Abby Blachman is our full-stack product engineer. Her focus on the product side of journalism was born out of her experience as a data reporter for Injustice Watch in Chicago, where she explored and developed a passion for accessible information delivery. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, but is a born and raised Texan.Read more
Abby Johnston is our network partnerships editor. Before joining The 19th, she edited and managed digital strategy for the Texas Observer, Frontline and Texas Monthly. She is a graduate of the University of Texas and the University of Missouri.Read more
Alexandra Smith is our chief strategy officer. She has a decade of experience working at the intersection of audience, product and news, previously working at the media startup WhereBy.Us and local newspapers The (Fort Collins) Coloradoan and the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press.Read more
Amanda Becker is our Washington correspondent. She has covered the U.S. Congress, the White House and elections for more than a decade. Becker previously worked at Reuters and CQ Roll Call. Her work has appeared in publications including The Washington Post, The New Republic and Glamour magazine. Her political coverage has also been broadcast on National Public Radio.Read more
Andrea Atehortua is our product operations manager. She has over a decade of experience in technology, entrepreneurship, and social enterprises. She’s built products for audiences across the globe at ThoughtWorks, Polymath Ventures, and Ripplematch amongst others. She’s a graduate of Boston University.Read more
Anne Musial is our chief development officer. She has over two decades of experience helping nonprofits and visionary political leaders maximize their success through effective fundraising and communication strategies. Prior to The 19th, she worked in philanthropy and politics at consulting firms in Austin and Los Angeles.Read more
Annelise McGough is our audience editor. She graduated from The New School with a degree in journalism and design. She started her work in journalism as the social media producer at Fast Company. More recently she led audience efforts at Grist as the growth and engagement editor.Read more
Barbara Rodriguez is our state politics and voting reporter. She most recently worked at the Des Moines Register, where she covered health care, politics and state government. Before that, Barbara was the Iowa statehouse reporter for The Associated Press, where she worked for a decade.Read more
Candice Norwood is a breaking news reporter. Before The 19th, she was a digital politics reporter for the PBS NewsHour, a staff writer for Governing magazine covering state and local government, and a freelancer for the Bloomberg News White House team.Read more
Casey Brzozowski is our staff accountant. She holds an associate of applied science in computer information technology from Austin Community College and a BS in accounting from Southern New Hampshire University. Currently, she is a graduate student at SNHU working towards her MS in managerial accounting. Her professional background includes accounting, operations, systems management, and board administration.Read more
Chabeli Carrazana is our economy and child care reporter. She was previously a business reporter in Florida covering the tourism industry for the Miami Herald and the space industry for the Orlando Sentinel, as well as labor issues and workers rights. In 2021, she was a national Livingston Award finalist for her coverage of the women’s recession. Chabeli was born in Cuba and speaks fluent Spanish.Read more
Clarice Bajkowski is our chief creative officer. With nearly two decades of experience crafting brand narratives, she has served as design lead, art director and brand strategist for the arts, education and travel sectors. She has created award-winning brand experiences for Microsoft, HP, Dell and Expedia.Read more
Darreonna Davis is one of our reporting fellows. She previously covered breaking news and explainers for Forbes; climate and environmental justice for Inside Climate News; and culture, politics and HBCUs for Blavity U and Howard University publications, The Hilltop and 101 Magazine. She is from New Orleans and based in Memphis, Tennessee.Read more
Emily Ramshaw is our CEO and co-founder. She was previously editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune, and started her career as an investigative reporter at The Dallas Morning News. She serves on the boards of the Pulitzer Prize, Austin’s Paramount Theater, and Cityside, a consortium of Bay Area newsrooms. In 2020 she was named to Fortune’s “40 Under 40″ list. Read more
Emily Swelgin is our chief product officer. Emily previously worked in visual journalism and user experience design at The Texas Tribune, The Washington Post and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.Read more
Errin Haines is our editor-at-large. An award-winning journalist with nearly two decades of experience, Errin was previously a national writer on race for the Associated Press. She’s also worked at the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.
