Michele Abercrombie is a multimedia, photography and design master’s student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Originally from Boston, Abercrombie worked in elementary education before deciding to pursue visual storytelling professionally. During the fall of 2019 she attended the Eddie Adams Workshop XXXII and she is a recent recipient of the Mary Lou Foy Still & Multimedia scholarship. Her work has been displayed at the World Financial Center Courtyard Gallery in New York City and the State Transportation Building in Boston. View her work here.

Jana Allen is a print journalism senior at Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Oklahoma. Originally from Muskogee, Oklahoma, Allen previously interned at The Oklahoman and worked as a reporter and assistant desk editor at the OU Daily, the university’s independent student news organization. At The Daily, Allen has published several stories on university sexual harassment allegations and was awarded 1st and 2nd place in in-depth reporting from the Oklahoma Press Association in 2019. She also was a Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence regional winner in 2019 and 2020. View her work here.

José-Ignacio Castañeda Perez is a senior at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.  Castañeda was a part of the inaugural class of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Cronkite, which produced a multimedia investigation into federal police shootings by a little-known division of ICE. In 2020, Castañeda received the María Elena Salinas Scholarship from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. He is a freelancer for the food and drink section of the Phoenix New Times and pens the occasional movie review for the Phoenix Film Festival. View his work here.

Kelsey Collesi is a master’s student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Collesi graduated from Shaker Heights High School. Afterward, she received a bachelor’s degree at Ohio State University in psychology, and earned a master’s degree in education and California teaching credential from University of Southern California. She taught elementary school in Southern California. She also previously worked for McGraw-Hill Education as a curriculum specialist. View her work here.

Layne Dowdall is a recent graduate of St. Bonaventure University where she majored in journalism and environmental studies. Originally from Little Valley, New York, she previously worked as a digital editor intern at the Chautauqua Institution, a marketing intern at M’Organic Market and a director for WSBU-FM, 88.3 The Buzz. As a staff writer for TAPinto Greater Olean, she reported on local news, elections and the COVID-19 pandemic. Dowdall photographed community events and the St. Bonaventure Bonnies men’s basketball team. Dowdall was this year’s honorable mention for her university’s Mark Hellinger Award and Fr. Cornelius Welch Award for Achievement in Photography. View her work here.

Brody Ford is a multimedia journalist and recent graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he majored in political science and communications. A San Diego native, he specializes in video, collecting data, and accessing public records. While at UIC, he co-founded the school’s independent news outlet, Bonfire. During internships with WBBM-TV, the CBS affiliate in Chicago and KGTV, the ABC affiliate in San Diego, he focused on predatory business practices, local politics, and police misconduct. Ford has produced documentaries and music videos on various topics, including labor disputes. View his work here.

Jos Fox is a senior at DePauw University majoring in English literature and studio art. Originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, she worked as a staff writer, arts columnist and multiple editing positions for The DePauw, Indiana’s oldest college newspaper. In addition, Fox was editor-in-chief of Eye On The World, DePauw’s biannual travel magazine, hosted a radio show for DePauw’s radio station WGRE, designed DePauw’s art and literature magazine and helped produce “Presidential Perspectives,” a show on DePauw’s D3TV station. She was also a communications intern at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York City.

Sorell Grow is a recent graduate of Butler University where she majored in journalism and Spanish. While Grow is from St. Louis, Missouri, she spent most of her childhood in Japan and Malaysia. She attributes her interest in journalism to her international upbringing. She worked as a reporter and news editor for Butler’s weekly student newspaper, The Butler Collegian. Grow interned at The Christian Science Monitor, Indianapolis Monthly, IndyStar and the Indianapolis Business Journal. View her work here.

Abigail Hall is a recent graduate from Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Oklahoma, where she majored in journalism and earned a minor in women’s and gender studies. While raised transcontinentally, she calls Stillwater, Oklahoma, home. She worked as a culture reporter, assistant editor and editor at the OU Daily, the university’s independent student news organization. Her work has also been published in the Muskogee Phoenix, The Wichita Eagle, The Norman Transcript, and Crimson Quarterly and Healthy Living magazines. In 2019, Hall won a Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence regional award for online news reporting and 3rd place in the Oklahoma Press Association’s 2019 Better Newspaper Contest college division for feature writing. View her work here.

