WRITING

Becky Jacobs

Becky worked as a crime and courts reporter in Northwest Indiana for the Post-Tribune, a suburban newspaper of the Chicago Tribune. She previously covered courts, crime and general assignment at the Grand Forks Herald, where she was named the North Dakota Newspaper Association rookie reporter of the year in 2016. She also was a Dow Jones News Fund copy editing intern at the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minnesota, and interned with The Local, an English news outlet in Stockholm, Sweden. She got her B.S. from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Covering the status of women in Utah Becky covers the status of women in Utah. Utah is routinely labeled as the worst state for women because it has the nation’s widest wage gap, a low college graduation rate for women and fewer women leaders in politics and business. (That number dropped from 11.4 to 6.4 percent since 2014.) From childcare access to cultural pressures — primarily associated with Mormon culture — there is some important targeted research happening in this area. Becky translates the data and ties it to personal narratives to give more context and attention to women’s issues.

Arielle Dreher

Prior to covering public health in eastern Washington state, Arielle worked as a staff reporter and writer for the Jackson Free Press, the alternative weekly in Mississippi. She covered state government, earning numerous awards including several first place Green Eyeshade awards. She has also received awards from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Awards and the Associated Press for feature writing, politics reporting, business reporting, courts reporting and public service. More recently, splitting her time between Pasco, Washington and Andalucía, Spain, Arielle has written about rural America and happiness for 74 Million, covered local business for the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business and wrote about mental health and reproductive health for the Free Press. She received her B.A. from Azusa Pacific University and her M.A. from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Public health in eastern Washington state Arielle reports on health and social issues in Spokane and the surrounding region as part of the paper’s Metro Desk team. That includes covering breaking news and diving into issue stories about key health topics, such as opioid abuse and access to care; social issues, such as the need for more foster families; and medical research and innovation from the area’s universities. She works with the Review’s government affairs editor, who is skilled at guiding novice reporters and helping them look beyond the process to find important issues and compelling human stories that will engage readers. As part of a small newsroom team, Arielle has the chance to tackle a wide variety of assignments and gets hands-on training with our digital team.

Angie Jackson

Born and raised in metro Detroit, Angie has been a reporter for the Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., where she covered crime and criminal justice. She has embedded in neighborhoods that have long struggled with gun violence, provided an in-depth look at a mass shooting that left seven police officers dead or wounded and shed light on suicides among firefighters and first responders. She previously worked in Michigan at the Grand Rapids Press and the Traverse City Record-Eagle. Angie is a graduate of Michigan State University. Covering formerly incarcerated citizens and their families Angie covers the issues of formerly incarcerated citizens in Detroit. Michigan’s prison population is coming down from a record high in 2007 due in part to a combination of relatively fewer new prisoners and a slightly higher parole rate. The recidivism rate has steadily declined in the last 20 years. This is good news, but what happens when you’re out of prison? How do you find work? Many employers won’t hire individuals who were formerly incarcerated. If you can find work, there are still many obstacles to building a good life —transportation, substance abuse and job training are just a few. The future of each returning citizen is key to an equitable recovery for the city of Detroit. This unique reporting role will focus on storytelling, myth/stigma-busting, resource-building and community engagement. The audience for this beat includes the formerly incarcerated, their families, people in positions to help and the community at large. Angie speaks to people in each constituency to define their needs and the best way to reach them, as well as leaders and clients of several existing nonprofits for returning citizens about the problems they face. The Detroit Free Press wants to know their stories. We also want to know how to help. Angie thinks holistically about what audiences need and how to reach them.