… Read more
Eshe Ukweli is one of our reporting fellows. Before joining The 19th, she covered culture at INTO magazine. Her previous experience includes work with Refinery29, GLAAD and Queerty, and she was also a 2023 Discover The Unexpected journalism fellow for Chevrolet and the National Newspaper Publishing Association. She is a proud graduate of Howard University.Read more
Faith Smith is our senior director of events. Previously she was the executive producer of Slate Live, where she led all of Slate’s live programming from podcasts and editorial conferences to events on emerging technology with their Future Tense partnership. Before that she was the director of events and external relations at New America. She’s a graduate of UCLA and lives in Northern Virginia.Read more
Fatima Hessabi is our chief financial officer, with more than 17 years of experience in finance and accounting. She holds an MBA from the UC Davis Graduate School of Management and received her undergraduate degree in managerial economics and sociology-organizational studies, also from UC Davis.Read more
Fernanda Santos is our managing editor. She has focused her journalism on elevating the stories of underrepresented and misrepresented communities since immigrating from Brazil in 1998, building a diverse career as a staff writer for The New York Times, contributing columnist for The Washington Post, editorial director at Futuro Media and professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona
… Read more
Flora Peir is our news editor. She oversees our daily news operation and finds the gender lens on the nation’s biggest stories. An 18-year veteran of The New York Times and graduate of the Asian American Journalist Association’s executive leadership program, she has been a line editor and headline writer for local, national and international news; an assignment editor for late-breaking news; and for the last four years,
… Read more
Grace Panetta is a political reporter. She previously worked at Insider for four years covering politics with a focus on elections and voting. She holds a degree in political science from Barnard College.Read more
Jasmine Mithani is our data visuals reporter. She is focused on making complex ideas accessible to everyone. She has worked as a game developer, civic tech software consultant, alt-weekly editor and user experience designer. Her experience in journalism spans newsrooms national to hyper-local, including National Public Radio and South Side Weekly. She was most recently at FiveThirtyEight, where she worked on interactive forecasts
… Read more
Jayo Miko Macasaquit is our chief people officer. Before joining The 19th, Jayo led equity-centered human resources processes at organizations like Mother Jones and the Oakland Public Education Fund. Jayo was a 2019 Equity in Leadership Fellow at the Surge Institute and holds an MFA in Writing from the California College of the Arts.Read more
Jennifer Ajluni is our director of individual philanthropy. Before joining The 19th, she worked at The Texas Tribune, where she was the senior development officer. Prior to that, Jenny worked in political fundraising both nationally and in Texas.Read more
Jennifer Gerson is a reporter on our breaking news team. She was the recipient of the 2015 Maggie Award for her reproductive and sexual health reporting work at Yahoo Health. In 2019, she was twice nominated by the American Society of Magazine Editors for her work in Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan. She was also one of the founding editors of Jezebel.com.Read more
Jessica Kutz is our gender, climate and sustainability reporter. Prior to joining The 19th, she was an editor and reporter at High Country News, a regional nonprofit that covers the Western United States. Her work has been republished in many outlets including The Guardian, Slate, Mother Jones and The Atlantic. She is based in Tucson, Arizona.Read more
Julia B. Chan is our editor in chief. A veteran multi-platform journalist, she held newsroom leadership positions at KQED in the Bay Area, Mother Jones, Reveal for the Center for Investigative Reporting and the San Francisco Examiner. Julia serves on the board of the Asian American Journalists Association and is a founder of the Journalists of Color Slack community. She’s a proud alum of San Francisco State University and
… Read more
Julie Bogen is our audience engagement editor. With eight years of writing, reporting, social media, and editorial strategy experience, she joins us now from The Atlantic where she was a deputy team leader. She has extensive experience in project distribution strategy and her bylines can be found not only in The Atlantic but also at Vox.com, Refinery29, and Cosmopolitan. She holds a Film & New Media degree from Wheaton
… Read more
Karen Hawkins is our story editor. She joins us from the Chicago Reader, where she served as co-publisher and editor in chief. Karen is founder of Rebellious Magazine for Women and the Feminist Media Foundation, and co-host of the podcast Of Course I’m Not OK.Read more
Kari Cobham is our director of fellowships. She has almost two decades of experience in journalism as a staff writer, executive producer, and analytics and digital strategy lead, and has bylines in The New York Times, Fortune Magazine, CNN and others. She is from Trinidad and Tobago, and is a graduate of Bethune-Cookman University and the University of Central Florida.Read more
Kate Sosin is our LGBTQ+ reporter, focusing on transgender rights, incarceration, politics and public policy. Kate has conducted deep-dive investigations into transgender prison abuse and homicides for NBC News. They previously worked at Logo TV, INTO and Windy City Times.Read more