Matthew Hendley is a senior at the University of Mississippi studying broadcast journalism and political science. Originally from Madison, Mississippi, he is chief news anchor for NewsWatch Ole Miss. He attended The King’s College  in New York City during the fall of 2019 while interning for “60 Minutes.” His work also has been featured in news magazines such Newsweek and Religion Unplugged, as well as various Mississippi television stations. Hendley was named Best College TV Reporter by the Associated Press of Mississippi-Louisiana in 2020, Best College News Anchor at the 2019 Southeast Journalism Conference and he won an award for best radio sportscast from the AP. View his work here.

Daja E. Henry, a 2019 graduate of Howard University, is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation fellow and mass communication master’s student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. She is a graduate assistant for the Southwest Health Reporting Initiative and Cronkite Noticias, the school’s Spanish-language program, where she assists with coverage of health disparities in underserved communities in the Southwest. She interned at the Atlanta Voice, The Wall Street Journal, the Congressional Black Caucus, and Where Y’At Magazine in her hometown of New Orleans. She  has also reported from Panama, Cuba, Spain and Guyana. View her work here.

Mikhayla Hughes-Shaw is a recent graduate of the University of Iowa with a journalism and mass communication degree and a Critical Cultural Competence certificate.  Originally from Rock Island, Illinois, she worked as a peer mentor for the University of Iowa School of Journalism, providing academic and social support to journalism majors.  She was a news intern for KWWL-TV, in Waterloo, Iowa, and KWQC-TV in Davenport, Iowa, which covers the Quad Cities area of southeastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois.  She serves as a co-host for “LOVE Girls the Podcast,” designed to empower girls, in partnership with LOVE Girls Magazine and WVIK, an NPR station in the Quad Cities.  Hughes-Shaw was Miss Iowa 2018.  View her work here.

Chloe Johnson is a senior studying multimedia journalism at the School of Global Journalism and Mass Communication at Morgan State University. Hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, Johnson is an anchor for Morgan News Now at MSU. She also serves as the feature news editor for Morgan State’s student-led newspaper, the MSU Spokesman, where she was previously campus news editor. In 2019, she reported on the opioid epidemic in Baltimore County as a part of the “StoryBridge” project, a collaborative project with MSU and West Virginia University. In 2018, Johnson studied in Berlin, looking at the political influence of the European Union. View her work here.

Delia C. Johnson recently earned a master’s degree from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A Phoenix native, Johnson worked as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation fellow at Cronkite News, focusing on health disparities in underserved communities across the Southwest. As a photographer, she has covered social justice, health and border issues, recently reporting on the growing number of migrants traveling through Panama. Johnson interned at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Phoenix Magazine. She also worked for ASU’s student newspaper, The State Press, as a photographer and multimedia editor. View her work here.

Chloe Jones is a master’s student in the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.  In 2019, she earned a bachelor’s degree at Cronkite with minors in philosophy and Spanish. Jones, who is from Tempe, Arizona, previously covered sustainability and immigration for Cronkite News, the news division of Arizona PBS, where she reported from Mexico, Peru and Panama. Her 2019 multimedia investigation of a sewage crisis on the Mexico border won first place awards from the Online News Association and Associated College Press. A photo of migrants in Peru won a Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence regional contest. Jones also worked for KJZZ 91.5, the NPR affiliate. View her work here.

Molly Kruse is a recent graduate of Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Oklahoma, where she majored in online journalism with a minor in environmental studies. Kruse is a Texan at heart but loves to travel, and in fall 2020 she will begin a master’s program in journalism, media and globalization at Aarhus University in Denmark. As a student journalist, Kruse has been involved in community journalism in Shawnee, Oklahoma, participated in an international journalism fellowship in Berlin, and covered her university’s arts scene as assistant culture editor at the OU Daily, the university’s independent student news organization. She previously worked as a reporter, copy editor and social media coordinator. View her work here.

