WRITING

Scott Carroll

Scott Carroll covers reparations, social justice, homelessness and related issues for the Asheville Watchdog, a nonprofit news organization based in Asheville, North Carolina. Prior to this, he worked at The News-Review in Roseburg, Oregon, where he was projects editor and reported on business and local government. He won nine awards from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association in 2021, including being named the best writer in the state. Carroll spent 17 years at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida, as a reporter and then an editor. He has a bachelor’s degree in American studies from the University of New Mexico and a master’s degree in mass communication from the University of Florida.

Zshekinah Collier

Zshekinah Collier reports on education and the environment in Baltimore, Maryland for WYPR, a public radio station serving the metro area. Previously, she was a producer for “Disrupted,” a weekly talk show on Connecticut Public Radio. In 2021, as a member of the Ida B. Wells Society’s inaugural summer internship program, Collier joined USA Today’s investigative team and contributed to coverage of the Capitol riots, and the Title IX investigation. Collier earned her bachelor’s degree at American University, where she was co-editor-in-chief of The Blackprint, a student-run publication covering issues affecting students of color, news and pop culture. After graduating, Collier was a freelancer covering local events in her hometown, New Haven, Connecticut

Bennet Goldstein

Bennet Goldstein reports on water and agriculture as Wisconsin Watch’s Report for America representative on the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk—a collaborative reporting network across the Basin. Before this, Goldstein was on the breaking news team at the Omaha World Herald in Nebraska. He has spent most of his career at daily papers in Iowa, including the Dubuque Telegraph Herald. Goldstein’s work has garnered awards, including the Associated Press Media Editors award for an explanatory feature about a police shooting in rural Wisconsin, and an Iowa Newspaper Association award for a series that detailed the impacts of the loss of social safety net programs on Dubuque’s Marshallese community. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Cora Lewis

Cora Lewis covers workers and the business of agriculture for The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit newsroom based in Champaign, Illinois. Prior to joining The Midwest Center, Lewis reported on labor and breaking news for BuzzFeed News, where she received a Front Page Award from The Newswomen’s Club of New York for stories covering on-call scheduling. Her work has led to the resignation of an abusive CEO and has been featured on “This American Life.” She has followed minimum wage movements, teachers’ strikes, automation, the on-demand economy, alternative organizing models and union politics. Born and raised in New York City, Lewis received her bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Yale University and her master’s in fiction from Washington University in St. Louis.

Gabriella Paul

Gabriella Paul is a journalist at WUSF Public Media, the NPR affiliate in Tampa, Florida, reporting on the people living paycheck to paycheck in the area. Previously, Paul was the digital news editor for WUFT public radio in Gainesville, Florida. Born in Colorado, she grew up in the Tampa Bay region and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in history from the University of Florida. While there, Paul earned two Sunshine State Awards from the Society for Professional Journalism, and co-authored a report on the university’s racial legacies. As a fellow for the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Paul contributed to an award-winning investigative podcast, “Why Don’t We Know?”

Jasper Sundeen

Jasper Kenzo Sundeen covers education and economics in the Latino community for the Yakima Herald-Republic in Yakima, Washington. Before moving to central Washington, Sundeen was an editor, writer and eventually, editor-in-chief of The Daily Californian, the student-run paper at the University of California, Berkeley and the paper of record for the Berkeley community. He has also worked as a student journalist at Dash Sports TV. Sundeen holds a bachelor’s degree in political economy and geography, and hails from Los Angeles, where he grew up playing soccer.

Kayla Benjamin

Kayla Benjamin is a journalist at The Washington Informer, a multimedia news organization in the metro Washington, D.C. area. Prior to this, she was an assistant editor at Washingtonian magazine, and reported on the arts, travel, real estate and politics. As an intern with Current, a national trade publication covering the public media industry, Benjamin wrote a feature story about public radio stations’ climate coverage initiatives, which was included in the Pew Research Center’s newsletter on media and on Mediagazer’s Twitter. Benjamin, a graduate of American University, is passionate about solutions journalism, environmental policy and dark chocolate.

Maria Gardner Lara

Maria Gardner Lara reports on the issues affecting the growing Latino community in DeKalb, Illinois for Northern Public Radio, a member station of NPR that’s based in DeKalb. Previously, Gardner Lara reported on state politics and policy for the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago. As an intern for the Laredo Morning Times, she reported on issues at the U.S.-Mexico border, international trade and immigrant rights’ protests. She holds a master’s degree in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois Springfield, and a bachelor’s in sociology from the University of Illinois Chicago.

Rasha Almulaiki

Rasha Almulaiki covers politics, community policy, and business in Detroit, Michigan as the multimedia journalist at the Michigan Chronicle. She is a second generation Yemeniya living in the Detroit diaspora. Prior to joining the Michigan Chronicle, Almulaiki worked as a freelance journalist for The Arab American News, Outlier Media, and Metro Times Detroit, reporting on such diverse community issues as local campaigns and elections, art and culture, community politics, public city meetings, and on building developments, using data-driven research. Her journalism aspirations stem from a decade of work in community-advocacy organizations including global diplomacy, education, criminal justice, and restorative community safety. These experiences on the ground, among others, inspired her to write stories of marginalized and underrepresented communities of color. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies from Wayne State University.

Shannon Sollitt

Shannon Sollitt is a bilingual journalist covering agricultural labor in Salem, Oregon 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.