Lance Dixon is an audience engagement producer. Before joining The 19th he served as digital editor at WLRN News, South Florida’s NPR affiliate. Prior to that he worked as director and storytelling producer at The New Tropic, part of the media startup WhereBy.Us, and as a general assignment and municipal government reporter at the Miami Herald.Read more
Lydia Chebbine is our photo editor. She was previously at U.S. News & World Report, where she crafted daily visual coverage and special packages which have been recognized by the National Press Photographers Association. She has a background in Critical & Visual Studies from Pratt Institute.Read more
Mariel Padilla is a general assignment reporter. Previously she covered breaking news at The New York Times where she contributed to COVID-19 coverage that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize, compiled data at the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and contributed to a 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning project at The Cincinnati Enquirer.Read more
Marissa Nelson is our events producer. She earned an undergraduate and master’s degrees in journalism at DePaul University. At DePaul, she helped found the university’s student magazine, 14 East, where she leveraged events and other engagement tools to better serve readers. More recently, Marissa produced for WTTW News’ Nightly News program “Chicago Tonight.”Read more
Megan Kearney is our digital producer. Before The 19th, she worked on the USA TODAY Network’s Digital Optimization Team in Florida, where she strategized the promotion of daily news coverage, enterprise projects and newsletters with an emphasis on creatively transforming news into uniquely digital, audience-driven experiences. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Florida.Read more
Mel Leonor Barclay is a political reporter. She has a decade of experience covering government and elections, from tiny South Florida localities to Congress. Most recently, Mel was a Virginia politics reporter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and previously covered federal policy at POLITICO. Mel is an immigrant of the Dominican Republic and native Spanish speaker.Read more
Merdie Nzanga is one of our reporting fellows. She has covered everything from health, immigration and politics to voting rights and climate change. Previously, she worked at Modern Healthcare where she covered Congress through the health care lens. She is a graduate of Howard University.Read more
Michelle Hughes is our web applications engineer. She most recently worked as a full-stack developer for the medical quality improvement collaborative, BMC2, but has a passion for journalism and live-blogging local political meetings that would otherwise go unnoticed. She is also a volunteer DJ on WCBN-FM, and writes and performs marionette shows for the Dreamland Theater in Ypsilanti.Read more
Michelle Rivera is our senior program coordinator for fellowships. She has almost a decade of experience in fellowship management, nonprofit program coordination, international relations and policy, and student and foster care support. She previously led an international mental health journalism fellowship and is pursuing a master’s in business administration.Read more
Myrka Moreno is an audience engagement producer. She previously worked at Grist as the social media coordinator and interned at the Texas Observer. Myrka was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley and studied Digital Media and Journalism at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas.Read more
Nadra Nittle is our education reporter. She was previously a senior reporter for Civil Eats and a staff reporter for Vox Media and the Long Beach Press-Telegram, where she covered K-12 education. She has a master’s degree in teaching, and her writing has also appeared in publications including The Guardian, Business Insider, The Atlantic, BBC News, NBC News and EdSource.Read more
Orion Rummler is our LGBTQ+ reporter focusing on state politics, breaking news and the underreported ways that trans and queer people are marginalized. He previously covered breaking news for Axios and contributed research to “Axios on HBO.” Read more
Poorvaja Rajagopalan is our development associate of philanthropy. Prior to joining The 19th, Poorvaja worked as a grant writer and federal liaison with the environmental justice organization Anthropocene Alliance. She also has experience as a technical writer and legal writer. She holds degrees in history and public policy from the University of Chicago.Read more
Racquel Bethea is our product fellow. Before the 19th, she spent almost a decade teaching technology, journalism and media studies in North Carolina. She was also a media consultant working with local businesses to grow their companies. Racquel is a graduate of Bennett College with a bachelor’s in journalism and media studies, and holds a master’s in journalism innovations from Syracuse University.Read more
Sara Luterman is our disability and aging reporter. She is based outside Washington, D.C. Prior to The 19th, she worked as a freelancer covering disability policy, politics and culture for publications including The Nation, The American Prospect and Vox. Her reporting in The Nation was shortlisted for the 2021 Deadline Club Mosaic Award, which recognizes excellence in “coverage of disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation,
… Read more
Sereena Henderson is our membership manager. She previously worked at Mississippi Today, where she managed the nonprofit newsroom’s social media, reported on Mississippi culture, curated the daily newsletter and pitched in on audience engagement projects. Sereena is a native of Mississippi and a graduate of the University of Mississippi.Read more
Shefali Luthra is our reproductive health reporter covering the intersection of gender and health care. Prior to joining The 19th she was a correspondent at Kaiser Health News, where she spent six years covering national health care and policy.