Braela Kwan is a Vancouver, Canada-based multimedia journalist and recent graduate from the University of British Columbia’s master of journalism program. She also holds a bachelor of science in environmental sciences from the University of British Columbia. As a writer and photojournalist, she has reported on education in Nepal, declining wild salmon fisheries in British Columbia and acidic drinking water in the town of Whistler. In 2019 she completed an internship with a British Columbia digital media outlet, The Tyee, where she covered climate justice and the province’s cannabis industry. View her work here.

Gretchen Lasso is a recent graduate from Kent State University where she majored in journalism and received a minor in digital media production. Originally from Amherst, Ohio, Lasso worked for Kent State’s television station and online newspaper where she won the Tom Olson Newsroom Leadership award. She also studied abroad in China, Germany and Italy where she learned about global journalism. Lasso also interned at WEWS in Cleveland in the investigative unit where she won two regional Emmy awards and a regional Murrow award. View her work here.

Franco LaTona, originally from West Bend, Wisconsin,  is a master’s student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.  After completing a bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he joined the Peace Corps to work on sustainable health projects in  West Africa. Working on health issues led him to Cronkite where he is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation fellow, focusing on health disparities in underserved communities across the Southwest. At Cronkite, he produced a documentary on water conservation that is slated to air on Cronkite News, the news division of Arizona PBS. He is also working on a documentary on youth suicide in Arizona.  View his work here.

Patrick Linehan is a senior studying newspaper and online journalism and policy studies at Syracuse University. Originally from Derry, New Hampshire, he covered Pete Buttigieg’s New Hampshire presidential capaign for the South Bend Tribune in Indiana. While studying in Morocco, he produced a multimedia package on LGBTQ+ activists and their fight for greater personal freedom. A podcast series he helped produce in 2019, “Syracuse Side Hustles,” won top prize at the national Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards. An interactive graphic he reported and designed about life on the Canadian border, “Up the River,” won top prize for interactives from the Associated College Press. He is a staff writer for the Daily Orange in Syracuse, New York. View his work here.

Byron Mason II is a photographer and filmmaker from the South Side of Chicago, and a recent graduate of DePauw University where he majored in writing. For his work in photography, he received awards from the Hoosier Press Association and Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence contests while he was a staff writer and former photo editor at The Depauw, Indiana’s oldest college newspaper.  He  was also an editor at DePauw’s Midwestern Review. View his work here.

Lindsey Nichols, originally from Strasburg, Colorado, is a recent graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and minors in business and political science. Her coverage for the CU Independent, the student news media site, has spanned local government issues and education legislation to political pieces and religious stories. She received a Hearst Journalism Award for a story about a hipster priest in Boulder. She interned for Rep. Brian Babin at the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., for the University of Colorado Board of Regents, and with the PAC-12 Network in Boulder. View her work here.

Haillie Parker is a San Diego native and a master’s student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. After earning a bachelor’s degree in film from ASU in 2015, she then worked as an actor for the Walt Disney Company.  Since joining the Cronkite School, Parker has reported stories of everyday people — stories rooted in emotion and human connection. She has interviewed psychic healers in Sedona, Arizona, and traveled to one of the southernmost parts of Panama to report on the struggles of pregnant migrants on their way to the U.S. View her work here.

Kimberly Rapanut is a recent graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University where she majored in journalism. Originally from Mesa, Arizona, she spent most of her collegiate career working for ASU’s student-run newspaper, The State Press, where she held various reporting and editing positions and was editor-in-chief. She’s interned at a variety of publications with the most recent being The Arizona Republic, where she worked as a digital producer and previously covered breaking news. View her work here.

Jill Ryan is a master’s student in the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Ryan, originally from New Jersey, also works part-time as a reporter for KJZZ, an NPR affiliate in Phoenix. She is a research associate for the Knight-Cronkite News Lab at ASU, working for Andrew Heyward, the former president of CBS News. She received a bachelor’s degree in 2019 from Stony Brook University School of Journalism where she worked for the school paper, The Statesman. Ryan was a news fellow for NPR-affiliate WSHU News on Long Island. She also interned at Newsday.  Ryan reported from Cuba in 2018 as part of her journalism studies.  View her work here.