Amelia Ferrell Knisely

Amelia examines poverty and its ramifications in West Virginia for The Mountain State Spotlight. She previously covered similar issues for the Charleston Gazette-Mail, and she covered education and children’s issues for The Tennessean in Nashville. She has written extensively about homelessness and poverty, and she previously served as editor of The Contributor, a nonprofit newspaper sold by people experiencing homelessness. Her writing on the plight of migrant tomato farmers was nominated for an international news award. Originally from West Virginia, Amelia started her journalism career as a freelance journalist in her hometown. She holds a B.A. from Shepherd University in West Virginia and a master’s degree from Marshall University. Poverty in southern West Virginia Boone County had the highest per-capita income in West Virginia a few years ago, mostly because of the salaries paid to coal miners, but as the coal industry collapsed, that money went away. The region’s economic and social problems mean southern West Virginia is a difficult place to make a living and to raise children. At the same time, early childhood education and adult education and training, important ingredients for individual employment and for a region’s economic prosperity, get squeezed out of coverage by the legitimate demands of covering traditional K-12 schools and colleges and universities. Amelia’s reporting focuses on the large areas of a population left with too few jobs, with a specific focus toward educational opportunities at all levels.

CALmatters

About the News Organization: CALmatters is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. Environmental regulation, education, health care, criminal justice, economic inequality — the debates on these issues and others have a profound impact on the lives of 38 million Californians and beyond. Our team of experienced journalists, with the time and resources to dig deep, is committed to meaningfully informing Californians about the players, politics, and interests that shape the issues that affect their lives. Over the past year CALmatters set out to continue building a nonprofit platform that would reach a large and influential audience with information and tools that hold politicians accountable and empower Californians to participate meaningfully in their democracy.

The Victoria Advocate

Established in 1846 – the same year the Republic of Texas joined the Union – the Victoria Advocate has a rich tradition of local ownership and stewardship of its community. It was named the Newspaper of the Year in 2014 by the Local Media Association.  

Albuquerque Journal

The Albuquerque Journal is the only newspaper in New Mexico covering the entire state, from oil and gas country in the southeast and northwest, to the border with Mexico in the southwest, to historic Hispanic and Native American communities in the central and northern state to cowboy country on the east. As the news leader in New Mexico, The Albuquerque Journal’s mission is to provide the most comprehensive coverage of Albuquerque and the state

The Connecticut Mirror

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet with a very clear mission: Produce deep reporting on government policies and politics, to become an invaluable resource for anyone who lives, works or cares about Connecticut, and to hold our policymakers accountable for their decisions and actions. The Mirror’s staff consists of award-winning editors and reporters with decades of experience in Connecticut newsrooms or working for other national or state news operations.

The City

The City is a nonprofit New York digital news outlet dedicated to accountability reporting that serves a wide cross-section of New Yorkers. The push for the site, set to debut in early 2019, came in response to the stark reduction in strong local news sources. The effort, funded so far by major foundations and civic-minded individuals, is led by Editor in Chief Jere Hester, a former NY Daily News city editor, and Executive Director Kai Falkenberg, former First Deputy Commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and a past Forbes newsroom lawyer. The site will be featured on New York magazine’s homepage, and the outlet’s audience-building efforts range from social media outreach to neighborhood-based town hall-style events. Our goal is to break news — and get action — through beat and investigative reporting focused on Albany, City Hall and the city’s five boroughs.

Associated Press

About the News Organization: The Associated Press is a global news agency that began 172 years ago as a cooperative of five New York City newspapers. We have 263 locations in more than 100 countries, providing journalism to roughly 15,000 media outlets around the world. AP sets standards for ethics and excellence. AP has won 52 Pulitzer Prizes, including the 2016 gold medal for Public Service for an investigation into labor abuses in the seafood industry, reports that freed more than 2,000 slaves. We cover every single statehouse, and have beat teams for topics such as immigration, education and state government. AP’s seven news bureaus in the northeast U.S. provide vital local and regional news to 378 newsrooms. Closed Position: The Report for America corps member works in the New York state capitol alongside veteran statehouse staff to report on criminal justice issues across the state, including issues of poverty, race and changing policy on who is prosecuted, how they are incarcerated and how politics in Trump’s America are influencing those trends. The reporter has access to colleagues on the national state government reporting team, data experts and a network of colleagues with deep experience reporting on government. AP’s team of reporters in Washington, D.C. also helps the reporter understand the connections between state and local trends. The reporter produces a balance of spot news and enterprise work, with an emphasis on data-driven stories that can be distributed to AP customers around the state. Preferred Skills: Data journalism