… Read more
Terri Rupar is our political editor. She previously worked at The Washington Post, where she held editing and digital jobs, most recently covering politics. She joined the Post after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Read more
Vanessa Gregorchik is our product designer. Before joining The 19th, she designed editorial experiences at Upstatement and The Washington Post. She has a background in design and journalism from Northeastern University.Read more
Victoria Clark is our audience engagement fellow. She is a strong advocate for building community among Black women, which she does on her blog, Identity Black Woman. She was previously a social media coordinator at EBONY Magazine and an assistant editor at Minority Business News USA & TX. She graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana in 2021.Read more
Wynton Wong is our multimedia events producer. She has previously worked in various production and operations capacities at Universal Cable Productions, Universal TV, the It Gets Better Project, The Outline, Transmitter Media, and The Markup. She’s passionate about more diverse, equitable and sustainable work in the events, film and media industry.Read more
Zurii Conroy is our people operations manager. With nearly two decades of experience, her work has ranged from engaging with youth and supporting seniors, to convening community advisory councils and even collaborating with the White House on a community event. She is a graduate of Howard University and a Senior Certified Human Resources Professional with the Society of Human Resources Management.Read more
Abby Blachman is our full-stack product engineer. Her focus on the product side of journalism was born out of her experience as a data reporter for Injustice Watch in Chicago, where she explored and developed a passion for accessible information delivery. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, but is a born and raised Texan. Read more
Abby Johnston is our network partnerships editor. Before joining The 19th, she edited and managed digital strategy for the Texas Observer, Frontline and Texas Monthly. She is a graduate of the University of Texas and the University of Missouri. Read more
Alexandra Smith is our chief strategy officer. She has a decade of experience working at the intersection of audience, product and news, previously working at the media startup WhereBy.Us and local newspapers The (Fort Collins) Coloradoan and the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press. Read more
Amanda Becker is our Washington correspondent. She has covered the U.S. Congress, the White House and elections for more than a decade. Becker previously worked at Reuters and CQ Roll Call. Her work has appeared in publications including The Washington Post, The New Republic and Glamour magazine. Her political coverage has also been broadcast on National Public Radio. Read more
Andrea Atehortua is our product operations manager. She has over a decade of experience in technology, entrepreneurship, and social enterprises. She’s built products for audiences across the globe at ThoughtWorks, Polymath Ventures, and Ripplematch amongst others. She’s a graduate of Boston University. Read more
Anne Musial is our chief development officer. She has over two decades of experience helping nonprofits and visionary political leaders maximize their success through effective fundraising and communication strategies. Prior to The 19th, she worked in philanthropy and politics at consulting firms in Austin and Los Angeles. Read more
Annelise McGough is our audience editor. She graduated from The New School with a degree in journalism and design. She started her work in journalism as the social media producer at Fast Company. More recently she led audience efforts at Grist as the growth and engagement editor. Read more
Barbara Rodriguez is our state politics and voting reporter. She most recently worked at the Des Moines Register, where she covered health care, politics and state government. Before that, Barbara was the Iowa statehouse reporter for The Associated Press, where she worked for a decade. Read more
Candice Norwood is a breaking news reporter. Before The 19th, she was a digital politics reporter for the PBS NewsHour, a staff writer for Governing magazine covering state and local government, and a freelancer for the Bloomberg News White House team. Read more
Casey Brzozowski is our staff accountant. She holds an associate of applied science in computer information technology from Austin Community College and a BS in accounting from Southern New Hampshire University. Currently, she is a graduate student at SNHU working towards her MS in managerial accounting. Her professional background includes accounting, operations, systems management, and board administration. Read more
Chabeli Carrazana is our economy and child care reporter. She was previously a business reporter in Florida covering the tourism industry for the Miami Herald and the space industry for the Orlando Sentinel, as well as labor issues and workers rights. In 2021, she was a national Livingston Award finalist for her coverage of the women’s recession. Chabeli was born in Cuba and speaks fluent Spanish. Read more
