she worked at the Kentucky Kernel, the student paper, as the opinions editor, assistant news editor, breaking news reporter and features reporter. She ran track and cross country in college, and you can still find her competing in road races and exploring the nearest trails.

William Perkins

William T. Perkins is a data reporter for the Traverse City Record-Eagle in Michigan. Previously, he was a reporter at the Petoskey News-Review in northern Michigan, covering local government and environmental issues, including concerns surrounding the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline in the Great Lakes. A native of metro Detroit, Perkins holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, where he was a news editor at The Post, the student paper, and a Scripps Statehouse news bureau fellow reporting on state government for The Columbus Dispatch.

Ashad Hajela

Ashad Hajela covers rural affairs for Spotlight PA, a collaborative nonprofit newsroom that reports stories across Pennsylvania. Prior to this, Hajela was a Stabile Investigative Fellow at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he investigated how parolees’ complaints are handled by the New York corrections system. Hajela started his career at The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, covering protests following George Floyd’s killing, and the pandemic’s impact on jails and prisons. His reporting on Raleigh’s high-crime motels earned a top award from the North Carolina Press Association. Hajela also speaks Hindi and Spanish, and when he’s not working you’ll find him out trying new restaurants or taking dance classes.

Clara Bates

Clara Bates reports on gaps in the social safety net for the Missouri Independent, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to investigative journalism. A recent graduate of Harvard University with a concentration in social studies, she also studied Russian and spent a summer in Moscow. Bates has written for Fifteen Minutes—the weekly magazine of The Harvard Crimson student paper— about a controversial congressional orientation and an early 20th-century class war among students. As an intern for Nevada Current, she wrote about laid-off convention workers and unregulated funeral homes, and while reporting on an anti-union hiring fair, Bates was ejected from a casino.

Gabe Stern

Gabe Stern covers state legislature and midterm elections in Nevada for The Associated Press. Before joining the AP, he reported for the Tampa Bay Times and ABC News as an intern. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University, where he spent much of 2020 and 2021 covering COVID-19 in New York prisons for The Daily Orange, the student-run newspaper. His investigative reporting won first place in the Hearst Journalism Awards. Stern has also interned at Florida’s Naples Daily News and the News-Press in Fort Myers. In his free time he loves exploring new cities and trails.