Calah Schlabach is a master’s student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. She worked as a graduate assistant for Global Sport Matters, a media platform collaboration between Cronkite and ASU’s Global Sport Institute. Before starting at Cronkite, she was a grant writer for a social services nonprofit in Columbus, Ohio. She previously spent time writing and editing in Vietnam and Haiti, and as a professional triathlete and university triathlon coach. Originally from St. Michaels, Arizona, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and a writing minor from Calvin University. She recently reported on U.S. involvement in Panama’s migration system and companies mining for minerals in Arizona’s Sky Islands. View her work here.

Ike Somanas is a recent graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he majored in broadcast production. He is originally from Bangkok, Thailand, where he grew up. He began his university education at Chulalongkorn University in communication management before transferring to UNL. Through UNL’s Global Eyewitness program, he traveled to and made documentaries in Puerto Rico, Mongolia and Rwanda. He recently finished an internship with the Platte Basin Timelapse project on beavers living in Lincoln, Nebraska. View his work here.

Nicole Sroka is a senior at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she is studying criminology, law and justice and communication. A native Chicagoan, Sroka analyzed the city’s homicide rate and created a data visualization on the opioid epidemic in Illinois for The Red Line Project. Sroka’s story “Concentrated Poverty and Criminality” about homicide rates earned her a first-place award in the 2019 regional Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards for best use of multimedia. Sroka was also a national finalist in its online category. A digital and visual artist, she strives to incorporate visuals into data-driven stories. View her work here.

Katherine Sypher is a master’s student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. She is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation fellow for the Southwest Health Reporting Initiative, focusing on health disparities in underserved communities across the Southwest. Originally from Orono, Maine, Sypher graduated with a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science and a minor in French from the University of Connecticut where she co-founded the school’s first student-run science journalism publication, STEMTalk Magazine. Sypher interned at the science communication nonprofit SciLine and for PBS’s series “NOVA.” Recently, she reported on  immigration issues in Panama City, Panama. See her work here.

Gabriela Szymanowska is a recent graduate from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she majored in journalism and electronic media. She worked as a multimedia reporter and held several editorial positions including editor-in-chief of the Daily Beacon, the university’s independent student newspaper.  Szymanowska interned at the Knoxville News Sentinel in 2019. While studying in Australia, she worked at AltMedia, a local news organization in the Sydney area. Her stories and photos won multiple awards, including second place for investigative journalism at the Tennessee Associated Press College Awards and first place for feature/news photography for Best of the South. View her work here.

Victoria Traxler is a multimedia journalist and recent graduate from Elon University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and international and global studies with a focus on Latin America. As a student in global studies, Traxler, who is originally from Oakton, Virginia, has spent time in various countries including Spain and Argentina where she learned to speak Spanish. During her time at Elon, Traxler produced podcasts, documentaries, radio and online multimedia articles. Coverage ranged from ultramarathons and an Appalachian Trail hostel to local conservation efforts and the Mountain to Sea Trail in North Carolina. View her work here.

Jeff Uveino is a senior majoring in journalism and English, and minoring in history, at St. Bonaventure University in Western New York. A native of Perry, New York, Urveino has experience across various sectors in the communication field – writing and editing news articles, working in public relations and creating podcasts. He is editor-in-chief of St. Bonaventure’s online newspaper, The Intrepid. He interned in Excellus BlueCross BlueShield’s corporate communications department the summer of 2019. More recently, he covered local high school and collegiate athletics for the Olean Times Herald. View his work here.

Anthony J. Wallace is a master’s student at Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. A Phoenix native, he is a writer and multimedia journalist, producing articles, podcasts, videos, and photos for a variety of publications including Phoenix New Times, Phoenix Magazine and The Hertel Report. Through his own experience with chronic illness, he became fascinated with health care, disease and its intersections with politics and culture. Before pursuing journalism, he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Northern Arizona University and spent nearly 10 years in a touring alternative rock band. View his work here.