Clarice Bajkowski is our chief creative officer. With nearly two decades of experience crafting brand narratives, she has served as design lead, art director and brand strategist for the arts, education and travel sectors. She has created award-winning brand experiences for Microsoft, HP, Dell and Expedia. Read more
Darreonna Davis is one of our reporting fellows. She previously covered breaking news and explainers for Forbes; climate and environmental justice for Inside Climate News; and culture, politics and HBCUs for Blavity U and Howard University publications, The Hilltop and 101 Magazine. She is from New Orleans and based in Memphis, Tennessee. Read more
Emily Ramshaw is our CEO and co-founder. She was previously editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune, and started her career as an investigative reporter at The Dallas Morning News. She serves on the boards of the Pulitzer Prize, Austin’s Paramount Theater, and Cityside, a consortium of Bay Area newsrooms. In 2020 she was named to Fortune’s “40 Under 40″ list. Read more
Emily Swelgin is our chief product officer. Emily previously worked in visual journalism and user experience design at The Texas Tribune, The Washington Post and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Read more
Errin Haines is our editor-at-large. An award-winning journalist with nearly two decades of experience, Errin was previously a national writer on race for the Associated Press. She’s also worked at the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. … Read more
Eshe Ukweli is one of our reporting fellows. Before joining The 19th, she covered culture at INTO magazine. Her previous experience includes work with Refinery29, GLAAD and Queerty, and she was also a 2023 Discover The Unexpected journalism fellow for Chevrolet and the National Newspaper Publishing Association. She is a proud graduate of Howard University. Read more
Faith Smith is our senior director of events. Previously she was the executive producer of Slate Live, where she led all of Slate’s live programming from podcasts and editorial conferences to events on emerging technology with their Future Tense partnership. Before that she was the director of events and external relations at New America. She’s a graduate of UCLA and lives in Northern Virginia. Read more
Fatima Hessabi is our chief financial officer, with more than 17 years of experience in finance and accounting. She holds an MBA from the UC Davis Graduate School of Management and received her undergraduate degree in managerial economics and sociology-organizational studies, also from UC Davis. Read more
Fernanda Santos is our managing editor. She has focused her journalism on elevating the stories of underrepresented and misrepresented communities since immigrating from Brazil in 1998, building a diverse career as a staff writer for The New York Times, contributing columnist for The Washington Post, editorial director at Futuro Media and professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona … Read more
Flora Peir is our news editor. She oversees our daily news operation and finds the gender lens on the nation’s biggest stories. An 18-year veteran of The New York Times and graduate of the Asian American Journalist Association’s executive leadership program, she has been a line editor and headline writer for local, national and international news; an assignment editor for late-breaking news; and for the last four years, … Read more
Grace Panetta is a political reporter. She previously worked at Insider for four years covering politics with a focus on elections and voting. She holds a degree in political science from Barnard College. Read more
Jasmine Mithani is our data visuals reporter. She is focused on making complex ideas accessible to everyone. She has worked as a game developer, civic tech software consultant, alt-weekly editor and user experience designer. Her experience in journalism spans newsrooms national to hyper-local, including National Public Radio and South Side Weekly. She was most recently at FiveThirtyEight, where she worked on interactive forecasts … Read more
Jayo Miko Macasaquit is our chief people officer. Before joining The 19th, Jayo led equity-centered human resources processes at organizations like Mother Jones and the Oakland Public Education Fund. Jayo was a 2019 Equity in Leadership Fellow at the Surge Institute and holds an MFA in Writing from the California College of the Arts. Read more
Jennifer Ajluni is our director of individual philanthropy. Before joining The 19th, she worked at The Texas Tribune, where she was the senior development officer. Prior to that, Jenny worked in political fundraising both nationally and in Texas. Read more
