Last Updated on May 26, 2022 by BVN
S. E. Williams |
Report for America recently announced the placements of more than 300 journalists for its 2022-23 reporting corps. The cohort, which includes a number of corps members returning for a second or third year, will join the staffs of more than 200 local news organizations across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam.
The corps is diverse—nearly half are journalists of color and nearly two thirds are women. By better reflecting their communities, Report for America’s partner newsrooms will be better positioned to build trust with those they serve.
Black Voice News is thrilled to announce our current RFA corps member Breanna Reeves, will continue her work with the publication for a second year maintaining her focus on issues related to health equity. This year, Reeves will be joined by two new corps members including photojournalist and digital artist Aryana Michelle Noroozi, and photojournalist Michael Grant, who will focus on criminal/social justice and climate/environmental justice respectively.
“Report for America provides a unique opportunity for journalists to pursue meaningful, local beat reporting that sadly is missing from many of today’s newsrooms,” said Earl Johnson, director of admissions at Report for America. “Together, our emerging and experienced corps members will produce tens of thousands of articles on critically undercovered topics—schools, government, healthcare, the environment, communities of color, and more.”
Report for America is a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. It is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit journalism organization.
The full list of 2022-23 corps members can be found here.
The corps members will begin their new assignments in June. They bring with them past experiences from newsrooms like: ABC News, Arizona Republic, CBS News, CNN, Idaho Education News, India Currents, Missouri News Service, National Catholic Reporter, New York Times, Outlier, Public Health Watch, Sierra Magazine, Tallahassee Democrat, The Guardian, and Washington Post.
The new corps members include a Pulitzer Prize finalist and recipients of the Catholic Press Award, Ortega y Gasset Journalism Award, Robert F. Kennedy College Journalism Award, College Media Association Pinnacle Award, and several collegiate and state press club awardees. Incoming corps members have also received honors from the Alliance of Women in Media Foundation, the National Association of Hispanic Publishers and Investigative Reporters and Editors, among others.
The group also includes career-changers and reporters with myriad talents, including: a former U.S. Air Force special agent, a theatrical performer, a carpenter with the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, a standup comic, a former ecologist, a former chemist, a former wildland firefighter, a Teach for America corps member, and a Peace Corps volunteer who served in Senegal.
The corps members attended a wide range of colleges and graduate schools from around the country and abroad, including: University of Missouri, Fayetteville State University, American University, Arizona State University, Boston University, Central Michigan University, Kennesaw State University, City University of Hong Kong, Clark Atlanta University, Columbia University, University of Arkansas, CUNY Newmark School of Journalism, Fordham University, University of Alaska Southeast, Georgetown University, University of Georgia, Goucher College, Hampton University, Hastings College, Oklahoma State University, Howard University, Ohio University, Queens College, Rice University, Texas State University, University of the Arts London, Wayne State University, University of South Florida, and Willamette University.
The Newsrooms
The 200-plus newsrooms are now in 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam.
More than half of the positions are in nonprofit media organizations. The newsroom list,searchable by state or beat, can be found here.
New this year is a collaboration of 10 newsrooms focused on enhancing the quantity, quality and impact of journalism on agriculture, water and related issues as part of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, a partnership with the University of Missouri School of Journalism that is funded by the Walton Family Foundation.
The breakdown by media platform:
● Newspapers: 42%
● Digital only: 27%
● Radio: 25%
● Television: 5%
● News service: 1%
Report for America is also partnering with CatchLight, a photography nonprofit, to enhance the photo capabilities of three host newsrooms in California by supporting photography corps members there. And Report for America continues its partnership with The Associated Press, supporting 16 corps members in statehouses throughout the country.
Report for America’s work is made possible by the Knight Foundation, Meta Journalism Project, Google News Initiative, Hilton Foundation, Microsoft, SpringPoint Partners, Natasha and Dirk Ziff, Joyce Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Just Trust, Lumina Foundation, Hearthland Foundation, Posner Foundation, Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation, Henry L. Kimelman Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, Tow Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, Park Foundation, Evelyn Y. Davis Foundation, and other leading philanthropic partners.
To learn more about Report for America and its efforts to strengthen communities through public service journalism, please visit www.reportforamerica.org.
Black Voice News depends on the support of readers like you in our efforts to expand coverage of local stories important to this community. Please follow this link to support the work of the Black Voice Newsroom’s Report for America and CatchLight corps team members.
About Report for America
Report for America is a national service program that places talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities across all 50 states. By creating a new, sustainable model for journalism, Report for America provides people with the information they need to improve their communities, hold powerful institutions accountable, and restore trust in the media. Report for America is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, an award-winning nonprofit journalism organization dedicated to rebuilding journalism from the ground up.