Morgan Wallace is a recent graduate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a bachelor’s degree in journalism focusing on advertising and public relations and a bachelor of science degree in education and human sciences with a minor in psychology. Originally from Gering, Nebraska, Wallace began contributing articles and photographs to her hometown’s weekly newspaper at 14 years old. She is a freelance reporter and photographer, covering a range of topics from local sports to an in-depth series about autism in children. Wallace traveled to Rwanda twice in the past year with her university to produce a multimedia project about reconciliation in Rwanda following the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. View her work here.

James Wooldridge is a visual storyteller based out of Kansas City, Missouri, and Lincoln, Nebraska. Driven by curiosity, he is determined to push his photography in new directions while learning about the world. Raised in Kansas City, Wooldridge recently graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a focus on photo and video journalism. He has worked as a visuals intern for the Kansas City Star, Palm Beach Post, Deseret News, the Colorado Springs Gazette and the Lincoln Journal Star. Wooldridge was a photographer and videographer for “The Wounds of Whiteclay,” the 2017 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award winner. He has also won numerous Hearst Journalism Awards. View his work here.

Jacqueline Petchel, a longtime investigative reporter, editor and producer in newspapers and broadcast, is a professor of practice at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and executive editor of News21. She previously served as senior editor for investigations and enterprise at The Houston Chronicle. Prior to that, she worked as a reporter and editor at The Miami Herald, the Arizona Republic and the Indianapolis Star/News and produced investigative journalism for CBS television stations in Minneapolis and Miami. She is a graduate of Arizona State University and a member of the Cronkite School Hall of Fame.

Maureen West is editor-in-residence at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where she teaches newswriting, solutions journalism, advanced digital storytelling and journalism ethics. She was previously a reporter and editor and for The Arizona Republic, and a correspondent for The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the AARP Bulletin, and wrote on Arizona political issues for the Center for Public Integrity. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s School of Journalism. She earned a master’s degree in nonprofit studies at ASU and a graduate certificate in program evaluation from Claremont Graduate University. She is a former Knight Fellow at Stanford University.

Alex Lancial is an independent visual storyteller based in Austin, Texas. She is the co-founder and managing director of Scale Storytelling, a visual production company focused on international development and socially responsible organizations. Lancial produced video journalism at The Boston Globe, where she won an Emmy Award for a story about sexual assault survivors and was nominated for several other films. She is a graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. In 2014, Lancial worked as a News21 fellow on the Gun Wars project, which focused on gun rights and regulation in the U.S. Her work also has appeared on HBO, the Center for Public Integrity and The Today Show, among others.

Jennifer Swanson is a freelance photographer and photo editor. She studied photography, multimedia and design at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and photographed in the Palestinian Territories with the Newhouse Center for Global Engagement. She taught photography and photojournalism at Northern Arizona University and was a fellow at the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources. Her work has been recognized by the National Press Photographers Association and has been exhibited internationally.

Adnan Alam is the web application developer for Cronkite News and News21. He works with students at Cronkite and helps them explore new storytelling techniques and ways to amplify the reader experience.

Hari Subramaniam is the lead technologist for the New Media Innovation Lab at the Cronkite School, working with students to develop digital products and enterprises. Hari used to run platforms at The Arizona Republic and has worked independently with other software consulting services.

Martin Dolan, a Kansas City-area native, graduated from the University of Kansas in Lawrence with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1976. He moved to Phoenix in 1984 to work for The Arizona Republic. Over his 30 years at The Republic, Dolan was a copy editor, reporter, photographer, line editor and digital producer. He joined the Cronkite News staff in January 2018.

Sarah Cohen is the Knight Chair in Data Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Most recently she worked at the New York Times, leading reporters who focused on data- and document-driven investigations. As a database editor at The Washington Post, she shared in the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting and was a Pulitzer finalist for public service. She also served as the first Knight Chair in computational journalism at Duke University. Cohen is a former president of Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Janet Coats is the Executive Director for Innovation and Strategy. She has oversight of the News21 program, as well as Cronkite’s news literacy and media innovation efforts. Before joining the Cronkite School, she ran her own consulting firm focused on journalism leadership and editorial strategy. She was a reporter and editor for 25 years and executive editor of multimedia newsrooms in Tampa and Sarasota, Fla., from 1997 to 2010. She has been a Pulitzer Prize juror five times.