Jennifer Gerson is a reporter on our breaking news team. She was the recipient of the 2015 Maggie Award for her reproductive and sexual health reporting work at Yahoo Health. In 2019, she was twice nominated by the American Society of Magazine Editors for her work in Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan. She was also one of the founding editors of Jezebel.com. Read more
Jessica Kutz is our gender, climate and sustainability reporter. Prior to joining The 19th, she was an editor and reporter at High Country News, a regional nonprofit that covers the Western United States. Her work has been republished in many outlets including The Guardian, Slate, Mother Jones and The Atlantic. She is based in Tucson, Arizona. Read more
Julia B. Chan is our editor in chief. A veteran multi-platform journalist, she held newsroom leadership positions at KQED in the Bay Area, Mother Jones, Reveal for the Center for Investigative Reporting and the San Francisco Examiner. Julia serves on the board of the Asian American Journalists Association and is a founder of the Journalists of Color Slack community. She’s a proud alum of San Francisco State University and … Read more
Julie Bogen is our audience engagement editor. With eight years of writing, reporting, social media, and editorial strategy experience, she joins us now from The Atlantic where she was a deputy team leader. She has extensive experience in project distribution strategy and her bylines can be found not only in The Atlantic but also at Vox.com, Refinery29, and Cosmopolitan. She holds a Film & New Media degree from Wheaton … Read more
Karen Hawkins is our story editor. She joins us from the Chicago Reader, where she served as co-publisher and editor in chief. Karen is founder of Rebellious Magazine for Women and the Feminist Media Foundation, and co-host of the podcast Of Course I’m Not OK. Read more
Kari Cobham is our director of fellowships. She has almost two decades of experience in journalism as a staff writer, executive producer, and analytics and digital strategy lead, and has bylines in The New York Times, Fortune Magazine, CNN and others. She is from Trinidad and Tobago, and is a graduate of Bethune-Cookman University and the University of Central Florida. Read more
Kate Sosin is our LGBTQ+ reporter, focusing on transgender rights, incarceration, politics and public policy. Kate has conducted deep-dive investigations into transgender prison abuse and homicides for NBC News. They previously worked at Logo TV, INTO and Windy City Times. Read more
Lance Dixon is an audience engagement producer. Before joining The 19th he served as digital editor at WLRN News, South Florida’s NPR affiliate. Prior to that he worked as director and storytelling producer at The New Tropic, part of the media startup WhereBy.Us, and as a general assignment and municipal government reporter at the Miami Herald. Read more
Lydia Chebbine is our photo editor. She was previously at U.S. News & World Report, where she crafted daily visual coverage and special packages which have been recognized by the National Press Photographers Association. She has a background in Critical & Visual Studies from Pratt Institute. Read more
Mariel Padilla is a general assignment reporter. Previously she covered breaking news at The New York Times where she contributed to COVID-19 coverage that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize, compiled data at the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and contributed to a 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning project at The Cincinnati Enquirer. Read more
Marissa Nelson is our events producer. She earned an undergraduate and master’s degrees in journalism at DePaul University. At DePaul, she helped found the university’s student magazine, 14 East, where she leveraged events and other engagement tools to better serve readers. More recently, Marissa produced for WTTW News’ Nightly News program “Chicago Tonight.” Read more
Megan Kearney is our digital producer. Before The 19th, she worked on the USA TODAY Network’s Digital Optimization Team in Florida, where she strategized the promotion of daily news coverage, enterprise projects and newsletters with an emphasis on creatively transforming news into uniquely digital, audience-driven experiences. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Florida. Read more
Mel Leonor Barclay is a political reporter. She has a decade of experience covering government and elections, from tiny South Florida localities to Congress. Most recently, Mel was a Virginia politics reporter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and previously covered federal policy at POLITICO. Mel is an immigrant of the Dominican Republic and native Spanish speaker. Read more
Merdie Nzanga is one of our reporting fellows. She has covered everything from health, immigration and politics to voting rights and climate change. Previously, she worked at Modern Healthcare where she covered Congress through the health care lens. She is a graduate of Howard University. Read more
Michelle Hughes is our web applications engineer. She most recently worked as a full-stack developer for the medical quality improvement collaborative, BMC2, but has a passion for journalism and live-blogging local political meetings that would otherwise go unnoticed. She is also a volunteer DJ on WCBN-FM, and writes and performs marionette shows for the Dreamland Theater in Ypsilanti. Read more
Michelle Rivera is our senior program coordinator for fellowships. She has almost a decade of experience in fellowship management, nonprofit program coordination, international relations and policy, and student and foster care support. She previously led an international mental health journalism fellowship and is pursuing a master’s in business administration. Read more
Myrka Moreno is an audience engagement producer. She previously worked at Grist as the social media coordinator and interned at the Texas Observer. Myrka was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley and studied Digital Media and Journalism at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. Read more
Nadra Nittle is our education reporter. She was previously a senior reporter for Civil Eats and a staff reporter for Vox Media and the Long Beach Press-Telegram, where she covered K-12 education. She has a master’s degree in teaching, and her writing has also appeared in publications including The Guardian, Business Insider, The Atlantic, BBC News, NBC News and EdSource. Read more
Orion Rummler is our LGBTQ+ reporter focusing on state politics, breaking news and the underreported ways that trans and queer people are marginalized. He previously covered breaking news for Axios and contributed research to “Axios on HBO.” Read more
Poorvaja Rajagopalan is our development associate of philanthropy. Prior to joining The 19th, Poorvaja worked as a grant writer and federal liaison with the environmental justice organization Anthropocene Alliance. She also has experience as a technical writer and legal writer. She holds degrees in history and public policy from the University of Chicago. Read more
Racquel Bethea is our product fellow. Before the 19th, she spent almost a decade teaching technology, journalism and media studies in North Carolina. She was also a media consultant working with local businesses to grow their companies. Racquel is a graduate of Bennett College with a bachelor’s in journalism and media studies, and holds a master’s in journalism innovations from Syracuse University. Read more
Sara Luterman is our disability and aging reporter. She is based outside Washington, D.C. Prior to The 19th, she worked as a freelancer covering disability policy, politics and culture for publications including The Nation, The American Prospect and Vox. Her reporting in The Nation was shortlisted for the 2021 Deadline Club Mosaic Award, which recognizes excellence in “coverage of disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, … Read more
Sereena Henderson is our membership manager. She previously worked at Mississippi Today, where she managed the nonprofit newsroom’s social media, reported on Mississippi culture, curated the daily newsletter and pitched in on audience engagement projects. Sereena is a native of Mississippi and a graduate of the University of Mississippi. Read more
Shefali Luthra is our reproductive health reporter covering the intersection of gender and health care. Prior to joining The 19th she was a correspondent at Kaiser Health News, where she spent six years covering national health care and policy. … Read more
Terri Rupar is our political editor. She previously worked at The Washington Post, where she held editing and digital jobs, most recently covering politics. She joined the Post after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Read more
Vanessa Gregorchik is our product designer. Before joining The 19th, she designed editorial experiences at Upstatement and The Washington Post. She has a background in design and journalism from Northeastern University. Read more
Victoria Clark is our audience engagement fellow. She is a strong advocate for building community among Black women, which she does on her blog, Identity Black Woman. She was previously a social media coordinator at EBONY Magazine and an assistant editor at Minority Business News USA & TX. She graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana in 2021. Read more
Wynton Wong is our multimedia events producer. She has previously worked in various production and operations capacities at Universal Cable Productions, Universal TV, the It Gets Better Project, The Outline, Transmitter Media, and The Markup. She’s passionate about more diverse, equitable and sustainable work in the events, film and media industry. Read more
Zurii Conroy is our people operations manager. With nearly two decades of experience, her work has ranged from engaging with youth and supporting seniors, to convening community advisory councils and even collaborating with the White House on a community event. She is a graduate of Howard University and a Senior Certified Human Resources Professional with the Society of Human Resources Management. Read more